EDITOR’S NOTE: These workouts are written by Tim Anderson, founder of Original Strength. Tim’s goal as a coach is “to set people free through movement.” Regain your original strength with this four-week cycle of workouts that focuses on one of the most fundamental human movements: crawling. To learn more about this program, read Tim’s article here.
The following four-week plan is designed to help you restore your original strength, increase reflexive strength, and improve your performance in whatever physical area you are passionate about. In the first two weeks, the goal is to ease your way into crawling three days a week. The workouts will be posted on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but you can move them around to fit your schedule. These training sessions may seem easy for some of you, but give them a shot nonetheless. I think you may be surprised at how this simple exercise can restore and refresh your body.
In weeks three and four, the plan goes down to twice per week. In these two weeks, we start to strength train while we are still pressing reset. These training sessions may seem grueling. You will be left with an even fatigue, yet still feel fresh and able to conquer the rest of your day, if not your week. Again, the workouts will be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays, but you can adjust these days around your schedule.
We are only performing ten minutes of work in each of these training sessions. If you can, perform these training sessions on lighter days within your training week. If you cannot, or do not have lighter training days, feel free to continue your regular training and fit these sessions in when you can. You could even use weeks one and two for your movement prep before your training sessions. If you do this, don’t be surprised if you perform well during your training routine.
For weeks three and four, it may be wise to perform these sessions on their own, at first. Surely you can find two days a week that you can crawl for ten minutes. Be aware, this could become one of your favorite strength training exercises.
Week 4: Becoming Bulletproof
Day 1
Forward leopard crawl for 5 minutes of work. Then, with as little rest as possible, backward leopard crawl for 5 minutes of work.
How it is done:
Forward leopard crawl on your hands and feet. Your knees should track inside of your elbows and not touch the ground. Keep your head held up so you can see the world, and keep your butt down below your head. This is not a bear crawl.
Backward leopard crawl is the same in reverse.
If you can, breathe in and out through your nose.
Time Rules:
Forward leopard crawl for 5 minutes of work. Use a stop watch to keep track. If you stop to rest, stop the time. When you recover and start again, re-start the time. If you can achieve the whole 5 minutes without resting, that is awesome!
As soon as you can, begin your backward leopard crawl. Accrue 5 minutes of work just as you did the forward leopard crawl. You are striving for 10 total minutes of crawling time, like in week 3.
If you can make 10 minutes straight, without rest, you are rock solid!
Have fun!
