Yoga and rock climbing: the perfect match?
Initially, Ieva Luna was dragged to her first yoga class by her mum, and, surprisingly to her, she ended up loving it. Years later, she tried rock climbing and was hooked. After a while she started to notice the subtle similarities between rock climbing and yoga practice and how one complements the other beautifully.
In this brief article she shares her opinion on how yoga practice and rock climbing complement one another and thoughts of why you should try rock climbing as well! From the sense of achievement of completing a climb to increased awareness of the present moment, rock climbing is a beautiful activity to add to your life.
What is climbing?
There are different types of climbing: you could go climbing with a harness and a rope together with another person who would belay/protect you while you are climbing or you could go bouldering -shorter distances, without the rope and with a pad beneath you to soften the fall. You can climb outdoors on the real rock or indoors in a climbing gym. Nowadays, there are so many cool climbing gyms worldwide, and I’m sure it won’t be hard to find one close to you!
The Present Moment & Paying Attention
If you start rock climbing, not only will you get stronger physically, but you might also embark on a journey of self-discovery, of getting to know yourself and inhabiting the body. Often people talk that rock climbing is like an active meditation, a state of flow, where time doesn’t exist. Once you are on the rock (or the indoor wall) – everything vanishes. A chattering mind becomes quieter. The present moment and awareness of what’s in front of you and your surroundings become sharper. You have to face yourself, your raw emotions, and shadows. You are in the present moment. You are alive.
Does any of this sound familiar with you when you practice yoga asana, meditation or breathwork?
Do you do enough pulling exercises?
Yoga is so much more than asanas (aka postures), but for a moment let’s focus on yoga postures only and specifically let’s chat about the shoulder push and pull action.
In yoga asana practice there is more shoulder pushing than shoulder pulling. Remember all the chaturangas and arm balances in yoga asana practice - movements when we push our body weight away from the ground. On the contrary, while rock climbing, we pull our body weight towards something aka handhold above.
If yoga asana is the only physical movement you do in your life, then potentially a muscular imbalance might be developed. To keep your elbows and shoulders healthy, the balance between push and pull is important. This is another reason why yoga asana practice and rock climbing complement each other so nicely!
You could add some pulling action into your movement diet by visiting your local climbing wall, or simply hanging (or doing *assisted* pull-ups) from a monkey bar.
Proprioception
So often we are not in the body so much as in our heads. Both climbing and especially yoga are beautiful tools to bring our attention back to the body and to explore little subtleties while we move the body in space.
Awareness of the center of gravity, balance, coordination – things that you practice on the yoga mat are very useful when rock climbing, too. So often you have to stand and balance on one foot’s tippy toes and reach a handhold above when rock climbing. Remember the dancers or tree pose? Just a few of many balance postures in yoga asana practice that might beautifully complement your rock-climbing practice.
Breathing
Awareness of the breath plays an important role not only in yoga but in climbing as well. When faced with a stressful situation (perhaps when being high above the ground while rock climbing) the breath might become faster or one might even hold the breath for a while. We can manipulate the breath by breathing slower and calmer to let our nervous system know that everything is okay, that we are safe where we are in that moment. Breathing optimally might also allow us to climb more efficiently, to be more in the moment, and will allow the body to receive enough oxygen.
Now, take a moment to breathe in calmly, fill your lungs with oxygen, feel the lungs expanding in all directions. Hold your breath for a moment and then in no hurry exhale everything out.
Repeat two more times. And smile.
Try this 20mins movement flow for strength and mobility.
Ieva Luna is a yoga teacher, movement enthusiast, and amateur rock climber. Currently based in a small village in Cataluña, she teaches yoga classes online and is rock climbing in the area. If you’d like to practice yoga as well as rock climb on the real rocks (beginners more than welcome!) – Ieva is organizing annual yoga retreats in the mountains of El Chorro, Spain. The next Yoga Retreat will be in September 2021.
Ieva also teaches Yoga for Climbers on her YouTube channel, so make sure to check that out as well.
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