Lizard Crawl: A Complete Guide

Quick Intro

The Lizard Crawl is an animal-movement crawl performed low to the ground from a push-up plank, driving the hand and knee on the same side forward together before lowering the body and switching sides. Keeping the hips no higher than the shoulders throughout is what keeps this a crawl and stops it becoming a low, awkward push-up walk.

Equipment Needed

No equipment is required. A yoga mat is optional, mainly for comfort under the hands and knees on a hard floor.

Why It Matters

Most quadrupedal crawls move the opposite-side arm and leg together, the same cross-body rhythm walking uses. The Lizard Crawl instead pairs the hand and knee on the same side (an ipsilateral pattern), which is a different coordination puzzle for a body used to moving the other way. Driving that same-side knee in close to the elbow while the hips stay low also asks a lot of mobility from the muscles that lift the thigh toward the torso (hip flexors, iliopsoas). The chest muscle (pectoralis major), the front of the shoulder cap (deltoid, anterior) and the back of the upper arm (triceps brachii) share the job of lowering and pressing the body through each reach. A deep core muscle that wraps around the torso like a corset (transverse abdominis) keeps the hips from sagging, and the largest glute muscle (gluteus maximus) keeps the trailing leg’s hip from dropping out of line.

When to Do It

The Lizard Crawl works well as a mobility-focused warm-up before lower body training, or as its own short block inside a primal movement or crawling session. Two or three sessions a week, with a day of rest for the hips and shoulders between them, suits most people building this pattern.

Anyone with a current hip, groin, wrist or shoulder issue should get individual guidance before starting, since the deep hip flexion and the loaded hands and wrists both take on a lot of load here.

Getting Ready

A few minutes of hip circles or a deep squat hold opens the hips up before asking them to fold this deeply under load. A short set of slow reps, keeping the hips a touch higher than the finished form and the steps small, previews the same-side reaching pattern before a full working set begins.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. The setup. Start in a push-up plank, hands under the shoulders and feet roughly hip-width apart.

2. The reach. Drive the right hand and the right knee forward together, drawing the knee in as close to the elbow as possible.

3. The lower. Lower the chest and hips toward the floor as the reach completes, keeping the hips no higher than the shoulders.

4. The switch. Push back out to the plank and repeat the same reach on the left side, alternating as the crawl travels forward.

How Many, How Often

Lizard Crawl is dosed by distance or time, not by reps, since the aim is a clean, low crawling pattern held over a stretch of floor.

Keeping the hips level through the whole distance matters more here than how far the crawl covers, since letting the hips rise to make the reach easier is a common way this exercise turns into a low push-up walk.

Modifications and Variations

As an easier regression, Lizard Crawl — Knee to Hand stops the advancing knee just short of full contact with the elbow, reducing the hip-flexor mobility demand while the same-side pattern is still being learned.

As a harder progression, Lizard Crawl — Elbow Touch brings the advancing knee into full contact with the same-side elbow on every step, adding a deliberate pause at that deepest point for more hip mobility and core control.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Letting the hips ride up to shorten the reach. Raising the hips above shoulder height turns the crawl into an easier, inverted-V shape and removes the low-profile challenge the exercise is built around. Keeping the hips level with the shoulders the whole time keeps the demand where it should be.

Defaulting back to an opposite-side reach. Because walking and most other crawls pair the opposite arm and leg, it’s easy for a tired lizard crawl to slip back into that familiar cross-body rhythm without noticing. Deliberately checking that the moving hand and knee share the same side keeps the coordination pattern this exercise trains intact.

Letting the trailing hip twist open. Rotating the trailing hip up and out during the reach turns part of the movement into an unplanned twist instead of a flat, forward crawl. Keeping both hips square to the floor through the reach keeps the effort where it belongs.

After Your Set

Stepping one foot forward into a low lunge and easing the back hip toward the floor releases the hip flexors that just did the heavy folding work. A few slow wrist circles, followed by spreading the fingers wide against the floor, settles the wrists and forearms that spent the set bearing weight.

Going Deeper

Lizard Crawl usually works well as a mobility-focused entry point into primal movement training, since the low quadrupedal position builds a coordination skill few other exercises ask for directly. Because the same-side reach fights the body’s habitual cross-body walking rhythm, fatigue often shows up as the pattern reverting to an opposite-side reach before the arms or hips tire. Slowing the pace and consciously resetting the same-side pairing on every rep tends to fix this faster than simply covering more ground.

Someone new to this exercise typically learns to keep the same-side hand and knee paired correctly within the first few sessions, then works up to a longer, level-hipped crawl over two to four weeks as the hip flexors and shoulders adapt to the demand.

How to Know You’re Improving

1. The same-side hand and knee staying paired on every rep, with no reverting to an opposite-side gait
2. Hips that hold at shoulder height for the whole distance, neither rising nor sagging
3. A knee that reaches closer to the elbow with each week of practice
4. A crawl that covers more ground before the pattern starts to break down

A same-side pattern that holds up under fatigue says more about progress than the distance covered.

Muscles Worked

• Pectoralis Major (the chest muscle, helping lower and press the body through each reach)
• Iliopsoas (the deep hip flexor, driving the knee forward toward the elbow)
• Transverse Abdominis (a deep core muscle that wraps around the torso like a corset, keeping the hips from sagging)
• Anterior Deltoid (the front of the shoulder cap, absorbing load as the arms bear weight)
• Triceps Brachii (the back of the upper arm, supporting the body through the low position)
• Gluteus Maximus (the largest glute muscle, keeping the trailing leg’s hip from dropping)

FAQ

Is Lizard Crawl the same as Bear Crawl? No. Bear Crawl moves the opposite-side hand and foot together, the same cross-body pattern walking uses, while Lizard Crawl deliberately pairs the same-side hand and knee and drops the hips much lower, closer to the floor.

Why does the same-side reach feel so much harder than a normal crawl? Walking and most other crawling patterns wire the body to move opposite-side limbs together. Asking the same-side hand and knee to move as a pair fights that habit directly, which is the coordination challenge this exercise is built around.

What’s the difference between this and Lizard Crawl — Elbow Touch? Lizard Crawl — Elbow Touch brings the knee into full contact with the elbow and adds a brief pause at that deepest point on every step, asking for more hip mobility and core control than this version’s shorter reach.

Is some hip or shoulder fatigue after this exercise normal? Yes, fatigue through the hips and the arms bearing weight is expected after a set of low crawling. A sharp pinch in the hip or wrist is a different signal and worth having a doctor or physical therapist look at.

How often should this movement be trained? A couple of sessions a week suits most people, especially when paired with other hip-mobility or crawling work as part of a broader session, not run as a standalone strength block.

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Related to Bear Crawl, a quadrupedal crawl using the opposite-side coordination pattern this exercise deliberately avoids.