Rock climbing has numerous benefits. According to time.com, it is seen as being one of the best full body work-outs. Both climbing and bouldering use “nearly the whole body’s musculature,” says Jiří Baláš, a faculty researcher and lecturer at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, who has conducted research on climbing. Other research has suggested this kind of dynamic muscle activation is much more challenging and fatiguing than simple repetitive motions like running or riding a bike. Even if a 155-pound person is climbing below their maximum effort he or she will burn eight to ten calories per minute while climbing, Baláš says, citing some of his own research. That’s almost the same as intense cardio workouts such as spinning. William Sheel, a professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia in Canada found in a 2004 study he and his colleagues conducted on the physiology of rock climbing that climbers use a large amount of their aerobic capacity. Another recent study from the University of North Florida found that activities that involve balance, muscle coordination, spatial orientation, all of which can be found in climbing, can improve a person’s working memory and other cognitive functions too. Climbing even has been found to reduce depression.