Mountain climbers is an explosive bodyweight exercise which engages multiple muscle groups at once helping to improve your balance, agility, coordination, strength, flexibility and blood circulation. As a compound exercise that utilises multiple muscle groups in your whole body, mountain climbers are an effective way of strengthening your arms, back, shoulders, core and legs.
HOW TO DO
- Get into a plank position, making sure to distribute your weight evenly between your hands and your toes.
- Check your form—your hands should be about shoulder-width apart, back flat, abs engaged, and head in alignment.
- Pull your right knee into your chest as far as you can. Switch legs, pulling one knee out and bringing the other knee in.
- Keep your hips down and run your knees in and out as far and as fast as you can. Alternate inhaling and exhaling with each leg change.
TARGET MUSCLES
ADVANTAGES
- Mountain climber exercise can be used throughout your strength training workout routine. It can be done either as a warm-up or cool-down, the main part of your workout.
- In mountain climbers, abs are one of the main muscles worked along with your obliques and other core muscles. This helps in getting you a stabilized and strong core.
- Because in mountain climbers abs are worked well, they make you stronger overall. This happens because most of your body’s strength comes from your core. This improves your ability to do physical activity by making you more agile and flexible.
- This is a fantastic exercise to get your heart rate up. This strengthens and conditions your heart and prevents cardiovascular disorders.