Bodyweight Exercises for Beginners: The Bear and Monkey

Bodyweight exercises are a fantastic way to build strength, mobility, and body awareness without the hassle and expense of lots of equipment.

But it can be hard to know where to begin, especially when a quick search pulls up articles like:

• “193 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere!”
• “37 Exercises You Must Do Right Now, Or You’ll Die!”

Everyone wants to put their own little spin with a variety of squats, lunges, pushups, and pull-ups. And they may be great exercises! But it can be overwhelming, and frankly unnecessary.

 

Streamlined Strength: Essential Exercises for Maximum Impact

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There’s no such thing as a “new” exercise. Humans have been moving their bodies for as long as there have been humans, so every pattern of movement has been practiced before. But what’s cool about that is that all those fancy exercises you see out there stem from the same essentials.

Which means, if you understand what those are and get working on them, you will not only be in better shape but you’ll be ready for whatever life throws your way.

• Full Body Engagement
  • Exercises should work multiple muscle groups simultaneously for balanced strength.
• Functional Movements
  • Practical movement patterns to improve real-life performance and capability.
• Integrated Mobility and Flexibility
  • Full range of motion movements to keep your joints healthy.
• Scalability
  • Suitable for all fitness levels with the ability to scale intensity up or down.
• Efficiency
  • Maximize results without spending hours exercising.

Efficient and Effective: The Bear and Monkey

 

In this video we describe:

• How these two locomotion exercises, The Bear and the Monkey, can replace a dozen separate exercises
• How they meet all the essentials for a comprehensive workout routine.
• How to incorporate the exercises into your routine, or do them just on their own.

Ticking All The Boxes: How The Bear and Monkey Cover All Your Bases

Full-Body Engagement

You can see right away that the Bear and the Monkey locomotions are full body movements. Unlike isolated exercises that target a single muscle group, they require simultaneous coordination between the upper and lower body muscles.

The Bear activates your shoulders, arms, core, and legs. As you crawl forward, your upper body supports your weight while your lower body propels you. This coordination enhances muscular synergy and builds balanced strength. The Monkey engages your hips, legs, core, and arms. The lateral hopping motion requires power from your lower body while your upper body maintains stability and control. This full-body engagement improves overall functional strength and endurance.

By involving multiple muscle groups at once, both exercises help develop a balanced physique and improve overall body awareness. This approach ensures integrates your entire body promoting a breadth of strength and mobility.

Functional Movements

The Bear and the Monkey replicate natural, primal movements that humans have been performing for thousands of years. They are practical and functional, enhancing your ability to perform everyday activities efficiently and safely.

Crawling (Bear) and lateral hopping/squatting (Monkey) train your body in the way it was designed to move, improving coordination and neuromuscular connections. When you practice these movements, you enhance your ability to perform daily tasks such as lifting, reaching, twisting, and bending with greater ease and less wasted energy.

Mobility and Flexibility

Both exercises promote dynamic movements that increase your range of motion and joint flexibility. The Bear and the Monkey require movement through multiple planes of motion, which helps lubricate joints and maintain their health. And with their full body motion, you are stretching your muscles and improving their capacity and elasticity which can reduce the likelihood of strains and pulls. By incorporating these exercises into your routine, you can expect improved flexibility in your hips, shoulders, wrists, and ankles, leading to smoother, more comfortable movement patterns.

Accessibility

One of the greatest advantages of the Bear and the Monkey exercises is their adaptability to various fitness levels. Newcomers can start with modified versions, such as reduced range of motion or slower pace, allowing them to build confidence and strength gradually.

While more experienced fitnessers can increase the complexity by adding speed, incorporating directional changes, or combining with other movements.

Efficiency

I have yet to meet anyone that says they have more than enough time to do all they want and need to do! Time is a precious commodity and the efficiency of your workout routine is crucial.

The Bear and the Monkey provide cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, and flexibility work all at once. Because these exercises engage multiple muscle groups and elevate your heart rate, you achieve more in less time compared to isolated movements.

By focusing on these two efficient exercises, you maximize your workout benefits without the need for lengthy gym sessions, making it easier to maintain consistency and reach your fitness goals.

