Bear Crawls with Push-Ups

What the bear crawl with push-ups actually trains

A bear crawl with push-ups is a conditioning complex where you crawl forward on hands and toes with the knees hovering, then stop at set intervals to perform push-ups before continuing.

Two things happen at once, and it is worth separating them.

The crawl is a moving anti-rotation and anti-extension drill. The abdominals and obliques resist the trunk twisting as each limb lifts, the shoulders hold a stable position while alternately unloading, and the quads and hip flexors keep the knees hovering.

The push-ups are horizontal pressing, driven by the chest, front deltoids and triceps, with the same trunk holding the plank.

Put together, the effect is cardiovascular and metabolic more than muscular. Your heart rate climbs quickly because a large amount of muscle is working at once and you have no chance to rest. That is a legitimate training effect and it is the honest reason to do this.

What it is not is a good way to build a chest. The crawl pre fatigues your trunk and shoulders before every set of push-ups, which means the pressing happens in a compromised state with a lower quality of reps than if you had simply done push-ups. Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and a set of five push-ups performed while gasping and holding a sagging plank is not a productive hard set.

Used as a finisher or as part of a circuit, it is fine. Used as your pressing work, it is a downgrade on push-ups.

Setting up and executing

Set up on hands and toes with the hands under the shoulders and the knees hovering a couple of centimetres off the floor.

Brace the abdominals hard and keep the hips low and level.

Crawl forward, moving opposite hand and foot together in small steps, for the planned distance or number of steps.

Stop with the hands roughly under the shoulders, then extend the legs back into a push-up position deliberately rather than throwing yourself into it.

Lower the chest to just above the floor with the elbows tucked to around forty five degrees, and press back up to straight arms without letting the hips sag.

Complete the planned reps, return to the crawl position and continue.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Sagging hips in the push-up is the fault that shows up first, because the crawl has already fatigued the trunk before the pressing starts. When the hips drop, the lower back extends and the chest stops doing the work. McGill's argument that the trunk's job is stiffness under load applies directly: if you cannot hold the line, the set is finished.

Half range push-ups follow immediately after. As the arms tire, the chest stops reaching the floor without you noticing. Three complete push-ups beat eight partial ones.

Hips rising during the crawl converts the crawling portion into a rest period, taken in an uncomfortable position.

Rushing the transition is the most common technical error. Thrown at speed, the legs go back too far and the hands end up in front of the shoulders, which is a poor position to press from. Saeterbakken and colleagues found that pressing variations change muscle activity and performance considerably, and a badly placed push-up is a different and worse exercise.

And treating this as chest training is a programming mistake rather than a technique one. Do your pressing when you are fresh and put this at the end.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

This is a complex, so programme it in rounds rather than sets and reps.

In a muscle building phase, if you use it at all, three rounds of five push-ups every ten metres of crawling, with ninety seconds rest. Keep it as a finisher and do not let it displace real pressing volume.

Alongside a strength focus, three rounds of three slow push-ups every ten metres with two minutes rest, treating the whole thing as low intensity movement work rather than a hard session.

In a fat loss phase, five rounds of forty seconds continuous with a minute of rest is a sensible conditioning format. The specific exercise matters far less than the total effort and the total weekly activity, so choose it because you will actually do it.

Refalo and colleagues found that stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth to going all the way, which is relevant in a slightly different way here: the last push-up before failure in this complex is almost always the one with the sagging hips in it. Stop before that rep rather than after it.

Progress by adding rounds or reducing rest, not by extending each round until technique disintegrates.

Where it fits in your split

At the end of a session, or as part of a conditioning circuit.

On push, pull and legs it fits at the end of push day, once the real pressing is finished. On a bro split it closes chest or abs day. On an upper and lower split it belongs in a full body or conditioning slot. On a bodyweight programme it is a natural fit, since it needs nothing at all.

The case for it is convenience. It requires no equipment, no setup and very little space, and it raises your heart rate faster than almost anything else you can do on a hotel room floor.

The case against it is that it is mediocre at both of the jobs it combines. As trunk work, a plain bear crawl or an ab wheel rollout is more controlled and easier to progress. As pressing, a set of push-ups done fresh is straightforwardly better.

Once or twice a week is plenty, and it should never be the reason your push-up volume is low.

Variations worth knowing

Bear crawls on their own are the better choice when trunk position and shoulder stability are what you are after, because nothing interrupts the position.

Push-ups on their own are the better choice when chest development is the goal, for the obvious reason that you can do them fresh and take them close to failure.

A backward crawl between push-up stations is harder to coordinate and naturally keeps the hips lower, which improves the quality of the crawling portion.

Burpees deliver a similar conditioning stimulus with a jump added, more total fatigue and considerably less trunk control.

Replacing the push-ups with shoulder taps gives you a pure anti-rotation version with no pressing at all, which is a cleaner drill.

And adding a weighted vest raises the demand on both halves at once, which is the only straightforward way to make the whole complex harder without simply doing more of it.

What the evidence says

McGill's work on core training makes the case that the trunk should be trained for stiffness and endurance rather than for movement, which is exactly what both halves of this complex demand and why sagging hips signal the end of a set.

Escamilla and colleagues measured core activation during Swiss ball and traditional abdominal exercises and found that unstable and anti extension positions produce high trunk demand, which is the category both the crawl and the push-up plank fall into.

Marchetti and colleagues examined activation during isometric ab wheel rollouts and found high abdominal activity in positions resisting trunk extension, close to a low hipped crawl.

Saeterbakken and colleagues studied bench press variations in competitive athletes and found meaningful differences in muscle activity and performance, supporting the point that body position determines what a press trains.

Lehman examined grip width and forearm position during pressing and found measurable shifts in which muscles do the work, which is why hand placement is worth setting deliberately rather than landing wherever the transition puts you.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, which is the clearest reason not to count these push-ups towards your chest volume.

Refalo and colleagues found that stopping short of failure produces comparable growth, which supports ending each round before the reps degrade rather than grinding out the last one.

Common questions

Is this a good chest exercise?

No. The crawl fatigues your trunk and shoulders before every set of push-ups, so the pressing always happens in a compromised state. If you want a bigger chest, press when you are fresh and take the sets close to failure. This complex is conditioning that happens to include pressing.

How is it different from plain bear crawls?

Only in what gets added. The crawl itself is identical; the push-ups raise the fatigue and the heart rate. If your aim is trunk position and shoulder stability, the plain crawl is cleaner. If your aim is to be out of breath, add the push-ups.

Is it better than burpees?

Barely different. Both are equipment free complexes combining a floor position with pressing. Burpees add a jump, so more impact and more fatigue per rep. Pick whichever you will do consistently, and do not expect either to build muscle.

How many push-ups should I do at each stop?

Few enough that every rep is complete and the hips stay level. Three to five is usually right once the crawling has fatigued you. Longer sets only turn into half reps.

Can this replace a proper conditioning session?

It can be one, if you do enough rounds with short enough rest. It is not more effective than rowing or brisk walking for the same effort, and it is harder on the wrists. Its advantage is that it needs no equipment.