Movement Blog

Your shoulders are a key component climbing, but most of us rarely spend much time stabilizing or strengthening them. We’ve got five shoulder exercises that will help you stabilize the muscles surrounding your shoulder and strengthen your shoulders to help you make powerful movements.

You may think that it's an odd thing for a climbing gym to urge people to rest, but we stand by it!  Although we should clarify that when we say 'rest day' activities, we don't mean binging netflix for hours on end (although a little indulgence never hurt anyone 😊). As humans, we are made to move and move a lot in the context of walking. It is primarily what we were made to do and has profound effects on our well being. Movement is medicine, literally. 

Fun fact: some of the largest muscles in your entire body surround the hip, which means your hips can produce quite a bit of power and force! You use your hips a lot to go up and down steps, to walk, to run, and to jump. In climbing, hip strength and stability help you step up onto really high footholds. Your hips also allow you to generate power for a jump motion, say for a dynamic move. They’re also incredibly important for helping to keep your trunk or pelvis closer to the wall when you're climbing on steep terrain on overhanging routes.

Climbing partners can be a hard thing to come by (looking for tips on finding your next, best partner?). So once you find your best crushing partner, it’s smart to show your partner(s) you are truly grateful for them.

One of the things we hear from those in our Introduction to Technique classes is how much people dread small footholds. You know the ones--the little, teensy, weensy specks on the wall that you tap, tap, tap with your foot in an effort to will your toes to trust them. We've all been there and that's why we're going to look at how you (yes you!) can learn how to trust your feet on even the most microscopic footholds.

We recently asked you what kinds of things really spook you on a route and the most popular response we got? SLOPERS. And trust us, we get it. That’s why we’re here to go over what you need to know to move slopers from most feared feature to something you can climb on with confidence! 😊

One of the biggest cruxes in climbing can be finding a climbing partner or two to climb with regularly. We've got some tips to help you make new friends and lifelong climbing partners.

Okay, I’ll say it; shorter climbers are, inherently, better at dynamic climbing than taller climbers. Sure, this is a gross oversimplification to provide for an exciting click-bait-y first sentence, but it also has some base in fact. Longer limbs require more work to generate a dynamic movement.  So, while shorter climbers (I’m 5’3”) can sometimes be limited in what we can reach statically, they have a pretty sizable advantage in their mobility. The key is how we learn to use dynamic movement and that is a skillset that is helpful for climbers of all sizes! So – here are 4 principals to look at when you are moving your body up the wall dynamically.   Make sure you're pushing and flagging

Having trouble reaching the next hold?  I know that feeling. As a youth climbing coach and a human with height and wingspan under 5 feet, that's a situation I encounter on a regular basis.  Over the years, I've gathered some approaches to stretch out every inch of a climber's (and my own) reach.   

One of the most basic climbing techniques we teach in our intro classes is learning how to use the holds given to you by our phenomenal routesetters. You could be the strongest climber in the gym, but if you grab an undercling incorrectly, you’ll likely come off the wall.  Let’s examine some common holds you’ll find in our gym and how to use them.