 First question is from rebel Hammond What are your thoughts on bear crawls as they seem to be total body, but you don't see them often in the gym a good old bear crawls It's not a like strength exercise It's not a build muscle or burn body fat necessarily exercise. I mean you burn calories. You will make your body stronger It's not as easy as it looks, but it's really good at getting the right and left sides of your body to communicate through Kind of a fundamental, you know, kind of human pattern right where when for example when you're walking You'll notice that your arms move differently than your legs or opposing to your legs that contra lateral, right? So I used to like to do stuff like this for my clients before we would start to work out And it would help them perform better and exercises that were like split stance or One-arm exercises and then there's some core stability Component here because you do have to have good core stability to get the arms and legs to communicate properly, you know That's I think the best way to use it and I've I like to kind of take clients through that Just like a real slow approach with it to make sure they can even maintain that position and and not allow their hips to rotate especially and Get that communication started from right to left as Each intention with the right arm and the left leg kind of coming together and forward It takes some some people a lot of coordination That they're not used to which will really help them in terms of their overall function athleticism So there's lots of benefits to it in terms of like a crawling patterns are pretty much of a fundamental human movement That a lot of people just kind of skip through and being intentional with it has a lot of carry over But also I mean you could use these for conditioning as well, which I've done with athletes And it's really difficult after a while to go and extended length of doing these bear crawls, too So I think it's a really underrated movement You did a really good video Justin on the Instagram. I believe right on a fit tip. Was it a fit tip? You did yeah, I think I did the fit tip. Well, that was a silly one I didn't one on YouTube that was a little more Oh, it wasn't it wasn't on Instagram where you did the bear crawl I didn't want an Instagram, but it was like a silly one where I'm like growling and shit That's not part of I mean to answer the question though Like why don't we see them in a gym? Well one I think they they take up a lot of space right to do like a full crawl like you know If you're gonna go 20 yards not every gym and you probably feel kind of silly doing that People feel silly doing the other thing is that I think that they're they're used mostly and for conditioning when I don't think That's where the real value is I think if you watch the video that Justin does If you learn to move like that versus just doing it as cardio which that to me when I see bear crawls done It's rare and I definitely tell you if I see someone doing them proper I know that they're either a trainer or they got a good trainer who's teaching them that because it's one of That's like seeing a good plank. Yeah It's like one of those these these fundamental movements that you should probably incorporate into your lifestyle But most people don't even do them properly and then when you see someone who's doing them They you know, they really get it either they've been trained or they're a trainer themselves So I think that's part of why you don't seem in the gym is because I think people look at them and think they're just a Conditioning tool. Yeah, and if you're in they're like, well, there's I can just get on the treadmill and run on the treadmill Why would I crawl down the middle of the gym? It's just not a sexy like you know, I'm not working a specific part of my like exercise that don't necessarily work a specific part of the body Or make you really tired and sweat. You often you don't see them in gyms But I'm glad you said there's a there's a way to do them, right? When you do them properly like you could just get on the floor and go But you're not really gonna gain a lot of the benefits of how to do a bear crawl properly when you do them, right? You're stabilizing your core. You're not allowing your pelvis to twist everywhere and you're staying stable as you're moving Now you're getting things to communicate and you're really activating the core In a really effective way. So done, right. They're really effective done wrong and it's just a way to move I also think too. It's a great progression from like a bird dog Which yeah bird dogs, you know for your average person you look at that like what's the value there? Yeah, it just doesn't look like you're gonna get a sweat. You're you're really working in a kind of strength move but You know that that that communication right to left and and also the anti-rotational Focus with that is a lot of the value of what you're receiving. Well, this is why one of my favorite Analogies ever given on this podcast was the one that Sal did almost five six years ago Now when he talked about the you know amp and speakers right the whole CNS thing and this to me This is a great example like how what are some basic exercises that I can do to improve my CNS and that the Communication that my my amp has to my speakers This is one of the ways for you to invest in that like if you want to work on how your CNS Communicates to your muscles and improve upon that doing things like the bird dog or doing the bear crawl are incredible But doing them with intent is where the value is not just doing it to burn calories or to sweat if you go That's what it's for. Yeah, you lose the value there if you do that But if you actually do it properly then it can really improve on the way that you your CNS communicates to your muscles No different than taking a hammer and trying to use it on a screw like can you hammer a screw into the wall? You can but it's not gonna be nearly as effective if you use like a drill, right? So use the right tools for the job and then use them properly and to get the that contralateral Communication get the right kind of course stability It's a great exercise to build a lot of muscle and burn a lot of calories. Not really. However Does getting your body to communicate better contralaterally does? Activating your core in a way where it's more functional and stable during other exercises Could that improve your ability? Absolutely to build muscle burden body fat. Yes, and I want to say that because I don't have to Sell it, right? I know people watching are like, oh build muscle burn body fat not for me. No, you do these things better Then you're able to do those exercises that are the big muscle builders and the fat burners Much more effectively anyway as far as bird dogs are to interrupt as far as bird dogs concerned You know that was one of my favorite exercises to help people with low back pain if somebody came to me with low back pain Seven out of ten times bird dogs would make the pain much better immediately That's such an effective exercise for that Well, those both those movements are I mean, I know you sold it for the fat loss community and the muscle building community But man, if you're an athlete that that's a for sure Foundational thing you should be able to do and do well and that will really translate into whatever sports you're doing because when you're doing sports That's what you the ability to for your body to communicate from what left to right on each side and do that seamlessly is Is only gonna improve your body. Yes. Yeah full control the first time I learned this was here I was embarrassed. Well, I wasn't embarrassed. I'm looking back. I'm embarrassed, but back then it was such a great learning experience I had a physical therapist. She was so good Her name was Lori and she was phenomenal at what she did and she was she reduced things that sometimes I had no idea What the value is and I remember she was training a young athlete and she had this young athlete stand and do a one arm Shoulder press with the right arm But as the right arm went up the left knee went up and it went down and I remember Watching this as a meathead trainer, right and I thought what a stupid exercise You can't press a lot of weight like where's the value in that and and I asked her afterwards Like what was the value and I respected her enough to ask her So what's the value of that because not really lifting a lot of weight not building a lot of muscle and she said oh It's contralateral communication and I said, what does that mean? She goes well do me a favor She goes walk down the hall But in but instead of your left arm moving up on your right leg steps forward move your right arm with your right leg And I was like oh my god and she goes now try and walk and run that way and I couldn't do it She goes that contralateral movement is so fundamental to performance So what I was training with him was getting that to communicate better because of running and all sort of stuff And when we do the other lifts and I was like, oh, that's absolutely brilliant Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe