Movement Gyms is more than just fitness; it’s building a community through rock climbing.
A traditional gym experience can work for meeting your fitness goals, but often it can be a solitary experience. Movement Gyms is a rock climbing gym designed with building community and relationships in mind.
With locations across the country, Movement has three locations in New York City (Gowanus, LIC and Harlem) and one in Westchester County (Valhalla). The gyms offer areas for traditional rock climbing and bouldering for all skill levels, as well as traditional fitness and yoga.
Each gym curates an inclusive space where newcomers and experienced climbers alike can come together and exercise. The traditional rock climbing walls are adjusted every couple of months or so, allowing regular members to try out different walls and difficulty levels.
“It’s really engaged in almost like a third space. It’s definitely a workout space. We really want people to get into climbing, but I think embedded in that is community, and I really think that’s a big part of Movement,” said Jason Beckmann, Gym Director at Movement.
There are different membership options for Movement, including day passes for those who are looking to give it a try before fully committing. The gym also has programming for younger climbers, offering camp options during the summer.
Beckmann recommends that new climbers take Movement’s Intro to Climbing, which will show you the ropes (pun intended) of traditional rock climbing, all of the safety information required to climb and get you acquainted with the gym.
“It’s about 90 minutes, and with it comes day pass gear, all the things, for $49. It gives you the ability to utilize the facility to the fullest so that you can rope climb on our walls,” said Beckmann. “We also do an Intro to Bouldering class, which is learning about what bouldering is as a sport and learning how to fall correctly.”
The community-building aspect of Movement is something that is strong within the culture of the gym. In addition to being an ideal spot to hang out with your friends, Movement provides opportunities to make new friends with ways to find climbing partners as well as hosting meetups for different groups, including the LGBTQ and para-climbing communities.
“From personal experience, I feel like with COVID and everything, so much got digitized in terms of finding your community. You’re scheduling things a month out, and then maybe they cancel you because it’s New York and everybody’s doing things,” said Beckmann. “What is kind of built into the flow of climbing, whether that’s rope climbing or bouldering, is the sense that you’re sharing something, it’s in the act of doing it. If we look at rope climbing, you have somebody who is partnering with you, so immediately that creates communication patterns.”
“As silly as it sounds, it creates a structured play date in a way like you know the rules of it and it gives you a place to have fun and connect with people that maybe you wouldn’t normally connect with,” Beckmann added.
Beckmann hopes that those who are looking to try something new can give Movement a chance, not just to engage in a new level of fitness but to make some friends along the way.
“In a traditional gym, you’re still going in the lens of solitary or maybe catering to one group of people, whereas I think, and I speak about this from personal experience, climbing actually encouraged me to look at other fitness elements that I wouldn’t have done because I was in a space that I feel comfortable in,” said Beckmann. “I think its ethos lends itself to encouraging people to try new things.”
For more information, visit movementgyms.com.
