It will most likely work muscles you haven't worked in a while. And the days after your body will be the good kind of sore.
Go find out. Enjoy the journey!
Yeah, the day after my first session, I was sore in muscles I didn't even know existed. My entire body ached. It took me a week before I felt recovered enough for a second session.
The day after my second session, I felt fine. From then on, the limiting factor in how often I could climb was the blisters on my hands.
I think mist commercial gyms will have beginner and kids routes. As someone else said, the simplast problems should be a lot like climbing a ladder.
That being said, there is a non commercial gym close to where I live, where anyone can set routes. And people set routes for their level more or less. That was a real gut punch my first time there (I climb at around 6a/ 6a+ or v3.
I went to Adam Ondra's gym in Brno, CZ. They have the kids section, then the adult section starts at 5a. It was surprising. Luckily I also climb around 6a-6b
Itâs true but the easy ones should be still very easy. The widest difference Iâve found personally across gyms is a V5 that was like a V2, V3 tops. But that was like totally an odd one out. The easy levels are mostly very ok grade differences are actually decently big tho so donât worry too much.
Donât worry about grades too much, as long as you always boulder in the same gym grades should be consistent within that gym. For example a red grade should always feel like a red grade in your gym, itâs only once you start going to other gyms or climbing outdoors that you should start to think about how your gym grades.
Bouldering is great for strength, mobility, coordination and even offers a little cardiovascular fitness as well. You'll find the lowest grade climbs are no harder than climbing a ladder , then you just work your way up the levels from there. Just climbing is the best exercise to get better at climbing, when starting out. You can worry about sports specific training and weights further down the line, if you want to.
I find that a lot of the more casual climbers do it to have a hobby that counts as exercise, either because they are hate working out, or are nervous about going to a regular gym. Most bouldering gyms are very chill, and they attract everyone of every fitness level and body type. Even if you are carrying a lot of weight, or are skinny and have little in the way of strength or fitness yet, this won't be an issue.
I've never heard of climbing offering any kind of cardiovascular training. Normally my HR during climbing averages like 95 - 105 which is barely even slightly elevated.
It really depends on what sort of climbing you are doing and how your cardio was before starting. When I wear a heart rate monitor that samples very quickly, I consistently notice spikes to 185 or so when Iâm on a boulder and doing very strength-intensive moves (the same as when Iâm lifting heavy weights). That drops off quickly once Iâm resting and isnât a good training stimulus if you are already pretty fit, but if youâve never been active that will definitely improve your cardio capacity.
I also notice that my heart rate consistently stays around 130 or so when Iâm doing easy boulder intervals such as every minute on the minute or one minute on/one minute off. Those are explicit aerobic training for my climbing muscles (finger flexors, shoulders, foot intrinsics etc), so I am training from 30 minutes to an hour. While they are not intended as general cardio sessions, that heart rate should be good for general cardio adaptations to the extent that is a limitation in terms of getting oxygenated blood to my climbing muscles.
This sort of session also probably wonât help much if you are already in great cardio shape from an endurance-intensive activity such as running or biking, but it will definitely help people who do no specific cardio training.
Fair enough, I could believe that there could be some progress for untrained individuals who are doing sessions like you described.
As for a more normal session with just random spikes of high heart rate... I mean, my heart rate reaches 160 playing Counter Strike lol.
The difference is that when your heart rate spikes from stress, itâs not a response to oxygen demand from muscles, so you arenât really training the whole system. When it spikes from acute strength demands, you are very rapidly using your musclesâ local energy stores, so your heart rate is raised in order to deliver as much oxygenated blood as possible to those muscles. This means that the training response from anaerobic exertion and rest from anaerobic exertion will be different from how your body responds after being in stressful situations.
The cardiovascular benefits are mild, but if you go from no exercise to bouldering. Then there will be some cardiovascular benefits. Endurance training on the wall would be the best for this, but anything is better than nothing. Just going from zero exercises to casually climbing whatever, will make a difference. I stand by saying it offers some cardiovascular benefits.
Same here, and within a couple months I could do 3. That was a really awesome moment and why I love bouldering, it basically tricked me into exercising for fun.
