Yoga for Climbers: Improve Mobility, Strength, and Performance

Written by: Samantha Feinerman

Training for climbing isn’t all about strength.  Routine maintenance work and self-care are just as important for keeping our bodies and minds flowing and functioning well.  Besides strength, we need mobility, flexibility, joint stability, endurance, active recovery and rest.  

Yoga is an incredible way to work on all of those things in one place.  Whether you’re new to climbing, a veteran, a social gym sesher, weekend warrior, or comp climber, yoga has something for all bodies, training needs, and levels and types of climbers.

Key Benefits of Yoga for Climbers

Injury Prevention and Recovery

Recovering between climbing sessions is essential and yoga is an amazing practice for active recovery and restoration.  It’s a conscious process of relieving our mind and body from all of the repetitive movements and try-hard efforts helps us de-compress, reduce stress, tension, tightness,  inflammation and strain, as well as overuse injuries.  

Improved Flexibility and Range of Motion

Climbing asks our bodies to do things that are unusual and challenging.  So does yoga.  Except in yoga, we practice bending, flexing, and reaching with heightened awareness, care and intention.    

Having the flexibility and range to get from one move to another makes us more efficient and confident in ourselves and our climbing skills.  It can even make problems easier for us by improving our ability to get into the positions we need to.

Every yoga pose helps us stay loose and limber as we unlock new ways of using and being in our body.

Better Balance and Body Awareness

Whether we’re flowing in and out of poses with each breath or holding a pose for what can sometimes feel like forever, every movement on our mats is a matter of full attention and intention. Balance. Stability. Precision of movement. Body and spatial awareness are key for climbing.  In yoga, we practice mastering them.  

Increased Core Strength and Stability

The core is made up of a combination of muscles in our midsection that stabilize our spine and pelvis, connect our lower and upper body, function to generate movement, transfer physical force, and largely governs and controls our balance and center of gravity. 

It’s a vital part of our human body.  

In climbing, it’s the foundation of our technique: grip strength, our footwork, how well we can stay on the wall and optimally position our body, the control to move statically and dynamically, and much more.

In a yoga class, we work our core almost the whole time we’re in an active practice.  We increase our core strength and stability as we use our body to push, take on challenging poses, maintain our posture in twists and backbends, while we balance on one leg, our hands, or even our head!  Our core learns to stabilize our body in all sorts of interesting ways that directly translate to our time on the wall.

When Climbers Should Practice Yoga

Before you climb, get moving.  Pre-climb yoga is a great way to warm up, without working too hard.  

Mid-climb yoga can help keep things loose. Sometimes we need a little mobilization or stretch to relieve some tensions between climbs.

After your sesh, slow things down and stretch.  Yoga can help us wind down and can reduce stress, tension and soreness from building up.

Active recovery and rest days are essential.  Gentle, slow, relaxing yoga practices are an excellent down-regulating and restorative activity for climbers on off days.

Breath + Meditation practices elevate our physical and mental game just as much (and on a deeper level) than the physical yoga practice.  Our mind and body work together.  Focus, clarity, and stress reduction are just a few of the many benefits of these powerful non-physical practices.

How to Get Started with Yoga at Bouldering Project

Let’s send and flow together.  

You can delve into yoga by jumping into any one of the yoga classes offered all day, every day, in our very own Bouldering Project community.  

Align, Flow, & Power Flow classes can be integrated right into your climbing session as a warm up, cool down, or active recovery.  These classes are on the more active, engaging, and challenging side.  You can choose based on what level of intensity feels right for you.

Flow + Restore and Restore classes can wind us down and start chilling us out post-climb.

Myofascial Release and Restore classes are great classes for your off days that are focused purely on rest and recovery.

Guided Meditation is a great class for kickstarting your meditation journey or having the support of a teacher and community for your steady practice

EXPLORE YOGA CLASSES

Elevate Your Climbing with Yoga

Whether we’re looking for a way to maintain or take things to the next level, yoga is a practice that can help us pursue both.

Consistency is key for improving range, skill and technique.  Mentally, physically and beyond.  The more we practice, the more profoundly the benefits land and work.

One pose at a time, every intentional breath, and each practice, we build on what our already amazing human bodies can do.  And we find we can do them better and take everything that yoga gifts us right into the rest of our daily life.  Which for us, means on the wall and into training.