My sister started indoor rock climbing as a work out, and I was intrigued. My workouts are the traditional cardio/strength training, so whenever workouts are considered fun, I’m all for it! I actually wasn’t sure if this activity would even burn calories. Is this even a work out? The gym we went to was a free climb gym, which means there is no harness attached to you. YIKES, this actually really scared me. I don’t do anything that has any risk of injury. I just don’t want to deal with it. Strength training and cardio is as far as I go.
When you rock climb, there are special shoes to wear. It’s normal to wear shoes that are a bit smaller so that your toes curl a bit. The gym had various levels of rock climbing. All of the walls had different rocks colored based on difficulty. Yellow and green were the easy levels, so you would follow those rocks up to the top. There are two things you need to know about rock climbing to be good at it.
- You must know how to fall – if you don’t know know how to properly fall, you can seriously injure yourself. There are so many ways we stop ourselves from falling naturally that aren’t correct. You don’t want to fall on your hands, elbows, or knees. The ideal way to fall is to land on your feet and roll onto your bum and then to your back. Most of the impact will be on your bum! I know, those of you who are going to be like “oh I’ll just never fall.” The crazy amount of fatigue that happens when you’re holding yourself on rocks, is not to be underestimated.
- Fear of falling – if you’re not falling, well you’re thinking about falling. It’s this weird sensation in the back of your mind as your climbing. If you are able to push those thoughts to the side, you can be really successful. It’s a huge mood booster to be able to accomplish a climb you didn’t think you were capable of. I truly think that you will walk out a bit more confident that day.
I found climbing to be really fun! It was a puzzle to figure out as you’re working your way up. You’re using your lower body and upper body strength to hold yourself up. While you’re figuring out where to go next, the holding portion is a LOT on your forearms. The next day I was SO sore for only being there for an hour. I wasn’t even climbing the entire time! I would highly recommend trying this activity out. It’s a great workout to do on your own or with someone else as well! Perfect date night activity.
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Kayla Satku 