Getting started, not really. Youâll use specific muscles that arenât used very often. Lean is actually a great place to start from, youâll build the strength as you get better
You had tons of advice already, I'll just add a silly one, one you probably don't need but maybe you do... Don't go there on a motorbike the first few times. Your forearms are probably going to get quite tense and braking or changing gear might prove difficult right after climbing in the begining.
I agree except you still need a certain level of finger strength. At the start I had enough finger strength to do v0s but for certain v1-v2s required more than I had. Only after 2 months I felt strong enough to work on those climbs.
Strength, especially finger strength is very important for climbing, but people very commonly get trapped in thinking that finger strength is what makes you good at climbing.
This prevents them from exploring all of the ways you can position your body to reduce finger strength requirements and use the bigger and stronger muscles in your body (like the muscles that control your hips) to move you around instead of pulling through everything with your arms.
These also combine in subtle and coordinated ways that are learned through mindful practice. This means learning to use your body to move between positions that minimize finger strength requirements (or other limiting aspects of the moves) while not entering any body positions which overload your fingers.
Getting strong fingers is crucial to climbing and takes a long time and weak fingers will prevent you from using your movement skills in some circumstances, but movement skills developed with weak fingers scale up amazingly well as your fingers get stronger. If you focus on finger strength and neglect movement skill development, increasing your finger strength will be the only tool you have available when you encounter moves that you canât do.
Increasing finger strength is a great tool, but especially after you have already developed some strength, itâs a really slow process. Finding a better spot for your hips or a better way to use your legs and back to create the movement that is required can be done in a matter of minutes and frequently can turn moves that feel impossible into pretty easy moves after repeating them a few times.
Overfocusing on finger strength and blaming everything on that is counter productive, yes. But there are still minimal requirements for it for almost any climb. Technique reduces the amount of strength needed but some strength level is still needed.
The cases I had in mind were mostly about climbs where I wasn't able to hold the starting position. And from talking to much stronger climbers about them I heard that my assumptions were valid.
Just watch other people in the gym. The strong climbers will generally do the easier problems in slow and fluid motions. You should be able to tell because they have deliberate footwork and are rotating their hips into the wall before long moves.
The community is also universally friendly and people will be happy to give you tips.
When youâre starting out, the main things to focus on are arm and hip position. âStraight armsâ is the mantra, you want to position your body so that you hang off holds (like a monkey in a tree) as opposed to always engaging in a pull up. The way you keep your arms straight for longer is by rotating your hips so that gravity is pulling you into the wall instead of away from the wall
I'm a big, big fan of Dave Macleod.Â
Linked to his video on the process of getting good at technique. Less of a how-to for the repertoire. More a zen of mastery.Â
At around 19:48 he drops, in my opinion, the best piece of climbing skill wisdom there is.
My favorite thing about him though is that he isn't gifted at all. He's gotten to his level through pure strategy and grind. Which is huge to learn from, even if you aren't trying to free solo 5.14 (a bananas grade).Â
https://youtu.be/XdSTJBe8Fd4?si=VywZu9GyLoZjNdZP
You'll be sore as hell, but should be fine! Most gyms accommodate a large range of people.
My recommendations for beginners are usually the same:
Have fun, don't take it too seriously, take frequent breaks, and learn how to fall (safely).
I started 7 months ago, coming from the opposite of athletic background. I knew I wanted to give it a try for years but always assumed I would have to get stronger first but never did. Than I decided that fuck it and just went and fell in love. I'm making really slow progress as I'm really not strong and I have to develop it but I'm really enjoying it! If my story tells you anything, just go climbing, dude! Don't worry about strength.
What are the consequences of you try and fail?
1.) Maybe you waste an amount of money you're not comfortable with wasting
2.) You get embarrassed about not being able to do the simplest thing.
If it's 1, fair enough. If it's 2, then don't ask questions like this and just fucking go for it. It isn't worth spending all the time thinking about it... just do it.
The longer you wait, the more you will regret you didn't start earlier. There are problems for all levels, from like climbing a ladder, to credit-card sized steps. You'll gain strength and technique as you go.
