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Bouldering – otherwise known as sport climbing – has been adopted as an official Olympic sport for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and is attracting growing attention.
Indoor climbing can now be enjoyed in many climbing gyms throughout Tokyo. Because they stay open late on weekdays many businesspeople visit them on their way home from work. Below, we introduce you to the sport of bouldering, so popular among business folk.
What is bouldering?
Bouldering involves climbing a “problem” wall using only foot- and hand-holds, no harnesses or ropes. You start climbing by grasping the lowest hold with both hands, and suspending your body in space. You then climb the wall using only the holds on your designated route, and complete the problem by grasping the end-goal hold with both hands for three seconds. The difficulty of the problems is determined by the shape and positioning of the holds and the steepness of the wall.
Bouldering is a sport which requires you to make good use of your arm and leg muscles, and is also deemed effective for core strengthening. Climbing the wall without falling from the small holds requires you to think about your balance and to stabilise yourself, which requires you to use your core muscles. Strengthening your core muscles improves postural deformities and increases the efficiency of everyday activities such as standing and walking. This reduces the demands placed on your body, meaning you are less likely to feel physically tired.
Bouldering also helps to boost business intelligence
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Bouldering is enjoyed by a wide range of people, young and old, male and female. Because you can tackle problems appropriate to your level at your own pace, you can enjoy bouldering as a solitary activity or can make it a more sociable and competitive experience by participating in a group. Bouldering gives anyone an opportunity to experience a sense of achievement when they have climbed to their goal.
Another attraction of bouldering is that you need to work backwards in order to plan a route to your goal.
Sometimes the positioning of the holds is complicated and you need to work out in advance (through observation) how you are going to move yourself up the wall. Since conquering the problem depends not only on simple physical strength but also on how you move your body from hold to hold, you need to work out a strategy for climbing before you start. This boosts your problem-solving ability and gives you an enormous sense of achievement.
Working out a route to achieve your goal is also vital in business. Bouldering is good for developing your ability to check your ideas and repeat things until you get them right. The sport not only keeps you physically fit but also boosts skills useful in business.
What you need to know before you start bouldering
To participate in bouldering, you need nothing in particular other than suitable clothing. Your first visit costs around S$36-45, as it includes a membership fee. Thereafter, each visit costs around S$18-25, including the cost of shoe hire and chalk powder to prevent slipping. If after a few visits you decide you want to continue with the sport, it would probably be more cost-effective to buy your own shoes and chalk powder supply.
Because bouldering uses muscles you don’t normally use, you need to make sure that you stretch before and after climbing. It is particularly easy to injure the joint muscles, for example in your wrists, shoulders and hips, so you need to be particularly careful not to sustain an injury that would impede your everyday or working life. The sport is particularly hard on the muscles of the underside of your forearms, so you need to loosen these muscles as well before climbing.
That’s bouldering in a nutshell. It is the best training for people who want to maintain a healthy body while having fun. And it’s reasonably priced, so why not visit your nearest climbing gym and have a go?
