I am relatively new to climbing and I want to strengthen my fingers but i’m not exactly sure how. I don’t know if this is silly but I have been lifting my water bottle up and down with each of my fingers to mimic a weight. Does anyone else do that? Is it effective or am I just wasting my time? TIA

Hi all! It’s been a little over 3 months since I’ve giving birth to my beautiful baby boy. Prior to my pregnancy, I would say I was fairly high performing climber and I worked very hard to get to that point. I was primarily bouldering and was probably the strongest I’ve ever been before giving birth. I wanted to bounce back, so I trained and climbed all throughout my pregnancy.

When I start climbing again at 6 weeks, I knew I wasn’t going to be at the same level immediately. So I felt like I was pretty patient with myself. Now at three months, I find myself feeling frustrated that my body doesn’t move the same as it did before. Im almost back at my lead climbing pre-pregnancy strength, but bouldering feels so hard! I worked hard to become pretty good at steep boulders and board climbing, but now it’s so difficult. Crimping on small holds feels painful when it was once my specialty. I’m back to training at 3 days a week, but I feel like I haven’t seen many gains. At this point, I’m wondering if I’ll ever get back to where I was.

I guess I’m wondering if anyone has climbing success stories for climbing after pregnancy and giving birth. What did you do to get back in shape? I’m looking for some hope!

Aloha, I wanted to hear from those of you who are slip-on climbing shoe wearers. What’s the pull? What made you buy them? What made you switch (if you did) from velcro or laces? I’m considering buying the limited run So ill slip-ons for a more comfortable/streamlined fit.

Currently wearing La sportiva Finale (lace-up) for sport and Scarpa Quantic (Velcro) for bouldering. I love the feel of the Quantics but I’m getting a lot of heel squish.

ciao friends! wondering if you have a recommendation for a trip to milan or grosseto, italy for climbing in september?

open to any and all feedback/experience on these two specific areas because i was offered a month long home exchange with my choice of either location and don’t know which to pick.

i couldn’t find a ton of information on grosseto, besides a random map that says there’s a “main climbing area” to the north west and ChatGPT said there are ~200 routes in the area. leaning more towards grosseto because i wasn’t fond of milan as a tourist last year, but ready to be persuaded. thank you!

also if it makes any difference to your recommendation, i will also be in les calanques for a week and then gran canaria for two weeks right before this italy leg.

I’m Caroline, a medical student from Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. I’m conducting a research project to explore the capabilities of outdoor climbers in managing medical emergencies in the wilderness.

Your experience is incredibly valuable, whether you're a beginner climber or a full-time adventurer, so I would really appreciate your participation in my survey (it takes about 10 minutes)!

 ~Why Participate?~

🚑 Contribute to essential research that could enhance safety standards and preparedness in the climbing community.

🤔 Reflect on your own skills and preparedness, which is crucial for every climber.

🌍 Help address potential inequities in outdoor recreation and ensure a safer climbing environment for everyone.

 Your anonymous responses will greatly contribute to understanding current practices and knowledge gaps in our community. ***Limited to 18+ and people living in the US/US Territories.

 Thanks so much for your help and for sharing this with other climbers! (Survey link is below)

https://forms.office.com/r/Z75a006xLr

So I’ve been struggling lately with my fueling - partly because I’m trying to identify a trigger and cutting out lots of foods (gluten, lactose and corn) from my diet which means it’s just harder to eat and partly because I’m just not used to having to eat this much. I know I need to do a better job especially on the post-climb side of things, because within an hour I often I start to feel tired, achy, fatigued, even flu-like symptoms.

What are some of our favorite ways to house a shit ton of calories?? And I’m not talking like a protein bar or shake, I mean real fill you up kind of meals but especially those that might be easy to keep on hand/prepare quickly.

I’ll get the ball rolling. My pre-climb meal is either oatmeal, berries, lactose free yogurt and almonds if I’m climbing in the morning, or just plain ol white rice with furikake and soy sauce if I’m climbing later in the day. I make a big batch of rice at the beginning of the week for exactly this purpose.

Post climb is where I really struggle. Peanut butter toast maybe? Or tuna and crackers? I need some things I can keep both at my house and at the kitchen at work since I often go back in right after a session. This is where I’ll really get into trouble because then it might be a few hours until I go home for lunch or dinner! I’d honestly like to house a full burger and fries right after most climbing sessions and I’m tired of feeling constantly hungry!

I am staying in Scottsdale for two months and am looking for good climbing gym recommendations, bouldering preferred since I don't have a partner here.

Hello! This is my first time posting on here, but I’m just so excited about this I have to share.

Some information first: I’ve been climbing for about 6 months now, bouldering specifically, and have been climbing at a V2 level basically the whole time. I also want to add that I’m pretty petite so many climbs are a especially hard because of my short reach.

I’ve loved bouldering so much I decided to invite my brother. He’s been teasing me saying that he bets he could kick my ass in climbing (just friendly joking ofc) for a while now, and I honestly agreed with him. My brother is decently tall and athletic so I agreed that he would probably be a much better climber than me despite having less experience.

I finally got him to agree to come boulder with me, and man was it awesome. I totally kicked his ass. There were a couple climbs I struggle with because of my short stature that came easier to him, but besides that he couldn’t climb most of what I could! I know he’s a beginner so ofc he won’t be very good at first, but it still made me feel really good about myself. I’ve always felt like no matter how hard I work I would always climb worse than a man who is almost always going to be taller and stronger than me. But this really showed me just how strong I really am, and how much my work has paid off!

