Sometimes, it feels like there’s no end to the number of activities that you can undertake in today’s world. With everything from spelunking to karaoke to unicycling across the globe, we really are rather spoiled for choice… and yet, a lot of people feel unsure where to start. What’s actually healthy?What’s practical? What’s more fun than just hitting the gym and – dare we even say it – slogging away on an exercise bike for a few hours a week?
One particular kind of exercise stands out from the crowd for being healthy, fun, and a little bit different: climbing.
It’s a flexible option in that you can climb indoors if you’ve got a gym nearby, or you can take to nature if you prefer. One of the hardest climbs on the planet, reaching the top of Mount Everest, has only been achieved by around 7,269 people, so there’s a lot of interest in this sport among those who want a good challenge. More and more people are looking at taking to the cliffs, so let’s find out a bit about what makes climbing healthy.
Build Your Strength
We’re often being told about the advantages of weightlifting, but plenty of folks feel uninspired by the idea of picking up and putting down heavy objects just for the sake of it. Lifting your own body, though? That’s a bit of a different feeling.
Climbing requires you to build a lot of strength throughout your body, working your core, your arms, your legs, and things like your fingertips.
If you look at anyone who climbs regularly, you’ll be able to see how physically fit you have to be to undertake this kind of sport. Look at someone like Fay Manners, and it’s immediately clear just what kind of strength and endurance this sport takes, especially if you climb outdoors. You’ll have to face a lot of challenges from the external environment, as well as the basic challenge of climbing – but therein lies the benefit.
Learning to lift and hold the weight of your body on your arms and possibly even fingertips, as well as strengthening your core to maximize your balance and control when swinging between holds, is enormously beneficial. It takes a lot of training to get good enough to climb confidently, especially in the wild, but that training is all immensely good for your body. Climbers tend to have particularly good grips, for obvious reasons, but this is a sport that will build multiple muscle groups, including in areas you might not immediately think about, such as your feet and toes.
Build Your Flexibility & Balance
Climbing also often demands significant flexibility, which is an area of fitness that sometimes gets overlooked. You’re often aiming to keep your body as close to the rock (or wall) as possible, which means working out how to move your limbs and trunk in flexible, controlled ways. You’ll need to hug uneven surfaces and swing your body through narrow gaps, all of which will encourage you to move in ways that are very different from the standard.
A basic climbing wall might not challenge your flexibility as much as the kind of rugged climbing done by extreme climbers, but it still requires you to move, stretch, bend, and twist, maximizing the suppleness of your limbs.
Climbing also requires pretty impressive balance, which is another great benefit; balance will serve you well throughout your life. You’ll find your core strength increases quickly when you start climbing regularly, so this is a significant benefit.
Build Your Mental Strength
Not every element of exercise is focused on the physical; sometimes, what your brain is doing matters as much. Climbing hones your mind in a few different ways. The most obvious lies in figuring out the routes and the various approaches you might take. Climbing is a pretty unique kind of exercise in that you have to spend time thinking about the how, as well as undertaking the physical challenge. What’s the best way to manage the hold? How can you get your body from A to B? What difficulty might you face if you swing out from the wall?
Climbing walls employ professional route-setters whose job is partly to create interesting, challenging routes. Out in the wild, challenges are likely to be similarly varied, making you work for every success.
Furthermore, climbing enhances your confidence and resilience; it’s one of the more difficult kinds of exercise, and often comes with an inherent adrenaline. Finishing a climb will often leave you feeling satisfied and excited, increasing your confidence in yourself. It doesn’t hurt that it boosts your enjoyment, too! It’s no wonder Fay Manners found it so hard to give up; anyone who has fallen in love with climbing will recognize how thoroughly it gets into your blood. The level of control it demands is a wonderful way to increase your connection with your body.
And when you’re standing at the peak and looking out across the land, or balancing at the top of the wall and assessing the challenge you’ve just overcome… there’s no feeling in the world quite like that.
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