Why We Love Climbing
At EMG, we love climbing. That’s pretty obvious. But we love more than just the fancy gear and the dramatic overhanging routes and all of the famous athletes and jargon that comes with the sport. While all of that is amazing, we focus more on the wide range of benefits that come from setting hand to rock.
Below we have attached a great article that was posted to ClimberNews.com in 2021 called “Rock Climbing Benefits– Mental, Physical, and More”. You should totally give it a read if you’re interested in an extensive list of all of the things that we love about the sport. But from us to you, we’ll give you our short list.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become a regularly used idea in the last couple of years. It is formally understood as a mental state achieved by focusing on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Mindfulness is an extremely useful tool to deal with anxiety and stress. Rock climbing is a useful aid to promote that state of mind. Someone climbing is focusing on very specific foot and hand placement. They are focusing on their breath, and maybe focusing on not looking down. Regardless of your level of ability or how long you’ve been climbing, focus is a key element of the sport. In our experience, during this level of focus, the rest of the world can somewhat fall away. The grocery lists or the problems at home or the bully at school, all fade away. By being forced to focus on your body on the wall, rock climbing can promote calm and slow down racing thoughts.
2. Trust
There is a lot of trust that goes into climbing. You’re sure to hear “trust your feet!” if you hangout around people climbing for long enough. Trusting your own body and its ability to carry you is the first type of trust. You have to trust your own strength and balance. Then there’s the trust of the equipment. The trust in the rubber soles of your shoes that are meant to grip those tiny holds. Trust in the holds themselves, that they are securely bolted to the wall, or that the rock is strong enough to hold you. Trust in the rope, and the harness around your waist to catch you. And finally, there is an immense amount of trust that you need to develop in the person or people that are going to be on the other end of your rope. Trusting that those people are there to catch you, to slowly and safely lower you back to the ground.
Confidence
There is so much to be said about the feeling of getting to the top of a climb that you never thought that you would be able to finish. With each grab of the next hold that seemed out of reach and with every new accomplishment, climbers build confidence. Achievements, big or small, do so much for confidence. Exercise also does so much for people’s positive self talk. That feeling, confidence in oneself, is something that we want to pass on and share with all of our participants.
These are just three of the seemingly endless benefits of our favorite sport. These benefits, and how they fit into our trauma informed style, is why climbing is perfect. We want to give people the opportunity to practice mindfulness, trust and gain confidence with us on the rock, and then to take that with them into their everyday lives. This is our bread and butter! You should read below if you want to learn more about those benefits and all of the others, and if not we’ll see you out there learning it for yourself!