Rise Up Climbing

To Climb is Sublime

Do you find “working out” unpleasant? You know you should do it, all the experts say so. Problem is, working out is just that – work. Treadmills, elliptical trainers, weight machines or the latest P90X system can be beneficial if you can stick with them, but therein lays the issue. They’re just downright boring. In addition these one-person-to-a-machine workouts tend to isolate individuals from their friends, each intent on his or her own little workout world. The Mayo Clinic recommends keeping exercise fun and joining forces with friends to maintain a consistent exercise program.1

What if there was a way for you get the fitness workout you need while at the same time being fully engaged mentally and physically. And what if that same activity included social interaction with people like you in a supportive atmosphere? What if there was a great company that could offer you such a service? You’d have to take a look, wouldn’t you?

Climbing to the Rescue!

We’ve been teaching rock climbing indoors for almost 20 years, and we’ve seen the value of a climbing fitness program first hand. Toned physiques are a common result and all the while you’ve had fun getting there! Quite a different picture from how we normally perceive working out, isn’t it? And that’s just what we deliver – a fun workout that will challenge your mental and physical abilities no matter what your climbing level while you socialize with your friends.

Climbing is a full body workout that engages muscles from fingertips to toes and works four components of physical fitness:

• Muscular strength – build muscle strength without building bulk. Tone instead of mass!
• Muscular endurance – Last longer at any activity and feel better too!
• body composition – A higher lean muscle mass to fat body composition means you’ll look toned and fit.
• Flexibility – Climbing requires an infinite number of body positions that stretch muscles and connective tissue improving your range of motion.

Is weight loss an objective? According to a number of calorie counting sources including caloriecount.about.com, www.glamour.com/health-fitness, and www.healthstatus.com, indoor rock climbing can burn over 700 calories per hour rivaling many mainstream fitness activities such as running, swimming, and biking. In addition, climbing is simply resistance training using your bodyweight instead of external dumbbells or machines. Many weight loss experts maintain that building muscle is a great way to lose weight due to:

• Resistance training and recovery burns a substantial number of calories, and
• Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat so as you build muscle your metabolic rate increases allowing you to use more calories all day long even when you’re asleep!

There are other benefits to climbing as well including

• Balance – an improved ability to confidently move your body in space.
• Coordination – Precise movement skills learned in climbing improve dexterity and hand-eye and foot-eye coordination.
• Enhanced problem solving skill – climbing involves solving a problem while engaged in physical activity. Learn to use judgment and solve problems under stress!

Connections

Climbing at an indoor gym exposes you to a new social setting. Because roped climbing necessarily involves two people, one climbing and one belaying, social interaction is integral to the sport. Climbers routinely interact to solve the puzzles confronting them by discussing the various climbing moves that might allow a climber to efficiently ascend a given route. Encouragement for the climber is often provided by numerous others who may be watching.

Who Can Benefit from Climbing?

The beauty of climbing is that you don’t need a powerful upper body to participate. In fact, you’re likely to see women and kids outperforming muscular men. That’s because climbing emphasizes movement skill over pure strength, and almost anyone can learn to move up the wall more efficiently.

Beginner? No problem! Our expert instructors can help you learn to climb in a few easy, time tested classes, and as you progress we’re right there with you to offer support, guidance, and instruction to help improve your experience.

Rise Up Climbing has the Tools and Expertise to Help

We’ve been helping individuals meet their fitness goals through climbing since 1994. Our proven instructional methods will speed your learning and progress. Our staff and indoor facility are first rate, and the folks that climb with us are friendly and encouraging. If you’d like to learn more about Rise Up Climbing, contact us at 434-845-7625 or visit us on the web at riseupclimbing.com.

