*waves*

[mongrelheart]

Hi all! I've been meaning to make an intro post for about the last 2 weeks, but time got away from me. Anyhow, I recently completed a beginner rock climbing class at a local gym here in Chicago. (It was 3 sessions of about 2 hours each.) They have an outdoor wall & I had been passing by on the street for years, thinking how fun it looked. Can't believe how long it took me to finally check it out, but I'm glad I did.

 

One of the instructors told us when we finished the class, that if we want to continue with climbing, the important thing is to not let a bunch of time go by before we get back in there. Otherwise we'll forget stuff & it'll feel weird. So last weekend I went back & climbed again. I also ended up buying a pass for 10 visits and have been encouraging the others from my class to join me.

 

Realistically I don't think I'll be doing this more than once a week, since I'm currently training 5 days a week (strength and conditioning, Crossfit-style stuff). But I definitely want to keep on climbing & get better at it. I'm stoked to have found a new fun thing, and also excited to learn from you more experienced folks! Any words of wisdom and/or advice for the n00b would be much appreciated :)

Comments

[emperor]

Hello! Once a week will be fine until you get completely hooked unless you decide you want to climb Really Hard Stuff. My potted advice:

1. Think about how you place your feet
2. Have fun
3. Use your legs more, your arms less
4. Have fun :-)
5. Find someone/some people to climb with
6. Enjoy yourself

[mongrelheart]

*grin* I like your list o' advice. #3 yeah, wow, this is so tough on the hands/arms! My first impulse on day 1 of class was to try and pull myself up with my arms but I soon realized that was a losing proposition ;)

[wpadmirer]

I send you massive good vibes on your training and your climbing!

[mongrelheart]

Yay! Many thanks! :):)

Hi and welcome!

[rydra_wong]

Initially, climbing once a week may be as much as your body can handle -- climbing uses a bunch of muscles that tend not to get worked remotely so hard in the rest of life (unless you've been doing some highly-specific grip strength training work, I guess). That's especially true if you're bouldering, which tends to be more physically intense.

And it's not a bad idea at all to ramp up slowly and give your finger and elbow tendons time to keep up with your muscles -- it's very common for climbing n00bs who get hooked to rush straight into their first bout of elbow tendonitis (*raises hand*).

Beyond that, once your body's got over the initial shock, it'll depend on how hooked you get and how ambitious you are about it. *g*

Climbing might be something enjoyable you're happy to do once a week for fun with no pressure, or you might want to push your level as much as possible, in which case you'll almost certainly find that you need to build up to more sessions per week to develop your climbing-specific skills.

As a side-note: IMHO, climbing beautifully complements Crossfit-style strength and conditioning work (if by that we mean emphasis on functional movement, fun things with barbells and kettlebells, and as many Turkish get-ups as you can eat).

Re: Hi and welcome!

[mongrelheart]

Wow, thanks for all this great info! What you said about ramping up makes a ton of sense. I've been through a bout of elbow tendinitis in the past, don't want to do that again! (I'm also a drummer and work on computers for a living. LOL)

Right now I'm training for a Goruck Challenge so the stuff I've been doing has a bit more of an endurance focus. However I'm still doing plenty of strength work (including those delicious TGU's.)

OK I have a question, why is bouldering more physically intense? Is it just because there's never any point where you could be hanging from a rope & shaking out your hands ?

Re: Hi and welcome!

[rydra_wong]

OK I have a question, why is bouldering more physically intense?

Much much shorter height, so there's no endurance element -- it's purely about strength, power and technique (not necessarily in that order). As you noticed, you're almost never going to find a rest point in a bouldering problem; it's very, very anaerobic.

Think doing Tabata intervals versus marathon training: it's not that one is intrinsically more difficult or demanding than the other, but the former is going to wreck you in a much shorter time. *g* It's that sort of compressed intensity.

Also, when you're doing roped climbing, you'll usually be taking turns belaying, which means there are natural long breaks when you're not climbing yourself. With bouldering, you can keep throwing yourself at a problem again and again and again; often people will end up taking turns on a problem (and having lots of tea breaks), but the pattern is more one of lots of very short bursts of intense activity.

Obviously, you can boulder gently (e.g. doing lots of problems that are easy for you, maybe as a way to build endurance or just have a light day), or do roped climbing very intensely. But I did say "tends". *g*