the bear walk from our elements program is a key movement that will give you many benefits like
improving scapular strength rotator cuff and spinal strength as well as hamstring and calf
flexibility tons of good stuff we have all sorts of variations of the basic bear like twisting bear
leg thread bear fin arm bear and spiderman yes spiderman is a variation of the bear but today
i want to cover a variation called the cross step bear which is going to further improve
core stabilization and balance now the footwork for the cross step bear can be a little confusing
but don't worry because today i'm going to break it down into bite-sized chunks for you
let's get to it first off we're just going to take a look at the setup
exactly the same as if we were to do the bear the basic bear the a-frame and that is
starting with our hands feet shoulder width apart shoulders over our hands hips over our knees
from here we're going to drive our butt up into the air as high as possible first let's take a
look at coordinating the body and using the bear by taking one step forward in this case
with my right hand left foot comes forward left hand right foot now the key point here
is making sure that i'm driving my butt high up into the air this is going to come into play
and we start working on the cross step so first and foremost make sure that you've got this down
being able to coordinate your hands and feet when using the basic bear next up i'd like
for you to change the dynamic of the bear just slightly by bringing your feet closer together
now when performing this your your toes your feet are still going to be facing forward but they're
just going to be together and what's going to happen is that it'll bring better focus
to your balance point because your feet are closer together you're going to find that there's going
to be a sway to your hips just slightly just slightly you're not pushing your hips out or
anything your toes are still facing forward but you're performing this bare trying to keep your
feet as close together as possible by doing that it's going to give you really good feedback as
long as you continue to drive your hips up into the air as you shuffle your feet forward close
together a lot of people when they're performing the cross step bear they step their foot up over
and continue to step over as if they were pigeon toed but what's very very important is making sure
that you pivot on the balls of your feet without getting into the bare position we're going to
stand up and focus on getting the footwork right so that when we go back and perform it with the
bear it'll be easy so looking at the footwork what i'm actually going to do is start off and rather
than having my toes facing forward they're going to be off at an angle now from here would like
for you to go up on your toes and the purpose for doing this is that we're going to pivot on
this front foot here as the back leg steps across so as soon as this back leg comes forward i will
pivot in order to turn my feet in the opposite direction so that now this becomes the back leg
and as i step forward i pivot off of my front leg and i can continue moving forward just
practicing this motion to get the footwork down so that when i put it all together
working on the bear it's seamless it's easy we broke it apart we focused on the components making
sure that we understood and brought awareness to what that part of our body our feet should
be doing so that when we put it together it's much easier chunking things in this way is the way to
go so you've got the regular bear you've got the bear where you brought your feet close together
you stood up you worked on the pivot with the feet now let's just put it together
remember the key point here even though the focus has to be a bit on the feet we always
want to remember to push the hips high up into the air first start off in this a-frame
and to start off and make it a little easier for us we can actually start by shifting the
feet so that this time they're facing in the same direction this time i want to bring my left foot
across my body but remember i need to pivot on my feet here so i take a step with my hand this right
foot which is my back leg comes off the floor as i reach forward in this case with my right hand
the left foot pivots and i can place the right foot across my body as i step forward with my
left hand i now have the weight on my right foot so that allows me to bring my left foot off of the
ground i pivot on the right foot stepping across driving my hips up into the air right hand forward
right foot comes up i pivot on the left foot and i can continue to practice the cross
step there a lot of things to think about am i driving my hips up into the air what's going on
with my feet what's going on with my hands but by breaking it apart like we did where we first focus
i'm going back to the bear even if you're very comfortable with it
do that practice that okay right left okay left right work on getting your feet together
then stand up cross step just with your feet standing then you can start to put it together
it's going to make things much easier it's going to flow better and by doing that you're bringing
better awareness to what's going on in your body you'll be able to practice the cross-step baron
away it's going to allow you to further improve your hip mobility and the coordination within
your body alright so give that a try let me know what you think of it and hey have fun