For those people who love the outdoors and love a challenge even more, rock climbing can prove to be the best sport of your life. Rock climbing is extremely challenging but the rewards are unimaginable. Imagine yourself strong, fit and confident, viewing the scenery from hundreds of feet off the ground. The views are breathtaking and the feeling of accomplishment is absolutely amazing.
Rock climbing can be done indoors or outdoors. For the beginner, it is a good idea to learn your skills and build your confidence indoors. This is a safer way to climb and gyms the provide this require you to undergo a quick lesson before heading to the wall. They will teach you how to properly tie and secure your harness, rope and other equipment and will also show you the necessary skills to be a good climber or belayer (the partner on the ground). Once you head to the wall, you will truly understand how challenging this sport is. You will realize it even further as you take the next few days to recover from the muscle soreness. But it is totally worth it.
While to watch a rock climber scaling the side of a mountain, it appears that they use their arms to propel them upwards, this is not true. In actuality, the sport of rock climbing is approximately 75% legs and only 25% arms. Your arms are there mostly to hold you steady and close to the rock face. Your legs will be the main source of strength and will push you upwards. This should be great news for those of us who have limited upper body strength, but are quite powerful below the waist. You don't have to be a body builder in order to climb, in fact the leaner your muscle, the easier a time you will have. The most important rule or skill of rock climbing, is to always have 3 points touching the wall. This can be both feet and a hand or both hands and a foot. However, it is much easier to balance on 3 points than it is on 2. This will keep you safer and allow you to climb for a longer period of time before fatigue sets in.
Once you head outdoors, there are three main types of climbing. You should be familiar with all of these before you begin. These include Top Roping, Lead Climbing and Bouldering, all of which should be done with a partner. The most popular type is lead climbing. This involves a rope which is secured to the top of the rock or mountain, then fed through a pulley system and attached to the climbers harness. A belayer will hold the bottom of the rope and feed the climber slack as he or she needs it. The next type, Lead Climbing requires a more advanced climber to scout out the route and clip the rope into place as they go. This is more difficult for the first climber. Both of these types allow the climber to rest by putting their weight into the harness and relying on the rope for support. The third type of climbing, Bouldering, does not allow for this. Bouldering is climbing on a much smaller rock formation and does not utilize and equipment (save for a helmet). Since the distance to the ground is much less then during a normal climb, the only safety precaution may be a bouldering mat which is kept on the ground in case

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