July 20th, 2010 By Kevin Ngo

I recently got into bouldering. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s basically a form of rock climbing where you don’t use any ropes since you typically don’t climb higher than 12 feet or so. I’m currently doing indoor bouldering where there are padded floors and crash pads on top of that for extra cushion. It’s the safest form of rock climbing. Of course, this isn’t to say that you will never get injured. If you are careless, serious injury can occur.

I’ve actually heard of bouldering a couple of months ago but brushed it off. A couple of weeks ago, I tried it for the first time and was hooked. There are so many different “challenges” to work on and just the fact that you need to improve yourself both physically and mentally makes this one awesome activity.

Here’s a video to help you see what indoor climbing as well as bouldering is all about. When you see a climber climb without a rope, they’re bouldering up to about 15 feet high or so.

Here’s a quick teaser video of a bouldering competition, yes, there are competitions held all around the world. Hopefully, both general climbing and bouldering will be included in the 2020 Olympics!

As you can see, it’s for people of all ages. The level of difficulty ranges from easy as climbing a ladder to seemingly impossible. The difficulty is rated by a V-scale system that goes from V0 – V16 (current highest).

Since it takes both mental and physical strength, if you want to improve yourself in the field of fitness or even goal achieving, bouldering is something you should definitely give a try. Indoor bouldering isn’t the only type, there is also outdoor as well where you climb up actual boulders. There are people who travel around the world to climb the most famous boulders.

So how does this relate to motivation and self improvement? Head down to your local indoor climbing gym to find out. You’ll quickly see maintaining a focused mind, having the physical energy and mental toughness to overcome challenges will all come into play. Inevitably, you will run across a “problem” or route/challenge that will take you dozens of attempts to complete. Some routes will require some creative thinking and trying different strategies.

This is where the fun begins. In real life, most of us would probably prefer less challenges but with climbing and sports in general, you’ll crave for challenges. This mentality can transfer out into your everyday life and can help you better deal with those challenges.

Another reason for this post is to see if any of my readers are into bouldering as well. It’s so fun, challenging, and addictive that I’m surprised not many people even know what bouldering is. I certainly didn’t until just a couple of months ago.

Many people might look at bouldering and ask, “Why?” I know I did. For many people, climbing is life itself. We’re always reaching for something. We’re always going up some type of mountain. Some make it, some don’t. When we reach the top, the feeling can be amazing.

For the climbers, let me know why you climb in the comment section below. For me, it’s the mental and physical challenge of it. Also, it’s so much fun. 3 or 4 hours of climbing flies by so quickly. Give bouldering a go and tell me what you think.

Until next time…

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