is rock climbing a good workout?

Rock climbing is a great full body workout, especially if you are a beginner, or you have never done it before.

Rock climbing heavily targets your back, arms, and core. In addition to these muscles, which are the most worked muscles while climbing, you will also use your feet, triceps, and occasionally, your chest for certain moves. Most likely all parts of your body will be used while climbing at times, it depends on the level of climbing, the difficulty of the route, and the route itself.

It's not uncommon for new climbers to be sore in places they have never been sore before. This is because climbing uses many smaller muscles that people normally do not use, even if they are coming from a history of other sports or weight training.

In addition to the smaller, mostly unused muscles, it also uses your main muscles in ways that you may normally not use. This is because in order to stay close to the wall, you have to sometimes put your body in positions that may be quite awkward to your muscles since they are positions your body just isn't used to, which means you will use your muscles to get in and out of those positions in ways they are not used to.