TLDR: Frankenstein’s Monster was an assortment of parts, you aren’t. You’re an integrated and well-connected human who would likely benefit more from training Movements than Bodybuilding. Read on for a fun and compelling treatise about training human movements!

Bear crawls are great for developing full body strength, coordination, and movement quality. Quoting Eric Cressey…

“Bear crawls: serratus anterior activation, shoulder flexion, scapular upward rotation, anterior core involvement, reflexive rotator cuff recruitment, and more. What's not to love?” https://x.com/EricCressey/status/1801667524670451726

It’s a fantastic full-body movement that doesn’t isolate any one muscle. Far too often, athletes and normal people trying to get strong for life focus on targeting muscles. Inevitability, they ask…

“BuT wHaT mUsClE dOeS tHaT tRaIN, bRo?

See that swole extensor hallucis longus? Or my jacked extensor digitorum longus? Yeah, I don’t either haha

As I edited my recorded warmups, I saw some leg muscles popping out, and it surprised me. I realized that a lot of muscles are working together while I don’t notice any muscles working independently.

If I focused on strictly singular muscular development instead of movement development maybe I’d pass on the bear crawl. It wouldn’t be enough bang for my buck for muscular development. If I just wanted to focus on muscles, I’d isolate them.

Here’s the problem with what Coach Dan John calls Frankenstein’s monster training. When we JUST (keyword) train body parts we often neglect our athleticism and overall strength. We aren’t very well connected when we’ve bolted a bunch of strong parts together.

To have well-connected strength and movement we need big compound movements and the ability to move ourselves through space with ease, grace, and reactive coordination.

BuT wHeRe DoEs ThAt LeAvE mUsClE bUiLdInG?!

Since we can hold both things to be true, we know that it doesn’t have to be “either-or”. Maybe you’re a bodybuilder who does crawls and carries for warmups and finishers. Maybe you always do animal flow but now you’ve added in curls, Tricep extensions, delt flys, and calf raises to pull up some weak areas.

Now that I’m thinking about it, Jujimufu aka Jon Call adopts this approach. His rise to fame came from being a tricker who was incredibly muscular and flexible. How’d he get there? Tricking in the backyard, Taekwondo, and lifting heavy weights. Sounds like a recipe for someone who moves well and looks jacked.

Or… you could also train in phases like the late great Tommy Kono. He swapped between weightlifting and bodybuilding and had tremendous success with that strategy. We can’t all expect his results, but being a gold medalist Olympian and Mr Universe winner shows there might be some effectiveness to his approach.

What’s your blend of both isolation and integration movements?