yesYou may remember the crab walk from your school days, but this move is no child’s play. Using your hands and feet to move forward and backward while squeezing your chest and butt upward, this is a serious exercise.
“The crab walk is an excellent full-body exercise with a variety of benefits,” says Akane Nigro, CPT, a personal trainer at Life Time in Charlotte, North Carolina. In particular, it improves strength, coordination, posture, and Overall health.
If you haven’t revisited this childhood classic, it might be time to brush up on your crab walking skills. We tapped several experts to break down proper crab walking techniques, benefits, muscle building exercises, and more.
How to Maintain Perfect Crab Walks Every Time
Nigro demonstrates how to perform the crab walk exercise with correct form:
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Place your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers away from your body.
- Lift your hips hard with your hands and feet until your body forms a straight line from your head to your knees.
- Engage your core and begin walking backwards, using your left foot to move your right hand, then your right foot to move your left hand.
- Once you’ve taken a few steps back, reverse direction and walk forward.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders down throughout.
What muscles does the crab walk exercise?
Crab walking works a lot of muscles. Nigro said the following are the main ones.
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1. shoulder
“Supporting your body weight helps strengthen your deltoid muscles and rotator cuff,” says Nigro. The rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis) support the ball and socket joint of the shoulder. Meanwhile, the deltoid muscles on the outside of the shoulder are responsible for moving the arm forward, backward, and to the side of the body.
2. Weapons
The main muscle groups that the crab walk exercise targets in the arms are the triceps (located at the back of the upper arm) and biceps (located at the front of the upper arm). As you move your body forward and backward, these muscle groups engage to help lift your body off the floor.
3. Legs
Your quads (muscles on the front of your thighs), hamstrings (muscles on the back of your thighs), glutes (buttocks), and calves (muscles on the back of your calves) push you forward and behind.
4. Core
Crab walks engage your entire core, especially your lower back and obliques (side abdominal muscles). These muscles lift and stabilize your hips as you move forward and backward.
4 Benefits of Adding Crab Walking to Your Exercise
1. Improve posture
The crab walk strengthens the muscles in the back of the body (back, glutes, hamstrings, and back shoulders) and the muscles in the abdomen (abs). Together, these muscles (especially those in your lower back and core) help keep your torso upright.
If you sit most of the day, you may have weakened these muscles and become sluggish more easily. By engaging your postural muscles, the crab walk exercise helps correct muscle imbalances that lead to poor posture, Nigro says.
2. Enhance balance and coordination skills
Most of us don’t walk backwards with our hands and feet very often – which is one of the main reasons crab walks are so beneficial for improving balance and coordination. Your brain has to work overtime to coordinate your arms and legs while keeping your core engaged.
“Because crab walking requires you to move in an unnatural position—walking backwards while supporting yourself on your hands and feet—it challenges your coordination and proprioception—awareness of body position,” Nigro explains road. As you develop better balance and coordination, you may find that these skills can be transferred to other activities that require balance and coordination, such as running, playing sports, or even in daily life and as you age, avoiding Falls and injuries.
3. Strengthen multiple muscle groups
As you can see, crab walking is a full-body exercise. It targets your shoulders, arms, core, legs, wrists and hands, Nigro says. The Crab Walk is special because it forces your lower back and abdomen (rectus abdominis, also known as the “six-pack,” and obliques, also known as the “side abs”) to work continuously. Effectively strengthen your core muscles.
Stronger core strength translates into safer, more efficient movement in sports and daily life. It also helps relieve low back pain by ensuring that your lower back doesn’t have to do the work that other core muscles should be doing.
4. It provides cardiovascular exercise
“While not as intense as running or biking, crab walking can get your heart rate up, especially when done over long distances or for extended periods of time,” Nigro says. “This makes it a mild to moderate cardiovascular exercise. , depending on the intensity.”
At light to moderate intensity, crab walking helps build cardiovascular endurance, which is your ability to perform rhythmic activity for an extended period of time. Greater endurance (also known as aerobic fitness) benefits other aerobic activities such as running and cycling, and is critical to overall health.
4 Crab Walk Variations to Mix Things Up
1. Crab walking with resistance band
Josh York, CPT, founder and CEO of GYMGUYZ, says wrapping a resistance band around your thighs can increase strength and target your glutes and core more effectively.
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Wrap a mini-loop resistance band around both legs, just above the knees. Place your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers away from your body.
- Lift your hips hard with your hands and feet until your body forms a straight line from your head to your knees. Push your knees outward until you feel the band tighten.
- Engage your core and begin walking backwards, using your left foot to move your right hand, then your right foot to move your left hand.
- Once you’ve taken a few steps back, reverse direction and walk forward.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders down throughout.
2. Crab Toe Touch
This variation challenges your core strength and stability. Additionally, it can improve balance, York says.
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Place your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers away from your body.
- Using your hands and feet, lift your butt a few inches off the floor.
- Engage your core and lift your right foot off the floor. Lift your left hand and reach forward to touch your right toes.
- Place your right foot and left hand on the floor again. Repeat with left foot and right hand.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders down throughout.
3. Crab walking on one leg
Switching to one foot will challenge your balance. It also strengthens your core and support legs, York says.
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Place your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers away from your body.
- Lift your hips hard with your hands and feet until your body forms a straight line from your head to your knees.
- Engage your core and lift your right foot off the floor. Then, start walking forward with your hands and left foot.
- After taking a few steps with your left foot, switch to your right foot.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders down throughout.
4. Crab Step on the Shoulder
Keeping your feet planted on the ground while raising one hand to touch your opposite shoulder is a great way to increase the intensity of your exercise. “This move increases core engagement and improves upper body stability,” says York.
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Place your hands on the floor behind your hips, fingers away from your body.
- Lift your hips hard with your hands and feet until your body forms a straight line from your head to your knees.
- Engage your core. Lift your right hand off the floor, across your torso, and tap the opposite shoulder.
- Place your right hand on the floor again. Repeat with your left hand.
- Keep your chest open and shoulders down throughout.
Tips for Making the Most of Your Crab Walking Practice
Maintaining correct posture is a sure-fire way to get the most benefit from crab walking exercises. “Keep your chest open, shoulders down, and back straight, and avoid sagging or letting your hips drop too low,” says Nigro.
Remember to keep your core tight while doing this move as well. This will help you stay stable and prevent lower back strain, she says.
It’s also important to keep your movements slow and controlled. Don’t rush when practicing; Nigro says moving too quickly can affect your form and lead to injury. Coordinating your breathing and movement may help: “Breathe in as you prepare to move, and breathe out as you push back or pull forward,” Nigro advises.
How to add crab walks to your daily routine
Nigro recommends incorporating crab walks into a full-body or core exercise routine two to three times a week. She says to rest at least a day in between to avoid overusing muscles and joints, especially shoulders and wrists.
Try combining crab walks with assistance exercises like push-ups, planks, or bear crawls to create a dynamic movement circuit, Nigro suggests. “For a well-rounded workout, try alternating crab walks with exercises that target opposite muscle groups, such as squats or lunges,” she says.
If you are new to crab walks, start with 20 to 30 seconds (about 10 to 15 yards). Nigro says to start with three sets of 30 to 45 seconds (about 15 to 20 yards in and out), then three to four sets of 45 to 60 seconds.
