[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts. 

[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is the 10 minute crawl test challenge. And you might be thinking, why on earth would I want to crawl for 10 minutes? Well, one, um, well I was about to say it's great fun. I am a big fan of crawling and I'm also a big fan of making other people crawl.

[00:00:19] Josh Kennedy: Which used to be a big part of my, um, excuse me, military fitness boot camps. We did a lot of crawling. Obviously they, uh, they do a lot of calling in the military. Um, but also, like I said, it, it is great fun and is, it is a great test to, uh, to train for and to achieve. James, have you ever heard of, um, do you know the film 1917?

[00:00:41] James Breese: I know it, but I, I've, that was on Netflix, wasn't it? I was in Prime. I can't remember one of the two. 

[00:00:47] Josh Kennedy: Sorry, excuse me. Um, yeah, you've seen it, right? The World 

[00:00:50] James Breese: War One. Yeah, I've seen it, yeah, yeah. It's really good. It's all shot in one take as well. It is, yeah, 

[00:00:54] Josh Kennedy: yeah. It's such a good movie, but randomly, uh, it seems appropriate that we're talking about crawling today.[00:01:00] 

[00:01:00] Josh Kennedy: I watched Graham Norton on Friday night, and the lead actor in it, George MacKay, he, uh, he was on there. And he was talking about an old movie he did, and now, for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was called right now. But he played a wolf, essentially. He played a wolf. Um, who, a man who was part wolf, part man.

[00:01:18] Josh Kennedy: Something like that. But he spent more time as a wolf. This is what I remember from Friday night. So he spent a lot of time in preparation for, um, for the role. Crawling on all fours, which I thought was really interesting. So, uh, if you're not prepping for a role as a wolf, why on earth would you want to crawl?

[00:01:39] James Breese: In a roundabout kind of way, it's been brilliant. I was going to say, there's 

[00:01:42] Josh Kennedy: a tenuous link for you. 

[00:01:44] James Breese: Exactly, fantastic. But look, it's... I always go back to the old saying by Charlie Francis, the great speed coach who was Ben Johnson's coach, and he says if it looks right, it flies right. And there's something about crawling, particularly working with runners...

[00:01:58] James Breese: That if [00:02:00] you get this right, if they crawl well, it improves their gait pattern, it improves their ability to run. I've seen people get faster run times, and I've taken them, stopped them from running and gone back to basic ground work and getting them crawling better. Working on this crawling, going back to running afterwards, and it just flies right.

[00:02:17] James Breese: I think that's the best way to describe it. Their gait pattern improves, their core coordination, reflexive stability, all this, all this stuff. It comes in, everything ties the body into one. Crawling is a fantastic drill that, yeah, you can use the beast people with and they can have fun with. But if you get the movement right, the movement of crawling done well, you can't cheat it.

[00:02:37] James Breese: Because to crawl for 10 minutes, which is what our 10 minute test is, right? It takes time. You've got to relax into it. It's just like, it's working with the CNS. You've got to relax. If you're too tense, you won't be able to do it. So it's getting core control, gait pattern. If you're 

[00:02:49] Josh Kennedy: really tense, you'll never make that test, will you?

[00:02:52] James Breese: Exactly. Right, so it's, it's really, really hard to get it all right. So, but it's, it's just a [00:03:00] foundational piece of the tool, and we think it's really important, but it's a precursor to our advanced work, essentially. So it's a level, layer 2. 2 test. It's not an early test. Our plank, it's a core test essentially, but it's a movement test as well.

[00:03:13] James Breese: It's integrative core movement. But our first one is a 2 minute plank. So if you can't do a 2 minute plank, we're not going to let you do a core test. But, a lot of people can cheat the 2 minute plank, right? They could be holding their breath in, like, clinging on for dear life, passing the 2 minute plank.

[00:03:29] James Breese: But they can't do it when it comes to the crawl test and there's a there's a way about we go do it as well So like it's just just a caveat of this as well. Is that this was basically Ethically stolen from the guys at original strength They had this idea of doing a 10 minute crawl test and what we've done is just added our little Our little framework to it.

[00:03:46] James Breese: So the idea is to do it, it's like a box, it's called a box crawl test. You put an item on the floor, you crawl around it one way, complete one lap, then you change direction and go back the other way. So we're challenging the brain on both sides, right? It's a brilliant [00:04:00] test. So if you go around in one direction, you can do fairly simply, but you're challenging the brain when you change direction, right?

[00:04:06] James Breese: And you do that constantly for 10 minutes. There's a bit of a mental resilience there going on. It's all sorts happening here, but it's a great test to do. It's surprising 

[00:04:15] Josh Kennedy: how many people struggle with the change of direction as well. They'll be fine going one way and then all of a sudden they'll have to either crawl backwards and try and coordinate opposite arm and leg or when, you know, if they, when they crawl the other direction, um, again, they start to struggle with it.

[00:04:29] Josh Kennedy: It's like, you know, As you say, for runners especially, it's a great exercise because it's perfecting gait pattern and it's surprising the number of people you see when they first try this test is they'll be going fine, forwards, fine, sideways, and then as soon as they try to go backwards, they'll start using same arm, same leg rather than opposite, opposite sides.

