(Part 2) Top products from r/bouldering

Climbing in Boston is better than ever. There are at least 5 gyms within 10 miles of Boston Proper:

-Central Rock in Watertown. Amazing bouldering, toproping and lead climbing. Highest walls in the city.

-MetroRock in Everett. Huge variety of climbing. Gets very busy. Events and classes abound.

-BKB in Somerville. Very new and very hip. A nice space but with major flaws in terms of gym design. Expensive.

-Boston Rock Gym in Woburn. An older gym, solid, but with smaller walls and less overall climbing. More affordable. Old school crowd.

-Rockspot in Dedham. The smallest of the 5. Great setting with hard routes. Affordable.

Of the five, BKB, Central Rock and MetroRock are T and bus accessible. Rockspot and Boston Rock Gym I believe require a trip on the commuter rail.

The Greater Boston area is also home to lots of great outdoor climbing for any level.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/massachusetts/105908062

And some literature that might be good to check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Climbing-England-Falcon-Guide/dp/1560448113/ref=pd_sim_sg_2

http://www.bostonrocksonline.com/

Best of luck

Hmm, not sure how to describe all the techniques that you could be using, I would actually recommend reading a book or watching some videos on climbing techniques. Going from V0 to V1 is where things like turning your hips in and engaging your core really start mattering. It's actually harder to learn proper technique on V0 because a lot of the times you can get through them without proper technique. Try to work harder problems with someone who has good form, and try to get at least 2 or 3 moves at a time. If you can't do a pull-up yet, I would work on getting in at least 1 pull-up with proper form as well. One trick I found useful to get the "feel" of a move is hovering over the next hold with my hand before grabbing on to it. If you can reach for the next hold and hover over it for 2~3 seconds, it means you have established a proper base with your feet. Not always possible, but generally you want to be in balance so you conserve energy. Hope that helped, I mostly just climbed with other better climbers and wasn't shy about asking for technique tips, most were very willing to share beta and give me feedback. Good Luck!

You definitely have to get on High Plains Drifter (V7) in the Buttermilks. It's a classic V7 test-piece. The crux is a bit high off the deck so it's nice to have another party there to combine pads.

In the Happies, hit up the Hulk (V6). It's the only 4-star (out of 4 possible) boulder in the Happies according to the Bishop Bouldering Guide (that guide book is awesome; I'd recommend picking one up if you go).

If you want to pick up a cheap V10, hit up Cocktail Sauce in the Buttermilks. It's said to go around V7-8, and I'm inclined to agree that the grade's a bit soft.

Pow pow (V8) in the Sads is a super fun body-tensiony, sloper climb.

Fly Boy (sit) (V8) is a pretty classic V8 in the Buttermilks. This one you definitely need to hit up when there's a lot of people around to pad up the large-ish rock hanging out in the fall zone.

Here's a Top 100 list you might find useful: http://sendage.com/sendlists/print_view/4eb96bfb0d4fa

It's very easy to get disheartened at first with others seemingly gliding up the wall. Try to remember that they have probably been climbing a very long time and quite regularly too. Instead try to look how they are climbing and improve your own technique, see if you can try those methods on easier problems or just straight up ask them "How did you do that?? I've been stuck there for so long!", I've found climbers are generally super friendly to approach and very eager to help eachother out with a problem. See if you can find a group of people to do a problem with, you'll be able to do it faster as they'll have a different way of thinking of doing it which may suit you better and it will be much more fun! (I've often found just a simple twist or drop knee will allow me to get past that crux that just wouldn't have occurred to me alone)

Another thing, if you do only the VB's first, get them nailed down, so you know how to do them efficiently. This way you'll learn valuable techniques that will be crucial for those pesky V0's and V1's and soon they'll be a thing of the past.

Take your time, talk to others, have a look at this book, get a chalk bag, have fun

You looked pretty casual climbing that thing, like it took no effort at all. Nice job.

I also like the fact you're focused on things you can control — your activity level and what you eat — and not on things you can't control, like the numbers on the scale.

As for diet, I recently read Always Hungry? by Harvard obesity researcher David Ludwig.

If your goal is sustainable weight loss, I highly recommend the book. It's virtually impossible to sustain a restrictive diet if you're eating the wrong things. Specifically, highly processed carbs and sugars trigger a cascade of biochemical reactions in your body which result in slower metabolism, more stored calories, and greater appetite.

Here is the author, speaking to the New York Times:

>It’s the low fat, very high carbohydrate diet that we’ve been eating for the last 40 years, which raises levels of the hormone insulin and programs fat cells to go into calorie storage overdrive. I like to think of insulin as the ultimate fat cell fertilizer.

...

>Simply cutting back on calories as we’ve been told actually makes the situation worse. When we cut back on calories, our body responds by increasing hunger and slowing metabolism. It responds in an effort to save calories. And that makes weight loss progressively more and more difficult on a standard low calorie diet. It creates a battle between mind and metabolism that we’re doomed to lose.

...

>We think of obesity as a state of excess, but it’s really more akin to a state of starvation. If the fat cells are storing too many calories, the brain doesn’t have access to enough to make sure that metabolism runs properly. So the brain makes us hungry in an attempt to solve that problem, and we overeat and feel better temporarily. But if the fat cells continue to take in too many calories, then we get stuck in this never-ending cycle of overeating and weight gain. The problem isn’t that there are too many calories in the fat cells, it’s that there’s too few in the bloodstream, and cutting back on calories can’t work.

