Why we all need to crawl
Why do we incorporate different types of crawling in our classes? It’s not as if we need to crawl anywhere these days.
When I was a baby I bum-shuffled my way around until my mum read an article about encouraging bum-shufflers to crawl. I come from a family of dyslexics and crawling with its contralateral movement is a critical step in an infant’s brain development. Skipping crawling or not crawling for a long period can impact various cognitive processes.
Good news is, if you didn’t crawl you can learn these contralateral movements right now!
Doing movements that challenge our brains and keeps them functioning. Finding a movement difficult can often feel really frustrating, but twist it around in your head and see it as an opportunity to get better.
And with crawling there are lots of little movements that we do every day that become easier if we can crawl with confidence.
Other reasons we love a crawl:
It’s a great full body movement – you don’t need any equipment, there are lots of different options and it helps develop “in between” strength – particularly in the shoulders, wrists and hips.
It’s also great for overall mobility as well as core stability. Just allowing our bodies to spend time in different positions.
It involves weight-bearing through your wrists which is useful for injury prevention. Think about how many times you’ve heard of an elderly person breaking their wrist from a fall..! Strong wrists are a useful thing to maintain.
It all happens on the ground. Making time for more ground movement as we age is a super power, it strengthens our ability to get up and down to the ground, strengthens all the “in between” movements that help us become stronger overall.
Often people will find crawling really tricky when they first start. Either the coordination or the time spent on their wrists is too much and they end up in a tangled and demolished heap.
Here are some steps to improve your crawl.
Start with a good old march. It might sounds odd, but marching with both arms swinging is also a contralateral movement and will help prep your brain for the crawl.
Start on all fours, just crawling around as a baby would. Start to feel the weight on your wrists and in shoulders.
If this feels manageable, try lifting your knees off. Start slowly – wiggle your left arm and your right foot before you start to let you brain know what’s up. Then count as you go, 1, 2, 1, 2. Go slowly, let your brain catch up. Have a rest.
If you’re flying through this, try going backwards or sideways, or flip over and crawl like a crab.
Now we’re into our Spring sessions there will be a lot more crawling at WildStrong. Watch this space!
Here are some studies if you’re interested:
The Relationship between Crawling and Emotion Discrimination in 9- to 10-Month-Old Infants
Contralateral effects of unilateral strength training: evidence and possible mechanisms
Contralateral Limb Specificity for Movement Preparation in the Parietal Reach Region
Learning to crawl (some great links in here too)
