i have a few youtube channels, and on one, the suggested videos were this davie504 (funny bass player) and tom and juju fitness channel. god knows how i got targeted for these or if they were rando popular or what. i'm sure i'm not the only person on this board who has seen them. in any case the latter had this guy magnus come in who is a serious climber, and some of the vids are just pretty fun to watch.
in any case, my sublet in chicago has a climbing gym right in the same building, first ascent. there are a few around chicagoland. i believe many other locations have taller areas to work with and walls that you would climb with ropes as well; this gym however is in a mall and it is strictly bouldering, so no ropes and not all that high. it looked fun and i've thought of trying it out, and signed up for a newbie class on saturday. it was supposed to be 6 people, but a coworker had a family emergency and with the rainy crappy day, only 2 other guys showed up. they had both tried it at least once before and were a lot more fit than me.
i was worried about how hard it would be and that my pudge to muscle ratio is very heavily pudge. that being said, in some simple sense, at least for starter difficulty, you are just trying to find some kind of location you can hold onto and then just stand up. if you go to actually hanging on the wall based on how it is designed or how you are climbing, that is going to take more muscle strength. also how you are even in a position and deciding what to do next can be more actively using muscles and burning yourself out vs. a position where you may have much less tension. the walls are graded, and you can of course just come in and climb and do whatever you want for exercise and fun; but if you go by the colored and graded routes they provide challenges to skill up and learn new techniques on. things get more difficult because it is harder to find a thing to grab onto, or the thing you are grabbing onto has a less favorable way to grip it.
here's a skill chart, i'm not sure what the gym goes up to. we started with a v0, then maybe v1 v1 v2 v2 v3? i don't completely remember. and vb as kind of a cool down/technique practice/finisher. i think the only one i got first try was the 0. and i think both 1s and one 2? i was happy to get any of them really and wasn't even sure i'd be able to do the first or second one while walking in. the ones i did complete were still challenging for me and i could easily just keep practicing those. the vb has lots of places for your feet and in terms of difficulty would be most compared to 'climbing a ladder.' you practice falling off and none of it is really high at all, pretty much all 5 ft off the ground falls. my first two practice ones were pretty shitty though, especially the very first.
it's good for working out all sorts of muscles and for building finger strength; my body could probably have kept going but my hands were pretty done. these delicate computery bois were getting worn down. the beginner routes have the easiest holds to grab onto, but you also end up rubbing the most of your hands on them so they start rubbing off your meet. by the end one of my calluses ripped open and i didn't really want to keep rubbing it raw. i think this is probably something most people would do every 3 days or so? hoping to get a friend to sign up and go more regularly, it was a lot of fun. would highly recommend anyone who ever thought it might be interesting to give it a try.
here's the gym in my building:
in any case, my sublet in chicago has a climbing gym right in the same building, first ascent. there are a few around chicagoland. i believe many other locations have taller areas to work with and walls that you would climb with ropes as well; this gym however is in a mall and it is strictly bouldering, so no ropes and not all that high. it looked fun and i've thought of trying it out, and signed up for a newbie class on saturday. it was supposed to be 6 people, but a coworker had a family emergency and with the rainy crappy day, only 2 other guys showed up. they had both tried it at least once before and were a lot more fit than me.
i was worried about how hard it would be and that my pudge to muscle ratio is very heavily pudge. that being said, in some simple sense, at least for starter difficulty, you are just trying to find some kind of location you can hold onto and then just stand up. if you go to actually hanging on the wall based on how it is designed or how you are climbing, that is going to take more muscle strength. also how you are even in a position and deciding what to do next can be more actively using muscles and burning yourself out vs. a position where you may have much less tension. the walls are graded, and you can of course just come in and climb and do whatever you want for exercise and fun; but if you go by the colored and graded routes they provide challenges to skill up and learn new techniques on. things get more difficult because it is harder to find a thing to grab onto, or the thing you are grabbing onto has a less favorable way to grip it.
here's a skill chart, i'm not sure what the gym goes up to. we started with a v0, then maybe v1 v1 v2 v2 v3? i don't completely remember. and vb as kind of a cool down/technique practice/finisher. i think the only one i got first try was the 0. and i think both 1s and one 2? i was happy to get any of them really and wasn't even sure i'd be able to do the first or second one while walking in. the ones i did complete were still challenging for me and i could easily just keep practicing those. the vb has lots of places for your feet and in terms of difficulty would be most compared to 'climbing a ladder.' you practice falling off and none of it is really high at all, pretty much all 5 ft off the ground falls. my first two practice ones were pretty shitty though, especially the very first.
it's good for working out all sorts of muscles and for building finger strength; my body could probably have kept going but my hands were pretty done. these delicate computery bois were getting worn down. the beginner routes have the easiest holds to grab onto, but you also end up rubbing the most of your hands on them so they start rubbing off your meet. by the end one of my calluses ripped open and i didn't really want to keep rubbing it raw. i think this is probably something most people would do every 3 days or so? hoping to get a friend to sign up and go more regularly, it was a lot of fun. would highly recommend anyone who ever thought it might be interesting to give it a try.
here's the gym in my building:
