Mountain climbers hold a push-up position and drive the knees towards the chest one at a time. It sits between an ab exercise and conditioning: the trunk works to keep the hips from bouncing, and the pace pushes your heart rate up in a way that nothing else in this group does.
How to do it
- Hold a strong plank and drive the knees in without letting the hips rise.
- Hands under the shoulders and weight forward.
Common mistakes
- Bouncing the hips up and down, which makes it cardio and not core.
What it trains
- Abs
- hold the plank position while the legs move underneath
- Hip flexors
- drive each knee forward — the muscle that actually gets tired
- Shoulders
- support your upper body for the whole set
- Heart and lungs
- the real target if you are doing these fast for time
Variations and alternatives
Common questions
Are mountain climbers cardio or an ab exercise?
Both, and honestly more the first. Done fast they are conditioning with a trunk component; done slowly with a pause they are a moving plank. Decide which one you want before the set, because the two look similar and train differently.
Why do my hips bounce up and down?
You are going faster than your trunk can hold the position. Slow down until the hips stay level, keep the shoulders stacked over the hands, and build the pace back up from there.
How long should a set of mountain climbers be?
20 to 40 seconds if you are using them for conditioning, or 10 to 15 slow reps per side if you want the trunk to be the limit. Anything longer becomes a pacing exercise and stops being hard in any useful way.
In StackUp. Logged as reps per set. Add weight if you use a belt or a dumbbell and StackUp progresses it like any other lift. Get the app.
Core
