Ross Edgley is widely regarded as one of the fittest individuals in the world, with an impressive list of feats that include swimming around the entire UK, completing muscle-ups while carrying a 20kg weight plate, climbing ropes equivalent to the height of Mount Everest, and finishing a triathlon while carrying a 45kg tree.
Given his extraordinary achievements, I was initially intimidated when he challenged me to try a workout during a recent interview. However, the two-move challenge he provided turned out to be not only fun but also surprisingly effective and accessible to most fitness levels. Edgley calls it the “Bear Crawl Battle.”
The workout is straightforward: you perform an ascending ladder of press-ups and bear crawls until your muscles reach exhaustion. While simple in design, it is a powerful way to test your endurance and stamina. As Edgley explains, the goal is to use it as a “functional finisher” at the end of a workout to boost your overall work capacity.
As a Myprotein athlete, Edgley emphasizes the importance of this approach. “You’re training to train,” he says, stressing that the Bear Crawl Battle helps improve general physical preparedness.
After a particularly tough Hyrox session, I decided to give the challenge a go at a nearby park. Edgley suggests incorporating the Bear Crawl Battle after a workout that targets similar muscles, such as a chest or push-focused session.
Adding functional finishers like this one increases the volume of your workout while helping improve your overall fitness. “If you do this for a few weeks, you’ll be able to tolerate more volume, making you a better athlete, no matter your sport,” says Edgley.
To track progress, record how many rounds you complete during your first attempt. Over the following weeks, repeat the challenge and aim to extend the distance or number of rounds. Edgley notes that this approach provides a different kind of success metric.
He adds, “Instead of always asking, ‘What are you benching?’, it would be great if, after eight weeks, someone could say, ‘My bench is stable, but now I can handle 20m in the Bear Crawl Battle.’ That would be a huge achievement.”
