UKC

hi

been invited to try yoga at my local wall
was just wondering how beneficial it is for climbing
do any climbers out there do it?

cheers

Jack

In reply to jackda21:

If your aim is to get better at climbing, then spend the time climbing. But if you want other, more general benefits, then do some yoga too, it's really good for you.

In reply to jackda21: I've been doing yoga for years its really enjoyable, helps flexibility and really chills you out. as for climbing specifically, the flexibility helps, breathing techniques can really get your head together when your shaking like a leaf trying to make that clip!

In reply to jackda21: Absolutely. Increases flexibility, reduces risk of injury. But you need to do it consistently for a period of time.

In reply to jackda21:

I've tried Bikram yoga a number of times and can see the benefits from exercising body tension, balance and core muscles. Also Bikram studios are heated to allow warm muscles to stretch deeper and believe me an hour plus in 40 degree heat is a real challenge.

In reply to jackda21:

Yoga would be great for improving flexibility to help you climb better. About 20 years ago I did yoga for 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed it. But I stopped doing it and lost my flexability.

At the moment I am on sick leave and three months ago I started doing palates, 5 days a week, at my local Sport Centre. I was not too sure what it was at first, and thought that it would be a poor imitation of Yoga. I was wrong and found it more beneficial to me than yoga.

When I started 3 months ago I had very poor upper body strength, which was why I was off sick. I discovered that Palates is quite a recent activity which I think started in the 80's. This means that a more scientific approach has been put into the exercises to isolate specific muscle groups to work on at a time. Palates mostly works on your core body strength which is an excellent foundation to improve your upper body muscles.

During my stint at Piletes one of the teachers went on holiday and we were given a Yoga teacher for the session, which I was looking forward to as I enjoyed yoga many years ago.

The whole event left a bitter pill in my mouth and I doubt I will ever do yoga again. Normally the Pilates would come around the class and correct your body posture to ensure that you were doing the exercises correct and not injuring yourself. The Yoga teacher just sat at the front of the group and directed. She had no desire to correct our body postures or explain what it was that we were to achieve. As a result I left that class with a sore back where I had to stop exercising for a week.

Looking back on my Yoga days, no instructor ever came over to correct people's body postures. It was assumed that if you wanted to progress then you would research the subject yourself on the correct form.

Yoga is a very noble form of exercise with thousands of years under its belt and you will indeed become more flexible which will aid your climbing.

From my own personal experience, I much prefer Pilates as it does the same thing but works more on your core abs and back muscles than yoga does. The tutors correct your posture and more importantly the class is not always full of retired women. Sometimes I get to exercise in the company of some hotties. They may not think the same about me, but it does make the pain of stretching my muscles all the more worthwile.

In reply to The Lemming:

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. My yoga teacher has always been fantastic in correcting my position. The fact is, if you aren't being corrected yoga could do more damage than good. It's amazing how far off you can be in replicating the movements without knowing it.

In reply to jackda21: cheers for all the comments, just got back from doing yoga, and it was awesome, brilliant for relaxation will be keeping it up for sure

In reply to The Lemming:
I don't do this myself but my wife does and she thinks it is really helping her climbing. I'd do it to0 if I didn't spend my availabile time climbing! Having said that I am picking up stretching exercises from her to do at the wall.

In reply to jackda21:

I really rate Yoga, not just for flexibility, but for overall strength and (most important to me) balance. In the one year of fairly regular once-a-week classes, plus some 'homework' I've been injury-free (touches everything wooden in sight) and climbing much more confidently.

It really depends on getting the right sort of Yoga and also finding an instructor who's interested in what you want to improve. Mine is a climber herself, so really tuned into what I might want to improve/strengthen.

It's not all about trying to do the splits and breathing control. We work on handstands, headstands and lots of tough upper-body strength stuff too.

In reply to jackda21:

Personally I quite like yoga. I think it's good for general conditioning and flexibility. Once you've learnt enough, it's easy to do 20 minutes every day and that's got to help. As long as it's something you do as well as climbing, then I'd say go for it.