---------

I've changed my eating habits based loosely on recommendations in the book: cut out sugar and refined carbs, eat more fats. I eat more protein than recommended because of how much training I'm doing. I eat lots of fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, vegetables, and fruits. I'm down about 10 pounds since November and I'm stronger. I'm can do one-arm pull-ups again, and am breaking personal records on my hangboarding and campus-board training.

The best part of the "diet" is that my portion sizes are down dramatically and I like what I eat, yet I don't feel hungry all the time. I don't count calories or macros.

If you want to count calories, that's fine, but it's a lot easier to stick to that calorie goal if you're not eating poorly.

About two weeks into climbing, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this book in one of those give-and-take bookshelves in a local coffee shop. Reading it helped me a lot, way more than any online resource I've found. It will help you come up with a clear plan for improvement and teach you about how to think about climbing. You're gonna have to put in the work at the end of the day - it's not a shortcut by any means. But if you take the advice this book gives seriously, I think you will be surprised by the results. Before you throw money at a coach, consider reading up more.

Another question for you guys, what are the brushes you guys are talking about used for? And are these any good? And is this set any good, and what you are talking about?

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Diamond-Brush-Set-Multicolor/dp/B001BN0QZY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480952556&sr=8-2&keywords=climbing+brushes

Edit: is this balm any good?

https://www.amazon.com/Joshua-Tree-Organic-Climbing-Salve/dp/B004YAUJ8U/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1480952741&sr=8-2&keywords=climbing+balm

9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes by Dave MacLeod gives a good overview of common bad habits/practices a lot of climbers make, and how to avoid them.

It's a good book for gaining a bit more overall awareness of how best to approach getting better at climbing, rather than just throwing yourself at harder and harder climbs until you can do them.

He also has a second book called Make or Break, which is centred around common climbing related injuries and how to avoid them (or recover from them).

Check out Better Bouldering by John "Vermin" Sherman (The V in bouldering difficulty grades is for Vermin, he created it).

Here's a video with him showing how to prepare for a highball.

The basics of crashpads:

• make sure the landing area is flat, so you don't land unevenly or roll an ankle.
  
• leave no gaps in between pads.
  
  If you're in the US, Organic pads are some of the best you can get. They are really well built and last long. Other than that, it's about your preferred size / thickness. All common brand pads are ok, if you plan to boulder with other people and just contribute your pad to the stack you don't necessarily need a huge one.

Performance Rock Climbing by Dale Goddard and Udo Neumann is another great reference for improving your mental game.

Here's the thing: if you are bouldering at or near your limit, those thoughts telling you that you can't do it--and by "do it" I mean send the problem clean from start to finish--those thoughts are usually right. Bouldering is hard. So, for me, it's less about switching off negative chatter and more about developing a positive response to failure. Because if you challenge yourself in bouldering, you're going to be failing. A lot.

One thing that's helped me is learning to appreciate the process of unlocking even just a single move on a hard boulder. Try different beta. Feel out all the micro-adjustments you can make that change the movement. Celebrate each little improvement along the way, from getting closer to doing one move, to doing that move, to doing multiple moves in isolation, to linking multiple moves into a sequence, and eventually to doing the entire problem. That way you build up a habit of giving yourself positive feedback throughout the entire process of working a hard problem rather than only at the very end when you finally send it.

Mountain Project has some listings. These are supposed to be good, but I normally do stuff with ropes, so I can't 100% vouch: https://gunksapps.com/

Also, Central Park some some fun stuff too, all kinds of levels: http://www.beta-boy.com/nycboulderingguide/index.html

There's a book for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/SHARP-END-PUBLISHING-Bouldering-Guide/dp/1892540894 (also they sell this at REI Soho and various climbing gyms, I've seen it at BKB Gowanus and Cliffs LIC)

I have the rockfax bouldering guidebook for the Lake District it’s not exhaustive but is a good place to start.

Lakes Bouldering: Rockfax Climbing Guide (Rockfax Climbing Guide Series) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1873341512/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_akJYzbR46A5FB

Good job. Check out this book if you want to work on your mental game
https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Warriors-Way-Training-Climbers/dp/0974011215

You can find it online: https://www.amazon.com/Antihydral-Cream-Treatment-Hyperhidrosis-Excessive/dp/B07SNZNSD9

Rhino skin tip juice is more widely available in the US (and cheaper) and has the same active ingredient (methanamine): https://www.rhinoskinsolutions.com/store/p40/Tip_Juice.html

I use a denture brush like this one.

The Book of John or the Book of Matt?

I'm going to Moab in June and plan on going to big bend. There are some books on the area but a lot are out of print.

http://www.discovermoab.com/climbing_moab.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Desert-Climbs-Fred-Knapp/dp/0965707989?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

Eric Horst's books detail out a macro-cycle system thats weeks endurance building (takes the longest to build up but lasts the longest), 3 weeks of Power, 2 weeks Power Endurance, and then a week off, following by crushing everything. Can't say I've had the patience for it, but he and his kids are wicked strong so.....

http://www.amazon.com/Training-Climbing-Definitive-Improving-Performance/dp/0762746920

That one also has a bunch of additional stuff on diet, etc. That said, you ask 10 people, you'll get 10 answers.

I bought one of these for my climbing shoes. I think every boulderer should have one... as we tend to aggressively size.

Just make mental notes of where the pressure points in your shoes are when you climb. Then put the plastic bits in the right spots on the stretcher and allow it to do the break-in work instead of your poor toes. If it's really bad, you can put in the stretcher and use a hair dryer to help the rubber conform.

These will only work on expanding the toe box... although I think there are some that can help stretch the length.