What Muscles Do Monkey Bars Work? Benefits of Monkey Bars for Adults and Kids Alike

Most of us fondly remember hours spent on the local playground, traversing a set of monkey bars, feeling the freedom of swinging from bar to bar.

While this classic piece of playground equipment is excellent for nostalgia, the physical and cognitive benefits of monkey bars for adults and children still exist today!

Whether you’re looking to add monkey bars to an at-home fitness regimen or CrossFit setup or want your children to experience the fun, adding monkey bars is a fantastic choice.

But what muscles do monkey bars work, and are the benefits actually great for adults, too?

This guide will answer all your questions, including what do monkey bars work, how to set them up, and where they fit in a fitness routine.

Once you’ve learned all of the fantastic monkey bars benefits, you’ll also need to get your hands on a reliable set or DIY kit.

You’ll find the best selection of monkey bar sets right here at Swing Set Mall! For over thirty years, we’ve helped thousands of families and park managers, providing the expertise needed to ensure a smooth installation.

Is Monkey Bars a Good Workout?

Whether you have an established gym routine or are just dipping your toes in the water, understanding monkey bars' benefits in depth will help you level up your fitness.

But what do monkey bars work?

Monkey bars are a game changer when it comes to total-body fitness. They engage your core muscles, the foundation for all other movement and muscular gains.

What muscles do monkey bars work, besides your core?

Traversing each bar delivers a phenomenal upper-body workout, targeting your back, shoulders, arms, and grip muscles. And we can’t forget about the cardiovascular exercise that comes from pulling your body weight up and across.

These benefits of monkey bars are excellent in their own right, but the fun factor makes them one of the best swing set accessories!

Instead of trudging away on a treadmill or heading to the gym to lift the same boring weights, monkey bars allow you to get a great workout while having fun! This is especially vital if you introduce your kids to monkey bars, as they will enjoy the creative and social play opportunities while physically developing.

What Muscles Do Monkey Bars Work? Physical Benefits of Monkey Bars

Muscle growth is one of the signature calling cards of monkey bars. So, what muscles do monkey bars work, exactly?

Because monkey bars engage your entire body, you’ll be able to find gains across several muscle groups. Let’s break them down one by one.

Upper Body Muscles

Monkey bars are the gift that keeps on giving for upper body strength. Every time you pull yourself up and across the bars, you engage an entire system of muscles.

What do monkey bars work on your upper body?

Navigating a set of monkey bars requires working your shoulders, backs, arms, and chest muscles. You’ll activate pulling and pushing muscles, transforming your body while having fun!

Core Strength

What muscles do monkey bars work outside of your upper body?

Balance is a vital part of traversing a set of monkey bars. As you swing from bar to bar, your abdominal muscles work overtime to keep you in control.

This has a direct effect on strengthening your core. Core growth is one of the benefits of monkey bars that can go under the radar, but it has immense positive implications for your physical health.

Growing your core muscles will improve your posture, balance, and athletic stamina and help you avoid serious injuries. After all, a strong core is the base of all bodily movement.

Thankfully, monkey bars are the perfect platform for building that rock-solid foundation.

Grip Strength

You’re only as strong as your grip when traversing a set of monkey bars. Your hands are the only thing keeping you connected to those metal bars, so if your grip goes, you go with it.

Thankfully, one of the best benefits of monkey bars for adults and children is developing grip strength. Hanging, swinging, and pulling your body across the bars will increase your finger dexterity and expand your ability to keep a firm grip.

This has plenty of applications, from other fitness scenarios like weightlifting and rock climbing to everyday tasks like finally opening that frustrating jar of pickles by yourself.

To recap, what muscles do monkey bars work?

Practically your entire body! You’ll simultaneously develop your arms, back, shoulders, chest, forearms, grip strength, and core muscles. These benefits alone are enough to install a monkey bar set immediately, but the fun doesn’t stop there!

What Do Monkey Bars Work Beyond Physical Muscles? Cognitive Monkey Bars Benefits

Beyond physical growth, regularly using monkey bars has several mental benefits, ranging from enhanced coordination to higher confidence and lower stress.

Enhanced Coordination and Spatial Awareness

Your body and brain must be in perfect harmony to navigate a set of monkey bars. With every bar you reach for, you activate a complex neural pathway that grows your ability to stay focused while in motion.

This enhances your spatial awareness, sharpens your coordination, and helps you feel your surroundings.

These benefits are fantastic for children and adults alike. They translate directly to enhanced ability in everything from sports to dance to driving a car.

Problem-Solving Skills

Monkey bars pose a unique challenge, testing your problem-solving skills. While consciously, it may feel like you are just reaching for one bar after another, your brain is subconsciously calculating precise distances, your current speed, and how much grip strength you need to make adjustments.

This helps develop both your conscious and subconscious critical thinking skills. Each time you make it through the monkey bars, your mental map changes and adapts, allowing your brain to learn to face challenges on the fly.

Stress Reduction

In these fast-paced modern times, finding healthy ways to blow off steam and have fun can be tricky. Thankfully, monkey bars provide everything you need to ditch the stress and have fun!

