Climbing is a fun and challenging way to get fit. It builds muscle and provides a great cardio workout.
Climbers often engage in dynamic movements, which research shows are more challenging and fatiguing than simple exercises like jogging or pumping iron at the gym. Click Climbing Fitness to learn more.
Once you get over the initial beginner hump, climbing can become a regular habit that enhances your daily life and fitness in many ways.
Climbing is more than just an upper-body workout: the dynamic movements involved in climbing engage muscles throughout the entire body. And because climbing is a high-intensity exercise, it burns calories at a rate similar to more vigorous exercises like running or resistance training in the gym. ARC, or aerobics with climbing, is a great way to get a full-body cardiovascular workout to help you reach your climbing goals.
Climbers often warm up with a few rounds of brisk walking or other cardio exercise before getting on the wall to start their climb. This pre-climb activity serves as a heart-pumping, muscle-pumping warm-up and gets the blood flowing to your cold muscles. The real cardiovascular workout begins once you tie into the sharp end of your rope or clip it to your harness.
The intensity of your climb depends on your skill level and the difficulty of the route, but climbing is always a good cardiovascular workout. The dynamic movements of climbing can burn calories at a much higher rate than more repetitive exercises, such as treadmill or stationary bike workouts. And the dynamic nature of the exercise means that every climb is different, which helps prevent boredom and allows you to train your muscles differently each time.
Once you’ve gotten over the beginners’ hump and are able to spend a few hours at a time climbing, you’ll quickly see that your aerobic capacity has improved. Aside from the obvious physical benefits, having a strong aerobic base will enable you to climb more easily for longer periods of time without reaching the point of exhaustion.
Most climbers are looking for a more focused and effective cardiovascular workout than the typical treadmill or stationary bike exercise. And climbing is an ideal cardiovascular workout, because it’s a lot more fun than jogging on a treadmill. Climbing is a social sport, and most climbing gyms are filled with a supportive community of climbers who can offer encouragement and guidance as you scale new heights.
The simplest anaerobic climbing workout is to perform two minutes of high-intensity intervals on the systems board or treadwall followed by four minutes of low-intensity intervals. Repeat this cycle six to eight times, and you’ll get a great cardio workout with the added benefit of upper-body strength training.
Strength Training
Climbing involves a lot of pulling with the arms, but it’s also a full-body workout. It calls on the biceps, triceps, deltoids and the muscles of the legs, back, obliques and even the core to maintain balance and support the body as you move up the wall. As a result, it’s a great strength-building exercise that can give you the physique of a climber without spending hours pumping iron at a gym.
The muscle-building benefits of climbing are enhanced when you use a variety of techniques, including smearing, where you use the rubber toes and edges of your climbing shoes directly on the rock to create friction footing in the absence of holds; stemming, where you press your feet into a hold or ledge with oppositional pressure to open up new body positions; and dynamic moves, like launching yourself upwards in a burst to reach for a distant hold. All of these movements help to build power and endurance.
Bouldering, which is done on low walls in indoor climbing gyms and natural rock sites, uses shorter, powerful movements. It’s a great way to improve muscular endurance and flexibility, as well as boost problem-solving skills, because each route requires strategic planning and thinking on your feet.
Keeping your heart rate up is crucial to maintaining a good level of fitness when climbing, and you’ll find it’s harder than it looks. Research has shown that elite athletes who climb on a regular basis have heart rates as high as 150 beats per minute while they are climbing, which is pretty impressive for an activity that doesn’t involve running or jumping.
If you’re not a naturally strong person, it might take some time before you develop the necessary physical capabilities to enjoy climbing regularly. However, you can see immediate improvements in your strength by incorporating climbing-specific exercises into your training. As with other forms of resistance training, a combination of exercises that target all the major muscle groups is more effective than targeting one group at a time. One such exercise is the lat pull-down, which targets your latissimus dorsi, or back muscles, which are important for pulling yourself up.
Mental Stimulation
The muscles aren’t the only thing that gets a workout during a climbing session. When you approach the wall, your brain gears up for its own kind of gym session. This mental training helps you improve decision-making and bolsters confidence. It also allows you to overcome the fear of failure and become a stronger climber.
A successful climb requires harmony between your eye-hand-foot coordination, balance and core strength. It also demands a keen focus to solve a route, which may require planning and thinking ahead or talking yourself through a difficult move. The mental challenges of climbing provide a sense of accomplishment that is a great reward for the physical effort involved.
Climbers train their muscles differently than other athletes. Instead of the “up-and-down” movements that you would get from running on a treadmill, climbing uses isometric holds that stretch and strengthen muscles but don’t actually change in length, such as the biceps curl, wrist flexors, back muscles and gripping fingers. This different muscle-building technique makes climbing a full-body workout, and it improves the strength of the arms and legs, too.
In addition, climbing improves muscle coordination and increases power from head to toe. It also works your core muscles and teaches you how to use your feet, which saves the upper body from burning out too quickly. Even beginners can benefit from the muscle-building of climbing, since they can focus on moving with commitment and trusting their bodies to know what to do.
The mental benefits of climbing are just as important as the physical ones. For many people, climbing reduces their stress levels and improves coping skills even more than other forms of exercise. It helps them develop a healthy outlook on life and build a strong support network of fellow climbers. The community of climbers is supportive, encouraging and fun. Climbing is a great way to make new friends and have fun while getting fit. This is a big advantage over exercising on gym equipment, which can be a boring and mindless experience.
Social Interaction
Climbing provides social interaction that is not often found in more competitive sports or gyms. Many people find that they are drawn to climbing because of its community feel and the camaraderie created amongst climbers as they help each other through difficult routes. This social aspect of the sport can help decrease anxiety and promote a healthy lifestyle by providing an opportunity to meet other people and develop meaningful relationships.
A study examining the effects of indoor rock climbing on mental fitness found that it improved mood and decreased depression, as well as increased coping skills and ability to problem-solve. These positive psychological effects are attributed to the focus and concentration required to successfully navigate a route, which also helps to relieve stress. Furthermore, the social element of climbing provides a safe environment to set and achieve goals in a supportive community, which can boost confidence and self-esteem.
The study also examined the social aspect of climbing in terms of egoistic and balanced behaviour, and how it affected climbing performance. All participants surveyed described a gradual development from negative egoistic behaviour towards a more balanced behaviour. Two of the participants were able to outline specific, formative experiences (crucibles) that drastically changed their behavior.
Egoistic behavior can negatively affect the climbing experience and lead to an ineffective, unproductive atmosphere. For example, when a climber is in a bad mood, they may complain about the conditions or their own climbing ability, which can drag down the mood of their climbing partners and create an unproductive atmosphere. This is why it is important for climbers to prioritize their time and block out the times and days they will be training.
When a climber reaches the top of a route, it is often celebrated with a celebratory beers with their climbing partners. This type of post-climbing social interaction can promote a positive mindset and the sense of achievement, which will then carry into their daily lives. Moreover, having a social component to the sport of climbing can prevent loneliness and isolation. The social element of climbing can encourage people to go out and try new routes, or even visit a gym they may not have otherwise visited.