Confessions of a Crawler

Categories: Blog Jul 05, 2020

A good friend and I were talking the other day about crawling, well he was talking and I was listening. But he told me that he feels really good when he crawls for about 20 steps between his heavy sets of weight training. And when he told me this, I had a twinge of, well, almost guilt.

 

I say almost guilt because I’m not sure if I’ve done a disservice to everyone with how I have presented crawling. I have often used crawling for time as a metric or gauge for strength and resiliency. In fact, anyone that has ever trained with me or read any of my books might think 10 minutes is my gold standard for becoming bulletproof. 

 

To be honest, yes I do think 10 minutes is a decent gauge for someone wanting to know if they are strong and capable of anything. But also, to be honest, I already know everyone is strong and capable of anything. But sometimes they don’t know it, and I try to gently encourage them to reach for 10 minutes so they can celebrate accomplishing a challenging task that stretches the will of the mind and the strength of the body.

 

I also crawled a mile once, well, twice. And some have used that as a metric. But the truth about that task is that I did it for me, the first time.

 

The second time I did it because a friend encouraged me to get it on film as he thought it would be helpful in establishing credibility. I didn’t want to do it the second time, initially. But I got in a quiet place and contemplated it and then decided that I did want to do it - for myself again. The second time was more of a faith journey than the first time. 

 

Anyway, most of my articles and books about crawling have been about how to build it up and do it for time, in the pursuit or the discovery of strength and resilience. But what I’ve always known and what I’ve hardly ever written about, if ever, is that crawling for about 20 steps is a “shot of life.” 

 

When I first started crawling, I would do it for 20 or so steps at a time, AND, I would do it randomly throughout the day. I did this because it would always leave me feeling amazing. It does feel good to feel good, but it feels great to feel amazing. And somehow, crawling for 20 steps or so just always feels amazing. 

 

And that’s why I say I had a twinge of almost guilt. I also use the phrase almost guilt because I know guilt is a negative emotion that is “below the line” and it can keep me from living in truth and happiness.

 

 

Have you read my book, Discovering You?

 

Anyway, my almost guilt was really a way of saying that perhaps I have unintentionally held back something fantastic. Crawling for 20 steps, at normal speed, Leopard or Spider-man style if you have it in you, makes you feel wonderful. It is a shot of life. It gives you a boost and so much more. 

 

Ok, I’m going to be completely bare here. Crawling this way can also spark a “second puberty.” Or at least that’s what a couple of friends and I discovered. And what I mean by a second puberty is that it “stokes the home fires,” if you know what I mean. If you don’t, I can’t help you - this is a family show after all. 

 

So that’s it. I’ve laid it all out there. I’m not holding anything back. Crawling is fantastic. It can be used to develop or discover insane resilience, or it can be used to invigorate your life. Just sprinkling it in a few bursts of 20 steps throughout the day is really all it takes to discover this.

 

If you’re up for it, try it for a week and see for yourself. Take 3 to 4 “crawl breaks” for about 20 steps at a time every day for 7 days. 

You might just find that it does indeed feel great to feel amazing. You also might light a fire, but don’t worry, I’ll write about cold showers next week! 

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