At Hybrid Athlete, we talk a lot about optimal movement, injury prevention, and smart ways to exercise with longevity as the ultimate goal. There’s rarely an exercise as valuable as the elephant walk.
At first glance, it looks just like a regular leg stretch, but don’t let the looks deceive you. Lifters, runners, people in rehab, sports players, MMA fighters, virtually everyone can benefit from this exercise.
Let’s dig into the whys and the hows.
Table of Contents
What Is The Elephant Walk?
Taking its inspiration from the way, well, elephants walk, this exercise is a simple, yet incredibly effective way to stretch your posterior chain (and more). The main focus points are on the calves, hamstrings, and lower back. However, if done correctly (and regularly!) the elephant walk will help you enhance the overall mobility and flexibility of the whole body.
How to do the Elephant Walk Exercise
- Stand straight with the feet pointing forward (shoulder-width apart)
- Bend over by pushing your hips backward as if you’re reaching your toes with a slight bend in your knees
- Reach the floor with your hands (or go as far as your flexibility allows you)
- While bracing your core slightly, straighten one leg to its full extension and feel the stretch in your hamstrings
- Return the leg to the starting position and repeat with the other leg
Progressions
The further towards the floor you can reach with your hands the more challenging the exercise is going to be. If you lack mobility/flexibility, start by placing a box or a chair in front of you and use the extra elevation to place your hand on the surface. This will make the exercise less challenging.
To progress the elephant walk exercise, lower the surface and go deeper with your hands. The ultimate version would be grabbing your toes with your fingers.
Remember, when exercising for mobility, you should never work through pain. A little tension on the active zones is OK, but don’t force it. This exercise will unlock your hamstrings quickly enough if you stay consistent, so there’s no need to rush.
Elephant Walk Benefits
The benefits of elephant walking are numerous and mostly depend on your mobility and flexibility levels. E.g. if you’re already super-flexible, go for the more challenging version and fully reach around your toes with your arms. But, we can safely say that elephant walks help with the following:
- Dynamic calf, hamstring, and lower back stretching
- Warming up your posterior chain before running and jumping
- Enhancing your posture and by extension your running gait
- Flossing your nerves and addressing erector spinae and hamstring tendinitis issues
- Overall balance, proprioception, mobility, and flexibility improvements
Who is the elephant walk exercise for?
Ok, so the biomechanical nature of the elephant walk exercise allows anyone and everyone to do it regularly. Even seniors can do it every day (with some assistance, of course).
However, thanks to the benefits that the exercise is bringing to the table, we can say that runners, sprinters, and any dynamic sports players benefit the most.
Additionally, if used as a rehab tool, it’s used as a tool to tackle tendinitis in the hamstring, and to address lower back pain caused by hip hinge issues.
How often can I do this exercise?
Thanks to its restorative nature, you can do elephant walks before every run, leg day, or game day. There’s no upper limit.
But, if you do stay regular, the chances are you will progress pretty quickly. Do not ditch the exercise when it comes to this. Getting a good stretch of the posterior chain is paramount, being an athlete or not.
In Conclusion
The elephant walk is one of those exercises you’ll want to do every training session, once you learn how to do it properly. There are no downsides to it, and the risks of injury are close to zero (unless you have pre-existing issues in the posterior chain or lumbar spine).
Lastly, it’s one of those exercise that will follow you to your old age, through all athletic phases, so better start doing it asap.
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