How to Make the Best of a Bad Gym

Without further ado……

I was spoiled by an amazing climbing gym.  It was modern, clean, had lead climbing and bouldering routes that were reset every 6 weeks, a system wall, multiple hang boards, and a campus board.  It even had a full weight room and offered various classes ranging from yoga to cross fit.  From Monday to Friday, I practically lived there.

However, last year I chose to move for personal reasons and found myself stuck with a depressingly tiny bouldering gym.  It’s grimy, crowded, dimly lit, has paper thin mats, a campus board set at an unusable angle, most of the terrain is vertical to 10 degrees overhanging with a small 45 degree wall, and has no weights or classes.  I have never been to a worse gym.

Going to this gym is a chore, but I do it because I love climbing, and want to improve.

Since I am not alone in my struggle to keep fit in a subpar facility, I thought I would share some of the things I do to make the best of a bad gym.

Some of my suggestions involve playing with the cornerstones of a workout such as intensity, time and frequency but most are about being creative, resourceful, open-minded, and organized.

1.   Get Involved-

Look around and see what you can do to make the place better.  Volunteer some time to help set, clean holds, pick up trash.  Offer your carpentry skills and tools to help build a new wall.  Donate some weights, or equipment.  If you are really desperate, set up a crowdfund to help pay for new holds, walls, mats, etc.

2.   Think Bottom Line-

Many gym owners are only motivated to make improvements if they are convinced it will be profitable.  So when you suggest an improvement, do some research, find the cheapest options, provide some figures, and remember to talk about how the renovations will be good for business.

3.   Maximize the Space-

Fill the walls with holds.  Think about putting a variety of holds on the wall so people can train power, endurance and even do system board workouts.

4.   Write Out Sessions-

At the beginning of the week, write out your training program for the week and allocate chunks of time to different parts of your workout.  Going into the gym with a plan will help you will be more efficient, get more done, and increase your chances of completing your workout.  For example, Monday: (Rest), Tuesday: (Bouldering- 20 minutes warmup, 1.5 hours bouldering, 30 minutes circuit), Wednesday: (cardio and stretching-  stretch for 20 minutes, then 30 minute run), Thursday: (Endurance- 20 minutes warmup, 1 hour endurance, 30 minutes circuit), Friday: (Rest), Saturday and Sunday: (Climb outside).

5.   Go in Tired-

Weight lift, do a circuit workout, or hang board before you go to the climbing gym.  Training fatigued forces you to focus on footwork, and technique since your strength is gone.  Don’t climb sloppy.  Otherwise you may develop bad habits or get injured.

6.   Tick Tock-

Use a stopwatch to keep track of your time on and off the wall.  As you get stronger, increase climbing time, and decrease resting time.

7.   Exercise During Rest-

Add some pushups, pull-ups, burpees, sit ups, etc while you are resting.

8.   Work on Weaknesses-

Work on weaknesses 75% of time.  Grab that crimp you hate, slap that sloper you avoid, climb on that wall you loath, climb static or dynamic, and throw some dynos.  If you don’t know what you are bad at, ask a friend to be honest with you.

9.   Switch It Up-

If you always work on 5 move boulder problems, try staying on the wall for 5 minutes.  Go struggle on the 45 degree wall even though others may be watching.  Add some new exercises to your routine.  Don’t be afraid to step away from what you are good at and try something new.

10.   Make Up Problems-

This seems obvious, but many people are reluctant to step away from the tape.   A fun way to do this is to make up a problem that suits your strength and then do a problem that exposes your weaknesses.  Get friends to make things up for you.  Use holds that you typically avoid or challenge you.  That way you don’t always climb problems that are your “style”.

11.   No Hang board or Campus Board-

Don’t let the lack of training facilities hold you down. Find holds on the walls and do finger rolls, mimic hanging on holds like you are clipping, campus easy problems, and do system board workouts.  Get creative!

12.   Endurance on Bouldering Walls-

You don’t need a glorious lead wall to work endurance.  Work power endurance by doing 4×4 workouts.  Increase your endurance by simply staying on the wall for as long as possible.  If your gym is super small, you may need to show up early or late to avoid crowds.

13.   Climb With Weights-

Strap on a weight vest or some two pound ankle weights.  The vest will stress your fingers while the ankle weights will strain your core.  You will be amazed how much harder 4 pounds makes things.  This might even motivate you to lose some weight!

14.   Gym Buddy-

Climbing with friends always makes a bad gym more fun.  Make plans to climb with motivated people on a regular basis.  Make up problems, do exercises together, share your goals, and help keep each other motivated.

15.   Remember your goals-

Set and write down quantifiable short, medium and long term goals.  Use these goals as a motivator to keep going to that shitty gym.  For example, I want to climb a certain route outside or the pink route or to be able to do 10 pull ups.  Try to make goals build on each other to help you reach long term goals.

16.   Research-

Go online and search for other ways to train.  Some good places to start are:

TrainingBeta (Check out their Bouldering Strength and Power Program, Power Endurance Program, and Endurance Program)

ClimbStrong

PowerCompanyClimbing

Rock Climber’s Training Manual

17.   Take Trips-

Get out of the gym every once in a while to recharge your psyche.  Pay attention to what challenged you outside and go back to the gym and work on it.

18.   Stay Thankful-

Be thankful that you have a gym- not long ago, climbing gyms didn’t exist.  Remember, climbing is a privilege.

19.   Beginner’s Mind-

If all this fails, try to remember why you started climbing.  For fun!

20.   Start a Co-Op-

If you love where you live but simply can’t stand the gym despite you best efforts, start a Co-op gym.  Find a cheap space, gather some money from other climbers, and create your dream gym.  Now you can train how you want and create a stronger community.  A few nice examples are:

*Minnesota Climbing Cooperative 

*Denver Bouldering Club

Despite all of these tricks, I still have days when the poor setting and terrible walls kill my enthusiasm.  I dream of a decent campus board, steeper walls, some matting that inspires confidence, and lead climbing.  When this happens, I just take a moment to reset my attitude and remember that my primary goal is to have fun and go home tired.

In the end, a shitty gym may even make you stronger.  With fewer options, training becomes less confusing.  You don’t have to decide whether you should lead or boulder, hang board or campus.  You just use what is available, work on your weaknesses, and crank out intense workouts so you can get out of there ASAP.

A Word from the Author:

I have been climbing for almost 20 years.  If there is one lesson I have learned over and over, it’s that the climbing world is extremely small.  For this reason, I have chosen to remain anonymous.  I don’t want to hurt feelings or cause waves in the tiny climbing community that I currently belong to.  I realize that many people love the gym that I hate.  I also felt that the article would be more useful if my location was omitted.  This is an issue that many people who are serious about climbing deal with.  Luckily, with a little creativity and motivation, you can make even the saddest gym very effective.

One more thing.  Despite all the horrible things I have said about our gym, I am extremely thankful to have any gym at all.  Without it, I would probably go crazy.