WHAT IS BOULDERING?

Pure rock climbing

Bouldering is rock climbing stripped down to its raw essentials. Leaving behind ropes and harnesses and just using climbing shoes and a bag of chalk over safety mats, your challenge is to climb short but tricky bouldering "problems" (a route, or sequence of moves) using balance, technique, strength, and your brain.

You don't need experience or lots of expensive kit to have a go - making it really easy to get into if you've never tried it before.

The climbs are high enough to be exciting, but not so high that they're hugely intimidating. Using safety mats means that the risks of falling off can be managed, and leaving the ropes behind means that you are free to concentrate on the climbing, not the equipment. It's just you, the wall, and your friends on the ground egging you on.

Physical problem solving

Every climb, or "problem", has its own solution, and to successfully climb it you need to work it out. Depending on your body shape and personal strengths, your solution could be different to the next person's. If you're tall, you might be able to reach the next hold more easily on spaced-out problems - but find yourself cramped when the route takes you into the nooks and crannies of the wall. It all evens out in the end.

The key to the problem could be about how you position your body when you climb, or what order you put your feet and hands on the wall - or there might be a sneaky "toe hook" or one of countless other climbing techniques that suddenly takes the problem from impossible, to crushed. You might need to refine your technique before you can do it - or train some more and get stronger!

A workout for body and mind

Bouldering is a great physical workout, using muscles all over your body - not just your arms. Core strength is a real focus, as is flexibility. But unlike some other forms of exercise, it's so much fun you might not notice that you've had a big workout - until you wake up the next day! If you want to see what regular climbing could do for your physique, just take a look at some pictures of famous rock climbers online - it's pretty impressive.

It also takes a bit of thinking, as often brute force alone won't be enough to get you to the top. You'll need to think about how to solve the various bouldering problems, try some different techniques and methods out, and hopefully eventually crack it. This makes a bouldering session totally absorbing, making your forget about your stresses and leaving your mind clear and refreshed at the end of it all.

If you're new to the sport, you'll find that you make big improvements in your climbing ability after only a few sessions, as you use and tone those rarely used muscles. Breaking into the harder grades takes a bit longer, but by that stage you'll be hooked!

The most social form of climbing

We think that one of the best things about bouldering is how social it is. Because there aren't any ropes about to limit the number of people on a section of wall, you often get several people working a tricky problem together. This often involves one person having a go, then lots of chat on the ground as everyone discusses how they would have done it better, before trying and failing themselves.

At the wall, this means that even if you turn up on your own, chances are you'll end up talking to a few people you've never met before during your session, and swapping some tips or tricks. You'll get to know the regulars, and the hard core climbers we all envy as they make the problem you've been sweating over for an hour look like climbing a set of stairs!

How our Bouldering gym works

Our indoor bouldering gym tries to take some of the best elements of outdoor bouldering, but making them accessible all year round. Using artificial climbing holds we create problems at all levels of difficulty, organized into color-coded circuits, so that you can work out your level and instantly know which climbs in the bouldering gym you might enjoy trying out.