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Getting Started in a Rock Climbing Gym
One of the most demanding sports that require physical and mental preparedness, such as strength, endurance, agility, balance, is rock climbing. The sport makes use of special equipment and follows a proper climbing technique, both crucial to complete the routes safely, and that’s why it is necessary that training preparation be done indoors in a rock climbing gym.
There is no doubt that rock climbing challenges a participant to physical and mental attentiveness and because of this, many continue to climb more because the challenge helps to hone their problem-solving skills in figuring out where to place their feet in order to balance their hold with their hands. Physically, rock climbing helps to firm up the muscles in your arms, legs, hands and fingers, so it actually provides a full-work out exercise regimen. Rock climbing may be a hard sport but it is one that can burn calories faster if it is done on a regular basis. The long-term benefit of this sport is that you become healthier and chronic illnesses, like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, are prevented. Most people have acquired unnecessary stress in life because they allow their fears to rule them, but this isn’t so for rock climbers, because going through many of this sport’s hurdles have helped them to overcome their own fears.
Now that you are convinced on the benefits of rock climbing, the first step is to look for the right rock climbing gym in your vicinity. There are helpful resources to help you find the right gym, one is social media in the internet or you can browse over the Mountain Project’s Indoor Climbing Gyms or Climbing Gym Map which can be found in search engines online. It is also advisable that in your research, find out the advantage between short-walled and big-wall gyms, as well as the amenity options you get from registering in each. As a novice to this sport, you will come to learn that there are three basic processes that you have to undergo before you can complete the course: bouldering, top-rope climbing, and lead climbing. Each climbing technique varies and should be performed one step at a time, such that a novice begins with bouldering, which involves climbing routes in a wall that are close to the ground without using a harness or a rope. When the novice climber gets a real hold of bouldering, he/she proceeds to the next, which is top-rope climbing wherein a main rope is secured to an overhead anchor and you tie one end of a rope and proceed in climbing a route and the other end of the rope is held by a trained staff who secures the climber, keeping a close watch over him/her. After top-rope climbing, you have to complete the course with lead climbing, which is climbing the wall with a rope secured and clipping into a series of quick-draws that are attached to bolts on the gym’s walls.