Mountain Climber is a killer exercise that gets your heart rate up fast.
It’s truly a full body workout!
Mountain Climbers are also a very accessible exercise, you can perform them anywhere because they require only your bodyweight.
Mountain climbers are great for building cardio endurance, core strength, and agility.
While also firing nearly every muscle group in the body example:
- Deltoids
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Chest
- Obliques
- Abdominals
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Hip abductors.
You work several different muscle groups with mountain climbers—it’s almost like getting a total-body workout with just one exercise.
Benefits
Mountain Climbers are great for building cardio endurance, core strength, and agility.
You work several different muscle groups with mountain climbers—it’s almost like getting a total-body workout with just one exercise.
As you perform the move, your shoulders, arms, and chest work to stabilize your upper body while your core stabilizes the rest of your body.
As the prime mover, your quads get an incredible workout, too. And because it’s a cardio exercise, you’ll get heart health benefits and burn calories.
How to do:
- Start in a plank position with arms and legs long. Beginning in a solid plank is the key to proper form and good results in the Mountain Climber. At its heart, the Mountain Climber is a form of a plank. Keep your abs pulled in and your body straight. Squeeze your glutes and pull your shoulders away from your ears
- Pull your right knee into your chest. As the knee draws to the chest, pull your abs in even tighter to be sure your body doesn’t sag or come out of its plank position.
- Quickly switch and pull the left knee in. At the same time you push your right leg back, pull your left knee into the chest using the same form.
- Continue to switch knees. Pull the knees in right, left, right, left—always switching simultaneously so that you are using a “running” motion. As you begin to move more quickly be in constant awareness of your body position and be sure to keep a straight line in your spine and don’t let your head droop. Core body stability is crucial.
