Rock Climbing - Health Benefits, Getting Started, Getting Better
Remember climbing trees and scaling fences for fun as kids? So sad that you gave it up once you got older. Rock climbing is a great way to relive those childhood moments while getting an incredible full-body workout.
Learn what makes rock climbing a workout, the potential health benefits, and how to get started.
How does a rock climbing workout benefit me?
A rock climbing workout requires climbing up a rock face. You can climb one built for use in an indoor climbing facility, like Climb Central Delhi - India’s largest indoor commercial rock climbing centre or even natural outdoor rock. Either way, expect to work up a sweat.
Rock climbing is the ultimate whole-body workout. It combines flexibility, agility, strength, and endurance to provide both aerobic and anaerobic benefits, as noted by leading sports medicine doctors.
Climbing is not all about upper body as commonly thought, but requires you to push with your legs and pull with your arms. You’ll also have to take a break and hold yourself in place while finding your next hand or foothold, which calls for isometric muscle contractions. This is where your muscle activates without changing length (like holding a plank). Constantly pushing, pulling, and holding yourself in place conditions most of the muscles in your hands, arms, shoulders, chest, back, core, and yes, even legs!
With many muscles firing simultaneously, your cardio and respiratory system (the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and airways) needs to work extra hard to supply enough energy. This makes rock climbing an effective cardio workout. Research suggests the aerobic effects of rock climbing are comparable with more traditional cardio activities like running. You can apply your rock climbing workouts toward the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week recommended by most doctors. Use other cardio activities (like cycling, jogging, and rowing) throughout the week to help you meet your aerobic exercise quota.
Variants of Rock Climbing
There are many types and subtypes of rock climbing. While there is no consistent definition, the following are the types of rock climbing you’ll most likely hear about:
Free Climbing
Free climbing means climbing a rock using your hands and feet. You use a rope to catch yourself in case of a slip, but you don’t use the rope to pull yourself upward. You can practice free climbing at an indoor climbing centre like Climb Central Delhi and outdoors on any rock face.
Bouldering
Bouldering is a form of free climbing performed without ropes or harnesses. You work on difficult moves, or “problems,” relatively close to the ground. You don’t climb high enough to risk a fatal fall should you fall. You can boulder outdoors or at an indoor climbing gym like Boulder Box, New Delhi.
Sport Climbing
Sport climbing involves climbing for competition, and was officially added to the Summer Olympic Games in 2020. Athletes compete in three categories: bouldering (climbing a 4.5-meter, or 14.7-foot, wall without ropes as quickly as possible), speed (climbing a 15-meter, or 49-foot, wall as fast as possible), and lead (using safety ropes while climbing as high as possible within six minutes).
Did you know about the Health Benefits of a Rock Climbing Workout?
Rock-climbing workouts aren’t just fun and games. Rock climbing also offers many potential health benefits. Let’s look at some of the important ones.
Improved Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Rock climbing involves coordinating multiple muscle groups to push and pull your body weight upward, making it an amazing cardio workout. When done regularly, it’s a great way to build cardiorespiratory fitness, a key factor in preventing heart disease.
Studies indicate that rock climbing increases heart rate to 74 to 85 percent of its predicted maximum and requires the same amount of energy as running at a moderate pace (8 to 11 minutes per mile).
Moreover, some advanced studies indicate that rock climbing creates significant improvements in VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise), a common indicator of cardiovascular fitness, after eight weeks.
Stronger Muscles
A common myth that climbing only works out the upper body. But quite the contrary, Climbing works majority of the body's muscles, particularly the upper-body pulling muscles (the back, rear shoulders, and biceps) and quadriceps (front-thigh muscles), glutes, and calves in the lower body. Climbing requires you to pull yourself up with your arms and push with your legs simultaneously — like doing squats and pull-ups together.
Therefore, rock climbing is an excellent way to build strong muscles. Indeed, the above review that looked at college students found that climbing significantly improves vertical jump height, push-up and pull-up strength, and leg power during cycling.
Greater Grip Strength
Navigating a vertical rock wall heavily engages the muscles in your hands and forearms. As such, rock climbing is an effective means for building grip strength.
A strong grip is helpful for daily tasks, such as carrying bags and other objects, pulling doors open, and unscrewing jars.
Improved Mental Health
Climbing demands focused attention and mindfulness to navigate routes, which may offer mental health benefits.
Greater Bone Density
Rock climbing is a weight-bearing activity similar to traditional resistance training. And, like other weight-bearing activities, rock climbing can build stronger bones. This may help prevent bone loss and other ailments such as osteoporosis that comes with aging.