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Exercise library · Abs

Bear hold

Core stability for the abs with your bodyweight.

How to do it

1 of 4

Hands under shoulders, toes down

  1. Starting position

    Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders, knees under your hips and toes on the floor.

  2. The movement

    Lift your knees just off the floor and keep your back still as you press through your hands and toes.

Most common mistake

Don't raise your hips high, keep your knees close to the floor and your back parallel to it.

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Muscle group
Abs
Equipment
Bodyweight
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Time

Muscles worked

In the bear hold your abs keep your back flat while your knees hover just above the floor. The abdominal muscles do most of the work, with the obliques at the sides helping to keep your body still. Because your knees stay bent, your quads work statically, and many people feel it there before their abs give out.

Common mistakes

  • Your upper back humps up like a cat. As your abs tire, your back often rounds between the shoulder blades. Imagine a glass of water in the middle of your back that has to stay there for the whole set.
  • You look forward. Lifting your eyes to the wall bends your neck back and tenses your shoulders. Look down at the floor a little in front of your hands.
  • Your wrists take all the weight. With the pressure low in the heel of your hand, your wrists soon get sore. Spread your fingers, grip the floor with your fingertips and share the load across the whole hand.

Variations and alternatives

  • The bear crawl is the next step: the same position, but you crawl forwards and backwards.
  • The plank gives your abs a longer lever and suits you if your thighs give out long before your abs.
  • The dead bug trains the same ability to keep your back still, lying down with no weight on your hands.

Sets and reps

The bear hold is counted in seconds: three sets of 20 to 45 seconds, with 30 to 60 seconds' rest, are about right for most people. Once your back rounds or your hips rise, put your knees down. Warm up your wrists first with a few circles. There is more on that in the guide to warming up. The guide to sets and reps helps you choose a plan.

As long as you hold for less than a minute, time is your measure of progressive overload. After that, make the hold harder rather than longer: touch the opposite shoulder with one hand at a time, or lift the opposite hand and foot for a few seconds. If your wrists hurt, rather than your muscles just feeling tired, stop the exercise and have a doctor or physiotherapist look at it.

Also called

  • bear plank

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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