Benefits of Rock Climbing

Climbing is a sport that people of all ages and fitness levels can enjoy.  The motion of climbing is instinctive.  We can start climbing easy routes within minutes of walking into the gym.  As we practice good body mechanics and technique, we can climb more challenging routes with small hand and footholds, overhung walls, and dynamic moves.

Climbing has been shown to elevate the neurochemicals (brain chemicals) we need to feel happy, peaceful, and content, such as endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin.  Drug addiction and alcoholism cause us to crave substances that elevate our neurochemistry, but when the substances wears off, we again crave that ease and comfort we felt.

People who struggle with depression also benefit from the elevation in serotonin and other neurochemicals produced during and after rock climbing.  When we climb regularly, our bodies make more beneficial brain chemicals even when we are not climbing!

A Whole-Body Workout

Climbing is an endlessly variable series of movements. No climbing surface or route is quite like another, so the work you ask your muscles to perform during a climb changes each time you exercise. This ensures you’re training a greater number of muscles. Research suggests this kind of dynamic muscle activation is much more challenging than simple, repetitive movements. While all of the pushing, pulling and lifting involved in climbing mirror aspects of resistance exercise, climbing is also an excellent cardiovascular workout, says William Sheel, a professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia in Canada. In a 2004 study he and his colleagues conducted on the physiology of rock climbing, “we found that climbers use a significant portion of their aerobic capacity,” he says. “The heart rate response was higher than we predicted.” Read the study here.

Climbing helps increase bone density, build strength, and creates a sense of community.  Our climbing groups for people in recovery, and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, give agency to people who might not normally approach this activity, and enables them to feel a sense of accomplishment with a peer group.  We have finally “found our tribe” and cheer each other on, regardless of our personal differences.