Rock climbing is one of the hardest strengthening exercises you can do. But you don’t have to defy gravity to work your whole body at once. This is the idea behind the mountaineers exercise.
Performed from a high plank position, climbers build strength and stability through the core, shoulders, triceps, quadriceps, and even glutes. Plus, they do all of this while getting your heart rate up and improving your cardiovascular health.
However, to reap the full benefits of mountain climbers, you need to do more than just follow the moves. You have to learn how to generate total body tension and activate the right muscles. Here, learn how to perform this classic exercise — and several awesome variations — with perfect form.
Mountaineers exercise: step by step instructions
Program: TOUGH MUDDER T-MINUS 30
Coaching: sheriff abs
- Adopt a push-up position: feet together, trunk strengthened, body straight from head to heels, hands aligned and slightly wider than your shoulders.
- Lift your right foot off the floor and pull your right knee toward your chest, making sure to keep your back flat, your butt down, and the rest of your body still. Tap the ground with your toes.
- Return your right foot to the starting position and immediately repeat with the opposite leg. He is a representative.
- Continue alternating legs, performing equal reps on both sides.
10 mountaineer variants
By using the classic mountaineering exercise as a base, you can expand its possibilities to target specific muscle groups or intensify calorie expenditure.
1. Pedal Mountaineer
After tapping the toes of your right foot on the floor, simultaneously bring it back to the starting position and bring your right knee forward. Continue to alternate legs in a “running” type motion.
2. Standing climber
If holding a plank hurts your wrist or lower back, perform the movement while standing. Pull one knee to your chest while reaching for the ceiling with your opposite hand. Return to starting position (standing) and repeat with opposite hand and leg. Continue to alternate sides.
3. Mountain climber push-ups
Regular climbers too easy? Do a push-up between mountain climber reps (remember that one rep is equivalent to bringing each knee to your chest once). Or do two reps followed by two push-ups – or any other setup you like.
4. Mountaineer Donkey Kick
Increase glute recruitment during the mountain climber exercise by raising both heels toward the ceiling between reps.
5. Mountaineer in a semicircle
Instead of “running” in place, you will “run” by pivoting on your hands, moving side to side in a semi-circle on the floor.
6. Spider Climber
Swing your knees laterally toward your elbows rather than toward your chest to emphasize your obliques and adductors.
7. Incline Mountaineer
If you find the classic mountain climber too difficult to perform with proper form, elevate your hands on a step, box, bench, or other stable surface. The greater the angle of your body to the ground, the easier the exercise becomes.
8. Decline Mountaineer
To increase the load on your arms and shoulders, perform the movement with your feet elevated on a stable surface, such as a step or low box.
9. Renegade Mountaineer
Grasping a dumbbell in each hand, alternately row each weight down the side of your torso between mountain climber reps.
10. Cross climber
Pull each knee towards the opposite elbow to improve rotational strength and work your obliques.
What are the benefits of Mountain Climbers exercise?
While most people go mountaineering to strengthen the core, it’s important to remember that they also strengthen the shoulders, arms, and legs. And because they involve continuous movement of so many muscle groups, they also challenge (and strengthen) your cardiovascular system.
What muscles do mountain climbers work?
- Heart (transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, obliques, latissimus dorsi, glutes): Your abs, obliques, and lats help stabilize your core and minimize spinal movement while your glutes (yes, it’s a core muscle) expand your hips.
- Shoulders (deltoids): Although their main function is to help move your arms, the job of your shoulders during mountaineering is to help keep them in place.
- Arm (triceps): Keeping your arms straight in a high plank position is the job of your triceps.
- Legs (hip flexors, hamstrings, quadriceps): When you bring your knee in toward your chest, your hip flexors and hamstrings engage to flex your hip and knee joints. Then your quads and glutes take over to extend those joints.
Are mountain climbers a good workout for the abs?
It’s hard to think of a core muscle that the mountaineer doesn’t hit, making this one of the best “abdominal” exercises you can do. And as the variations above illustrate, slight changes in how you perform the mountain climber can focus you on specific core muscles. But the two main ones you work on are your transverse abdomen and your rectus abdomen.
Holding a plank and maintaining a strong, stable torso trains your transverse abdomen, which works like a corset or weight belt to stabilize your spine. Meanwhile, with each “rise,” your rectus abdominis, or “six-pack” muscles lead the movement.
Do mountain climbers burn belly fat?
Although mountain climbers get your heart rate up and are an effective way to burn calories without equipment and in minimal space, you must perform them as part of a complete exercise routine in order to lose fat.
It’s also important to remember that while mountain climbers can strengthen and create definition in your abs, you can’t “locally reduce” fat in that area. But as you lose body fat, your abs will be revealed.
