Rock climbing can help you get stronger in a relatively short amount of time. It builds strength in your core, gives you strong abs, builds your back and arms, and is an overall great workout.
Many people think that climbing only really involves your back and your forearms, and while those muscles do play a large role in climbing, they are not the only muscles that are used.
Other muscles that are used and strengthened in climbing are:
In addition to just building muscle and strengthening the body, climbing is also a great mental challenge. Whether it's getting over your fear of heights, or solving the puzzle which is the route, climbing really does involve a lot of mental power to help you finish the routes.
In bouldering, you must understand the route and how to climb it, often times as efficiently as possible, a task which isn't always as easy as it sounds, as there can be many different ways to climb it.
Also, climbing is a very social and accepting sport, an aspect that I personally was very surprised at as I have not encountered this before. While bouldering, you will probably always find someone to climb with and work on a problem with, which really helps both of you improve and progress in the sport.
Because it is both a physical challenge, and also a mental challenge. Yes, many sports include a mental challenge, but climbing specifically requires problem-solving skills.
The sport requires you to understand the routes, to understand your options and how to get to the top. A rock climbing route is essentially a puzzle that you need to solve. Solving it is both a mental and physical challenge. To solve it, you need to understand the route, how it's built and what it requires, and you need to understand what your capabilities and skills are. Then you need to use those understandings to find the best way to reach the top for you.
This is another great part of the sport - there is no one correct way to reach the top.
Every climber can have their own climbing style, some are more powerful, some are more technical, some combine the two. Some prefer crimpy holds, some prefer pinches. Some are flexible, some are not.
Every one of these elements, and more, contribute to the climbing style of the climber, which makes each climber quite unique in the way they climb, and in the way they solve the puzzles (climb the routes).
This means that you may see 10 people reaching the top of a route, and each of them may have done it in a slightly different way, and you yourself may also do it in a different way.
