Rock Climbing Guys (1 Viewer)

I absolutely hate to exercise.  While I've always loved playing sports, I'm just not very athletic. Staying in shape with pick up basketball and that sort of thing has never really worked for me.  So, I joined a rock gym and I'm trying to learn to climb in an effort to get in better shape. I've been sticking bouldering mostly since I go alone and I don't quite trust the auto-belay just yet.  Does anyone else do this?  Any tips?

Anyone?  I was hoping for some advice on improving, but also how to avoid all the blisters and hand injuries that are holding me back from climbing more than 2 or 3 a week.

All I came up with were Seinfeld jokes.

**STEP OFF!**

I've only been doing this for a few months myself, so not a ton of advice. 

As much as possible, try to rely more on your legs to elevate you than your arms.  This may be counter intuitive, but you'll save some of your energy pushing yourself up with your legs as opposed to pulling yourself up with your arms.  Stretching my forearms (palms up, bend fingers back towards your body) has also helped my forearms to not be incapacitated for days after climbing.  They make some hand balms to help heal the blisters faster and lotion helps to soften your hands, but to some extend your hands are just going to get calloused over after a while and blisters won't be as frequent.

Don't look down.

quiksilver said:

I've only been doing this for a few months myself, so not a ton of advice. 

As much as possible, try to rely more on your legs to elevate you than your arms.  This may be counter intuitive, but you'll save some of your energy pushing yourself up with your legs as opposed to pulling yourself up with your arms.  Stretching my forearms (palms up, bend fingers back towards your body) has also helped my forearms to not be incapacitated for days after climbing.  They make some hand balms to help heal the blisters faster and lotion helps to soften your hands, but to some extend your hands are just going to get calloused over after a while and blisters won't be as frequent.

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Thanks!  I think relying on arms is my biggest problem at the moment.  There was one problem that I tried repeatedly for a week straight and couldn't figure out what to do.  It wasn't supposed to be hard.  Then some little kid comes along and throws their heel up and pulls themselves up with their heel.  I had no idea that was even a thing. 

The forearm pain is real.  Not sure when it is supposed to stop.

So, I think I'm going to get my son started in this. I think this might be a great Covid era activity since his team sports are getting cancelled.

He did it last summer for 3 weeks during camps and did well with it. I looked into it and the gym membership for students is only $50/month with unlimited climbing. Seems reasonable.

Anyone into climbing? Any thoughts/recommendations for him getting started? Good or bad idea?

gianmarco said:

So, I think I'm going to get my son started in this. I think this might be a great Covid era activity since his team sports are getting cancelled.

He did it last summer for 3 weeks during camps and did well with it. I looked into it and the gym membership for students is only $50/month with unlimited climbing. Seems reasonable.

Anyone into climbing? Any thoughts/recommendations for him getting started? Good or bad idea?

Click to expand...

I climb and love it. Great exercise for strength, balance, flexibility and problem solving. Also good to learn how to overcome fear. And you can enjoy it well into middle age.

Outdoor climbing is much better than gyms, but the latter is a good place to start. It’s a little tricky with Covid, as you’re constantly touching a bunch of shared surfaces. He can rent shoes most places and start by bouldering, but rope climbing ultimately has a lot more to offer. 
 

I can give a lot more specific advice, but gotta go for now.

My kids (10 and 12) both got into bouldering 9 months or so ago. The older kid was a on a non competing team and would go two times a week to climb. I would go with my 10 year old sometimes and climb with him. Well, a few weeks ago both of them made Junior and Senior bouldering teams, so they are climbing 3 days a week and are looking to compete in a few competitions.

Since they got on a team, I am also climbing 3 days a week. While they are at practice, and after they finish I still climb with them and It is super fun seeing them try, and try, and try, sometimes up to 50 times before they are able to complete a problem. But...********it. Climbing is the only thing in the world that I can think of that they are better at that me. I can beat them in any other sport, in video games, in s sprint or long distance run. Hell, I can probably still put together a Lego set faster than them.

But it is such a ****ing encouraging environment. It really is like no other sport I ever played. Strangers clapping when you finish a boulder, or asking for advice when you finish one. People cheering for my 10 year old after he tried one thing at least 25 times and finally finished it. And my kids, who are better than me and have lived their entire life with me giving them pointers, now get to offer advice to me. And get stoked when their dad flashes a V5 (nerdy bouldering talk and only happened once)

I also have a huge bruise and am bleeding from 3 different parts of my body tonight because of my old clunky body. But after a few weeks of intense climbing my belly has gotten smaller and I have gotten noticeably stronger.