Spiderman Crawl Workout – Benefits, Muscles Worked & More!

When you’re watching a superhero movie, you see an ordinary, usually scrawny teenager transforming overnight into a hero of the people. On Tuesday he was getting winded walking up the stairs, but by Wednesday he’s stopping a skyscraper from crushing an orphanage with just his bare hands.

If only it was that simple, right? Believe it or not, there might be something to learn from these kinds of movies. The Spiderman crawl workout takes the idea of a superhero workout and makes it accessible to normal people like you and me.

What is the Spiderman crawl workout? In this guide we’ll give you what the Spiderman crawl is, the benefits and muscles worked, and all other information about this new exercise.

 

Spiderman Crawl – A Complete Guide

Why spiderman? Why did spiderman crawl? Why is it called the spiderman crawl in the first place?

As with most things, it’s better to understand by seeing Spiderman crawl in action. As the video shows…yep, you crawl like Spiderman.

Honestly, though, this exercise doesn’t look as ridiculous as it sounds. You can see why it’s useful, and which muscles are being worked.

This exercise is also sometimes called the spider walk, or the spiderman walk. It’s an intermediate-level exercise that focuses on using your body weight to burn fat and build muscle.

Here is a full guide to the steps for the spiderman crawl:

1. Lie prone on the floor as if you were beginning a plank.
2. Tighten your core and raise your right leg.
3. Put your hands in front of you with your palms on the ground.
4. Start a “walking” motion forward as you alternate each knee and each hand.
5. Try to go a certain distance or keep walking for a specific amount of time.

Spiderman Crawl Benefits

The Spiderman crawl is a self-explanatory exercise, and the same goes for the Spiderman crawl benefits. The spider walk is great at toning both your lower body, your upper body and even your abdomen.

It’s a full-body workout that takes advantage of your natural body weight to put pressure on your key muscles. When doing the Spiderman crawl, you make your movements more decisive and intentional.

This way, you stretch each part of your body as you walk, and each needs to work together to keep a consistent rhythm and to maintain your body weight.

Some of the areas of the body that the Spiderman crawl has benefits for include the chest, arms, back shoulders, glutes, core… every part of your body is engaged.

Another benefit is that there are two ways to incorporate the Spiderman crawl into your routine. This can be through a cardio-focused Spiderman walk or a strength-focused Spiderman walk. The key difference between the two approaches is a focus on endurance vs speed.

Either way, another benefit of the Spiderman walk is that it gets the blood pumping. This makes it a great warm-up for when you want to enable hypertrophy, or just a great way to feel like you’ve accomplished something with your workout.

 

Spiderman Crawl Muscles Worked

Let’s get into the science of the Spiderman crawl and talk about how the Spiderman crawl muscles worked.

The Spiderman crawl will focus on toning your hip flexors, your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and your core.

You can do many other workouts individually, which will work out these muscles. Some of them may even be better than the Spiderman crawl.

But there’s one key thing to remember. The Spiderman walk will improve all of these muscles at the same time. This means that by doing the Spiderman walk for an extended period, you’ll be focusing on these muscles in the same way you would by working them out on their own.

The Spiderman crawl will allow you to do this in much less time. If your fitness goal is a whole-body improvement, then you’re not going to have time to give attention to muscles like the hip flexors. It’s unfair that this is one of the most important muscles for any type of workout.

Doing the Spiderman crawl will fix this, by giving benefits to your sometimes neglected muscles as well as the rest of your muscles at the same time.

Getting Started with the Spiderman Crawl Workout

As we mentioned, the Spiderman crawl is considered an intermediate workout. This means that when getting started with the Spiderman crawl workout, you might have a difficult time diving straight in.

The only thing worse than not working out at all is working out in the wrong way. If you’re not doing the Spiderman crawl efficiently, you’re at risk of injury or just wasting time.

So, it’s important to measure your progress. If you wouldn’t consider yourself at an intermediate level, consider some progressions before doing the full Spiderman crawl.

These can depend on what you need to focus on. Planks are best for building core strength, simple stretches are good for improving flexibility, and strength training will help if you’re struggling to support your body weight on your palms.

 

Spiderman Crawl Warm-Up

There are two ways to approach the Spiderman crawl warmup. Firstly, doing the Spiderman crawl as a warmup itself can be good as it’s a full-body stretch. It activates your key muscles by stretching them to the point where they’ll be ready for the most intense training.

If you’re doing the Spiderman crawl as its own workout, you’ll want warmups that specifically focus on the muscles you’ll be building in your main workout.

The Samson stretch is often hailed as the ultimate full-body stretch and is a great all-around warm-up. You also can’t go wrong with squats and foam rolls, which will limber you up.

 

Spiderman Crawl – Closing Thoughts

The Spiderman crawl looks strange, sure…but don’t discount it until you try it. You’ll be able to see how it engages your muscles, strengthens your core, and stretches your whole body when used as both a warm-up and a workout.

Looking for more full-body workouts? We have a whole program of WODs, workout guides, routines, and more to make your exercising more time-efficient!