Lateral Crawls for MMA: How to Do Them and Why They Work

Jun 28, 2021

The lateral crawl is the one everybody skips. Bear crawls go forward, forward feels productive, and sideways feels awkward — so it gets left out. Which is a problem, because fighting happens sideways far more than it happens forwards.

Here is how to do it, what it trains, and why your first attempt is going to be worse than you expect.

How to Do a Lateral Crawl

Get into a bear crawl: hands under shoulders, knees an inch off the floor, hips at shoulder height or lower.
Pick a direction. Move the lead hand and the lead foot out to that side together.
Follow with the trail hand and trail foot. Do not cross the limbs over each other.
Keep the shoulders and hips square to the floor the whole time. No twisting.
Travel eight to ten steps, then come back the other way. That is one set.

The two failures, and they are near universal: the hips rise up to make the sideways step easier, and the trunk rotates so one shoulder drops. Both make the drill pointless. Go slower and shorter until neither happens.

Lateral crawl starting position, hips low and shoulders square

Lateral crawl mid-step, lead hand and lead foot moving together

What It Trains That Forward Crawling Does Not

Hip abduction under load. Moving the leg away from the midline while carrying bodyweight. Forward crawling barely touches this.
Frontal plane trunk control. Resisting side bend and rotation, rather than resisting extension.
Single-side shoulder support. The load shifts fully onto one arm at the transition, every step.
Coordination under a bad angle. Which is what a scramble is.

Why Fighters Need It Specifically

Almost nothing in a fight is a straight line. You circle, you cut angles, you shuffle out of the pocket, you scramble sideways off a failed shot. All of that loads the hip away from the midline while the trunk resists getting bent over.

Fight situation	What the lateral crawl covers
Cutting an angle out of the pocket	Hip abduction with the trunk staying square
Scrambling off a failed takedown	Loaded lateral movement with weight on the hands
Framing off the cage	Single-arm shoulder support at a bad angle
Recovering guard sideways	Hip control under load with the trunk braced
Circling away from power	Repeated hip abduction without crossing the feet

The wider context is in the MMA strength and conditioning guide, and the full variation library is in the crawling exercise library.

Bear crawl position used as the base for the lateral crawl

Lateral crawl demonstrated on a mat, knees an inch off the floor

Programming It

Level	Dose	Progress to
First two weeks	3×6 steps each direction, in the warm-up	More steps, not more speed
Weeks 3–4	3×10 steps each direction	Add a two-second pause at the turnaround
Weeks 5–6	4×10 steps, 30–40s work	Light load, or a band at the hips
After	2×/week maintenance in the warm-up	Leave it there and train something else

Do not chase distance. Ten clean steps beats thirty sloppy ones, and sloppy lateral crawling mostly trains you to rotate, which is the opposite of the point.

Crawling drill for grapplers showing a braced trunk under load

Common Mistakes

Crossing the feet over. Turns it into a shuffle and removes the abduction demand entirely.
Hips rising. The most common cheat. Keeps you moving, kills the trunk work.
Rotating the shoulders. You will feel one shoulder drop. Slow down.
Only going one direction. Everybody has a good side. Train the bad one twice as much.
Adding load first. Load a clean crawl, never a broken one.

How to Tell If Yours Is Any Good

Film ten steps from the front on your phone. You are looking for four things:

Hips stay at shoulder height or below the entire way. No rise at the transition.
Shoulders stay level. If one drops as you step, you are rotating.
Feet never cross. Lead foot out, trail foot follows, every step.
The pace does not change. Step ten looks like step one.

If all four hold, add steps. If any one fails, cut the distance in half and fix it before adding anything. Almost nobody passes on the first try, and that is the point of filming it.

Where It Fits Next to the Rest of Your Crawling

Do this first	Then this	Then this
Baby crawl, hips low, 30s	Forward bear crawl, 30–40s	Lateral crawl, 8–10 steps each way
Teaches the brace	Builds shoulder support endurance	Adds hip abduction and anti-rotation

If you cannot hold a clean forward bear crawl for forty seconds, the lateral version will just teach you to rotate. Build the base first — the order is laid out in the crawling exercise library, and the physiology behind why it transfers is in what crawling actually builds for wrestlers and grapplers.

One Honest Caveat

The lateral crawl is a good drill with a narrow job. It builds hip control and trunk stiffness in a direction you rarely train. It does not build your gas tank, it does not build your grip, and it will not make a bad scramble into a good one on its own. Eight to ten steps, two or three times a week, then go train the thing you actually lack. If that is your engine, start here.

Common Questions

Why is the lateral crawl so much harder than a bear crawl?

Because hip abduction under load is a quality almost nobody trains, and because the trunk has to resist side bend and rotation at once instead of just resisting extension.

How many lateral crawls should I do?

Three or four sets of eight to ten steps each direction, two or three times a week. It is quality work, so the set ends when the form breaks.

Can I do lateral crawls every day?

You can, in a warm-up, at low volume. There is little reason to. Two or three times a week gets you the benefit.

Does it help my wrestling as well as my striking?

Yes. Scrambles are loaded lateral movement, which is exactly the demand. It applies wherever the hips have to move sideways under load.