Does anyone suffer from keloid scars in this climbing community?

I go to my gym and I see so many women who look so free and 10x more comfortable in their athletic tanks and sleeveless shirts. But I’m too self conscious to wear those as I have keloids on my back/shoulder area.

If you don’t suffer from them: What would your reaction be to seeing these at the gym?

If you have keloids: How did you overcome not hiding your keloids in public?

Hello! I am moving to San Antonio in a week and will be regularly climbing at Armadillo Boulders. I would love to find a climbing group (preferably female but mixed gender is fine too), as I always improve more with partners. I used Meetup to find my last bouldering group in my current location, but I see that there are no groups on Meetup. Anybody know about any pre-existing groups?

I’m a size 18-20 (US) and it’s been soooo tough finding cute and comfy hiking/climbing pants. I basically only climb in leggings but they’re not very breathable and even my high-quality pairs rip at the knees easily if I take a fall & scrape the wall (esp when I climb outdoors). Also yall normal-sized girlies have the cutest options to choose from and I can never find plus size versions (and if I do they cost $30-50 more, which is so unfair). Any recommendations? Thanks!

I'm 35, very overweight, and climb alone. I scoot in after work once or twice a week, climb for about an hour with my headphones in, and bounce. I'm there to get some exercise in that doesn't feel like exercise, I only use Auto belay because I don't have anyone to climb with, and I usually hate it when it's crowded.

Well, my work schedule changed, so now I'm stuck coming in when it's super crowded with classes and team sessions. I was ready to just get in what I could, and tried not to be grouchy about the crowd.

I got in line, and these girls. These perfect gems of young women, these angels, introduced themselves, and started cheering me on, telling me I can do it, how good I was doing. They were so encouraging, pushing me to go for it, and telling me I was so close and I'll get it next time. They were audibly impressed with a big step up I did for a reach, and damn it made me feel good.

So thank you teen girls. Thank you for being warm and friendly and positive. It reminded me of when I swam in high school, except this time I could actually hear what they saying! It just made me feel so good, and supported, and a part of things. I've been lonely and insecure, it's hard out there for a 30 something with no kids and an introvert husband, and these perfect little angel babies just made me feel welcome without a second thought.

Holaa, empecé a escalar hace unos meses y todavía no tengo muchos amigos, busco gente con quien ir a escalar por Barcelona o alrededores ❤️

I pulled my upper back bouldering this morning and will likely be out of commission for a week or so. I’ve never hurt my back before in my years of climbing, so to some degree it feels like bad luck, but I’ve experienced a few pulls/strains doing other activities recently and could probably stand to warm up a bit more thoroughly.

What do you all do in terms of warming up before a bouldering session? I usually do a few arm circles/shoulder stretches and then climb a V0 slowly, stopping to stretch at each hold. I’m wondering if I should incorporate some more dynamic exercises into my warm-up routine.

Edit: Also, if anyone has any recommendations for good documentaries/books/etc. about climbing or outdoorsy activities in general I’d appreciate it. Was recently laid off and I’m a bit bored, especially now that I’m temporarily unable to climb/run/lift while I rest my back. Thanks!

Pic for attention

Hey yall, I joined the competition to be the next Ms. Health and Fitness. I think it'd be cool to highlight the sport of rock climbing especially as someone coming back into post ACL surgery. Check out my page and throw me a vote if you're willing.

https://mshealthandfit.com/2024/robin-kendle

Hello :) I've been climbing for 1 year now and had good progress! My issue is that I feek quite alone. I started to climb on January 2022 and we had a nice group of friends going all together, it was really fun!

But I learned my pregnancy in March, so I stopped. My BF was still going 3 times per week and I was quite jealous.

I went back climbing few months after giving birth, I was very happy. It was only me, my boyfriend and the baby.

But it became more and more difficult to climb with friends. Some stopped climbing, other could not fit our schedule.

Now it's been a year. My boyfriend, baby and I are going every Saturday and now that my kid is at the nursery, I'm going once or twice before work alone.

But I really would like to find some climbing friends. But seems like an impossible mission when you are mom.

My boyfriend and I found a new group, but we barely see them as "we're gonna come to the gym when baby will be done with his naps" is not something they are used to.

Any other alone mom here?

I bought myself a snazzy new pair of solutions and put them away in my closet to break out as a gift to myself post having a baby… turns out my feet grew and I can no longer fit in my trusty size. (I tried to put them on in the gym, got on one boulder, and felt like my feet were gonna explode.)

Would anyone be interested in purchasing them at $130?

I'm two months into climbing, and yesterday it just clicked. I was sure that I needed to sign up to classes to learn how to dyno because I couldn't figure it out. Then it just worked! Managed to solve a pretty cool v4 and just spent the rest of the session dynoing on random walls.

It's super fun, kills the shoulders though.

I’m currently watching the women’s finals and I’m curious about how others thought about Alex Honnold as a commentator on the most recent world cup?

On the one hand, I really appreciated his knowledge and analysis of the climbers and the technique and on the other hand some of his comments also came off a somewhat judgmental and rough. Thoughts?

Hi all,

As a gal who has been climbing for several years, I wanted to reach out to y'all to get support for a contest I am entered in. Please consider voting! <3

Adara DeNiro | Ms. Health & Fitness (mshealthandfit.com)