New...um, hobby!

[Tarheel]

I am currently taking about 10 or 12 days off my training. For a while some friends of mine have been wanting me to take an indoor rock climbing class (the class is one night and gets you certified to climb there), so last week I took it with my lifting partner

We get there and my buddy immediately notices that we look pretty out of place as far as our build goes. The typical climber build is, um, a little bit thinner than the typical Elite build

The detriment that was our added mass was compounded because we were on the hardest part of the wall of any of the beginners who were also taking the class. We would get about 4 or 5 feet off the ground and look over and someone else was 10 feet up. At the end of the night I finally got to within 3 rows of the top, which I was pretty damn proud of.

We plan on going back next week with our friends that wanted us to take it so we can climb with them. They have decided they want to start lifting weights with us though

If you've never tried it, and get a chance to, I highly suggest doing it on your "off" day. Its a helluva grip workout. Not only because sometimes you're holding and pulling yourself with just your hands, but because a lot of the handholds are hard as hell to grip. If they were like handles it would be one thing, but some are just round mounds that barely let you grip them at all. Helps to have good lats and pulling strength too. Make sure to stretch out good though, because sometimes you get in some akward positions.

 

[Fatty4You]

Rock climbing sounds really cool. There's this place down the street from me that does indoor stuff, but its too expensive for me at the moment.... at least the non-class stuff. Its like 2 attemps for 15 bucks or something. I would rather pay something like that by the hour.

Anyway, i hope to try it eventually.

-Fatty

 

[Tarheel]

Wow, I payed 13 for the class, and now I just have to pay a couple bucks (equipment rental) each time and can climb all I want. Or I can pay like 10-15 more and get unlimited equipment rentals and just climb whenever I want as much as I want.

That is expensive.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

Ive been climbing about 4 yrs-- one way to strengthen your grip is to hang from your fingers when doing pullups as long as you can-- then do pullups from just from your fingers... improves your grip on the handholds/ cracks in the rock.

 

[Tarheel]

Fingerpulls, great idea!

At the climbing place they have a pullup bar, except instead of a bar it has all different kinds of handholds and grips. So you can get a full roundish rock grip, or just stick your fingers in some grooves or holes, or grab onto a jutting out rock, etc etc. Sort of like a training board.