One of my favorite Steve Maxwell stories is from a Ryan Lee Boot Camp. Steve Cotter and some other guy were on stage demonstrating kettlebells along with Steve Maxwell. Cotter and this other dude were tossing a 70 pound kettlebell back-and-forth flipping it through the air while doing swings.
They were obviously showing off.
After they finished, Steve Maxwell walks to center stage and says, “Now for what you’d really show your clients…” And then proceeds to demonstrate basic, effective, and practical kettlebell exercises.
That’s what I like about Steve, his stuff is totally practical and works awesome.
Steve Maxwell looks and moves exactly how I want to look and move—not just when I’m 60, but when I’m 80. Just watch his videos and see how controlled and coordinated he exercises. No herky-jerky stuff, just smooth and coordinated.
Several months ago Steve Maxwell released is a product called Get Crawl Like a Baby to Move Like a Man. I have now done these exercises for four months. I can feel a major difference in my body.
The title of the product caught my eye and the exercises in the promotional video resonated because I have a baby at home. Some of the stuff Steve was showing was the same stuff she was doing, while developing perfect posture—shoulders back, chest open, head up.
I’ve watched the video several times. The program is pretty simple, you just follow these movement patterns:
- Rolls
- Crawls
- Rocking back and forth (Head turns included as part of rocking back and forth)
- Standing cross crawl
- Cross-crawl pulling
Initially I was only doing the crawling pattern (the “spider crawl”—that one is the coolest in my mind) but I’ve since expanded to doing all the movement patterns.
Steve Maxwell has been a huge proponent of joint mobility and perhaps one of joint mobility’s most prominent supporters. He said that he preferred the baby patterns to the joint mobility. I can certainly tell you that the effects I have felt in three consistent weeks practicing all patterns have been extremely noticeable.
I walk more smoothly, I move up and down ladders easier, my chest is opening up more and I have increased posture awareness. But it’s also giving me strength. Particularly in the shoulder area (I am practicing some of the more strenuous versions of the exercises to get this effect.)
You really learn how to coordinate and feel your body as you do these exercises. That makes a lot of sense because this is the way we came into this world and learned to walk—through practicing these very same exercises shown in this video.
I made a quick video showing just the basic exercises which you can follow along with to learn. This is a 5-10 minute thing you can do each morning to get profound effects and a good start to the day.
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I’d recommend downloading the full video from Steve Maxwell and learning from it. Steve starts off with a good explanation of why these exercises are so important. Learning the more advanced versions will be incredibly beneficial. (They are also good party tricks.) Get Crawl Like a Baby to Move Like a Man
Also, check out my video above and give this program a 30 day run through.
All the training–kettlewell/barbell/calisthenics will not counteract the effect of sitting for long periods of time. And countering that effect is critically important if you want to move well into old age. The exercises from Crawl Like a Baby to Move Like a Man should definitely be in your aging plan.