For anybody that’s looking for a new and exciting exercise to incorporate into their weekly training regime, might we suggest mountain climbers? There are plenty of benefits of mountain climbers, and to prove as much, that’s what we’re going to be looking at today. When people think of bodyweight training, they often consider it an afterthought and tend to favor resistance-based exercises that utilize dumbbells, barbells, and other pieces of complex equipment.
In truth, there are plenty of bodyweight exercises out there that work wonders when it comes to your health, your physique, and your wellness in general. Mountain climbers are, in our opinion, amongst the most underutilized exercises in existence. We want to change that. Here’s a look at several mind-blowing benefits that are sure to get you doing more.
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What Are Mountain Climbers?
First and foremost, mountain climbers have very little to do with climbing mountains. That means that those of you who have a fear of heights need not worry. Mountain climbers can very much be done on the ground, with not a mountain in sight. Mountain climbers are bodyweight exercises that work wonders for people training their abs and cores.
The exercise is performed by dropping down onto your hands into a push-ups position with weight being supported on your toes and hands. Your arms should be straight and both legs extended. Next, you brace your core and keeping your torso straight, you bring one knee up to your chest, return it to the starting position, repeat with the other knee, and alternate for as many reps as required. If you want to strengthen your core, mountain climbers work wonders.
Benefits Of Mountain Climbers
Now it’s time for us to look at several reasons why mountain climbers are such exercises to perform.
1. Great For Strengthening The Core
One of the best reasons to perform mountain climbers is the fact that they’re so great for strengthening your core. Mountain climbers are a fantastic core strengthening exercise, which means that they target the abs, the obliques, and your various other core stabilizer muscles, which in turn will help give you a strong and supportive core.
2. Make You Stronger
Because mountain climbers work so well to strengthen your core, you’ll find that they’re great for making you stronger in general. This is because your core is where the majority of your power is generated from. If you have a weak core, you’ll find that you aren’t as strong as you could be. Therefore, if you’re looking to improve your overall strength and power, be sure to perform more mountain climbers on a regular basis.
3. Burn Fat
Another of the fantastic benefits is the fact that they work so incredibly well for people looking to burn fat. Mountain climbers are extremely physically demanding, and as a result, they burn off a lot of calories when you perform them. If you’re looking to lose weight and get in better shape, you’ll find that mountain climbers are ideal. We know that weight loss in the form of cardio can get a little tedious and repetitive, but thanks to mountain climbers, you can now burn calories in the form of these awesome exercises such as Jumping rope and jumping jacks.
4. Great For Your Balance
When people think of mountain climbers, they often don’t realize that a few other fantastic benefits are the fact that they’re so great for people that are trying to improve their balance. Mountain climbers require you to balance on one leg at a time to perform them, plus they help to strengthen your core stabilizer muscles, which help to improve your balance and coordination.
5. Enhanced Mobility
Mountain climbers not only improve your balance, but they have also been found to be very effective when it comes to improving your mobility as well. Because this exercise is so dynamic, it is considered to be fantastic for people looking to improve their mobility. With each rep you perform, your knee, hip, and wrist joints are loosened up, which helps to boost your mobility and your range of motion.
6. Great For The Heart
When we think of cardiovascular exercises, generally we tend to not think of calisthenics or bodyweight exercises as we instead think of stair climber, sprinting, jogging, cycling, swimming, arc trainer and so on. It turns out, though, that mountain climbers are fantastic for improving cardiovascular health and fitness. Mountain climbers are ideal for strengthening the heart, for boosting circulation, for reducing your risk of heart disease, and much more besides. If you’re looking to improve your heart health, and why wouldn’t you be? Mountain climbers are perfect.
7. Can Be Done Anywhere
Another reason why mountain climbers are considered to be so beneficial is because of the fact that they can be done virtually anywhere. People often think that you need to train in a gym if you’re looking to get in shape. You don’t. In order for you to get in shape, you just need to be exercising, and mountain climbers are therefore perfect. If you don’t have the time to hit the gym, or if gyms aren’t for you, you can do mountain climbers anywhere where there happens to be an open space.
8. Great Compound Exercise
Everybody seems to think that compound exercises have to be done with heavy barbells or dumbbells, when in fact there are plenty of compounds that can be done using your own body weight for resistance. Need proof of this? Just look at mountain climbers. A compound exercise is an exercise that will target several muscle groups all at the same time. This means that you can work countless muscles in your body, all whilst doing just the one exercise. Mountain climbers work your core, your legs, your delts, your back, your arms, and more besides, making them perfect compound exercises.
