EXERCISE OF THE MONTH: MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

Mountain climbers are without doubt one of the most popular all round exercises you can perform without any equipment. They look pretty simple, yet they are a killer! I love them. They are a full body plyometric exercise that you’ll feel working all over. Not only do they hit just about every muscle they also work the core and raise your heartrate, giving a great cardio workout.

Mountain climbers place significant muscular emphasis upon the butt/hips and thighs. Due to the repetitive nature of the exercise they are great for building strength and endurance in the lower body, but you’ll also begin the feel it in the arms and shoulders too. It’s a favourite warm-up exercise for track athletes as well as sports team as it gets the blood pumping around the body quickly.

Getting the mountain climber exercise correct depends upon form. Getting your body angle wrong means that you won’t see the kind of results you should from the effort you put in. Ensure that your weight is distributed evenly between both hands and feet and keep your hips low (bum down!) throughout the exercise trying to ensure that your knees virtualy touch your chest on their way forward. Keep your arms straight and hands directly below the shoulders. Now you’ll feel the burn!

Beginners can modify the exercise by placing their hands on an elevated surface rather than the floor and they can also perform the exercise  with a shorter range of motion, so that the knees don’t reach the chest. Advanced exercisers can use an unstable surface to rest the hands on such as a medicine ball, bosu. This will add greater stability challenge to the core muscles or you can even try adding a push up before each rep. Other variations include mountain climbers performed using TRX straps to suspend the legs off the ground – this is a really tough version!