Rock Climbing as 2024 Hottest Hobby and Sport Indoor Climbing

2024 Top Hobby to Try – Indoor Rock Climbing

If you are trying to find something interesting to pursue to spice up your life and stay active, consider rock climbing this year.

Warm up on an easy auto belay routes in rock domain climbing gym Bangkok

No, its not as daunting as one thinks, that requires an immense amount of strength and muscles.

In fact, having too much of muscles can actually be detrimental to the process of one’s climbing, as rock climbing and bouldering is in its pure form, actually a fluid mix of balance, flexibility and core strength. So..put on your muscle tee and find out what are the reasons to pick up rock climbing.

Easy lead climbing routes for beginners in Rock Domain Bangkok

Why Rock Climbing as a new hobby or sport to pick up?

1. Great for toning arms and butt

Yes believe it or not girls, this sport beats many other sports cardio workouts you do hands down. Climbing is one of the fastest calorie burning hobbies and transporting your body up the rock wall helps define your arms and learning to use your legs more and pass your body weight from arms to lower body, helps train every part of your body.

It can also train your core when you belay a climber from the bottom, as you have to lean back against your harness to take in the weight and belay using your carabiner and ATC device.

Rock climbing pushes you physically and tests your endurance

2. Great mental challenge

Yes mind games, we hate them but have to have them.

Climbing is a mental challenge with yourself – you versus your mind.

Rock climbing at Dairy Farm Singapore
Rock climbing at Dairy Farm Singapore, the only natural rock climbing spot in Singapore

Most of climbing is all about the level of willpower you have within you to get to the next step. Yes, indeed you need the basic fitness level to at least hold your bodyweight with your fingers/ palms. But if you find yourself trying harder routes and facing obstacles, you will come to realise the greatest obstacle is… self-doubt.

Doubting you have enough strength to go further.

Afraid of the fall when you let go of the wall.

Rock Climbing is a hobby that after you pick it up, it gets addictive

Fear of heights when you look down and realise how high you are above the ground/ and that irrational thought that you will fall to the ground.

And these thoughts, my friend, are the paralyzers of making us get better. So as you learn to identify them and take a better hold of your fears and mental thoughts, you will find that climbing trains you to push yourself harder, to try again after giving up, and to be prepared for failure at a difficult attempt. If you ask me, climbing teaches many important lessons in life about perseverance, grit and determination.

Each climbing route is set to be a challenge and to test your ability an different types of climbs. Hence, you will see the grading chart or colour codes on climbing walls to determine how to progress along in your climbing growth.

Rock climbing is an awesome activity to start young. If you have children, it might be something awesome to consider?

3. Climbing has a superb community of like-minded people

Yes, this is one sport that bonds people. Unlike running or swimming or even gym-ing, rock climbing is a sport that has shared experiences and bonding moments. Unlike in a gym where it gets creepy when someone looks at you while you hail those weights, climbing is a sport where you share climbing tips and techniques with each other, and in the process watch each other to see how to improve your body positioning on the wall, footwork and shifting of centre of balance to achieve a better climb. So, picking up climbing gives you a license to look at other people work at it, and they don’t judge you for it..unless you start to look leering and pervy. In that case, I can’t help you.

However, one last note, climbing is actually a great date place, so make sure you dress up nicely in your climbing outfits, you never know if you meet your soul mate here.

Project Rock Penang
Bouldering at Project Rock in Penang

4. Rock Climbing brings you places

Rock climbing is a sport that can be confined to the 4 walls in an indoor gym, but it can also break down boundaries.

If you love the rush of rock climbing in outdoor places, hearing the wind and waves with the sun beating down on you, then rock climbing outdoors is just going to get better in time.

Scaling the sand stone walls of long dong
Scaling the sandstone walls of long dong with the waves crashing behind

For those who take this sport serious enough and start seeing improvements in their climbing, they will start looking for new hideouts or places to climb that can challenge themselves. And that’s when the idea of trying sport climbing in outdoor natural rock like Long Dong in Taiwan starts to sound enticing.

Outdoor natural rock climbing is not for everyone, especially for those who love the comfort of air conditioning and top rope. But if you, like me,  would love to climb and see the world better from a vantage point, then outdoor sport climbing for views is the way to go. It even crosses boundaries and brings you to places in Asia around the world you would never have considered.

However, take note that safety precautions is necessary before every trip and you should also be experienced in lead climbing, multi-pitch and belaying someone with a proper belay device. Also, make sure you select the right type of climbing shoes for the usage – indoor climbing shoes or bouldering shoes might not be the most durable or comfortable in an outdoor hot environment for hours.

5. Rock Climbing keeps you young and alive

This is no joking matter, it is true.

People who climb more over time seem to fight the ageing process better. Perhaps coz you are always excited to push your body, or smile more from taking a big fall or reaching the top, climbing is a great stress reliever, body toner and mental health booster. Just a few hours of intensive climbing and you already feel so satisfied that you are working those lazy muscles and feeling fitter by the moment. However, never get too complacent as climbing needs constant practise and regularity. If you climb profusely for a few weeks and stop for a month after, you will find that your body loses its muscle memory and you would have to retrain from scratch again to get back to the climbing grade you use to be able to attain much more easily.

Multi Pitch Point at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur
Multi-Pitch Point at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur

So, I hope you have a few more reasons to convince you and your fellow friends why rock climbing is a great hobby/ pastime and sport to pursue in this hectic stressful city life we are in. Give it a try and am sure you will have a great time!

Beginner Guide to Rock Climbing in Singapore
Beginner Guide to Rock Climbing in Singapore

What are you waiting for?

You Might Also Like

6 Comments

  • Avatar of Kasie
    Reply
    Kasie
    September 22, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    I used to LOVE rock climbing so much so I am all about this post. I used to climb competitively and miss it so much (though I can’t climb anymore for physical reasons). It is such a fabulous sport – it works your body while really forcing you to use your brain and challenge yourself.

    • Avatar of Lydia Yang
      Reply
      Lydia Yang
      September 26, 2018 at 10:21 am

      Thank you Casie! Yes, its indeed such a mentally and physically sport that trains you up! Glad you had really good memories of it!

  • Avatar of Cris
    Reply
    Cris
    September 25, 2018 at 12:43 am

    I love that in this sport, you always have someone there in case something goes wrong it is a great team work.

  • Avatar of Sharlene Melanie
    Reply
    Sharlene Melanie
    September 25, 2018 at 9:40 am

    Wow! Very informative blog post. You are really brave and enthusiastic!

  • Avatar of MUNS
    Reply
    MUNS
    September 30, 2018 at 1:49 am

    Hi Lydia,

    Great Blog. I’m just new into this climbing hobby (started 3/4 weeks ago). Currently am looking for my first climbing shoes. Could you recommend which brand should I get and not too pricey? Appreciate if you could share some tips

    • Avatar of Lydia Yang
      Reply
      Lydia Yang
      September 30, 2018 at 2:32 am

      Hi Muns!
      So glad you enjoyed the post. Yes you should get your 1st pair to kick off the hobby. I would recommend as a beginner to get Mad Rock or Five10 as it is more affordable. But make sure you don’t buy too big a shoe size! it should be nice and snug.

Leave a Reply

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from a link you click on the site that lead to a qualifying purchase. It will not cost you anything additional, but it does help us in supporting this site to keep creating great content for you. All our recommendations and reviews included in the site are purely unbiased.