Some of you may not have ever heard someone yelling this to you from below.
“Mindy put your right foot on that hold by your right shoulder!!!”
If you’re a climber than you may have heard it and other amazing ideas for body contortion to get up a route. I’ve been climbing since I was 15 years old, now 35 and although I don’t get to climb as much as I used to, which was everyday back then I’m a much stronger climber now then I was then.
For a 5 years I was so scared of falling I would downclimb a 12a instead of going for the next move. Fear had paralyzed me. Fear isn’t a bad thing but in climbing it needs to be managed to reach your full potential. I would climb and be so calm and strong and then the moment a crux move came my heart rate would accelerate and I would be overcome with the fear of the fall so much that I would back off.
Like yoga practice, I had to practice falling. When I first started to practice yoga poses really scared me, like handstands and arm balances. Early in I fell on my face out of crow pose and that fall hurt more than my face. Fear took over and I didn’t try it again for almost 8 months! What’s even more interesting is now crow pose is one of my favorites.
You can really overcome a lot of obstacles on your yoga mat.
Once I started to practice falling on lead I quickly overcame the fear and started to push myself again and it really felt great. I noticed that fear can creep back in if I don’t take a few falls so it’s really important that as the fear starts to grip me, I have to let myself surrender and literally ‘let go.’
I remember when I started to get into yoga I was trying to show some of my climbing friends a few stretches that would help. It wasn’t long after that I decided to become a yoga teacher so I actually knew what I was doing (well, sort of). Yoga has helped my climbing in physical and psychological ways. My concentration has improved as much as my hamstring flexibility. Staying connected to my breath in yoga and climbing helps to keep my heart rate down and my nervous system more calm. Climbing is exciting so my heart rate will jump but I can bring it back down much faster now with some deep yogic breaths. 
Whenever I’m at a climbing gym or the crag I can’t help but notice people posture’s. It what I do for a living now. What I have noticed is that climbers tend to have a concave chest and a rounded back with both their shoulders and their head in the forward plane of the body. Having a strong back is obviously a must for climbing hard but imbalances between the front and back body will limit they body.
People with poor posture have a shorter life span.
When the head and shoulders are forward it puts pressure on the spinal discs but it also puts more pressure on the heart and lungs. Just by bringing the head and shoulders back your lungs can more fully inflate, more breath, more oxygen, more oxygen, better muscle performance. Less oxygen the muscles can prematurely sezz up. Breathe better, climb harder, live longer!
Practicing poses on my fingertips at first was excruciating! My fingers burned in every pose. My tendons and pulleys were overused and tight, not strong, tight! Big difference between tight and strong. Tight muscles are also weak, they tear easily then the body must use energy to heal. Strong muscles are ones that are strong AND flexible. After about six months of steady practice on my fingertips, even handstands, my fingers felt better than ever and I was able to crimp and hold slopers with more strength and ease. 10 Points for yoga!!
On the opposite end, we can talk about climbers feet (okay I barfed a little in my mouth just typing that, nasty) Like many climbers I wanted my shoes to be super tight. I remember back in the early nineties having to order my gear over the phone the guy at MEC in Toronto telling me to downsize my regular shoe size by at least 2 sizes, “the tighter the better” he said. I started with a pair of Boreal Ballets, I couldn’t get them to be tight if I tried because my foot was so narrow and skinny.
After years of climbing and wearing tight shoes my toes were in very bad shape. I was told that I was going to need surgery on my bunions at 22 years old! The corns on the tops of my toes were painful and since yoga is done in bare feet, I started to study my feet a lot more and felt sad about the abuse I had put them through over the years of tight climbing shoes. I don’t have a pic of my toes back then but I have one of them now.
My bunions are so much better, my corns are pretty much gone! 
I can remember being on a route in Kentucky and after about 40 feet my toes were burning to the point I would have to rest and take my shoes off. Silly my shoes were so tight the were hurting my climbing not helping. I always have two pairs of shoes one for easier climbs and a pair that are a bit tighter for harder routes.
Yoga creates balance in the body, mind and heart.
As the warmer weather comes my itch to get out and climb is increasing. We
haven’t had a climbing gym in our city for a few years now and news has hit that one
is finally slated to open in 7 to 9 months, I can’t wait to put my practice into practice at the gym.
The bottom line is yoga will help you climb harder, hands down its the number one cross-training activity that will make a huge difference in how you climb.
Happy climbing and get on a yoga mat asap!
Mindy Willis-Menard
Certified yoga teacher and climbing addict