Rockin' at the Gym

I've been a little lacking in the blog department lately.  But, life has just been so busy!  My daughter is still on break from college and I love spending as much time with her as I can when she's home.  We've been very busy!  Lots of shopping, cooking, this, that, and....climbing!

Hubby and I met in a rock climbing class in Joshua Tree National Park about 27 years ago.  We climbed a bit after that and a few years ago we got hooked on canyoneering...going down more than up.  Over the years we've done some indoor climbing here and there.  Our daughter bought a one month membership to an awesome local climbing gym to enjoy during her break.  We went one day and loved it so much that we also bought a month long memberships (yay for Groupon!).  We'll likely continue our membership after our initial month is over.  It's that fun!

They have a bouldering area where you can do shorter climbs without a rope.  That's done on the center structure.  There are big, poofy pads for if you fall.  I'm not into bouldering because I don't want to fall....poofy pads or not.  The perimeter walls have ropes with auto belay devices that catch you if you fall and let you down slowly.  And, they have other ropes to hook into to belay one another.  I stick to the perimeter routes.  That should keep me busy for quite a while as there are so many routes and even the simpler ones can be challenging....but oh so fun!

We even bought new climbing shoes as our old ones weren't in good shape after all these years.  The rubber on the bottoms had gotten hard and they just didn't feel good.  I think our feet have changed!  And, we don't like rental shoes!  I love our new shoes!  Aren't the colors great?!

We've already gone times enough to pay for our membership and it's barely been a week.  And, I can't believe how far I've come in just a week.  On our most recent visit, I conquered three climbs...making it all the way to the top and tapping the top of the wall before coming down.  And, I've made it just over the ledge on this challenging one.  It's a lot more work than it would seem.  Makes me breath hard and works just about every muscle in my body.  I was quite sore after the first couple of times!  I'm excited about how strong I can become and how it can even strengthen my hands for knitting!  ;-)

It's so cool to see how far my daughter has come!  She's amazing on these climbs!  She's also been working a lot on the slack line that they have at the gym.  It's like a tight rope.  She can walk all the way to the end and turn around.  She can even stand on one leg, crouch down slowly, and stand back up.  It's great for the core!  She said she feels so much stronger from climbing and the slack line and that it helps her have less pain when playing her harp for hours.  I'm not brave enough to try the slack line (or...uh...crazy enough....yet!).  

All of this is great exercise and it's really great for stress.  When climbing, the only thing you can think of is the next move....nothing else.  A nice vacation for the brain!  The best part is that it's so much fun that it doesn't feel like exercise!  I love that!