Scaling Walls, Building Bonds: Discovering the Joys of Indoor Rock Climbing

For the last four years I’ve been exploring a truly wonderful way of moving my body - indoor rock climbing, also called sport climbing. I got into it after enrolling my daughter. I just came to the gym to watch her class, realized it was a ton of fun, and got hooked. So climbing became our family activity/hobby, ‘cause Simon got very much into it as well.

Here are the reasons I love it from a trainer’s perspective:

• It’s a full-body workout, using both upper and lower body and not favoring any one side (like tennis, for instance)

• It is suitable for all levels of fitness, for all ages, all body types. If you can climb a ladder, you can come to a climbing gym. Also it can be insanely challenging, too, but you set your own pace here.

• Rope climbing is relatively low-risk in terms of injuries. I mean, yes, there are bumps and bruises every once in a while and a possibility for more major issues, but in comparison with any team sport, running or, let’s say, gymnastics, - it’s way safer.

• You can improve pretty much every fitness function by engaging in climbing: 

  • Strength

  • Endurance

  • Coordination

  • Flexibility and mobility

  • Mind game

• It challenges your problem solving skills as well. 

• Climbing community is extremely supportive and friendly. So your training sessions could be both solitary workouts or fun outings with a bunch of nice people - whatever your mood for the day looks like.

Possible downsides that I see are:

• In order to be able to fully enjoy all the possibilities of rope climbing you will have to take at least one class and learn to tie knots and belay. BTW, I teach these classes at Sportrock Alexandria, and they are super fun ;)

• You need a partner if you want to go beyond bouldering and auto-belays. Usually it’s a very easy fix. There are plenty of groups at the gym you can join or find partners through your gym’s app or FB page. 

• Bouldering is a bit more injury-prone type of climbing, as there are no ropes. But in comparison to the sports mentioned earlier, it’s still relatively low-risk.

So, climbing is AMAZING! Try it out and stay tuned!

And if you live in NoVa, come to Sportrock and enjoy the 60-foot walls and my classes of course ;)

#TamaraTestsTheMoves #Sportrock #RockClimbing #Bouldering #FamilyFitness #IndoorClimbing #FitnessForAll