See Kate Upton Scale an Indoor Rock Climbing Wall

Kate Upton wearing a black dress against a blue background
Kate Upton wearing a black dress against a blue background

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If you're looking for inspiration to switch up your workout routine, check out Kate Upton's Instagram. The actress continuously shows off her physical feats on the app, including glute-building exercises, sled pulls, and, most recently, rock climbing. (Related: Lady Gaga Wore These Comfy Adidas Sneakers to Go Rock Climbing)

Upton posted two pictures of herself indoor rock climbing in a blue sweatshirt, black leggings, blue crew socks, and climbing shoes with her hair pulled back in a bun. In the first shot, she's secured in a harness attached to ropes, scaling up a slightly angled wall. In the second photo in the carousel, she's smiling down at the camera after reaching the top of the artificial summit (which looks pretty high off the ground, BTW).

"This is your sign to go rock climbing," she wrote in the caption. "10/10 highly recommend."

Upton's Instagram post certainly makes a convincing argument for giving the sport a try, but if you need more motivation, consider the many benefits of the activity. A physically and mentally challenging activity, rock climbing is a full-body workout. Pulling yourself up a wall obviously requires upper body and core strength, but it also calls on your lower body muscles.

"Efficient movement requires an enormous amount of core strength to maintain tension with the wall," Emily Varisco, head coach and certified personal trainer at The Cliffs in Long Island City, NY, previously told Shape. You'll also need your legs to "provide your base of support," especially as your arms become fatigued, she added. (Related: How Rock Climbing Taught Me to Trust Myself)

Each movement up the wall demands serious strength and endurance, so you can keep climbing even as you tire. Stability is necessary to keep your body up against the wall, and power comes into play as you burst upward and grab onto your next grip or foothold. "A climber will naturally build balance, coordination, breath control, dynamic stability, eye-hand/eye-foot coordination," Varisco told Shape.

Then there's the mental aspect of the sport. Strapping yourself into a harness with the intention of scaling a wall can be a daunting concept, and it requires mental strength and endurance to reach the top of a climb. "Climbing for me provides a really unique mental and physical challenge, whereby you must be able to train your body to be in the best shape possible but also remember to train your mind," Emily Harrington previously told Shape.

Take a page from Upton's book and look for a climbing gym in your area today to try out the full-body sport. If Upton's smile in her recent Instagram post is any indication, reaching the top of a climb is well worth the effort.

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