Stuff you might like to check out:

Lunar New Year at my gym. 🐍 (End hold is the yellows on the right, if you can get to the top without using any hands you can win a prize)

Looking to go bouldering in new Zealand and was wondering if there was an app that has maps and routes for outdoor climbing (like rockfax)? Thanks

Hey everyone! 👋 I'm working on a school project where we're researching climbing and bouldering apparel, and I’d love to get insights from the community.

If you have a 3 minutes, could you help us out by answering this short survey? It’s all about what you look for in climbing clothing—style, function, comfort, etc.

https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/2XS956T

Your input would be super valuable, and we really appreciate the help! Feel free to drop any thoughts in the comments too. Thanks, and happy sending! 🧗‍♂️💪

https://reddit.com/link/1ieibni/video/nl941ls7tcge1/player

Recently started climbing about a month ago. Not really too sure about the grade I was climbing but it was a bit difficult bc of the small overhang at the beginning. Was making my way to the last hold and I realized I need to do a small little dyno move to get to it but ended up missing it completely and my momentum took me completely sideways and I landed a bit hard. I was okay, my gym has cushy mats. Didn’t realize how high it was lol. Got me thinking about other ppls experiences.

I started indoor bouldering in May 2024 and have been going about twice a week.

I’m quite rigid on my climbing days due to my schedule (Sunday, Wednesday).

For some context I’m between 30-35 years old. So while I’m not “old” I’m no spring chicken lol. In decent shape with around 1.5 years of consistent exercise in the gym.

Realistically I think I can only handle two days in the gym per week.

The problem I’m facing is balancing training my back with my climbing schedule. I’ve had major fatigue issues leading to injuries when I climb and train my back the day after.

Tl;dr - My back gets too fatigued after climbing and training it has cause some issues for me. How would you train your back twice a week while also climbing twice a week?

5 months after I started indoor bouldering, I slipped from the top of the wall and landed on my bent right foot. I sprained my ankle pretty badly and couldn’t walk for a month. Worst physical pain I ever felt in my life..

I took a 3 month break, and now I’m back doing easy grades… but now I find myself trembling when I’m on the wall because I really don’t want to fall. I want to go back to climbing so bad but I can’t even imagine falling or jumping down, I have to climb down every time.

I’ve become hyperaware that one wrong fall can cause me to sprain myself in the same spot. I now have a hard time trusting myself with falling properly.

Has this happened to anyone else here? I would really appreciate tips on practicing falling, how to avoid further injury, etc. Tysm in advance.

EDIT: thank you so much for everyone who took the time to reply. The people around me just said “it will heal in a month”, not even thinking how severe my injury and pain level was. I brushed my injury off as bad luck and just waited to heal without even getting checked up with a PT or orthopedic. It’s been almost 4 months and I’m still not fully healed. So hearing from others who experienced the same thing is so encouraging and validating. I read everyone’s replies and they are all so helpful. It also pushed me to get a proper checkup soon. Thank you.

Im about 8 months bouldering indoors and enjoying it mostly.

Two main things that really get me down are: struggling with a problem, then boom, three people come along and basically use it as a warm-up, making it look so easy. There I am, sweating and with gassed arms.

Second, is injury. I know from my job I have bad neck posture from screens, etc. A pinched nerve in my neck, and my physio tells me that causes the horrible pain I get in my arms after sessions when my neck isn't perfectly limber. Like really bad, pulsing pain along my arm, arm shaking, zero strength—all gone after 15 minutes rest.

Anyway, my questions: I'm a 40-year-old male, climbing beginner grades at best, twice a week.

1. How do I learn techniques? I'm really struggling to learn anything to apply generally from looking at people solve particular problems. I think flagging is what I need.

2. Anyone with similar pain issues, any advice?

For reference- i can hit about 50% of V1s at this stage

This question was motivated by the progress report on the Imhotep Sit project by Camille Coudert as well Francesco Berardino trying boulders he thinks might be 9B (https://www.8a.nu/news/francesco-berardino-19-has-done-off-the-wagon-sit-8c%2B-rbgug)

Is this a way of bouldering that is shared beyond the top level ? Are there people projecting endlessly on a 8B boulder despite knowing they will very likely never do it ?

"Project" might not even be the right term since there is little chance it ever gets done, I'm curious about the process behind it.

I went bouldering for the first proper time yesterday, intro course and everything (Had a blast btw, already signed up for a membership!)
Today I've had the expected amount of muscle soreness, along with some really severe ones running along both forearms. They cramp super easily, sort of the same kind as when you flex your calf really hard for too long. This pain is activated when i apply force on the fingers, like when palming the floor and pushing like we did as a warmup or when pushing the fingers against eachother, essentially stretching the muscle? Tendon? not too sure. It also happens when making fists, which is also likely to trigger a cramp.

Once the pain is triggered, it lingers for a long time, but if i dont disturb it again then i dont feel any resting pain.

Any advice on what this is and whether or not it's expected or at least safe?

Thanks in advance!

ETA: I added a comment with photos for a better explanation. I'm probably wrong to call this hold a sloper (or maybe it's kind of an in-betweener?), but regardless could use help. And I really appreciate people taking the time to help me out — I know this is probably dumb to many of you, and the problem looks super easy! But I could not get myself up there to save my life. Like I said, I can usually do problems of this grade pretty easily.
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Background: I've been bouldering maybe 8 months, and still very much a novice. I'm 41/AFAB, and improving slowly (but fairly steadily). I go to the bouldering gym 2-3 times a week and strength train at the gym 1-2 times a week.

My problem: I struggle greatly to support myself with sloper holds, even mild ones, and especially on my weaker side. Recently, there was a problem at my bouldering gym that was 1-2 levels below what I normally climb, but even in three sessions, I couldn't get up it because it relied on holding a lot of weight on my left hand on a sloper hold. I tried a lot of things and got others to demo it for me, but I think the problem ultimately came down to having the strength to hold yourself up with the left hand on that hold, and I didn't have the strength.

Question: My strength in that hand is slowly improving, but how can I speed it up? I have read about using a rice bucket to improve strength. However, I have questions about that:

• I know in most strength training, the best way to improve is to take a rest day in between sessions. Is that true of this as well?I would be into doing rice bucket exercise or other strength stuff in the days between climbing if it would help me, but I'm not sure if it'll actually be counterproductive because I won't be letting the muscles recover enough.
• Is there an exercise specific for sloper holds?

In case it's useful information: I don't struggle with crimps even remotely as much as slopers. Maybe that can help someone identify which part of my forearm is not well developed?

Thank you!