As you swing and climb, you’ll release the fantastic feel-good hormones of dopamine and serotonin. Monkey bars provide a much healthier source of these hormones than browsing social media or watching a video on your phone.

Additionally, monkey bars reduce cortisol, one of the main hormones responsible for stress. By boosting your feel-good chemicals and reducing stress, monkey bars provide an easy one-two punch to bring peace back into your life.

Confidence Boost

The freedom of monkey bars does a fantastic job of making you feel on top of the world. Whether you are an adult harkening back to nostalgic memories or a young kid experiencing the weightless fun of monkey bars for the first time, the sensations are difficult to match.

As you master monkey bars' physical and mental challenge, you build and reinforce the neural pathways of confidence in your brain. You’ll feel more capable and empowered to take on other challenges that life throws at you.

This is especially important for young children, as monkey bars are a safe environment to practice risk-taking and overcoming challenges. Monkey bars set the perfect example that fosters self-esteem and the mindset that there’s no challenge too big for them to handle.

We’ve covered all of the fantastic benefits of monkey bars for adults and children in full detail, so the only thing left to figure out is how to get your hands on your own set! Thankfully, you won’t have to go far; we have just the place in mind.

Experience the Benefits of Monkey Bars for Adults and Children Alike With the Help of Swing Set Mall!

Swing Set Mall is the world’s best retailer of playground equipment! For over thirty years, we’ve been a family-owned business trusted by thousands of park managers and families to bring their outdoor play areas to life.

Our diverse inventory has something for everyone, from kits to help you install DIY monkey bars to standalone setups.

Why Shop With Us?

We take the “mall” part of our name seriously, with thousands of curated products. We’ve worked tirelessly to identify brands known for their quality while keeping price tags low for our customers.

You’ll find several simple-to-use DIY kits that let you install monkey bars in various places, whether between two trees in your backyard or as an addition to an existing playset. We also sell complete outdoor climbing playsets for a plug-and-play setup experience.

When you shop at Swing Set Mall, you’ll also gain exclusive access to our team's expertise. We’ll help you identify the perfect monkey bar kit for your outdoor space, walk you through installation, and even share our workout tips once you have everything set up.

The shopping experience at Swing Set Mall is unlike anywhere else. You will save on swing set costs with our comprehensive 30-day price matching guarantee, avoiding the hassle of sorting through Amazon products of questionable quality just for a ‘better deal.’ We even provide a 30-day money-back guarantee to ensure you are delighted.

Beyond monkey bars, we have other climbing equipment for an excellent workout. You’ll find DIY climbing structures like playset climbing rocks and climbing rope playgrounds, along with complete outdoor climbing structures like playground stairs, plastic climbing structures, and outdoor climbing domes.

If you want to take things to an even higher level, you can also find the best playground sets in our online store!

Between several types of swings, DIY kits, and unique types of slides, you will create an unforgettable playground or backyard setup that will serve as the base for lasting memories.

Tips on Choosing the Right Monkey Bars

With so many types of monkey bars, how can you select the right ones for your setup?

There’s plenty to consider, including the age group intending to use the setup, the layout of your outdoor space, and which materials you need. These recommendations come directly from the US-based Consumer Product Safety Commission, the definitive playground safety authority.

• Height: Monkey bars for children ages 2 to 5 should be no more than 5 feet off the ground. Children aged 5 to 12 can navigate monkey bars up to 7 feet, while adults can go even higher!
• Materials: The best monkey bars are made of durable metal, and for good reason. You want a set of bars that can withstand temperature extremes without corroding or accumulating rust.
• Spacing: The CPSC recommends spacing between 9 to 12 inches between each bar. Smaller amounts can get children stuck, while too large may prove difficult.
• Landing Area: Provide a safe landing area with shock-absorbing material like rubber mulch or a play mat. This area should extend in a 360-degree direction equivalent to the bars' height.

How to Set Up and Use Monkey Bars for the Best Results

Once you’ve identified the perfect bars, all that is left is to figure out how to add monkey bars to a playset or trees.

Ensure your installation area is free of obstacles, and set up your landing area first. Find a stable base for your monkey bars, whether two bars are suspended between trees, poles, or a standalone construction.

From there, follow your manufacturer’s instructions, using a drill to fasten each bar in place securely.

As for traversing the bars, that process is simple! Start slowly by hanging from the bars to build up your grip and core strength. From there, you can incorporate pull-ups and swinging in controlled movements.

Before long, you’ll perform advanced routines and get a fantastic workout!

Closing Thoughts on the Physical and Mental Monkey Bars Benefits

While monkey bars are a source of childhood nostalgia, their benefits remain unmatched. They challenge your grip strength, core muscles, and problem-solving skills, giving you an entire body–and mind workout that is still fun and exciting.

Following our guide on the benefits of monkey bars for adults and children, you can find more playground equipment insights on our blog! Our most popular articles include where to put a swing set in a yard, DIY heavy-duty swing sets for adults, are climbing domes safe, and add a slide to a swing set.

Otherwise, if you’re ready to harness the power of monkey bars and start swinging, look no further than Swing Set Mall! Talk to our team, and we’ll help you figure out the perfect way to install these nifty workout tools on your property!