1 www.mayoclinic.com/health/fitness

What We Do

Climbing indoors is a different kind of workout. You’ll work your whole body, much like a well rounded health club fitness program would, BUT with these notable differences…

1. New fun challenges each and every week. Instead of progressing by increasing the weight you lift at a given machine we provide you with new climbing challenges every week each of which is graded for difficulty. Climbers gauge their progress by figuring out and completing progressively more difficult climbs. There are more than 100 such problems in our gym at any given time, and we change ten to twelve each week.
   That means there are always new and interesting puzzles to solve that involve both mind and body, problems that you and your climbing friends can work on solving together.
2. Social interaction. As noted above, climbing is a social activity. You’ll meet new friends and socialize with current friends to solve climbing problems, cheer each other on, or just have fun together. We also offer a number of clinics, workshops, outings, and gatherings each month to promote interaction and camaraderie. Come join our community!
3. An environment geared to young adults. Our staff consists of young adults with a passion for sharing climbing, and we tailor our Pandora stations to our young adult market, you won’t find Muzak here!

Who is the Typical Rise Up Member?

Our facility and programs are geared toward a young adult audience between 20 and 30 years old. Active lifestyles are common with some pursuing multiple human powered sports such as bicycling, kayaking, backpacking, snowboarding, or running. Many drive four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Our customers find fun in mental and physical challenge and enjoy climbing’s socially interactive nature. They tend to be in college or college educated with a professional career. They are mostly single or newly married with no children.

Sound like you? Come see why they’re here!

Our Story

Dan’s story

Dan Hague founded and led Sportrock Climbing Centers in the Washington D.C. area in 1993 and ran it for its first 11 years. In that time, Sportrock grew to become the East Coast’s largest climbing company with three indoor facilities, extensive indoor and outdoor instructional offerings, and a reputation for excellence within the climbing industry. 

Dan has been climbing for over 40 years and teaching the sport for 16. He developed and continually improved the operational standards by which Sportrock ran. His coaching clients have included many climbers in the junior divisions who have gone on to impressive finishes in local, regional, and national competitions.

During his tenure at Sportrock Dan developed the successful Fast Forward Progression, a series of classes that helped thousands of Sportrock customers acquire climbing movement skills quickly and effectively. Dan, along with co-author Doug Hunter, wrote The Self Coached Climber in which he reveals the many principles, tips, and tricks which make his instructional method so successful. Dan’s own climbing keeps getting better as he ages having redpointed a number of New River Gorge 5.13s after turning forty.

In 2005 Dan turned his attention to Lynchburg, Virginia where he’d purchased a historic home as a restoration project. Once completed he began work on bringing indoor climbing to Lynchburg and in 2008 opened Rise Up Climbing.

Currently Dan is Chairmen of the Climbing Wall Association’s Operational Standards and Climbing Wall Instructor Committees, as well sitting on the board of directors, the first of which oversees and revises the operational standards for the climbing wall industry; the second is charged with developing an indoor climbing wall instructor certification program.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get started? Want to give climbing a try? We’ve got a low cost and no commitment program for you. Our Open Climb sessions are great fun! The Rise Up staff will rope you up and take you climbing. Climb as little or as much as you desire and pay for only the climbing you do.
Class schedule: Friday: 7 – 9 PM, Saturday: 2 – 4 PM • No pre-registration required
Price: $4/climb members & non-members

What’s it cost? Cost depends on you and your goals. Try our Open Climb session for just $4 / climb. Daily access, membership rates, class prices, and rental fees can all be found on the Product / Services Offerings page above.

How can I get better? Our Fastrack program is recognized nationally for its ability to help beginner to advanced climbers improve quickly. You can read more about Fastrack on the Product / Services Offerings page above.

Can kids come and climb? The minimum age for Rise Up kids programs is six years; however, if a child is accompanied by an adult that is qualified to use our facility there is no minimum age. Team Rise Up consists of kids interested in pursuing climbing as a sport.

How do birthday parties work? You can read more about parties on the Product / Services Offerings page above.

What other kids programs do you offer? In addition to birthday parties, we offer Team Rise Up for kids. Team Rise Up is a competitive climbing team for youth, but that doesn’t begin to describe the essence of the program. See the full description under Classes on the Product / Services Offerings page above.

