Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Propel. I was compensated and all opinions are 100% my own.
Did anyone else learn the phrase “face your fear and it will disappear” as a kid? No, just me?
The older I get, the more I realize this phrase is true. So often, we build up a fear in our head, and by the time we face it, it’s rarely ever as bad as we expect.
Speaking of my childhood again, I used to love rock climbing wall birthday parties. For this month’s Propel post, they wanted us to face our fitness fears. I haven’t climbed one of those walls since I was, oh, 12? I wasn’t sure if I had the upper body strength or the mental fortitude to scale these massive walls.
Since I hate telling myself no or making excuses, out to Brooklyn Boulders I went. (In some crazy act of luck, this was immediately following my 10-mile run that ended at the JackRabbit in Park Slope, so I only had to walk 10-15 minutes to get there.)
Another fitness fear I didn’t even realize I had was climbing a rock wall with a camera man in tow. Propel sent out a cameraman to film this adventure.
I got a quick intro from one of the instructors, and off and climbing I went!
BRB, just signing my life away.
There’s three options at Brooklyn Boulders:
•Bouldering: you’re climbing smaller walls with no belay/harness (See: yellow/green wall.)
•Auto-belay: you’re clipped into a harness, and a machine belays you
•Human belay: a human belays you. (Groundbreaking, I know.) You need to be with someone who’s certified to belay, though. Or find someone. We found a guy to belay me for a few rounds. (See: blue walls.)
I tried the bouldering, but quickly moved to the auto-belay area.
The idea of climbing without a harness wasn’t very appealing to me.
The instructor had me climb up a bit before trying out the auto-belay. I did NOT trust that machine at first, but I realized I sort of had to. I jumped and the safety net appeared, and all of that.
You’re supposed to follow the tape to get to the top, if you’re wondering what the pink tape is. Looking up at the wall was really daunting, but I broke it into chunks: I first climbed about halfway up, to test the belay. No way was I climbing all the way to the top and then making sure that belay worked and I was comfortable with it. It just took me once testing it before I was ready to go up to the top. I got almost to the top, and they told me to go to the green rock all the way up top. Challenge accepted.
Between the fear and climbing pretty quickly, I got my heart rate up, and was dying for some cold Propel by the time I got down to rehydrate. (And, oh yeah, I ran 10 miles before.) Luckily, there was a cooler of cold Propel waiting for me, in my favorite flavors, grape and strawberry.
This was much harder than the auto-belay wall, because there were 14 million different holds to grab on to. The instructors said they’d help if anyone got stuck figuring out which way to go, but my belayer was not a fan of me and not helpful. I got about 3/4 of the way up this wall, reached across weird, and tweaked a muscle in my shoulder and came down.
Verdict: I had a ridiculous amount of fun, and I would definitely go back. Also, I drank at least 4 Propels while there, no joke. Rock climbing is a legit workout, especially with a 10-mile warmup.
What’s your fitness fear? Have you faced any fitness fears that weren’t as bad as you thought?
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nice job, girl! i love love love rock climbing and have been meaning to get to Brooklyn Boulders and this just spiked that desire into the forefront of my mind again. and after a 10-miler? rock.star.
10 miles + rock climbing = YOU ARE SUPERHUMAN.
Good for you! Those rock walls seem scary but I've been scrambling up a mountain in Shenandoah park and I wish I had done the yellow rock wall to prepare for it. And maybe it's just me but the auto belay seems better than trusting a person who might be distracted when I need him most. Haha. Looks like you had fun!
True :) I was just afraid of a machine malfunction!
I don't know how I feel about all the sponsored posts - I understand it is compensation and free gifts but it seems like all the core fitness bloggers out there have almost the same or similiar posts within a few days/week of each other, it seems somewhat predictable and unpersuasive. Sadly it makes me not want to read the blogs that continuously have the sponsored posts because I don't feel like I'm gaining valuable information, just being a source of someone's revenue or free goods!
From a brand perspective, unless you have that one killer Super Bowl ad, it's unlikely that you're going to see results from one hit somewhere, so that's why most brands do big ad buys and now are doing bigger campaigns with multiple bloggers at once. As for not getting valuable information, I have really liked that Propel's given us interesting themes every month, so I feel like I'm still offering something interesting to my reader even if they happen to not be interested in the Propel stuff.
I'm sorry but your Propel posts just seem SO forced. I usually love your blog, but these posts just do not seem genuine. I really never remember you mentioning Propel before your partnership with them. I hope you try to figure out a good balance soon!
I'm sorry you feel that way. You're right, I didn't mention them much before my partnership with them because they're not easy to find in Manhattan, but I wouldn't have signed on for a 10-month project with a product I didn't love. I like the brand's approach to fitness...and I like how it tastes.