There are literally thousands of ways to lose weight, maintain fitness and get in great shape. It seems almost everybody is looking for the exercise regimen that best fits their lifestyle. Jogging, walking and biking are all popular ways to get some exercise. Many people like to hit the gym and spend a few hours working different muscle groups and toning their whole bodies. Really, when it comes to exercise and fitness, to each his (or her) own.
One great way to shed some pounds and to get in a work out for the whole body is to do some rock climbing. There is no doubt that rock climbing works the legs, because your legs do the bulk of the work to move you up the face of the rock or mountain. Furthermore, everyone knows that the arms get a great workout from rock climbing. As any climber will tell you, pulling your own wait from hand grip to hand grip is not easy, and both the biceps and triceps get a great workout. Also, the forearms get a fantastic workout because of the constant gripping.
There is also a cardiovascular element to rock climbing. To keep moving upward and from side to side, and to constantly use your muscles to grip and jump and pull, builds up a serious heart rate and really helps to increase cardiovascular endurance. Speaking of endurance, muscular endurance is also greatly increased by rock climbing because the muscles very rarely get a rest.
Flexibility, a very important but often overlooked part of fitness, is also greatly increased by the stretching, high stepping and reaching aspects of rock climbing. In short, rock climbing touches on almost all the basic muscle groups and on all the other aspects of fitness.
Therefore, it is difficult to understand why there are not many more people using rock climbing for fitness. Traditional concerns with rock climbing are safety, because it can be very difficult to climb rocks, and can be very dangerous, especially for the novice. Another concern is access; there are large tracts of land that have very little in the way of mountains, rocks and elevation.
Both of these concerns have been negated because there are now rock climbing walls in many gyms and health clubs. Even those without big high climbing walls often have rock climbing treadmills, walls that are on a conveyer belt and rotate as you climb. One of the benefits of this type of climbing wall is that it is continuous; also you can set the speed you want to climb at, thus making the cardio workout all the more strenuous.
As you can see, rock climbing is a great way to get a cardiovascular workout, get in some muscle toning, and build up muscular endurance. Furthermore, it works almost every muscle group in the body, which is more than can be said for many exercises. On top of all this, rock climbing is great for endurance. Therefore, it is hard to find a method of exercise that is more complete or more fulfilling than rock climbing.