Mountain Climbers

Muscles worked

The force comes from the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.

A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so they have to produce that force immediately on contact.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the chest adds pushing force at the shoulder; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsChestHamstringsShoulders

How this movement works

The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.

It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.

What you need

These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:

• Narrow Stance Hack Squatsmachine
• Narrow Stance Squat with Barbellbarbell
• One-Arm Overhead Kettlebell Squatskettlebell
• Pile Squat with Dumbbelldumbbell
• Quadriceps-SMRfoam roll

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 70 are listed at beginner level.