Most of us don't live in Fontainebleau, Albarracin or Magic Woods. Where do you usually climb? Share some pics.

Where is it and why?

I really like catalyst climbing for the mindset advice.

When I was starting climbing back in the day the general idea for training was "keep climbing until you can't move anymore". We would do pull ups, pushups, crunches and traversing for warm up, climb for hours and then do more pull ups, pushups and campus. Repeat couple of times a week. There was progress at the beginning but people plateaued fast and injuries were common.

Since then a lot of research was done on climbing training and we have books like

After reading this book and applying what I learned, my first trainings look silly. So here's a short summary of what I learned from it and what I wish I knew 10 years ago:

1. Best way to improve climbing and avoid injury is to get strong. The stronger you are the bigger the safety margin you have. If you climb well below your max strength you will have less chances of getting injured.
2. To get stronger you should train close but below your max level. Strength training recipe is basically 1-3 reps and 90-95% of your 1RM (1 Rep Max, the max weight you can lift one time).
3. To work at 90-95% of your 1RM you have to be rested. Instead of working out until you can't move you should focus on doing the work you have planned for the day. Then you should make sure you're rested before your next training.

That's pretty much it. The rest is training periodization and planning which is a more complicate story. So what my typical training looks like now?

1. Good warmup (joints, rubber bands, roller, light pullups, cardio, traverses). Nowhere near pump levels.
2. Focuses strength training: for example 3 pullups at 60% 1RM, 3x at 75%, 3x at 90% (with 3 min rest between). Then same for finger strength (3 series of weighted hangs on 20mm ledge, at 60%, 75%, 90% 1RM).
3. Light-medium bouldering for maybe 30 minutes

Stretch, go home. Half of the work but noticeable results.

So what does your training look like?

circa 3 weeks of working/progression. was popping off the wall & had to incorporate a crucial foot placement change to unlock this sequence for myself. 🪻

Another slab done! This one was part of the finalists boulders for a junior comp. The footholds during the first half were beyond bad and reaching up to the undercling was a tricky move, can't imagine how hard that must be for children half my size. Glad I finally got it!

I'm new to bouldering, I started 3.5 months ago and love it. I was wondering what kind of training routines you all recommend for advancing? When do you decide to move on to more difficult problems? Any personal words of wisdom?

Mostly posting for content.

I thought I should post this to help save some people some time and frustration when trying to find some shoes.

My street shoe size is 10 1/2 wide with my left foot being roughly half a size smaller and the middle of my foot is pretty high volume. My single biggest problem is always being able to use heel hooks as there is typically this gap of about a 1/4 to 1/2 ish inch gap at the bottom of the heel. I prefer some knuckling in my toes and size for my smaller foot.

I boulder pretty much exclusively, live in Colorado.

With that out of the way my new current daily driver is the Tenaya Indalo (8.5) the Tenaya Iati (8.5) was a very close second. The indalo is slightly wider overall. Other shoes I have tried that have felt like they would work were the Ocun Ozone HV (10) and Ocun Bullet (10). The Scarpa Instinct VSR (9.5) also felt very good but was sized half a size too small I think as I couldn't bend my foot at all.

I tried multiple different shoes and vendors recently and found most shoes too narrow in the midsole area to downsize enough. This includes Mad Rock, Red Chili, La Sportiva.

Can you share your gym recommendations? Please include where the gym is and why you would recommend it.

• Red spider (Fareham - UK) https://spiderclimbing.com/red-spider/

Bouldering-focus. Good size, good settings, not usually overcrowded.

• Kimera Climbing (Gavà - Spain) https://kimeraclimbingbcn.com/

Bouldering-focus. Small, good settings, very cozy and friendly.

• Sharma Climbing Gavà (Gavà - Spain) https://www.sharmaclimbing.com/es/espana/barcelona-gava/

Mix between sport climbing and bouldering, probably leaning more towards sport climbing. Huge - biggest climbing gym in Europe. Usually crowded during peak hours, but opens early and closes late so you can easily avoid them. Great settings, good variety. Other activities in the same place - yoga, fitness, etc.

Rasta, 7a/V6