Mountain climber yoga core 10-minute class

When I started teaching yoga at the local studio my first regular class was “Core Yoga”. As a personal trainer, this was totally in my wheelhouse, and I had a ton of fun with the class. It’s enjoyable and rewarding to create challenging yoga classes. This mountain climber yoga core class is just 10-minutes and a great way to work the abs and upper body while creating some heat.

Planks and mountain climbers are challenging poses. If these exercises are too challenging but you still want a core workout I suggest checking out my other core yoga classes. There are so many other ways to work the core. Otherwise, grab your yoga mat and press play!

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Mountain climber yoga core class

For this mountain climber yoga core class, we begin on hands and knees with some cat and cow, before rising into downward facing dog. This gives us the opportunity to warm up the spine and prepare the wrists and upper body for the work to come. From down dog, we float into plank and practice our plank alignment.

The second time through we come into plank from 3-legged dog, so that plank has one foot lifted. This increases the challenge quite a bit. Bring the foot to the floor if needed. From here we also play with bringing the knee into the chest.

On our final workout phase of the mountain climber yoga core class, we bring in the mountain climber. For anyone unfamiliar this is simply coming into plank with one knee towards the chest. Then quickly switching. Almost like “jogging” with the legs. The mountain climber yoga exercise builds heat quickly! Go slow if you need to, and choose modifications if needed. Maybe just stepping through the legs rather than quickly jump switching.

After repeating the sequence on both sides, cool down with childs pose to take a breath. Then lay facedown for three slow cobra poses to stretch the front body. Afterwards, come into seated for a gentle twist and some relaxing breaths to finish.

Want more yoga?

If you enjoyed this mountain climber yoga core class then good news! This is the short version! I have a 40-minute class on Patreon. We explore mountain climbers fully from warm-up to variations in this core flow. Join me on Patreon. For $10 a month you’ll get 2 new videos a month, plus all the previous videos in the Zen Den vault. As always free videos are available on YouTube. I also have a free 7-day yoga challenge to build a home yoga practice in just 15-20 minutes a day. So many ways to stay connected, and grow your practice!

Questions

• Do you include core poses/exercises in your yoga practice?
• Have you tried mountain climbers to work the core?
• What is your favorite core exercise?