Skip to content
ascend.
Exercise guide

Mountain Climbers

How to do the Mountain Climbers with correct form, the muscles it works, and where it fits a training plan you actually stick to.

CompoundBeginnerPull
Primary muscles

Quads

Secondary

Chest, Hamstrings, Shoulders

Equipment

Bodyweight

Step by step

How to do the Mountain Climbers

  1. 1

    Begin in a pushup position, with your weight supported by your hands and toes. Flexing the knee and hip, bring one leg until the knee is approximately under the hip. This will be your starting position.

  2. 2

    Explosively reverse the positions of your legs, extending the bent leg until the leg is straight and supported by the toe, and bringing the other foot up with the hip and knee flexed. Repeat in an alternating fashion for 20-30 seconds.

In Ascend

Log it, see it on your body.

Every Mountain Climbers set you log feeds Ascend's anatomy heatmap — so your quads volume is visible at a glance — and counts toward your bodyweight-strength tier.

Related

More quads exercises

Ascend Club

The app is free. Club adds the coach, leagues and analytics.

Core tracking stays free forever — the climb, streaks, logging and your league tiers. Club is for when you want the full coach, worldwide competition and the depth, at about the price of one coffee a month.

See Club plans

14-day free trial · no card to start

 FreeClub
Tracking, the climb and streaks
Per-set logging, PR detection, wearables
Muscle-league tiers
The AI coachnudgesFull conversation
Worldwide leagues and challenges
PR projections and deep analytics
Unlimited crews
Themes, export and higher AI limits