How To Help The Environment And Your Climbing

This week we’ll be taking a break from The Best Of MP to dive into some good ol’ self-improvement. But this time it’s for the benefit of more than just the self.

Helping the environment helps you in the long run. And, just like climbing, making the short-term sacrifice (ie. training) leads to long-term benefits. Here are a few ways to give the earth some love that can also up your climbing (in no order):

1) Eat Out Less: Driving to a restaurant that likely wastes major amounts of food/water is not as sustainable as cooking at home. Saving your vehicle’s carbon emissions also comes with dietary benefits. Cooking at home means you can more fully control the quality of the energy it can provide to fuel your next sesh. 

2) Climb Less: Before you burn me at the stake for blasphemy, let me explain. Climbing less is great for your performance IF you increase the quality of the time. Climbing coach Steve Maisch stated it well when he said, “More is not better, better is better.” To increase the quality, proper rest is required. Bumping down from 5 gym/crag days to 3 or 4 days means less driving, more recovery, and fewer emissions. 

3) Build A Home Gym: First of all, why not have a home gym? In combination with the ability to enjoy climbing whenever you want, you can have full control of the specificity of your training. You also don’t have to drive to the gym, a green benefit and time saver. Check out this link.

4) Ride A Bike To The Gym: If your gym or crag is close, riding there can be a good warmup. A 10-minute cardiovascular effort is one way to get the blood flowing and prepare your body for climbing (in combination with stretching and climbing of course).

5) Turn Off Your Electronics/Go To Bed Earlier: According to studies done by Harvard, artificial light (especially the blue light produced by phones) affects melatonin levels. Turning off devices an hour before bed and going to bed earlier means more rest and less energy being used to power lights/phones or laptops.