ROCKFIT Climbing and Cardio

It has taken six months of gym membership for me to discover I don’t like gyms. Sure, they can be handy in winter when the rain is pelting down and the only time you see the sun is out the office window, but the mindless repetitiveness wears a bit thin after a while.

There’s a whole host of activities that provide great cardio, but it’s often the strength training that falls by the wayside. With that in mind, I headed down to West 1 indoor climbing centre to try ROCKFIT, a new group exercise class that uses common climbing moves and mat work to provide an all-round workout.

The centre is located in Seymour Leisure Centre, Marylebone – a sprawling community fitness centre open to all on a pay-as-you go basis. I was directed down a warren of corridors before coming face to face with a 13 metre-high climbing wall. Fortunately our session was to be carried out on five specially designed ROCKFIT panels, each about two metres high – so no need for ropes!

The idea behind it is that you start seated, at the base of each panel, and use the hand and foot holds to lever yourself up and climb to the ceiling, before following the same route down. This targets specific muscle groups and is surprisingly effective at raising your heart rate! I found within minutes I was out of breath and my forearms – never before used, it seems – were screaming at me.

Our instructor, Paul, demonstrated and explained everything carefully, and with only four of us in the class, was able to offer personal advice and answer all my ‘Help! My arms have stopped working!’ queries. In between the panel work, we did your standard mat work: sit ups, planks, squats and press ups to make sure every part of our bodies were targeted. Having Paul there to coach and encourage us really made a difference and I pushed myself further than I could have done alone.

The session was hard but worthwhile. I’d probably supplement it with a more sustained cardio session while I’m still learning the ropes (pardon the pun) but after an hour’s session I feel like I’ve done a great weights session without even realising.

ROCKFIT is available at High Sports centres around London. My drop in session cost £7.55 including shoe hire.

Tel: 0845 363 1177

Image by ekemajp courtesy of Flickr