A lot of us are re-thinking our lifestyles during the quarantine, and the sad truth is, we don’t have enough sporting activities in our life. When it comes to staying healthy and active, a person can choose from thousands of different activities that are available today. Playing basketball, going to the gym, practicing calisthenics, or climbing rocks indoors are all great choices and they all have their pros and cons.
Today we’re going to focus on indoor climbing, a hobby that’s amazing for people who want to remain healthy and fit without doing anything too extreme. Not that this sport isn’t exciting, far from it, but by “extreme” we mean something such as bodybuilding which requires tons of dedication and all sorts of sacrifices when it comes to socializing and all the other fun aspects of life.
Climbing requires just a little bit of dedication, but it can provide you with amazing results, and it’s going to make you feel fit and healthy. Why and how should you begin with it? Read all about it in the following article. Let’s end this introduction right here and jump straight into the content.
1. Find a great club
Your trainer and the people around you, as well as the provided environment and the available equipment, will have a huge impact on your overall experience. This will determine whether you’re going to fall in love with the sport or not. All of these factors are of huge importance, which is why we recommend spending some time searching for the best climbing club in your area where you can subscribe and learn.
Do not rush your decision, or if you end up making a mistake, you can always make a transfer to another place if you find that they’re better. The best-case scenario is to find one that’s close to you and has all the required equipment you need to progress.
2. Purchase the basic gear
Both indoor and outdoor climbing require at least some type of gear, and unfortunately, you’ll need to purchase the most basic pieces so that you can start with this activity. Safety ropes, gloves, a bag of chalk, and special climbing shoes all fall into the category of mandatory basic pieces that you’ll have to invest in. For a start, quality chalk will help your grip a lot, so if you don’t know where to find this, feel free to take a look at www.theclimbinggear.com
Sometimes the club in which you join offers you some equipment that you can use for free, at least for a start, but eventually, you’ll have to purchase your own, which is also something that makes the entire experience a lot more enjoyable.
3. Watch showcase material
Sometimes all it takes for us to fall in love with something is to see someone else doing it and having fun. People often look at bodybuilders and say “I want to be like him or her”, and the same thing goes for professional rock climbers. Experiencing such adrenaline at such heights is an unimaginable feeling, so if you want to fall in love even more with this sport, take a look at a few videos of what you’ll be able to do if you keep up with your training.
It’s great to get some motivation now and then, so watching a few showcase videos on YouTube is more than recommended.
4. Read more about the sport
Every sport that we have these days is pure science. You can improve the most if you are informed about the thing you’re doing, instead of just constantly hitting a plateau, or should we say “hitting a wall with your head”.
In every sport, when you incorporate science and medicine into your training methods, you’ll progress at least twice as fast as usual. So, make sure that you read some more articles from professional rock-climbers, see what they did to progress, and see what science has to offer in this field as well. Besides, by reading about it, you’ll have a lot more passion to do the actual thing. This is an even better variant than watching YouTube videos, although those will “hype you up” a bit more.
5. Self-improve in your free time
Self-improving is important in every part of life, especially in sports. There’s a very tight connection between people not improving fast enough at something, and quitting because of it. Although that’s not the right approach, a lot of people quit when they see that their results are not coming in as fast as they would like to. And although we’re talking about casual climbing, being stuck at the same rock for months will hurt your confidence and your will to continue with this hobby.
This is why it’s important to read and do anything in your power to improve in your free time, because if you notice that you’re progressing real fast, you’ll never want to give up, and achieving greatness is now a lot closer than it was before.
6. Fix your diet
Last but not least, this is not only a tip for getting into climbing as a sport, but a tip that you should live by. Fixing your diet is everything when it comes to health and well-being, but there’s a reason why we included it in this list.
As we all know already, rock-climbing is a sport in which you have to pull your weight in the vertical axis, sometimes by using your feet as well to push off the ground, but regardless of that, the more unnecessary weight you have on your body, the more difficult this becomes for you. That’s why you should be cutting off all unnecessary things from your diet and focusing on eating the right food that can help you improve both in life and in indoor climbing.
The more lean muscle you have, the easier this becomes for you, and you’ll be seeing immense progress if you decide to eat things that help your body recover, grow and improve in every aspect. Not to mention that you’ll be a much happier person in general once you start eating right.
