Living at Boulevard comes with all the best amenities, including a unique and beautiful rock climbing wall unlike any other recreational offering in town. Residents have every opportunity to get fit, gain some muscle and reap the cognitive rewards that come with the push and pull of climbing—all without ever leaving the neighborhood. To inspire you to come on down and check it out, we’ve put together a handful of benefits of a regular rock climbing routine.

First off, it’s a full-body workout: Rock climbing is not just for your arms and fingers. The entire body gets a workout when you climb up and down Boulevard’s wall. Your legs provide force to hold you in place and push off the wall, while abdominal muscles tighten to maintain balance and prevent injuries. Climbing works all your major muscle groups, including pecs, biceps, triceps, lats, traps, core muscles, glutes and quads.

Secondly, rock climbing is a full range of motion exercise that involves moving your entire body over space and time. Ascending and descending a wall while maintaining the correct form for each move improves balance, hand-eye coordination and proprioception (the sense of where your limbs are without having to look at them).

Additionally, climbing can help improve mood and reduce stress. When you’re on the wall, rock climbing forces you to think through the problem at hand as well as push yourself out of your comfort zone—something that easily applies to real life. This makes the brain work harder for extended periods without giving up.

And it’s easy on the joints. Swimming isn’t the only workout you can turn to if you’re looking for a low weight-bearing exercise. Although you will feel the burn in your arms and legs, climbing works all your muscles evenly, so there isn’t undue stress on your knees.

Finally, it helps you overcome your fear of failure. While walls can seem intimidating at the bottom, life is all about pushing yourself to new heights (in this case, literally). That thing you thought you couldn’t do? You can do it. That problem you thought you’d never solve? You can solve it.

We hope we’ve convinced you that rock climbing is a fantastic sport for people of all ages and skill levels and is a great way to get in shape. If you’re looking for a way to increase your coordination, improve your flexibility and strengthen muscles with a low-impact exercise, then it’s time to try something different with a big payoff—the rock wall at The Rec Center is calling your name.