9. Great For The Legs
When we think of the benefits, we often fail to realize that mountain climbers are actually fantastic when it comes to developing your legs. Because of the basic mechanics involved in the exercise itself, you’ll find that mountain climbers are perfect for people that don’t skip leg day. Mountain climbers help to target your quads, your hamstrings, your glutes, and much more besides, making them perfect for developing your legs.
10. Lower Body Strength Boosters
As well as helping to develop the muscles located in your legs and on your lower body, you will also find that mountain climbers are fantastic for strengthening your legs. Having a set of strong and powerful legs will provide you with numerous benefits, both in the gym and in the real world. Mountain climbers develop the muscles in the legs, which in turn encourages them to grow back bigger and stronger than they were previously. Whether you want to improve your squat, leg press more weight, run faster, or improve your vertical leap, mountain climbers are perfect.
11. Great For The Butt
Having a flat and shapeless butt is out. Having a rounded, curvy, and defined peachy butt, however, is very much in. We know that squats are great for developing your booty, but you can’t base the entirety of your glute training around squats alone. To add a little variety to your glute training, and to add a little shape to your butt, be sure to incorporate mountain climbers into your training routine.
12. Improve Flexibility
If you could stand to become more flexible, you can probably guess which exercise we’re about to recommend to you. Yep, it’s the mountain climber once again. Because of the fact that you are shuttling your legs backward and forwards in a continuous manner, not only will it improve your mobility by opening up the joints, it will also lengthen your muscle fibers and increase their elasticity, which means that you will become a great deal more flexible. Being flexible will provide you with numerous benefits in life, and it will help to ensure that you experience far less pain and discomfort. Mountain climbers are therefore ideal for anybody looking to improve their flexibility.
13. Great For Warming Up
Before you jump into a circuit training workout, if you’re looking for fantastic ways of warming up and getting your body ready for what lies ahead, mountain climbers will work wonders. Not only do they increase your core body temperature and loosen up your joints, but they also help to improve your flexibility and get your muscles warmed up and stretched out before you begin working out.
14. Injury Prevention
Another of the awesome benefits that we’re going to be looking at today is the fact that the exercise itself works very efficiently for helping to prevent injury. When performed as part of a warm-up, you’ll find that the movement means that your muscle tissues and fibers become loose and elongated. This increases muscle fiber elasticity, which means that a torn or pulled muscle will become a whole lot less likely. By incorporating mountain climbers into your warm-up routine, you can therefore potentially help to avoid a painful and debilitating injury that could leave you on the shelf for quite some time.
15. Improve Coordination And Rhythm
If you consider yourself to be clumsy, unbalanced, and uncoordinated, you should really start doing more mountain climbers. But why is that? Well, because mountain climbers improve your coordination and your rhythm. To do this exercise, you need to be fast on your feet, in order to move to a rhythm. You need to get everything done in one fluid motion, and as time goes by, the more you do it, the easier it will become. Mountain climbers help to considerably improve a person’s coordination and rhythm, making them very beneficial indeed.
16. Low Impact Exercise
If you suffer from joint issues, perhaps in the form of knee or ankle pain, you’ll find that high impact exercise in which these joints are forced to absorb much of the punishment, becomes very painful. Running and jogging is therefore out of the question, so where does your cardio come from? Well, it could come from mountain climbers. Mountain climbers are a perfect example of a low-impact exercise because they require you to put very little weight on your joints. Providing that your wrists don’t give you any real pain or bother, you’ll find that mountain climbers are the perfect low-impact exercise for you to incorporate into your training regime.
17. Great Abs
If you want the perfect physique, you’ll need a set of six-pack abs. Obtaining a six-pack is far from easy, and contrary to popular belief, it requires more than just stomach crunches. One of the more underappreciated benefits of mountain climbers is the fact that exercise is ideal for people looking to develop their abs. Because it strengthens the core and targets your abdominal and core stabilizer muscles, you’ll find that mountain climbers are perfect for anybody out there that happens to be looking to obtain a six-pack. And with that, we’ll probably call it a day on the mountain climber front. We hope that you’ve found this look at the many, many benefits to be useful, informative, and entertaining. If your training is lacking a certain something, and you can’t seem to put your finger on what that is, it could very well be mountain climbers. The next time you’re working out, why not bust out a set of mountain climbers and see how you get on?
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