How Fit Do I Have To Be Physical Bouldering for Beginner ?

Bouldering has the appeal that anyone can start at any time and enjoy themselves, regardless of fitness level. Each hall has routes for beginners, advanced, and professionals – right next to each other.

So you can start directly on the wall even if you are not quite so sporty after a short briefing. You get better quickly, especially at the beginning, which further increases the fun and motivation.

What Equipment Do I Need As A Beginner For Bouldering?

In addition to comfortable sports gear, climbing shoes are probably the essential tool when bouldering. You can borrow suitable shoes at the counter in every hall or buy your own. Entry-level models are available for around 40 euros.

Chalk powder helps against sweaty hands and provides a better grip on the wall, just like brushes, with which you can get slippery stones better hold again. Incidentally, powdered chalk is usually a form of magnesium carbonate. Chalk and meetings are also usually freely available in suitable bouldering halls, but you can buy them for little money. The financial outlay for beginners in bouldering is, therefore, comparatively low.

What Are The Safety Measures When Bouldering?

In bouldering, unlike in classic climbing, there is no harness or someone to belay you. But that’s not necessary either, because the walls for bouldering are only about 3 meters high and the floor will cover with thick mats. So if you lose your footing, you always land softly.

It is only essential that you practice this “case” a few times beforehand. Especially when jumping off the top of a route, focus on keeping your ankles straight to avoid twisting. In general, I would describe bouldering, if you are really “focused on it”, as a sport with few injuries and not dangerous since there are no external influences because they would be associated with corresponding risks.

What Is The Best Way To Train While Bouldering -?

As always, there is no such thing as a perfect training plan for everyone. However, as with almost any other sport, you should warm up properly before every training session, regardless of whether you are a beginner or a professional. Therefore, we recommend mobilizing the joints, stretching and pre-stressing the muscles, for example, with resistance bands.

As a beginner, I wouldn’t bouldering more than once or twice weekly. The reason: the tendons, ligaments and cartilage of the fingers will particularly stress, and they need much longer to regenerate and adapt to the new strain than, for example, the skin on the hands or the forearm muscles. For this reason, I would keep my hands off campus boards and the like for the first year or two.

On the other hand, doing additional strength training for the chest, triceps, and the “pressing” muscles, in general, makes sense. Since bouldering primarily uses the back and “pulling muscles”, this creates a good balance and at the same time prevents muscular imbalances, i.e. imbalances.

Since every route is different and usually requires other skills such as balance, body awareness, flexibility, coordination or a combination of these in addition to pure strength, one should also train these skills through targeted training. At best, you put this training on a “boulder-free” day.

How Do You Learn The Climbing Technique And Movement Sequences?

I would advise beginners to “let off steam” on the wall, to try out as many different routes as possible and not to let themselves be unsettled by supposedly challenging courses and try them. It is the best way for the body to get used to many new, different movement sequences quickly, and you will soon get better.

Ideally, you look for a “bouldering buddy”. In the best case, he has a little more experience in bouldering and can stand by you like a kind of “mentor” on the wall and give you tips. At the same time, you can learn specific techniques and movements from him from the viewer’s perspective that you can’t even see on the wall itself. This buddy does not have to come from your circle of friends or acquaintances. When it comes to bouldering, there are so many lovely people from whom you can get good tips here and there and who, according to experience, are very open and helpful when you ask them for advice.