{"id":218361,"date":"2025-10-16T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/218361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:46:10","slug":"climbers-in-the-west-say-the-sport-helps-their-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/218361\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbers in the West say the sport helps their mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climbing parks in the West say more people are turning to the activity to help manage their mental wellbeing. <\/p>\n

Climbers at 270 Climbing Park near Gloucester have described it as helping them to combat a range of health challenges, including post-natal depression, menopause, and work-related stress.<\/p>\n

Bee Barker, from the area, said the sport had become a form of “meditation” for her. <\/p>\n

Users of Wiltshire climbing centre The Arc have also started a men’s health group to support people through mental health struggles. <\/p>\n

Opened in August, 270 Climbing Park, near Bentham, is home to the UK’s tallest outdoor climbing wall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Climber Ms Barker said she felt an improvement in her wellbeing from her “very first visit” to the facility and feels “stronger, both physically and mentally”. <\/p>\n

She added: “When I’m climbing, my brain feels ‘safe’. My thoughts are quiet and focused.”<\/p>\n

In Wiltshire, people are also turning to climbing to improve their mental health. <\/p>\n

The Arc, opened in Chippenham in 2022 at a cost of \u00a32.9m, was one of the first climbing centres in the UK to be built from the ground-up, rather than adapted from an existing space. <\/p>\n

Two climbers who use The Arc have set up a men’s health group who meet every Thursday evening. <\/p>\n

One of the group’s founders, Gary Bayliss from Corsham, said for him climbing is “like an escape”.<\/p>\n

He started the group eight months ago with friend Ryan Cross after they both found climbing helped with their own mental health struggles. <\/p>\n

Mr Bayliss said the idea behind the group was to make it a “non-pressured environment” where people didn’t feel like they “had to talk, or that they were going to be asked questions”.<\/p>\n

He added that men have come to the group for a variety of reasons some looking for to help “deal with anxiety, when they have struggled to leave the house”. <\/p>\n

The next step for the group to build relationships with local mental health charities, Mr Bayliss said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climbing parks in the West say more people are turning to the activity to help manage their mental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-218361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}