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beef_bourito
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08 Mar 2009, 4:40 pm

i just did like two and a half hours of rock climbing and it is so fun. my fingers are a bit sore and my grip strength started to go in the last hour so i couldn't do the climbs i could at the start but it's really fun. I'm a rower so my grip strength, and strength in general, is better than most people so i was able to do some decent climbs off the start but there are some really good people there who can hang from the smallest, most awkward holds and it's insane. since i just brought my bike here from home yesterday i think i'll be biking there more often to do it.

anyone here climb frequently?



roadracer
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08 Mar 2009, 4:58 pm

I wouldnt say frequently, because it is a 2+ hour drive to get to any places where I live, but yeah some bolted beginners stuff. How long have you been climbing? What rating climbs are you doing?
Thanks to my fingures being stiff as boards, my hands seem to be made for rock climbing, although I need someone else to tie all the knots for me 8O the thing that holds me back is my upper body is weak.



dalhousie12
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08 Mar 2009, 5:02 pm

I used to rock climb frequently back when i was in tech school but eventually gave it up because the chalk dust floating around in the facility at U of C would get stuck in my throat and made it harder to breath at times.


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beef_bourito
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08 Mar 2009, 5:15 pm

i've climbed a few times over the years, like once or twice a year in high school and a couple of times before that, but it was only during school activities. this was my first time actually going to a wall climbing place. i actually found bouldering more fun than wall climbing. with bouldering you don't actually wear a harness since the highest it goes is about 10ft but there are certain routes that you can follow and stuff and i find you can get a lot more actual climbing in than with wall climbing. as for the rating, i only did two wall climbs, the first was just to teach you how to belay and the second i didn't check the difficulty and bouldering doesn't have any difficulty rating, they're just numbers that generally get harder as the number goes up.

also, other than my forearms i didn't find i was using a whole lot of upper body strength. you shouldn't be lifting yourself, rather you should be using your legs as much as possible to push yourself upwards since they're your more powerful muscles and your arms will tire out long before your legs will. my forearms definitely did get a workout though, i just did a few pull-ups in my living room and after 4 i just stopped because my forearms were too sore and i didn't feel like doing more.



roadracer
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08 Mar 2009, 5:40 pm

beef_bourito wrote:
i've climbed a few times over the years, like once or twice a year in high school and a couple of times before that, but it was only during school activities. this was my first time actually going to a wall climbing place. i actually found bouldering more fun than wall climbing. with bouldering you don't actually wear a harness since the highest it goes is about 10ft but there are certain routes that you can follow and stuff and i find you can get a lot more actual climbing in than with wall climbing. as for the rating, i only did two wall climbs, the first was just to teach you how to belay and the second i didn't check the difficulty and bouldering doesn't have any difficulty rating, they're just numbers that generally get harder as the number goes up.

also, other than my forearms i didn't find i was using a whole lot of upper body strength. you shouldn't be lifting yourself, rather you should be using your legs as much as possible to push yourself upwards since they're your more powerful muscles and your arms will tire out long before your legs will. my forearms definitely did get a workout though, i just did a few pull-ups in my living room and after 4 i just stopped because my forearms were too sore and i didn't feel like doing more.


Yeah, I understand it, using your legs and all, but my upper body is weak, like Napoleon Dynamite weak :lol: , and my legs are really strong, so my upper body gives out first, and my legs dont even have a burn going. I weigh around 135 and can do around 20 pullups, but still my lower body is so much stronger.
I really dont like bouldering, because you dont get high enough off the ground, I like to be able to look down and think OMG im going to piss myself :D



beef_bourito
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08 Mar 2009, 5:46 pm

yeah that's fun, i just like the challenge of doing something i couldn't before, and i find, at least for my first time there, bouldering lets you fight at something until you get it right and move on, but you get a lot more challenge in less time, so i liked it better than wall climbing.

when you say your upper body gives out first do you mean that you can't lift yourself up or your forearms go first and you can't grab on?