HOT TAKE: I'm generally very pro-gravity.
I like not having to constantly hold onto bolted down things for fear of drifting away like a party balloon. I enjoy setting my keys down on a table and not having to retrieve them from the ceiling with a butterfly net. I enjoy most all of those aspects of gravity that make life liveable.
That said, gravity certainly has its downsides. Falling down stairs? Not a fan! Fumbling your phone so that its crack-friendly screen hits the pavement? No thanks! And then there's the fact that gravity makes me aware of my own often-increasing mass (Christmas candies aren't kind to any of us).
But if you're in the same boat as me on that last one, the Inland Northwest actually offers a bevy of atypical exercise gym options that will not only decrease your personal molecular density upon which gravity can exert its force, but also get you ascending through the air in defiance of the fundamental interaction of physics.
INDOOR ROCK CLIMBING
While once a bastion of extreme outdoor adventurers, rock climbing has certainly become a much more mainstream athletic activity over the past few decades. It's not uncommon now for kids to take a gym class field trip to an indoor climbing facility or for climbing walls to pop up at fairs and other community gatherings.
Since opening in 1995, Wild Walls in downtown Spokane has become a go-to spot for the Inland Northwest climbing community. It's a one stop-shop for anyone interested in indoor climbing, offering top rope climbing (traditional climbing where one end of a rope is attached to a climber's harness and the other end is managed — belayed — by a second person who's there for safety and quick descent), auto belays (top rope climbing, but with an automatic rope system so climbers can go up solo), bouldering (shorter solo walls with no ropes but cushy mats to fall on) and lead climbing (where climbers attach their ropes to clips as they ascend). The top rope walls scrape the sky at around 40 feet, while the bouldering walls top out around 15 feet.
While I did some climbing in gym classes as a kid, it felt safest to take Wild Walls' top rope-focused Vertical Introduction Class to get back into the swing of things. Much of the class' focus is understandably on the safety basics: looping ropes the correct ways, belay technique, the verbal commands each person in a top rope duo calls out to ensure they're on the same page. When the climbing finally began during the tail end of class, I could see how people get addicted to the feeling. Perhaps I'm too trusting, but — apparently unlike many newbies — I fully trusted my belayer buddy would catch me, allowing for fairly stress free ascents up the easier routes. Sure, more Wild Walls visits would build up my forearm, wrist and finger strength, but the thrill of the ascent was a blast. The more stressful times were actually those spent off the wall as the belayer, because it's hard to keep up the pace of the rope-tightening process when your partner is speeding up an easy wall.
Our 21-year-old instructor, Kristyn Simpson, stressed that climbing builds not only one's physical strength, but one's community — as a lot of her closest friends have been made through Wild Walls. There are also psychological benefits that come with scaling heights.
"I think you start to build a little bit more confidence with yourself, and how far you're willing to push yourself. If you reach a plateau, if you continue to go past that, you can grow a lot as a person — not just for the sport, but just for your own sake," Simpson says. "I would say nobody is judging you as hard as you're judging yourself on the walls. Everybody here wants you to succeed. Everybody started exactly where you have."
Those seeking climbing action across the state line are in luck too, as Coeur Climbing Company opened its doors in July 2023. While Wild Walls focuses a bit more on ropes than bouldering, Coeur Climbing Co. is mostly bouldering-centric. The majority of the gym is devoted to 15-foot-high bouldering routes, with a few 23-foot rope routes sprinkled in. There's also a QR controlled advanced training wall — scan the code to light up one of 20,000 different paths — as well as an upstairs space with short walls for kids, a workout area, and a small yoga studio. Coeur CC also features a retail space that's a much nicer dedicated spot than what most climbing gyms offer.
Owner Daniel Shaw has been climbing since he was a kid growing up in Arizona. He started working toward opening a climbing gym six years ago. He had a full plan and land purchased to build a multipurpose facility and was ready to break ground on it... in March 2020. After financial backers changed their minds due to COVID, Shaw pivoted and found the warehouse space that now houses Coeur CC in 2022. The Post Falls location is actually ideal for Shaw because it serves CDA climbers while also being closer for Spokane climbers.
While one might think that climbing shorter walls would be easier, bouldering was actually more of a physical challenge when I started ascending at Coeur CC. The lack of a rope to ease any fall really adds a mental burden that made me cling tighter to the holds in the walls. Sure, the ultra cushy pads below me offered a safe landing spot should I need to bail (Shaw says in the old days the bouldering gyms used pebbles as their falling surfaces, which... yikes), your body's instinct is very much still don't you dare fall. Routes are set up on a color-coded scale from easy v0 to hard v10, with Coeur CC being unique in rating in ranges rather than a single absolute number. While I was able to manage some of the lower level v0-v2 paths, my shoulders were getting pretty gassed after just over 30 minutes of climbing.
Shaw takes pride in the routes his staff sets up, with routes being taken down, cleaned and changed every week, so climbing at Coeur CC rarely gets stale.
"Our route-setters do a really good job making creative routes that entice people to sit under the same route for hours to try to figure it out. And so that's kind of one of the things that people spend money on to come to climbing gyms," Shaw says. "It's a major part of the business. People can try, say, the purple route once, and they won't get it. They won't get it the second or third time, but then they'll figure something out."
There's also a family focus at Coeur CC. The gym frequently hosts kids camps, youth teams, schools and homeschoolers, and birthday parties. And while memberships (weekly or monthly) and drop-ins constitute most of the business, Shaw prides his gym on having a daily family rate that can't be beat, maxing out at around $50.
"A regular gym that has weights as cardio as that kind of stuff — for most people that go to those, it kinda feels like drudgery. You don't see that in climbers," Shaw says. "Climbers are excited to come every single time. And the workout is the benefit. They're coming because it's fun. They're coming because it's a challenge. They're coming because it's social. They're coming because it makes them a stronger person. But the benefit is they're getting a workout — a full body workout: your core muscles, arms, legs."
AERIALS
Whereas rock climbing is almost a brute force defiance of gravity, the aerial arts take a more aesthetically artistic approach to getting off the ground. An offshoot of circus acrobatics that would be familiar to anyone who's seen a Cirque du Soleil show, aerials come in a variety of formats that all see their practitioners soaring through the air with grace and strength. Needless to say, it can be an intimidating mental barrier for newcomers.
But attending one aerial class at Coil Studio (inside the old Washington Cracker Co. building), will make that barrier to entry simply melt away, no matter what your body type.
"When you go to a professional show, like a Cirque du Soleil or any of those, you see the best of the best. And they tend to sort of self-select. And so you typically only see really thin, bendy female, young people doing aerial," says Coil instructor Tracey Schoenrock. "And I really was intrigued and wanted to try it. And so I started looking at different Instagram accounts and whatnot and found that there are men who do it, there are larger-bodied people who do it, there are amputees who do it, there are blind people who do it — it's across the spectrum. It's much more approachable than what you typically see in media and general coverage. And so that was why I created the Aerial for Every Body class, as somebody who is living in a larger body and is perfectly OK with who I am. I wanted other people to know that they're perfectly OK as they are as well, and that they can also come in try hard things and probably succeed more than they thought they could."
When I saunter into Schoenrock's Aerial for Every Body class, there are already silks dangling from the ceiling. For this practice there is a strong silk ribbon with each of its ends descending to the mat on the floor. Coil's aerial rigs are set into the foundation of the building, so there's no threat of jarring them loose regardless of your weight — an essential element since you need full trust that they'll keep you aloft as you're working the practice.
As I step onto the mat, I begin to learn ways to get myself off the ground with the two ends of the silk. I'm taught ways to wrap the fabric around my arms and legs to create bindings which keep me aloft. Before the class is even half over I'm finding myself back flipping and dangling upside down like a pretty-out-of-shape Spider-Man. (Coil is aware that its classes are Instagram-friendly, and have instructors and selfie stands so you can get that perfect pic.) Does my brain-to-limbs coordination max out a bit on some of the more advanced maneuvers? Sure. But one can hardly expect to have the full grace after a single class. I'm alright looking more like beached flailing fish than a noble majestic mermaid on Night 1.
While Coil first opened in July 2015, it's only been under the ownership of Melissa Ardales since November 2018. A self-described "try-anything-once kind of person," she first encountered aerials while living in Washington, D.C., back in 2012 and found it "super fun and really empowering." She joined the Coil community after moving to Spokane in 2016, and while she had no intention of owning an aerial gym, she sort of got strongarmed into the role when the previous owner was looking to sell.
"And that is the saddest thing to me — just spending a life thinking, 'Oh, I can't do things or I wish I could try this.'"
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"I kinda got voted in," Ardales jokes. "[The Coil community] believed that I would be a good person to succeed [running things], and I really had to honor that vote of confidence. And so I talked with the owner, and, ultimately, here we are."
While the class I am taking is focused on silks, Coil also offers classes based around lyra (a suspended steel hoop), sling (silks but attached in a way where it's more of a hammock than two individual strands), trapeze (for advanced practitioners), aerial yoga (a great entry point for beginners), other yoga and belly dancing classes, and even child/parent and couples classes.
"If you ever want to see couples and how they communicate best, don't go to a therapist — go to an aerial class," Ardales says with a laugh.
Aerial definitely works different parts of both the body and mind. For newbies like myself, one must understand that some discomfort is part of the process — leaning your body weight into the silk binds isn't always pleasant, but like any exercise it's about how much you can push through minor discomfort while still stopping if you hit a pain threshold. For example, my weak feet arches weren't a fan of foot binds, but flipping upside down was relatively easy (though my ribs were slightly bruised at the silk contact points for a few days following the class).
"Some of those benefits are the strength and cardio. Similar to yoga, it can be very good for the body because you're just using your own bodyweight," Ardales says. "It allows you to explore different parts of your body. It feels almost like childhood again — like playing on the monkey bars or playing in this fabric that's very enveloping. And it's really just empowering."
"Everybody says, 'Oh, I don't have the upper-body strength to do aerial yet,'" Shoenrock adds. "And I'm like, 'No, that's how you build the upper-body strength. You come to aerial.' So [it helps with] strength and stamina, a little bit of interval type cardio."
Perhaps even above the physical, I found the mental aspects of aerial silks to be freeing. Even a yoga class can be trying on my mental health sometimes because there's too much time for the mind to wander. But when on the silks, my focus had to be absolute as to not tumble awkwardly to the ground, which was actually a mental relief. Shoenrock feels the same way.
"I come in and for an hour that is the only thing I can think about," she says. "Because if I get distracted and start thinking about something else, there's a risk of me falling and hurting myself. So it's a really good way for me to sort of shut off my brain and just focus on one thing and find that flow state.
"I don't even actually think of it anymore as a workout because it's a puzzle for my brain and my body at the same time to create and exert and make shapes," Ardales says.
Community also plays a huge role at Coil.
"This is where I met people. This is where I found my friends," says Shoenrock, who lacked a social group after moving to Spokane from Portland. "This is my social life. This is my second home. And I don't think that that is emphasized enough in a lot of other workout locations or programs.
"Aerial arts is not a sport/fitness/art form or whatever that is competitive whatsoever. It is community-driven, we all cheer one another on. Everybody has different strengths. Some people are really flexible. Some people are really strong. Some people are really creative. Some people are really technical. Some people flow. And every bit of that can be honored in that room. And so there's no there's no air of competition," Ardales says. "I like to say that the biggest muscle group that we utilize here often is actually our abs... but not because we're working them out so much. It's because we're laughing so hard and giggling and having a great time and really checking our emotional baggage at the door."
