Lift into a crab and reach across to open hips and shoulders.
Keep your hips high the whole time so your glutes and core stay switched on.
The crab reach is a moving core drill. Holding your hips up in a crab while one arm rotates up and across forces your trunk to stabilise and rotate at the same time, with every reach challenging your core to keep the hips from dropping as your weight shifts onto three limbs. It doubles as a mobility opener for the hips and shoulders, which is why it lives in so many warm-ups.
Both. Your core works hard to hold the hips up while the reach rotates and opens the front of your body. That combination is why it shows up in warm-ups and mobility flows alike.
Three points of contact plus a moving arm is a genuine stability challenge. Slow the reach down, keep squeezing to hold the hips high, and shrink the reach until you can rotate without sagging.
Crab pose is a static hold, while the crab reach adds movement, rotating one arm up and across on alternating sides. The reach trains dynamic control, the pose is a pure stretch.
