How I Started Rock Climbing
I started climbing near the very end of high school. My friend invited me to her birthday party during our senior year, and we went to a climbing gym about 30 minutes away from where I lived since there wasn’t one in my hometown. I loved it from the beginning.
Now being in college, I try to go climbing at least twice a week. I’m more of an indoor climber, where the holds are different colors, and routes are created from that. Indoor climbing is usually more accessible and easier since you don’t need all the resources for outdoor climbing.
I must preface that I’m not a professional climber or on a team. I like to climb because it’s fun and it’s a good form of exercise.
Rock Climbing Challenges
As my parents like to mention, rock climbing definitely isn’t the safest sport, especially if you’re outside and on ropes. If you’re climbing outside, you have to have friends that seriously know what they’re doing since they’re the ones who control if you’re falling off the rock or not.
While I haven’t experienced any injuries climbing outside before, I’ve had a thumb injury and a concussion in the past year from climbing, which were both at the CU Rec Center (where getting injured there is a tad embarrassing…).
Along with the extra caution you have to take while climbing, it’s difficult to find a balance between developing strength and developing flexibility. Climbers often use the same main muscles while on the wall, which get pretty tight over time, but flexibility is also required to help find better solutions to the routes.
My Her Campus Yoga Experience
I’ve done other yoga classes before, but they were more focused on meditation than movement. Going to Yoga Pod in Boulder with the CU Her Campus chapter was a lot of fun, and it was more difficult than I thought it would be for me.
For starters, all of my muscles were so tight due to climbing. I could barely grab the arms behind my back without hurting my shoulders, my hips were constantly on the verge of cramping, and my wrists were popping. As we moved around through the class, I was able to stretch those muscles, and some of the positions were more bearable for my body.
Something else I noticed was how off my balance was. When I’m on the climbing wall, I don’t really focus on my balance since I have my legs and arms to support myself better. While I was doing a tree pose on a yoga mat and could barely lift my foot off the ground, that’s when the reality of my balance struck me.
Despite the difficulties, yoga was really fun. It was great to take time out of a stressful week to truly relax and focus on myself. I felt that I was able to stretch out some muscles that were giving me pain, and it gave me a lot of depth on how adding yoga can improve my physical well-being.
Takeaways
Overall, I would recommend going to a yoga class for everyone! It’s relaxing, and it makes you feel at ease afterward, like you’re brought into a different world.
If you’re someone who does a high-contact or high-intensity sport, consider bringing yoga into your regular routine. You may not notice it, but balance and flexibility are important for any sport, and they could possibly improve your performance or at least make you feel good.
As for me, I’d like to try and integrate more yoga classes into my schedule when I get that time. The whole experience was super worthwhile, and I hope to be back in a yoga gym as soon as I can.