The “Gaitway” to Strength

Categories: Blog Oct 22, 2017

I’ve done a great deal of crawling. In fact, for about five years, from 2010 to 2015, my predominant way of “strength training” was crawling. I started with bodyweight, then learned how to load the pattern with sleds, chains, weight vests, hills, time, speed and direction. I’ve spent untold hours crawling. Along the way, I’ve earned a great deal of funny stories. I’ve even been forbidden to crawl through my neighborhood, by my wife. I’ve also had people come to “check on me” to make sure I was okay.

One story in particular still makes me laugh: I was crawling across a field dragging a one hundred pound chain. The field was 80 yards long and I liked to crawl for “round trips.” I think my goal that day was 2 or 3 round trips. This was a particularly hot North Carolina day. The temperature was in the mid 90’s. An air conditioner repair man was working on an AC unit outside my building that was next to the field I was in. He was an older gentleman. When I finished my round trips, I grabbed my chain and started walking towards my building, past the older man. He stopped me and said, “Son, you married?” I said, “Yessir.” He replied, “Well then you don’t need to be doing all of that!” Ha! Still makes me laugh....

Another time, I set out to Spider-Man crawl a mile, non-stop, without rest. I’d already done it, but my friend John Brookfield told me I needed to have it on video for people to notice. So, one summer morning, I had a camera man and my iPod and I set out to crawl at 5:30 am before it got too hot. About 20 steps into this majestic recorded event, I realized I had not turned my iPod on. I was crawling in complete silence, other than all the noise in my head. The good news is, I had a great deal of time to self reflect. In truth, i spent much of that time praying. Crawling a mile is not fun. I made it though; 44 minutes and 1 second. About 5 minutes faster than I had done it the first time.

In September of 2015, I took a year hiatus from crawling. I stopped cold turkey. At the time I stopped my routine was to crawl 20 minutes, on my hands and feet, every day. To be honest, the reason I would crawl for 20 minutes every day is because it was just easy. That and I knew how good crawling was. Anyway, I’ve done a lot of crawling. I’ve learned a great deal about it, I’ve also learned a great deal about me in the process.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

• Crawling can make you amazingly strong. It ties your body together so well, from the inside out. The strength I have in my forties, far surpasses the strength I had in my twenties. I’m stronger. I’m healthier. I’m more capable of participating in life.

 

• Crawling can take the lid off your physical potential. It simply removes brakes and barriers from your body as it teaches your stabilizers how to do their jobs, so your prime movers are free to move. The amount of control and fluidity I now have is simply amazing. People don’t tend to become better movers two decades later from their twenties. I would have never considered myself to be graceful back then, but today I believe I know what a flowing river feels like.

 

• You don’t have to crawl for 5 years like I did. The truth is, I noticed huge strength and potential gains just a few months after I started crawling.

 

• Crawling works even when you don’t crawl. I didn’t crawl for a year. I decided to train with “walking” for a year. The crawling tied me together so that walking became my strength building reset. I lost no strength. If anything, I became stronger. But that’s another story and article for later...

 

• Crawling is great way to make hard things easy. It’s not easy to crawl for 1 mile. Until it is. It’s not easy to crawl while dragging a hundred pound chain across a football field. Until it is. Crawling makes “until it’s easy” happen.

 

• Crawling allows you to become able. Able to do what you want to do. Whatever it is; lift heavy weights, run a marathon, play on a play ground, smile more often, whatever. Whatever it is you want to become better at, crawling can play a role in that. This might seem like a stretch to you, but there is nothing about you that is not woven together with the rest of you.

Crawling can build a stronger brain and nervous system, it can help you move better. These benefits lead to better thinking, better focus, better self belief, better self worth, and simply a better you. When we move and become tied together as we were intended to be, we are just better - all around, from the inside out and from the outside in.

If you haven’t spent anytime crawling, it’s worth your time. If you can’t crawl at all due to physical impairments, engage in cross-crawls. The neurological benefits are roughly the same and may be the “gaitway” to the physical benefits. Gaitway! You read that here, first! Anyway, crawling can be the beginning of the new you that you were always meant to be.

Notice I did say beginning. It’s not the final destination. It’s simply a movement that was designed to give you strength, a strength that lasts a lifetime once you have it. If you crawl enough, there will come a day when you are strong enough to conquer the world on two feet, again. Once you get there keep moving - it’s the design to maintaining your strength and resiliency.

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