Does Running on All Fours Promote Fitness? Here’s The Science on ‘Quadrobics’. : ScienceAlert todayheadline

In a new online trend, people are scuttling, crawling, and bounding around on all fours while filming themselves – and their videos are getting a lot of attention.

The practice is called quadrobics, and it’s quite the spectacle.

Quadrobics evangelists claim the movements promote fitness, strength, mobility, and even spirituality, as a chance to reconnect with nature and the “primal” self.

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The word quadrobics comes from quattuor (Latin for four) and aerobics (exercise that is rhythmic and repetitive, and which uses the body’s large muscle groups, such as in running).

But is this form of workout actually good for you? Is it just another fad made viral by our attention economy? Or perhaps, a bit of both?

From world records to the therian subculture

Quadrobics gained notoriety back in 2008 when Japanese sprinter Kenichi Ito set a Guinness World Record by sprinting 100 metres on all fours.

Since then, the records have been tumbling. In 2022, American Collin McClure clocked 15.66 seconds, and this year Japanese runner Ryusei Yonee smashed the mark again, with a blistering 14.55 seconds.

Yonee said he studied animal movement from childhood and trained by observing dogs, cats, and monkeys before refining his own technique on the running track.

Recently, we’ve seen a growing number of social media users, particularly young users, posting their own quadrobics content.

In some places, such as Russia, entire subcultures of “quadrobers” have emerged. They blend quadrobics with costume play, and can be seen crawling through the outdoors wearing animal masks.

Much of the online quadrobics content comes from the therian community. Therians are people, often children, who identify as a non-human animal.

Adult therians were some of the first to begin practising quadrobics. While not all therians do quadrobics, those who do often claim that moving on four limbs is an embodied expression of their identity.

Therians can also be easily be confused with the “furry” fandom, but they are different. While therians identify as animals, furries are interested in anthropomorphic animal characters (animals with human traits).

Furries create personal avatars called “fursonas” and participate in events and conventions in “fursuits”.

In Russia and other former Soviet states the sight of young people scampering around wearing fox masks and tails has sparked a moral panic among some politicians and religious leaders.

Last year in Uzbekistan, the Interior Ministry issued a warning to parents that children’s involvement in quadrobics would be treated as parental neglect. And one Russian politician, Vyacheslav Volodin, blamed the West for the trend of people dressing up as animals, calling it a “dehumanisation project”.

Fitness or performance?

Quadrobics is primarily concerned with movement rather than identity, costume or role play.

It belongs to a broader wave of “ancestral” or “primal” wellness trends. Think paleo diets, ice baths, or the Liver King’s raw meat diet. These practices promise to reconnect us to nature, while doubling as performance.

Even mainstream health and wellness sources are beginning to take note of quadrobics, with various articles listing its supposed benefits for training the major muscle groups and improving coordination.

Enthusiasts showcase moves such as bear crawls, leopard walks, leaps and balances. (Although many of these movements and exercises have been practised for years as warm ups or mobility drills).

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Some quadrobics practitioners have claimed tangible benefits such as increased fitness and weight loss.

There is some research evidence suggesting quadrupedal movement can help improve balance, flexibility and core stability. And given its rhythmic nature, it can also get your heart rate up, which can have benefits for aerobic fitness and health.

However, this doesn’t mean quadrobics is without limitations.

The risks and limitations

Because quadrobics relies on body weight resistance alone, the load placed on your muscles is restricted to your body weight. This means it probably isn’t as effective as lifting weights for improving strength and bone density, wherein weight lifting allows you to progressively lift heavier.

And although quadrobics will provide aerobic stimulus, it requires quite a bit of skill, which means it is hard to do for long durations and at higher intensities. You would get better cardiovascular benefits from something like running.

Also, as with any exercise, quadrobics comes with potential injury risks – albeit likely small.

If you want to try quadrobics, your muscles and joints will need time to adapt to the load being placed upon them. This is particularly important for your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders, which might not be used to being used in this way. This means you should start very slow, and monitor how you feel after each session.

Overall, there’s not much evidence to suggest quadrobics is better for you than mainstream forms of exercise. While crawling and leaping can build stability and flexibility, scientific studies haven’t yet tested its long-term benefits or risks. At best, it is a supplement to established training.

The current social media success of quadrobics has less to do with exercise science and more to do with visual spectacle. The entertainment value is clear, and it will reliably attract likes, shares and commentary — making it as much about theatre and identity as about fitness.

Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney and Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.