Scaling Walls, Building Bonds: Discovering the Joys of Indoor Rock Climbing
Jan 22, 2024
For the last four years I’ve been exploring a truly wonderful way of moving my body - indoor rock climbing, also called sport climbing. I got into it after enrolling my daughter. I just came to the gym to watch her class, realized it was a ton of fun, and got hooked. So climbing became our family activity/hobby, ‘cause Simon got very much into it as well.
Here are the reasons I love it from a trainer’s perspective:
It’s a full-body workout, using both upper and lower body and not favoring any one side (like tennis, for instance)
It is suitable for all levels of fitness, for all ages, all body types. If you can climb a ladder, you can come to a climbing gym. Also it can be insanely challenging, too, but you set your own pace here.
Rope climbing is relatively low-risk in terms of injuries. I mean, yes, there are bumps and bruises every once in a while and a possibility for more major issues, but in comparison with any team sport, running or, let’s say, gymnastics, - it’s way safer.
You can improve pretty much every fitness function by engaging in climbing:
Strength
Endurance
Coordination
Flexibility and mobility
Mind game
It challenges your problem solving skills as well.
Climbing community is extremely supportive and friendly. So your training sessions could be both solitary workouts or fun outings with a bunch of nice people - whatever your mood for the day looks like.
Possible downsides that I see are:
In order to be able to fully enjoy all the possibilities of rope climbing you will have to take at least one class and learn to tie knots and belay. BTW, I teach these classes at Sportrock Alexandria, and they are super fun ;)
You need a partner if you want to go beyond bouldering and auto-belays. Usually it’s a very easy fix. There are plenty of groups at the gym you can join or find partners through your gym’s app or FB page.
Bouldering is a bit more injury-prone type of climbing, as there are no ropes. But in comparison to the sports mentioned earlier, it’s still relatively low-risk.
So, climbing is AMAZING! Try it out and stay tuned!
And if you live in NoVa, come to Sportrock and enjoy the 60-foot walls and my classes of course ;)
#TamaraTestsTheMoves #Sportrock #RockClimbing #Bouldering #FamilyFitness #IndoorClimbing #FitnessForAll