When you’re focused on the move, you might find yourself holding your breath. Remember to breathe.

Benefits Of Mountain Climbers Exercise

• Mountain climbers are great for building cardio endurance, core strength and agility.
• While doing Mountain climbers exercise, you’re training several different muscle groups. it’s almost like a full-body workout with just one exercise.
• As you perform the move, your shoulders, arms, and chest work to stabilize your upper body while your core stabilizes the rest of your body.
• As the prime mover, your quads get an incredible workout, too. And because it’s a cardio exercise, you’ll get heart health benefits and burn calories.

Common Mistakes While Doing Mountain Climbers Exercise

• Bouncing on Your Toes

You need to exercise with proper form not only to maximize effectiveness but prevent injury. For example, a common beginner mistake with mountain climbers is to bounce on your toes as you perform the move. The bouncing might feel like a harder workout, but it actually requires less engagement of your core muscles.

• Not Allowing Your Toes to Touch the Floor

Another form error you might find yourself making, especially as the move speeds up, is failing to fully complete the movement by letting your toes touch the ground as you bring your knees into your chest. If you find that this is the case for you, you won’t get the full benefit of the exercise and could be risking injury.

• Shifting Your Weight Back

If you’re not used to this movement it is easy to let your weight shift back so that your body ends up in a down-dog kind of movement. Keep the weight balanced and shoulders over your wrists.

Safety and Precautions While Doing Mountain Climbers

Mountain climbers of any variation rely heavily on your ability to assume and hold a proper plank position. This includes checking to be sure that:

• Your arms and hands are positioned straight down from your shoulders
• Your back is straight and flat, not curved or arched
• Your hips are not raised (your butt shouldn’t be up in the air)

To ensure the move is effective and safe, review the proper form for planking. Performing a plank with poor form can put you at risk for injury and will greatly reduce the benefit of adding mountain climbers to your workout routine.

The fundamental plank position necessary to perform mountain climbers should be avoided if you have injuries or instabilities in your shoulders or pelvis.

Mountain climbers are a great workout for your knees, but if you’ve had surgery or need to have surgery (such as to repair a sports-related injury or replace a joint affected by arthritis), you’ll want to talk to your doctor or physical therapist before working these movements into your routine.

If you’ve recently been pregnant or had certain types of abdominal surgery, you may have a condition called diastasis recti, where the muscles of your abdomen are separated.

Until this condition completely heals, you’ll want to avoid this type of core workout.