How can I meet people to climb with? Rock climbing is a very social activity in and of itself that promotes interaction between the participants. We offer a number of other avenues to meet people as well.
Climbfind: Rise Up has an on-line bulletin board for finding partners. See the Climbfind tab on our web site’s main menu.
Classes: Our classes, especially Fastrack, promote interaction between the students. Many long term friendships have been born in Fastrack over the years.
Partner board: Rise Up keeps a dry erase board in the gym where you can post your daily partner need. Just come in by yourself and check the board to see who’s posted and/or post your own message. Ladies Night: Every Tuesday from 7-9 pm we hold an informal gathering of women climbers. If you’re female, stop by and join in!

Do you all ever take trips outside? Although we don’t offer guided outdoor trips, our members are continuously headed outdoors to climb. There are ample opportunities to tag along on any number of trips including group outings that Rise Up coordinates. Just keep an eye on our events calendar and come along!

Do you hold competitions? Rise Up participates in three national climbing competition series sanctioned by USA Climbing. Watch for the schedule! American Bouldering Series: Fall of each year Sport Climbing Series: Late Winter and Spring Collegiate Climbing Series: Late Winter and Spring

In addition we will occasionally host informal local competitions such as our climbing leagues.

What kind of climbing do you offer? Rise Up offers 40 foot roped climbing walls with both top roping and leading available. There are typically 40+ roped routes from 5.5 to 5.12 at any given point in time. Our bouldering includes a top out boulder and a variety of angles from vertical to very steep. There are usually 60+ boulder problems from VB to V8.

Questions You Should Ask

What physical benefits can I expect from climbing?
Muscle tone – Climbing is a full body workout if combined with a few antagonistic muscle exercises. You’ll build muscle tissue in the arms, shoulders, back, abdomen, and legs, but since you’re working with your own body weight you won’t put on much additional mass. Instead your body will become leaner and toned overall.
Endurance – Endurance is the ability to work longer at difficult tasks without rest. A single climb takes anywhere from one to five minutes in which you’ll be exerting almost continuous effort. You then rest and repeat, and in this process, which has been tested over many sports, your capacity to perform continuous work is improved.
Stamina – Stamina is the ability to repeatedly give a strong effort over a period of time like one day. Certain climbing exercises can prepare you to work hard giving you the capacity to put in multiple solid efforts.

What mental benefits can I expect from climbing?
Escape your everyday life – Unlike typical fitness workouts climbing requires you to think, plan, and then perform, and since you’re so actively engaged mentally you can’t think about work or other aspects of everyday life effectively removing you from those stresses. We hear from our members that this is a useful and powerful way to get out from under your burdens at least for a short while.
Puzzles – Like solving puzzles? Climbing problems are giant puzzles requiring you to analyze the wall, create a plan, possibly adapt that plan as you climb, and execute movement sequences to overcome the difficulties.
Motor memory – Climbing movement is a motor learning activity in which you learn to perform certain motions with precision. Unlike lifting weights on a machine, climbing requires accurate and well timed movement to achieve efficiency. This motor learning translates into better climbing as well as everyday skills such as balance, applying power with precision, and accurate motion.

How does the Rise Up facility compare to other climbing gyms?
40 foot rope climbing – Only a small percentage of climbing gyms have walls that reach over 30 feet in height. Ours are 40 which means our indoor experience mimics outdoor climbing more accurately.
Top out boulder – You can climb on top of one of our bouldering walls. Few gyms offer this feature, and, once again, this more accurately reflects climbing in the outdoors.
Route setting – We turn our climbing problems over completely every eight to ten weeks. This means you get four or so new roped routes and eight new boulder problems every week. Plenty of new challenges to choose from!
Community – Our staff and members are friendly and welcoming. We’ll make you feel like your part of the community.
Fastrack - Rise Up’s nationally known climbing performance improvement series designed to help you progress rapidly. This type of training is not offered in many other gyms.
AC – Rise Up is fully air conditioned to keep you cool during hot weather.

Interesting Links
1. Indoor Climbing – More Than a Total Body Workout
2. Rock Climbing for Fun and Fitness
3. A Brief Overview of Rock Climbing as Fitness
4. Bouldering Fitness