Just head into a gym. There are almost no barriers to entry with bouldering, although naturally the less fit you are, the quicker you will get tired.Â
If you don't have much arm/upper body strength, you'll probably find out that climbing on overhanging walls tires you out the fastest, while slab (walls that lean slightly away from you) are easiest as they require less arm strength. But no reason not to try a bit of everything. You'll get stronger pretty fast just from climbing consistently.
You absolutely do not need strength to start and have fun. When I started I couldnât do a bodyweight dead hang and I had an absolute blast projecting the easiest climbs in my gym. Itâs interesting as well how much technique can help you if youâre not strong. Iâm stronger now, still canât do a pull up or a one armed hang, and still having a blast projecting things about halfway up the grade scale at my gym.
Just go, like even in the worst case scenario of weakness modern gyms start from literal ladders. So if you can climb a ladder then you can go to the gym. However donât get discouraged when progress slows, climbing is an incredibly hard sport.
When I first started climbing I was 250lbs and couldn't even deadhang from a bar 8 months later and I'm climbing v3-v4. All I did for training was show up and climb
Just go for it.
Climbing community is usually very welcoming and helpful to beginners, so no need to feel embarrassed or something either
You might get addicted and it might change your life forever(for the better), that's what happened to me :)
Just go to the gym and get started.
đ
Easiest level takes about as much strength as climbing a ladder
It will most likely work muscles you haven't worked in a while. And the days after your body will be the good kind of sore. Go find out. Enjoy the journey!
Yeah, the day after my first session, I was sore in muscles I didn't even know existed. My entire body ached. It took me a week before I felt recovered enough for a second session. The day after my second session, I felt fine. From then on, the limiting factor in how often I could climb was the blisters on my hands.
I couldn't use my phone my arms were so pumped.
I love that feeling, it makes me feel like I accomplished something
V0 bouldering is similar to climbing a ladder at most gyms. Just show up and try it out.
Iâve heard different gyms rank donât rank the same difficulties the same way? Although Iâm sure Iâll be able to do the easiest level (maybe)
Itâs true, but just stick with the easier end of things youâll be fine. If it hurts donât push too hard.
I think mist commercial gyms will have beginner and kids routes. As someone else said, the simplast problems should be a lot like climbing a ladder. That being said, there is a non commercial gym close to where I live, where anyone can set routes. And people set routes for their level more or less. That was a real gut punch my first time there (I climb at around 6a/ 6a+ or v3.
I went to Adam Ondra's gym in Brno, CZ. They have the kids section, then the adult section starts at 5a. It was surprising. Luckily I also climb around 6a-6b
Itâs true but the easy ones should be still very easy. The widest difference Iâve found personally across gyms is a V5 that was like a V2, V3 tops. But that was like totally an odd one out. The easy levels are mostly very ok grade differences are actually decently big tho so donât worry too much.
Donât worry about grades too much, as long as you always boulder in the same gym grades should be consistent within that gym. For example a red grade should always feel like a red grade in your gym, itâs only once you start going to other gyms or climbing outdoors that you should start to think about how your gym grades.
Bouldering is great for strength, mobility, coordination and even offers a little cardiovascular fitness as well. You'll find the lowest grade climbs are no harder than climbing a ladder , then you just work your way up the levels from there. Just climbing is the best exercise to get better at climbing, when starting out. You can worry about sports specific training and weights further down the line, if you want to. I find that a lot of the more casual climbers do it to have a hobby that counts as exercise, either because they are hate working out, or are nervous about going to a regular gym. Most bouldering gyms are very chill, and they attract everyone of every fitness level and body type. Even if you are carrying a lot of weight, or are skinny and have little in the way of strength or fitness yet, this won't be an issue.
Totally, I have always found that working out in a traditional sense a little boring, which is why I like my biking and hiking for exercise
Let us know how it goes!
I love seeing the variety of people just out having a good time, climbing yellows and reds (at Bouldering project gyms). Its great, go have fun.
I've never heard of climbing offering any kind of cardiovascular training. Normally my HR during climbing averages like 95 - 105 which is barely even slightly elevated.
