How To Do Mountain Climbers

Dec 3

By Marnie Kunz,
NASM-certified trainer, USATF-, RRCA-certified running coach

If you’re wondering how to do mountain climbers, this article will outline how to do them plus offer tips for beginners. As a trainer, I rely on mountain climbers as an efficient workout that strengthens the core and upper body muscles as well as offers a cardio workout. Mountain climbers are great for people who want to burn calories and lose weight and strengthen their core muscles. They are also perfect for a dynamic warmup that’s easy to do before a workout as they get your heartrate up. Mountain climbers are a great strength training, endurance-boosting workout you can do at home with no equipment. (Check out my article on How to Do Home Workouts Without Equipment for more exercises you can do at home without equipment).

Mountain Climbers - Muscles Worked

As with burpees, mountain climbers offer a full-body cardio workout that builds endurance and strength. Mountain climbers improve core strength, which is important for runners. Core strength helps stabilize you when you run and prevent injuries. In addition to boosting your core strength, mountain climbers also work your arms, shoulders, and quads. Here are the mountain climbers muscles worked:

Core muscles
Shoulder muscles
Arm muscles
Quad muscles

Benefits of Mountain Climbers

Mountain climbers are an efficient, beginner-friendly exercise that combines strength and cardio. You can do mountian climbers as part of your core workout or do them as a dynamic warmup to get your heart rate up before working out. Another benefit of mountain climbers is that you can do them anywhere since you don’t need any equipment. For building core strength, mountian climbers are one of the best exercises. They also improve your shoulder, arm, and quad strength (the quads are the large muscles in your upper front legs).

If you are doing a weight loss or weight management workout program, mountain climbers offer a high calorie-burning cardio exercise. Mountain climbers are a popular exercise in circuit workouts and high-intensity interval training since they burn a lot of calories and are accessible for all levels of fitness.

How To Do Mountain Climbers

Here’s how to do mountain climbers:

Get into a plank position. Tighten your core muscles and keep your back straight, with your arms extended straight below you from the shoulders.
Pull your right knee into your chest, bending at the knee.
Switch and pull your left knee into your chest, straightening your right leg back to bring your foot back on the ground.
Keep your hips down and continue alternating your legs, pulling one at a time in toward the chest as fast as you can while maintaining your form.
Pulling in your right and then left leg counts as 1 mountain climber in our Runstreet fitness challenges.

Modified Mountain Climbers

If you’re looking for a low impact mountain climber variation for a beginners version, try the modified mountain climbers. These modified mountain climbers go at a slower speed than the regular ones and give you more time with both feet planted on the ground.

Here is how to do modified mountain climbers:

Get into a plank position. Plant your hands on the floor below your shoulders with your arms straight and your core engaged. Make sure your hips don’t sway and your body is in a straight line.
Bring your right knee to your chest from a plank position, keeping your right foot elevated.
Return to a plank position, bringing your right foot back so your toes are touching the ground.
Bring your left knee to your chest, keeping your left foot off the ground.
Return your left foot to a plank position, with your feet on the ground. This counts as one mountain climber.

Tips for Doing Mountain Climbers

The key to doing mountain climbers properly is to do planks well. If you are a beginner, practice planks first to strengthen your abs and gain stability and control. When you do planks - and mountain climbers - keep your hips up, do not let them sag toward the floor. Also, keep your glutes and core engaged and your body in a straight line. Don’t allow your butt to inch up above the rest of your body. If you feel too fatigued to maintain good form, do shorter mountain climbers and focus on perfecting your form before you add more time.

You can adapt your mountain climbers to suit your fitness goals. If you want to focus more on cardio and calorie burning, do faster mountain climbers. For a bigger focus on strength training, go slower with your mountain climbers. If you want to build your core strength and add more core exercises to your workout, check out our article on 3 Core Exercises to Torch Your Abs.

If you’re wondering how long to do mountain climbers, this depends on your fitness level. When you do mountain climbers, you can start with 20 seconds and eventually build up to 1-minute segments of mountain climbers. If you do mountain climbers as part of a dynamic warmup before your workout, try 20 or 30 seconds for your mountain climbers.

Have you tried mountain climbers? What helps you stay on track with them? Tag me on the @Runstreet Instagram to share your workouts and get cheered on.😊

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified personal trainer, USATF, and RRCA-certified running coach and the creator of Runstreet Art Runs, which bring together communities through running and street art. She is a Brooklyn resident, trainer, Akita mom, and writer. She enjoys running coaching, traveling, art, and eating messily. You can follow her running and events at @Runstreet Instagram.

Resources: Runstreet YouTube