[00:04:48] Josh Kennedy: It 

[00:04:48] James Breese: is, it's, it's, and that's why we do it because people think the 10 minute crawl test is just going forwards. But we're covering all angles, left, right, forwards, back, the entire time. I want to see how it flies and how the brain reacts to it. And it [00:05:00] is, and if you want to make it even harder, you put an object on your back and make sure that object doesn't fall off, like a foam roll or something, or like a yoga block that sits on your lower back to make sure you keep that posture absolutely neutral as well.

[00:05:12] James Breese: So it's, it is a tough test. It's harder than you think. The first goal is always to get something to five minutes. But what we see is when we get some of the 10 minutes, that's when the real change has happened long term. So it's a fantastic, you know, it's a fantastic test that we do. It's harder than it looks.

[00:05:26] James Breese: But he got to prep people ready for it. They can't do a two minute plank test. We're not going to do 

[00:05:30] Josh Kennedy: this. No, no, absolutely. Absolutely. You say it's harder than it looks. I think people, a lot of people, if they saw the test, they go, well, actually that looks pretty hard, but it is great for, you know, your muscular endurance in your shoulders, in your hips, your legs, but also something we've spoken about.

[00:05:46] Josh Kennedy: Uh, previously as well. It's great for reflexive core strength. Why is reflexive core strength important? God, so many different 

[00:05:53] James Breese: levels. So many different reasons. Like, you put me on the spot here now. It is literally, so [00:06:00] everything comes from the core. Everything comes from the core. Everything you're working here.

[00:06:04] James Breese: So when you're, if you're trying to kick a football, if you're trying to throw a punch, if you're trying to throw a ball, everything comes from here. So we don't own. That's to reflect disability in the core. You're never gonna own true power, and it's it's like gonna be the handbrake That's holding you up.

[00:06:19] James Breese: Basically. I think that's that's a very simplistic way. That's 

[00:06:21] Josh Kennedy: exactly where I was going 

[00:06:22] James Breese: with it So like if you have like these science boffins like say anything else they can go into into more depth But that's essentially for us layman people are stupid people like me and Josh. That's how we look at it 

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[00:07:10] James Breese: com forward slash website today. 

[00:07:14] Josh Kennedy: Indeed. So if someone was going to obviously because you can put crawling into a workout, like I said, there's so many variations. It is fun if you just kind of using it. I used to use it as a game at the end. Sometimes, you know, we'd switch from like bear crawl to crab walk and stuff like that and trying to like a little game of tag.

[00:07:31] Josh Kennedy: I know you've used that as well yourself, James. Um, but if somebody wanted to train specifically, especially if they're a runner, again, I'll emphasize that great for runners to get to that 10 minutes, what would be some good 

[00:07:43] James Breese: Strategies. First of all is own the movement. So I would put a foam roller or something on your back.

[00:07:49] James Breese: So if you start crawling uh, forwards. I'd have knees down to begin with actually. First of all actually, I'd go baby crawl. Baby crawl, yep. Knees down. So six points of [00:08:00] contact on the ground. So can you do that first of all and follow this routine? Are you using opposite arms, opposite legs? As opposed to same side legs?

[00:08:08] James Breese: People don't have that cross... Cross Core Pattern Nail Down, so you start off with that, but then as you progress up to like the knees off the ground, again, it's all about quality of movement and control, start slowly. Start with, can you do it for 10 seconds? Can you extend that to 20 seconds? 30 seconds? 50, 60 seconds?

[00:08:25] James Breese: You know, and then can you do sets with it? So you start doing 2 or 3 sets, like 60 seconds work, 30 seconds off, 60 seconds on. Simple thing is to build up to it, and in no time at all, if you get this right, you will then start to progress towards a 10 minute test, and being continuous, I think. Yeah. 

[00:08:41] Josh Kennedy: And I think doing that little trick of putting the foam roller across your back as well, it, uh, it changes it because people, somebody might think, oh yeah, I've got a great crawl pattern.

[00:08:49] Josh Kennedy: Then they stick the foam roller on and within like two or three steps, it's fallen off. So it's like, obviously, you know, they don't have that hip and core control going on. So that's, um, a really nice little tip. Any [00:09:00] other, any other tips? 

[00:09:01] James Breese: Well, speed hide neat. That was it. It's basically speed, height, need, height, need.

[00:09:06] James Breese: So like, that's why I put, that's why I put the object on your back, to slow it right down. And try and go slower. Try and see how slow you can go in each of the things. Slow it right down. You know, speed makes it easier, but you're not doing it correctly. It's not, it's all about the control of the movement, as opposed to how fast you can go for.

[00:09:24] Josh Kennedy: Yeah, exactly. Speed, height, need is a great one from our good friend, Dr. Perry. Um, and also, try not to hold your breath. It's a good one, because I guarantee when you first start doing it, you'll be holding your breath. So try and breathe through the movement as well. And if you do give it a go, let us, let us know how it goes.

[00:09:44] Josh Kennedy: Um, and if you get to 10 minutes, congratulations, because it is an awesome thing. thing to do to get to that 10 minutes. And like I said, if you are a runner, it may well change your running forever. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want [00:10:00] to find out more about our system of training, go to strengthmatters.

[00:10:02] Josh Kennedy: com forward slash system.