Alta Climbing & Fitness combines muscle building with aerobic exercise for an amazing full-body workout. It also increases balance, coordination, and core strength.
It strengthens your hands and improves grip endurance by training for timed holds. Experienced climbers use their legs as much as their arms.
Most climbing gyms offer a quick safety class and belay certification before you can hit the wall. Once you join the club, you’ll quickly find a community of supportive friends.
Climbing and bouldering, which involves climbing on low rock formations without a rope, use nearly all of the body’s musculature. Unlike running, cycling and rowing, which are designed to strengthen specific muscle groups or increase cardiorespiratory fitness, climbing is an extremely dynamic movement that requires the muscles to perform different tasks at various times. As a result, the movement can be more challenging and fatiguing for the muscles.
The underlying force required for climbing is generated by a combination of muscle tension and eccentric (lengthening) power. As the climber uses their arms to pull on the small rock contact points, they must generate enormous forces in the finger flexors to maintain gripping strength. Additionally, climbers must exert powerful hip flexors to drive their legs down into the ground to generate explosive power for moving up the wall.
In addition to these dynamic muscle tasks, the upper body requires strong and powerful tendons and ligaments to support the load of the body weight. Therefore, a high level of muscular hypertrophy may negatively affect climbing performance by increasing body mass and decreasing the number of available sarcomeres to generate muscle contractions.
However, RT strategies that emphasize the development of a high level of muscular hypertrophy do not seem to improve climbing performance, while a high relative strength based on a low maximal strength does improve performance [9].
Local muscular endurance, which is defined as the ability to maintain a specific force over time, is also important in climbing. It has been found that the time to exhaustion in climbing is influenced by the amount of work performed, and climbers with greater a higher capacity are able to climb for longer and at a lower metabolic steady state compared to less-capable competitors [10]. However, RT approaches that emphasize low-load high repetitions resistance training do not appear to improve local muscular endurance based on the results of several studies [11-13].
Endurance
Endurance is the ability to perform an activity for a long period of time. It’s not specific to climbing, but can include walking, running, biking or any activity you do for a prolonged period of time. Endurance exercises require both your cardiovascular and muscular endurance systems to be trained at the same time. “Cardiovascular endurance refers to the body’s ability to supply oxygen during exercise at a low intensity, while muscular endurance allows you to perform exercises with an increased amount of time before fatigue,” says NASM trainer Cherilyn McLester.
Climbing requires a combination of endurance, strength and power. Strength is a persistent factor and builds on itself to improve endurance (and vice versa). The stronger you are, the less you will need to work for each hold. Most of the fatigue in climbing comes from local constriction of blood flow to the muscles. This can be prevented by training the finger and hand muscles to be stronger, so that they don’t have to work as hard.
Muscular endurance also is a foundational factor that helps increase the duration of climbs, especially when the route has many short bursts of dynamic movement or a lot of holds to hang onto. One of the best ways to train muscular endurance is through a series of isometric workouts like fingerboard training that target resistance against an accumulation of forearm pump.
While there are some exceptions, most climbing disciplines use a mix of both anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. For example, bouldering tends to be primarily anaerobic, while sport climbing is more aerobic. Knowing how these energy systems interact with each other will help you tailor your fitness routine to match the needs of the discipline or level of competition that you are preparing for.
Flexibility
Climbing requires more than just strength and endurance; it also demands flexibility. Flexibility refers to the ability of muscles and joints to move through a range of motion without restriction or pain. Stretching is an excellent way to increase flexibility, but so is climbing. Throughout your climb you’ll have to reach for the next hand or foothold, a process that involves stretching and flexing your body. This constant pushing, pulling and holding in place recruits the muscles in your hands, arms, shoulders, back, core and legs. These dynamic movements will not only make you stronger, but will help prevent injury as well.
Climbers typically have a lot of flexibility because it is so beneficial to their sport. They have to be able to extend themselves in order to grab those far-off holds, and to stretch and contract to keep the hold on the wall, explains Mike Julom, an American Council on Exercise (ACE)-certified personal trainer and recreational rock climber. In addition, climbing teaches proper posture, which is also important for flexibility and can help prevent injuries by increasing joint range of motion.
Moreover, because of the repetitive nature of climbing, it’s a great way to improve your balance and coordination. By constantly planning and anticipating what your next move will be, it’s a mental workout that helps develop problem-solving skills and mind-body connection.
And lastly, if you’re looking for a social activity, your local climbing gym will be bustling with other climbers of all skill levels. It’s a friendly, supportive environment where friendships are formed over overcoming challenges and celebrating successes. It’s a great alternative to more competitive team sports or pounding away on the treadmill.
Coordination
Climbing requires a combination of movement, balance and body control. It requires the right muscles to contract at the right time, and with the correct amount of force. It is a complex task that is highly variable in nature, which makes it difficult to learn and transfer through training alone. However, the skills that are required to perform a specific climbing movement can be improved through practice and cross-training activities.
A number of cognitive and physical activities have been shown to improve skilled coordination in climbing. These include minimizing prolonged pauses, using simple path through the route and maintaining smooth transition between movements.
To train for these skills, it is recommended that you incorporate a variety of activities into your climbing routine that challenge the various elements of coordination. This includes activities that increase grip strength and muscle endurance, such as pull-ups and push-ups. You should also practice exercises that target the muscles in your arms and shoulders, as these are important for balanced upper body strength and coordination. These exercises may include pull-ups, dips, squats and horizontal rows.
Engaging in core stability, flexibility and breathing exercises can also support the development of coordination. Yoga, for example, enhances flexibility and body awareness – all important components of good climbing technique. Additionally, it can help to improve the flow of oxygen into the muscles and brain during climbs.
Finally, it is recommended that you engage in mental training exercises to help develop a strong and confident mindset. This is particularly useful for overcoming fear, which can hinder climbing performance. The psychological technique known as systematic desensitisation, which involves slowly exposing yourself to the feared object or situation in order to decrease your anxiety response, is an effective approach to this.
Mental Stimulation
Climbing is one of the most mentally demanding sports. In order to make progress up a route, climbers must be completely focused on the current move they are making, ignoring all other distractions (such as the nagging voice in their head that reminds them they forgot to turn off the oven). Climbers must also be able to think quickly and problem-solve when they encounter challenges, such as when they need to figure out how to get past a section of the wall that is too steep or too overhanging to climb safely.
The mental concentration required for climbing helps to quiet the mind, giving climbers a chance to escape the stresses of everyday life. In addition, the sense of accomplishment that climbers feel after successfully completing a route fosters confidence and self-esteem, helping to alleviate stress.
In terms of physical stimulation, climbing engages all the major muscle groups in the body, including those in the arms, legs, core, and fingers. It also works muscles in a different way than traditional up-and-down exercises, because many of the movements require isometric holds, which means that a muscle contracts but doesn’t change length (think holding a plank). This creates a unique full-body workout that provides a challenge unlike any other sport or exercise.
Climbing is a fun, challenging, and rewarding way to improve your overall health. By focusing on your body and mind, you can push yourself further than you thought possible on the wall. The sense of accomplishment that you feel after conquering a difficult climb will also help you to develop a strong mind-body connection, which can be beneficial in other areas of your life.