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Climbing is the 2020 exercise for a full-body workout—and will give you a mega-high

Rosie Fitzmaurice
Rosie Fitzmaurice

I don't know about you, but suddenly my Instagram feed is full of colourful snaps of climbing walls. A quick search of #bouldering throws up 3.6 million hits on the app, confirming my suspicion: climbing is officially cool.

The Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC) estimates 1.5 million people climbed indoors in the UK in 2018, including 120,000 regulars. The climbing buzz has been spurred along by the release of the terrifying 2018 documentary Free Solo, which sees fearless rock climber Alex Honnold take on El Capitan's 900-metre vertical rock face ropeless at Yosemite National Park.

Making it even more relevant, sport climbing will make its Olympics debut in Tokyo this summer (Mattel has even launched a new sport climbing Barbie doll to celebrate), alongside surfing, karate and skateboarding, meaning daredevils will finally be able to scoop gold thanks to their iron-clad grip.

Spurred on by my Insta peers and the upcoming games, I decided to give it a go myself with the help of adrenaline junkie and movement coach Kim Hartwell.

Hartwell says she believes climbing can be particularly empowering for women. "They often think they don't have the upper body strength to be good at climbing, but actually they're often better than men because they have more mobility, it requires a lot of flexibility," she tells me on our first climb.

Most of the power should actually come from your legs, she adds: "It's a thorough full-body workout, the lower body is used to propel you up, while the upper back, core and shoulder strength help to keep you on the wall. It's particularly good for people who sit at a desk all day as it really opens up the back and spine."

We've opted for bouldering, which is now the most popular form of indoor climbing in the UK, with three-quarters of large walls solely or predominantly for bouldering, according to the ABC.

At The Climbing Hangar in Parsons Green, it's quiet first thing on a Thursday morning, but already I get a sense of the different things climbing can offer people. Two friends chat away while taking it in turns to snake their way up the colour-coded routes, which, like ski slopes, are categorised depending on difficulty. Later another guy enters alone, earphones in, hood up, and he's off. "It's a great way to be alone and practice mindfulness," Hartwell says.

Our turn now. First we warm up, Hartwell recommends beginning with dynamic stretches followed by a few pulse-raisers, like star jumps, skipping or running on the spot. We then set off on some easy routes with larger holds, including some traversing sideways across the wall. It quickly dawns on me that I wouldn't have had a clue where to start if I'd come alone, so it's definitely worth taking a more experienced climber with you or signing up for a beginner's induction on your first go.

Working my way along grey (easiest), then green (slightly less easy) routes I found myself buzzing once I'd hit the top. Fobs or tags mark where climbs start – the rule is you begin each climb with both hands and feet on the wall, then once you reach the top of a given climb, tap the highest hold of the route with both hands to complete it before making your way back down any way you like.

Hartwell explains you should keep your hips as close to the while as possible and climb with the balls of the feet: "You’ll be able to use your footwork more precisely and have more grip."

There's a problem-solving aspect to climbing which is seriously cathartic, just thinking about which next step to take so that I don't fall off is enough to completely empty my mind. According to the British Mountaineering Council, the concentration and focus that climbing requires can help to sharpen your brain.

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||MOBILITY FOR SPORT⛰|| Mobilise, stabilise and never have to compromise 💁🏼‍♀️ The longer you neglect your mobility and sport specific strength training (whether it’s for football, running, climbing, lifting etc) the higher your risk of picking up an injury is. . You’ll also undoubtedly be missing out on key “gains” in performance as your body lacks the ability to work as efficiently as it has the potential to. Often the small changes in mobility make for huge changes in performance. . Different sports require different attention to different movement patterns and planes of motion. Unless you’re focusing attention to developing your weaknesses you’ll be forced to comprise at some stage or another because of injury, meaning ultimately you’ll be able to do less of what you love for longer. . For me climbing is my passion, my love and my sport of choice. Making sure my body is warm before I get on the walls is paramount to keep me “rocking” for longer. Here’s some of my go to mobs pre climb, try this & hit save. for your next pre climb jam! . 1️⃣Down dog to lunge twists (vid sped up, go slow) 2️⃣Thread the needle table top 3️⃣Cossack squat flow 4️⃣Thread the needle with leg ext 5️⃣Low lunge reach (can be progressed to high lunge) . Find out more on how to develop: 👉🏼flexibility👉🏼mobility and 👉🏼strength in end range of motion specifically for climbing . AND 👉🏼improve your climbing technique (with video analysis included) in my day workshop hosted with @tchliverpool and 🇬🇧GB climbing coach @iancloachesclimbing . 📍21st March, TCH Liverpool (only a couple or spots remaining!) ☝🏼Click the link in my bio to snap up your spot!✨ . Song aptly named: Do It 😉 by @iksonofficial

A post shared by MOVEMENT COACH•PT•YOGA TEACHER (@kimhartwell) on Feb 22, 2020 at 9:54am PST

Yoga is the perfect practice to complement regular climbing because it uses opposite dominant muscle forces, according to Hartwell. "Rock climbing is predominantly pull-focused, when you reach for a hold and you pull yourself up the wall, you’re using muscles such as the hamstrings, lats, biceps, forearms, obliques and abs.

"Meanwhile yoga uses a lot of push muscles so it's a great way to balance it all out, in down dog, up dog or chaturunga (half push up) you’re literally pushing the floor away using your push muscles like the quads, calves, pecs and triceps."

An hour's up and I need to head into work, but I could have spent at least another on the wall, and most people do, according to The Hangar many regulars stay for several hours at a time or whole evenings – so at £12 a pop for as long as you want on the wall this is good value exercise for London.

Climbing has been steadily growing in popularity for the last few years. Now we've all finally stopped talking about fitness for weight loss, with the focus instead on uplifting activities that nourish both your body and mind, like hiking, surfing and dancing, climbing is bound to blow up.

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