Don’t Sleep on Crawling: The Functional Fitness Movement We Forgot

September 04, 2026•5 min read

Weekly Wisdom 59

September 4, 2026

Don’t Sleep on This Movement

Do you want to be strong? Do you want a body that is resilient to injury? Or do you want to do movements that look badass?

The truth is usually the latter.

Sure, everyone says they want a strong, resilient body, but try selling them on effective training if it doesn’t look cool. In the end, most people would rather live with their aches, pains and recurring injuries than spend time training the simple movements that might help undo some of the damage.

And few movements are less glamorous than crawling.

The Movement We Leave Behind

MovNat and Vahva Fitness were probably the first two fitness professionals I saw promoting the benefits of crawling. For almost a decade, I’ve watched Eero from Vahva build his body this way and then travel the world using the strength he developed crawling to pursue various martial disciplines.

But it was in 2020 that I discovered Tim Anderson’s Original Strength and, with it, a coherent explanation for why crawling can be so effective.

Our bodies develop strength through infancy in specific stages. Crawling precedes walking, which precedes running. Each developmental stage builds the strength and coordination required for the next one.

Then we become adults and abandon the floor.

We sit in chairs. We sit at desks. We sit in cars. Over time, many of us develop the familiar hallmarks of modern life: slumping shoulders, tight hips, poor mobility and assorted aches and pains. We begin losing some of the very physical capabilities we worked so hard to develop as toddlers.

An inevitable decline into pain and decrepitude follows.

Except it doesn’t have to.

Get Back on the Floor

Reclaiming your body’s original strength can be as simple as getting back down on the floor and rediscovering some of the movements that made you strong in the first place.

Crawling asks your shoulders, hips and core to work together. It challenges coordination from one side of the body to the other. It requires strength, stability, mobility and body awareness all at once.

In other words, it is functional fitness in perhaps its most basic form: teaching your body to work as an integrated whole.

And bit by bit, your aches, pains and imbalances begin to fade away. You get stronger. You become more injury-resistant. You move better. You feel better.

For those of us interested in healthy aging, that matters. Strength isn't only about how much weight you can lift. It's also about maintaining the physical capacity to move confidently through the world—to get down onto the floor, get back up again and continue doing the things you enjoy.

That kind of capability becomes increasingly valuable as we age.

A Few Minutes Can Make a Difference

I’ve seen the effects firsthand. My wife has developed and maintained incredible full-body strength by adopting a 10-minute-per-day crawling practice.

Not that I think 10 minutes is necessary.

Just crawling a couple of times per week has been helpful for my own strength and resilience. And you certainly don’t need to crawl until your limbs are trembling and you’re sweating buckets.

A few minutes can be enough.

The problem is that crawling isn’t something most people want to practice in public. I imagine if you started crawling around your local commercial gym, you’d draw more than a few looks.

The good news is that you don’t need a gym to crawl. You don't need a barbell, a machine, a fitness tracker or a monthly subscription.

All you need is a floor.

This is something you can easily practice in the privacy of your own home.

The Fitness World Is Catching On

People in the fitness world are beginning to catch on.

I follow fitness professionals who exhibit the physical attributes I admire: primarily strength, athleticism and functionality. Many of them have adopted and promoted regular crawling practices and are quick to point out the difference crawling has made to both their physiques and their health.

One of my favourites is Josh from Strength Side. I also like Vanja from MovesMethod. Both demonstrate the kind of strength I find much more interesting than simply moving heavy weights: bodies that are strong, mobile, coordinated and capable.

That's the kind of strength that has real-world value.

The Problem With the Basics

The main problem with crawling is its lack of bells and whistles.

People like shiny, new-looking things. Who wants to pay for a program that any toddler can do? And where is the profit margin in promoting a movement anyone can practice at home without coaching or expensive gym equipment?

And no, I don’t believe we want to see professional crawling races. Crawling isn’t an exciting spectator sport.

But this is the thing about fitness: the basics are usually the most valuable skills, and no one is interested in promoting the basics.

Nothing much has changed about human physiology since the dawn of time. What has changed dramatically is how we live. We spend much more of our lives sitting and much less time moving our bodies through different positions and ranges of motion.

Sometimes the best remedy is to turn back the clock and return to the movements that got you strong in the first place.

Strength for the Long Haul

This becomes especially important as we get older.

At Empower, we talk a lot about building strength, mobility and resilience for the long haul. Whether you call it functional fitness, longevity or improving your health span, the objective is essentially the same: build and maintain a body capable of doing the things you want it to do for as many years as possible.

Barbells can help with that. CrossFit can help with that. Running, lifting, carrying and jumping can help with that.

And crawling can help too.

Even if you believe you are already strong, fit and bulletproof, there is probably something to be gained from occasionally returning to the floor.

If you want to stay strong and capable as you age, swallow that ego, get down on all fours and let the floor humble you for a bit.

It’s not easy. It doesn’t look sexy.

But it does pay dividends.