Animal-style bodyweight exercises like the Crab Walk can provide an unrivaled full-body workout that promotes joint strength, core stability and strength, and power.
The Crab Walk will also improve your proprioception (body awareness) by requiring you to focus on your posture, coordination, and balance.What is the Crab Walk?
The basic idea of the Crab Walk is to balance your weight on your hands and legs while the front of your body faces up towards the ceiling.
The effort needed to hold your bodyweight requires not only strength but also results in a cardio workout which burns calories and improves fitness.
What muscles does the Crab Walk target?
The Crab Walk is an excellent full-body exercise that particularly works the upper arms, shoulders, upper legs, and core. The Crab Walk is excellent for toning, effectively targeting all your muscle groups and working them hard to build strength.
How do I properly perform the Crab Walk?
To perform a Crab Walk correctly, begin by sitting on the ground with both legs extended out in front of you. Place your hands by your sides with your fingers pointed in a direction that is comfortable for you.
Then, lift your body into the air so that only your hands and feet are in contact with the ground. Here it’s important to have “active shoulders” and press your shoulders down towards the ground and away from your ears so that your shoulders are not in a shrugging position.
In this position begin to step forwards using one hand and the opposite foot at the same time, alternating sides with every step.
Pay attention as you are performing the Crab Walk to avoid letting your hips sway too far from side to side. You can do this by actively keeping your core engaged and you should feel the obliques working to stop your hips from swinging.
Keep your breathing slow, controlled, and steady as you move.
Remember that you can always check the tutorial videos in the Freeletics App to see the Crab Walk demonstrated at full speed, half-speed, and from multiple angles.Additional things to keep in mind when training
You can easily adjust the difficulty of this exercise by performing the Crab Walk on a hill. Crab Walking up the hill will put more emphasis on the arms while going downhill will put more emphasis on the legs.
The Crab Walk can also be modified and performed laterally or with a resistance band to make it more challenging and really fire up the glutes. To do a lateral Crab Walk with a resistance band, begin with a resistance band placed just above the knees.
Open the legs slightly wider than hip-width apart and turn your feet outwards. Then, stretch the band by rotating the thighs outwards, so that your knees fall in line with your feet. Take small steps sideways with one foot and hand, and follow with a small step inwards from your other foot and hand keeping the resistance band tight. Repeat this series of steps in a slow, controlled manner keeping tension in the band.
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