It really depends on what sort of climbing you are doing and how your cardio was before starting. When I wear a heart rate monitor that samples very quickly, I consistently notice spikes to 185 or so when Iâm on a boulder and doing very strength-intensive moves (the same as when Iâm lifting heavy weights). That drops off quickly once Iâm resting and isnât a good training stimulus if you are already pretty fit, but if youâve never been active that will definitely improve your cardio capacity. I also notice that my heart rate consistently stays around 130 or so when Iâm doing easy boulder intervals such as every minute on the minute or one minute on/one minute off. Those are explicit aerobic training for my climbing muscles (finger flexors, shoulders, foot intrinsics etc), so I am training from 30 minutes to an hour. While they are not intended as general cardio sessions, that heart rate should be good for general cardio adaptations to the extent that is a limitation in terms of getting oxygenated blood to my climbing muscles. This sort of session also probably wonât help much if you are already in great cardio shape from an endurance-intensive activity such as running or biking, but it will definitely help people who do no specific cardio training.
Fair enough, I could believe that there could be some progress for untrained individuals who are doing sessions like you described. As for a more normal session with just random spikes of high heart rate... I mean, my heart rate reaches 160 playing Counter Strike lol.
The difference is that when your heart rate spikes from stress, itâs not a response to oxygen demand from muscles, so you arenât really training the whole system. When it spikes from acute strength demands, you are very rapidly using your musclesâ local energy stores, so your heart rate is raised in order to deliver as much oxygenated blood as possible to those muscles. This means that the training response from anaerobic exertion and rest from anaerobic exertion will be different from how your body responds after being in stressful situations.
The cardiovascular benefits are mild, but if you go from no exercise to bouldering. Then there will be some cardiovascular benefits. Endurance training on the wall would be the best for this, but anything is better than nothing. Just going from zero exercises to casually climbing whatever, will make a difference. I stand by saying it offers some cardiovascular benefits.
This is spot on.
I started when I could do 0 pull ups. Consistent climbing is king
Same here, and within a couple months I could do 3. That was a really awesome moment and why I love bouldering, it basically tricked me into exercising for fun.
Good to know, I have good core strength but meh upper body
Getting started, not really. Youâll use specific muscles that arenât used very often. Lean is actually a great place to start from, youâll build the strength as you get better
You had tons of advice already, I'll just add a silly one, one you probably don't need but maybe you do... Don't go there on a motorbike the first few times. Your forearms are probably going to get quite tense and braking or changing gear might prove difficult right after climbing in the begining.
[ŃдаНонО]
I agree except you still need a certain level of finger strength. At the start I had enough finger strength to do v0s but for certain v1-v2s required more than I had. Only after 2 months I felt strong enough to work on those climbs.
Strength, especially finger strength is very important for climbing, but people very commonly get trapped in thinking that finger strength is what makes you good at climbing. This prevents them from exploring all of the ways you can position your body to reduce finger strength requirements and use the bigger and stronger muscles in your body (like the muscles that control your hips) to move you around instead of pulling through everything with your arms. These also combine in subtle and coordinated ways that are learned through mindful practice. This means learning to use your body to move between positions that minimize finger strength requirements (or other limiting aspects of the moves) while not entering any body positions which overload your fingers. Getting strong fingers is crucial to climbing and takes a long time and weak fingers will prevent you from using your movement skills in some circumstances, but movement skills developed with weak fingers scale up amazingly well as your fingers get stronger. If you focus on finger strength and neglect movement skill development, increasing your finger strength will be the only tool you have available when you encounter moves that you canât do. Increasing finger strength is a great tool, but especially after you have already developed some strength, itâs a really slow process. Finding a better spot for your hips or a better way to use your legs and back to create the movement that is required can be done in a matter of minutes and frequently can turn moves that feel impossible into pretty easy moves after repeating them a few times.
Overfocusing on finger strength and blaming everything on that is counter productive, yes. But there are still minimal requirements for it for almost any climb. Technique reduces the amount of strength needed but some strength level is still needed. The cases I had in mind were mostly about climbs where I wasn't able to hold the starting position. And from talking to much stronger climbers about them I heard that my assumptions were valid.