The Bear: Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Mobility and Overall Coordination

The Bear helps you improve:

1. Hip Mobility
2. Hamstring flexibility
3. Grip strength (as you grip the floor)
4. Shoulder strength and mobility
5. Spinal extension
6. Cross body coordination
7. Pressing strength going backward
8. Pulling strength going forward

Performance Details

• Begin on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
• Lift your knees an inch off the ground, engaging your core.
• Move your right hand and left foot forward simultaneously.
• Repeat with the opposite hand and foot, maintaining a smooth, crawling motion.
• Keep your back flat and core engaged.
• Move with controlled, deliberate steps.
• Breathe steadily throughout the movement.

The Monkey: Core Strength, Lower Body Mobility, and Integrated Coordination

The Monkey helps you improve:

1. Hip Strength
2. Knee Mobility
3. Core Strength
4. Upper Back Strength
5. Shoulder Strength

Performance Details

• Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Squat down, placing your hands on the ground inside your feet.
• Shift your weight onto your hands.
• Jump your feet to the side, landing softly.
• Keep your hands planted firmly.
• Use your legs and core to generate movement.
• Stay as low as you can.

Stiff, Weak, or Injured? Solutions to Keep You Moving

If You’re Stiff

Stiffness can absolutely impact your ability to perform these movements exactly the way we show them in the video, but that shouldn’t stop you! You can do the Bear and Monkey at the level you are at right now and get a lot of benefit. Please don’t think that you have to look and do them like a carbon copy of the video. It’s simply not true at all.

What can be very helpful though, is to spend a few minutes warming up. Getting your blood flowing and a bit of heat built up loosens you up quite a bit and get you better prepared for these challenging movements. Here’s a great discussion and sample routine to get you warmed up.

If You’re Weak

It’s natural to feel like you have the necessary strength to even start doing these locomotions. Well, just like the feeling of being “too stiff”, it’s a matter of degree and perspective. I encourage you to review the video again and heed our recommendations, and there are a couple of basic things you can do to get you started right now.

• Break down the exercises into smaller, manageable parts. For instance, instead of full Bear crawls, practice holding the starting position to build strength.
• Limit how far you move during the exercise to focus on maintaining proper form.
• Hold onto stable objects for balance during the Monkey exercise or perform the movements near a wall.
• essential for stability; exercises like planks and dead bugs can help.

If You’re Injured

Injuries are unfortunately a fact of life but depending on where you are at in the different stages, you can likely do more than you think.

• Acute Injuries
  • Recent injuries that are still healing: Make sure you are consulting a healthcare professional. Get it looked at!
• Chronic Conditions
  • Long-term issues like arthritis or tendonitis: These conditions can be daunting but you can improve your functional capacity
• Post-Surgical Recovery
  • Healing from surgical procedures requires careful activity management: Again consult your provider and get the clear to do more when possible.

We’ve written this resource to give our time tested insights into maintaining fitness levels while dealing with injury.

And always remember, it’s important to listen to your body and adjust your exercise routine according to your personal needs and limitations. Safety should always take precedence over intensity or speed to ensure long-term success and well-being.

Beyond the Bear and Monkey: What’s Missing from the Equation?

While the Bear and the Monkey exercises are powerful tools for building foundational strength and mobility, they primarily focus on just two movement patterns. They indeed cover so much as we’ve shown above and give you the most bang for your buck in terms of the benefits for your time and energy.

We’ve necessarily left out quite a bit of detail and locomotion variation. Why? Because as we started out in the beginning, it’s too easy to be overwhelmed. When you are just starting, it’s important to just start! And the Bear and Monkey provide the best starting points. You can do them right away and get nearly the full benefits of bodyweight training right away.

You’ll then want to introduce a broader spectrum of movements that focus on specific physical attributes. We also teach two other fundamental locomotions, the Frogger and Crab which engage different planes of motion and body movements that complement the Bear and Monkey. And each of these have several variants to further hone in the breadth and depth of our physical capacities.

By following the Elements program, you gain access to a structured progression system that adapts to all fitness levels, ensuring continuous development without plateaus. It fills in the gaps by emphasizing skill development, body awareness, and functional movement patterns that enhance overall physical capability.

Elements provides a holistic approach to fitness, enabling you to move with greater ease, reduce the risk of injury, and perform daily activities more efficiently. This comprehensive program ensures that no aspect of your physical development is overlooked, giving you a well-rounded foundation for long-term health and fitness.