With practitioners ranging from kids to aerialists in their 60s, Coil has become a safe space for many of its members and drop-in participants. The folks at Coil do all they can to welcome everyone.
"I really just want people to know that they can try it. Maybe you don't love it, but you can still try it and find out," Schoenrock says. "So many people think, 'Oh, I can't do that.' And that is the saddest thing to me — just spending a life thinking, 'Oh, I can't do things or I wish I could try this.' We will be supportive, and we will cheer for you."
PARKOUR
One of the downsides of most sports or exercise routines is that they require very specific venues in order to properly partake in the activity.
But for the street-savvy folks who do parkour, pretty much anywhere can be their playfield.
Parkour essentially is an athletic discipline where one tries to navigate between two points of urban architecture as quickly and creatively as possible by jumping, vaulting, flipping, climbing and swinging their way through their environs. The acrobatic practice grew in popularity starting in the mid-'90s and has permeated pop culture through movies like Casino Royale, the Mirror's Edge video game series, and one of The Office's most memorable cold open scenes ("PARKOUR!!!").
In order to not look as buffoonish as Dwight Schrute when trying out the discipline, I headed to Spokane parkour gym Fluent Motions to learn the basics of the craft from owner/coach Taylor McIntosh.
While a lot of the parkour classes offered are for children (an ideal way for little ones to get the zoomies out), Fluent Motions adult classes (offered as a monthly package of four classes) stand out for allowing people to take things at their own pace. Parkour requires a combination of coordination, strength, confidence and creativity, but if that's not inherent in your DNA, McIntosh is able to coach you through the basics and build up strength while allowing more advanced participants to flip around to their heart's content.
As a vertically challenged individual, my evening at Fluent Motions focused on said basics. Over the course of the class I learned how to spring myself up onto a high box, jump from obstacle to obstacle with proper balance and weight distribution, figured out the form for vaulting smoothly over low structures, and tried momentum swinging from bars and landing on boxes. I was certainly in motion, but fluent I was not. But the extremely casual and positive vibes fostered by McIntosh's coaching meant the whole process was enjoyable despite my inconsistent balance and burning shoulder muscles.
For McIntosh, parkour has been a vital part of his life since discovering the sport as a teen in Missoula. He eventually ended up at Missoula parkour gym Unparalleled Movement, where the activity and community proved to be vital for his physical and mental health as he was going through personal struggles.
"When I was 16, and I was homeless, the owner at Unparalleled Movement helped me out — he let me take classes for free, and he let me clean the gym and stuff like that so I could still continue to be there, because it really helped me have a good mental health state," McIntosh says. "That was about the point that I decided that I wanted to be a part of the community at a bigger level. I didn't necessarily know about owning a gym being a possibility at that time, but being a coach was a huge concern of mine."
While Fluent Motions currently resides as a sublease of SCE Fitness, McIntosh hopes to have his own dedicated space in the future and to further create a supportive community like the one that helped him as a youth.
"Parkour is not like every other sport," says McIntosh. "I've played most every generalized sport there is. But no other sport has made me feel important or included or like I am a part of something like parkour has."
Are you likely to see me vaulting through the streets of Spokane, soaring through the air on silks, or free soloing a massive rock face anytime soon?
Probably not.
But delving into these workout worlds, it's clear that while the physical exertion is fundamental, the true core of these spaces is the communities they foster — an antidote to our ongoing loneliness epidemic. It's heartening to know that anytime I feel gravity oppression bearing down on me, there are plenty of Inland Northwest escapes — filled with supportive folks — where I can break a sweat while refusing to stay tethered to the ground.
Wild Walls • 202 W. 2nd Ave. wildwalls.com
Coeur Climbing Company • 764 S. Clearwater Loop, Suite 101, Post Falls coeurclimbing.com
Coil Studio • 304 W. Pacific Ave., Suite 280 • coilspokane.com
Fluent Motions • 104 W. 3rd Ave. fluentmotions.com
