Are you a sportsman trying to stay fit and look good? Or do you want to burn calories and lose weight? What about preventing chronic disease or living by the old adage, ‘healthy body, healthy mind’?
If any of those reasons look appealing to you, you might want to take a minute and read this, because we will be counting out the benefits of using a vertical climber; the new must-have for at-home gyms
Vertical climbers are exercise machines and the closest you can get to hiking, rock climbing, or rope-jumping without leaving the comfort of your living room. Taking into consideration, that to this day, there is still no scientific publication on the specific benefits of vertical climbers, we can assume almost identical benefits with the activities that this fitness equipment imitates, activities such as we just mentioned.
It’s very practical and usually more affordable than others exercise machines. Nevertheless, it will provide you with a full-body workout and cardio. However, that’s not the only benefit that this exercise equipment offers. We give you the five benefits of using a vertical climber in your home.
Top 5 health benefits of vertical climber
1. Losing weight
The summer is almost over, cold weather and rainy days are coming. and with that, running or climbing is too hard or dangerous. Yet, you want to lose calories and you are trying to find a way how.
Since the vertical climber simulates rock-climbing and the benefits are almost identical, Harvard Health Publications posted a report that an average person burns around 818 calories per hour during a rock-climbing ascent and about 596 calories hourly while rappelling. According to Dr. Kathleen Zelman of WebMD, you can lose around 2 pounds per week if you burn 500 more calories than consuming.
In other words, using this exercise equipment will give you the same benefits as running or climbing outdoors, in the most practical way.
2. It improves your health and prevents chronic diseases
The vertical climber has a significant positive impact on your physical fitness. It improves your overall body tone, and of course, core strength.
In 2018, the Iranian Journal of Public Health, published a study about the physical activity of any kind, especially climbing, and how can significantly benefit a person’s health. It clearly says that people who exercise, climb, hike, etc, tend to live longer, are healthier, and delay the onset of multiple chronic diseases.
And on top of that, a review in the Journal of Human Kinetics which was published in 2011 reported that climbers usually have lower body fat percentages, increased handgrip strengths, and lower body mass indexes.
3. It strengthens the muscles
Are you a sportsman? A football player who wants to increase the shot power? Or maybe a martial artist, a wrestler, or a jiu-jitsu practitioner? Last training session you went for a double-leg takedown on your sparring partner, but you lacked the strength to finish it, and got caught in a guillotine choke.
Well, good news. After spending some time on the vertical climber, you can go back to the gym and turn into “Chael Sonnen” with the powerful takedowns.
The workout on the vertical climber requires several different muscle groups to be flexed and engaged during the session. The abs, traps, biceps, obliques, calves, lats, quads… and not only those, but also, climbing even affects the forearm muscles by strengthening a climber’s grip.
Basically, all major muscles are involved in even one single vertical climbing workout session.
4. It’s good for your mental health
“Physical exercise has direct effects on the biology and psychology of depression!”
– James S. Gordon
Having a vertical climber at home is a huge advantage for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is that it’s available at any time, and one can do exercises every day.
While today, plenty of people are struggling with depression, many scientific studies have shown that physical exercise can prevent or decrease symptoms of anxiety. For instance, in 2011 was published a study by the National Library of Medicine, stating that exercise can be a crucial factor to decrease symptoms of anxiety. In that study, those university students who were physically active showed higher levels of enthusiasm, happiness, and excitement, as compared to those who were less, or not active at all.
In another study, scientists realized that people who got regular varieties of exercise were less likely to develop anxiety, depression, or melancholy in the following five years.
To be clear, using a vertical climber wouldn’t necessarily be the cure for all of your mental health problems, and those who struggle with depression should best ask for professional help. But on the other hand, this exercise machine could definitely help to reduce, improve, and potentially prevent early-stage depression or anxiety disorder.
5. It improves the cardiovascular system
As mentioned before, a vertical climber is a mirror replica of rock-climbing and involves almost identical physical movements.
While doing all the pulling, pushing, and lifting, it’s needless to say that climbing is also a great cardiovascular workout, says professor of kinesiology, William Sheel, at the University of British Columbia in Canada. To back that up, in 2004, he and his colleagues conducted a study about the physiology of climbing. “The heart rate response was higher than we could predict.” – he said.
They also concluded that climbers use a crucial portion of their aerobic potentials.
In other words, using a vertical climber could better your condition, durability, longevity, and stamina.
As a final observation
Sometimes bad weather can be just an excuse, but oftentimes it’s a legitimate concern for your safety. Almost 70 percent of weather-related car accidents are due to rains and storms, and about 18 percent of them happen during the snow. When you have a vertical climber in your room, your worries about the bad weather can be put to rest, and you can always exercise from the comfort of your own home.
In these Covid traumatized times, that means you have a pandemic-proof exercise that can spare you the worries of interacting with people at the gym. Not only that, but gyms may even close temporarily or in the best case scenario have restricted hours due to the Covid-19. Either way, having your own personal fitness at home, means a clean, safe, and always productive workout session.
A vertical climber is a must-have for anyone determined to stay fit, healthy, safe, and in a good mood. While sticking to an exercise routine oftentimes is easier said than done, now it’s easier to keep up exercise more than ever. It saves you time, the frustration of being stuck in traffic, and most importantly, it gives you the freedom to exercise whenever you like, at a time when it works for you best.
With this fitness equipment, you can better your cardio, athleticism, strengthen your muscles, and return to your teammates as a better athlete than before. It will keep you happier, more enthusiastic, and will help you with anxiety, stress, and depression.
If you feel insecure about your weight, or have the “newbie complex” about exercising in public, you can now create a better version of yourself just by staying in and training at home, and this equipment will help you to escape your barrier of insecurities.
The vertical climber is undoubtedly a must-have piece of fitness equipment for your home. Good luck and work hard!