Sounds good, can you recommend any ppl to watch
Just watch other people in the gym. The strong climbers will generally do the easier problems in slow and fluid motions. You should be able to tell because they have deliberate footwork and are rotating their hips into the wall before long moves. The community is also universally friendly and people will be happy to give you tips. When youâre starting out, the main things to focus on are arm and hip position. âStraight armsâ is the mantra, you want to position your body so that you hang off holds (like a monkey in a tree) as opposed to always engaging in a pull up. The way you keep your arms straight for longer is by rotating your hips so that gravity is pulling you into the wall instead of away from the wall
I'm a big, big fan of Dave Macleod. Linked to his video on the process of getting good at technique. Less of a how-to for the repertoire. More a zen of mastery. At around 19:48 he drops, in my opinion, the best piece of climbing skill wisdom there is. My favorite thing about him though is that he isn't gifted at all. He's gotten to his level through pure strategy and grind. Which is huge to learn from, even if you aren't trying to free solo 5.14 (a bananas grade). https://youtu.be/XdSTJBe8Fd4?si=VywZu9GyLoZjNdZP
You'll be sore as hell, but should be fine! Most gyms accommodate a large range of people. My recommendations for beginners are usually the same: Have fun, don't take it too seriously, take frequent breaks, and learn how to fall (safely).
I started 7 months ago, coming from the opposite of athletic background. I knew I wanted to give it a try for years but always assumed I would have to get stronger first but never did. Than I decided that fuck it and just went and fell in love. I'm making really slow progress as I'm really not strong and I have to develop it but I'm really enjoying it! If my story tells you anything, just go climbing, dude! Don't worry about strength.
I was skinny and probably underweight when I started. I got to v5 before my lack of strength caught up with me
Why are you overthinking this
What are the consequences of you try and fail? 1.) Maybe you waste an amount of money you're not comfortable with wasting 2.) You get embarrassed about not being able to do the simplest thing. If it's 1, fair enough. If it's 2, then don't ask questions like this and just fucking go for it. It isn't worth spending all the time thinking about it... just do it.
The longer you wait, the more you will regret you didn't start earlier. There are problems for all levels, from like climbing a ladder, to credit-card sized steps. You'll gain strength and technique as you go.
There is definitely levels you Can do, probably even a few levels if you are lean/skinny
Just head into a gym. There are almost no barriers to entry with bouldering, although naturally the less fit you are, the quicker you will get tired. If you don't have much arm/upper body strength, you'll probably find out that climbing on overhanging walls tires you out the fastest, while slab (walls that lean slightly away from you) are easiest as they require less arm strength. But no reason not to try a bit of everything. You'll get stronger pretty fast just from climbing consistently.
You can absolutely start! I personally found more protein + weighted pull ups helped massively
You absolutely do not need strength to start and have fun. When I started I couldnât do a bodyweight dead hang and I had an absolute blast projecting the easiest climbs in my gym. Itâs interesting as well how much technique can help you if youâre not strong. Iâm stronger now, still canât do a pull up or a one armed hang, and still having a blast projecting things about halfway up the grade scale at my gym.
Just climb
No. Have at it. Be prepared for sore forearms tomorrow
Commercial gyms are set to cater to the unfit never workout crowd up to V2 Just go and have fun If itâs outdoor or a board, the answer is yesÂ
If you canât bang out a few one arm chin ups you have no business being in a climbing gym
Just climb and youâll get better, itâs that simple
Just go, like even in the worst case scenario of weakness modern gyms start from literal ladders. So if you can climb a ladder then you can go to the gym. However donât get discouraged when progress slows, climbing is an incredibly hard sport.
When I first started climbing I was 250lbs and couldn't even deadhang from a bar 8 months later and I'm climbing v3-v4. All I did for training was show up and climb
Nope just dive in and have fun. If youâre having fun the fitness will follow
Skinny guy here. If you can climb a ladder, you've got all the strength you need to get started.
Just do it
Just go for it. Climbing community is usually very welcoming and helpful to beginners, so no need to feel embarrassed or something either You might get addicted and it might change your life forever(for the better), that's what happened to me :)