Movement Blog

When you walk into a Movement gym, the first thing you probably see are the climbing walls - we have a lot of them! But our gyms are so much more than just a spot to climb. Here are 4 (and 2 bonus) things you can do at the gym that go beyond climbing.

Climbing isn't just a sport for many; it's a way of life, a source of mental solace, and a symbol of personal triumph. Meet Danielle du Preez, one of the Gateway instructors at Movement Santa Clara, whose remarkable journey from battling a rare bone tumor to returning to the climbing wall not only serves as an inspiration but also highlights the power of community and resilience.

If you spend any time climbing or hang boarding, you can benefit from some additional wrist and finger exercises to help build strong, durable joints. Doing so allows us to practice our favorite sport pain-free and hopefully prevent future injuries. Here are a few great exercises you can do at home or before your climbing sessions.

Incorporating a bouldering 4x4 workout into your routine once a week is a great way to add structure to your regular climbing workout. They’re also a great way to build power endurance, which will help you power up bouldering problems with bigger moves and climb up long routes without tiring as easily. Best of all, the workout is pretty simple--you pick 4 climbs and climb each climb 4 times. Consider each problem you pick like a set that you climb four times. Then you’ll rest for 5 minutes and then do the next problem/set 4 times and so on through the rest of the workout. One of our staff members walks you through how to do a 4x4 bouldering workout.

here's how to overcome the overhang mental game When it comes to climbing terrain, few things seem to inspire as much fear and intimidation as the overhang wall. So if you find yourself quickly walking past the Gnarwall at Rockville, Megaprow at Dallas the Hill, the Constant Wall in Sunnyvale, or the Iceberg in Portland to climb more vertical terrain or you’ve ever questioned whether you have enough upper body strength climb through steep terrain (you probably have more than you think), keep reading! One of our awesome climbing coaches, Ezra Park, has some great advice for ya.

Nothing inspires us to dream big quite like a brand spankin’ new year, am I right? We get inspired; we resolve to make improvements; we set goals. But for some of us, big dreams don’t always translate into sticking with and crushing our goals. That’s why this year, we thought we’d help by laying out some steps you can take right now and later this month to create a routine you can get into and stick with in January 2023 and beyond.

One great way to improve your climbing is to add regular weight training to your routine. Yep--it's true! While rock climbing is a skill sport, lifting weights is a preventative measure to help balance out muscles and protect against injuries. Lifting weights will create total-body strength that will allow the body to move in a variety of different ways. That's why we asked Trish, one of our Alpine Fitness instructors at our Englewood location, for a 60 minute fitness routine that will improve your grip strength and ability to hold tension so you can hold yourself on steeper terrain more easily, while also practicing movements that will support more precise footwork and improve technique.

We get a lot of questions about how to climb better and because we are so stoked to see you succeed, we’ve asked our trainers, coaches, and instructors at Movement locations all over the country to provide as much training, technique, and fitness advice to help you achieve your goals. But what is a good goal? Who are climbing goals for—are those only for those who’ve been climbing for a while? How do you make a good goal? In all parts of life goals can give us a clearer path toward the outcomes we desire. In climbing, goals can help you focus and approach your gym sessions with more intention. You’ll make the most of your time at the gym while on your way to crushing your objective, whether it’s to climb one route at a certain grade, feel comfortable climbing most routes at a certain grade, send a certain route, you get the idea. So instead of more general climbing tips and tricks, let’s take a step back and look into how to craft a climbing goal made specifically for you by you.

Climbers regularly ask us for advice on how to climb better and harder. Of course, there are a jillion ways to answer that question--endurance training, training board exercises, etc. For the sake of this article, we're focusing on small shifts in your climbing technique that will help you save big energy while climbing.

Ok, today we’re talking about climbing with straight arms versus climbing with bent arms. If you find yourself moving up the wall by grabbing a hold and using your arms to pull it down to you all the way up the wall, we have news for you! There is a much less tiring way to climb! Let’s learn how to climb with straight arms.