Crawling. The next fitness fad?

I read with interest a recent news report in local paper the New Straits Times (September 2, 2007) . It was titled, "Crawling - Best Exercise for the Old".

The report was on the advice given by Dr Azidah Abdul Kadir from Universiti Sains Malaysia's family health dept. She stated that crawling was the simplest exercise for the elderly who were too frail to perform regular exercises like jogging. "Crawling is good for them as it involves both hands and feet.. it can be done indoors and in the privacy of their rooms", says the good doctor.

Dr Azidah recommends that it be done in different directions forward, backwards and sideways a minimum of 10 times each direction.

As an advocate of no-frills fitness and exercise, I wholeheartedly agree with Dr Azidah's recommendation. Crawling is a staple exercise for combat sports like wrestling where it's referred to as the bear crawl. For the young ones who are fit and more than able, I recommend taking it several notches higher by going for speed. Crawl as fast as you can forward, back, to the left and right.

Add the Reverse Crawl - also known as the Crab Walk. A position where u're on all fours but your belly faces up. Do it forwards, back and both sides. These 2 exercises target virtually every functional skeletal muscle in the human body. They're great for a full body workout. To make it more challenging:

1- bend your limbs, go low throughout the entire exercise;
2- for testerone junkies, do the bear crawl in all 4 directions up and down a flight of stairs.

Crawling will develop upper body strength and is a highly recommended exercise for women who in general tend to be weaker in that area compared to men.

Will it be the new exercise fad? With all those benefits, it should be.

However, it doesn't have any celebrity endorsers; it can be performed anywhere not in hi-tech upmarket gyms and fitness centers; it doesn't require special equipment; it doesn't have an exotic name or professional sounding acronym...

In other words, it's unlikely to attract the trend-following fitness enthusiast.

Oh well... in any event.. it's good for you that's what's important.

Another thing to note, when you're talking about the best anti-ageing exercise..

...billions of babies and toddlers around the world can't be wrong ;-)