[Rant]

Does anyone else feel like they're swimming upstream when trying to train in a commercial gym? I seem to annoy or get annoyed by other people on an almost weekly basis. After a month and a half in the gym, and still a solid month and a half away from Spring climbing, I'm losing hope. For example...

"ARCing" - No fucking way. I only attempt to ARC during off-peak hours, nevertheless there's always some goddamn noob breathing down my neck 10 minutes into the workout. Invariably. Apparently you can run on a treadmill for 20 minutes at every fitness center in the country with no issues, but try to run laps on a 35 foot gym route for 20 minutes and you're an inconsiderate asshole. So I've been told while belaying my partner, and in no uncertain terms. The auto-belay? Forget about it! Noobs (and parents who can't be bothered to learn to belay their kids) are attracted to it like flies to shit. Bonus points for being asked to turn over the auto-belay by a pair of climbers.

4x4's and Roped Laps - They're easier to pull off than an ARC session, but still quite perilous. First off, your chances of actually completing a proper 4x4 with the prescribed rest period are not very good in the typical gym. Even if you let everyone else around you know you'd like to do the workout (which usually requires patiently explaining what the hell a 4x4 is), someone else can always show up and start a boulder problem as soon as you've dropped off the top, mid-set. Then, someone else is on the wall when you should be starting your next set. A partner can help to control traffic, but again, you're doing multiple laps on a route or boulder problem, and the average gym climber can't think of any reason why you'd do that...other than to be a selfish, inconsiderate prick.

Hangboarding/Campusing - Seriously, forget about it. Like interval training, your chances of actually completing your workout with the right rest periods are slim. Give it 5 minutes, tops, until someone comes up and starts doing pullups on the jugs in front of his rental-shoe-clad girlfriend.

But, what can you do? I suppose I could just put in my headphones, crank the volume, and ARC to my heart's delight, protestations be damned. I could try to explain what the hell I'm doing, but I fear I don't have the patience for that. Or I could admit defeat, that the climbing gym isn't really a place to train, that the gym cares more about selling fucking birthday parties than being a place where athletes hone their skills, and that the gym is primarily a playground for non-climbers and children who think it's some kind of adventure.

I'm losing hope, folks. Or, I think I may be understanding, more clearly than ever, just what climbing gyms are all about. Is the spring here yet?

[/Rant]

what do you mean by "right rest periods" in regards to campusing/hangboarding?

You V.S.C.'s crack me up with your ill concealed attempts to show off. Not fooling anybody. Would you train for a world cup downhill on the bunny slope at a commercial ski area? And get pissed when someone got in your way? If you seriously want to do all that baloney go do what the X.S.C.'s do and build your own dedicated venue. Don't whine about the $$$ - the private barebones club won't set you back any more. It will just lack the pizazz, Shouldn't matter if the goal is to "train" and not to see and be seen.

Buy a hangboard, build your own wall, harden the fuck up and just climb outside, buy ice tools, get laid, go to the gym early, go to the gym late.

I could just put in my headphones, crank the volume, and ARC to my heart's delight, protestations be damned.

More like, "Harden the fuck up, look the n00b in the eye, and inform him that you're going to be on the route for 20 minutes."Like Guangzhou says, they're paying the bills so you can train. So, remind them what they're fuckin' there for.

Jay

So you go to a commercial climbing gym and you are upset that they have other members?

Maybe you can use the money you spend on membership to build your own personal wall at home, buy a treadmill wall perhaps.

The whole gym's climbing membership doesn't revolve around you. of course, you could also ignore those other guest and keep running laps, who cares what they think of you. Unless the gym staff is asking you to quit or you are breaking some rules that is.

The way I see it, you can be upset by doing what the other guest want you to do, or you can upset the other by doing what you want. The choice is yours.

Noobs, beginners, and birthday parties are one thing that helps keep a gym in business so the more serious climbers like you have a place to climb during the week and off season.

You V.S.C.'s crack me up with your ill concealed attempts to show off. Not fooling anybody. Would you train for a world cup downhill on the bunny slope at a commercial ski area? And get pissed when someone got in your way? If you seriously want to do all that baloney go do what the X.S.C.'s do and build your own dedicated venue. Don't whine about the $$$ - the private barebones club won't set you back any more. It will just lack the pizazz, Shouldn't matter if the goal is to "train" and not to see and be seen.

It honestly sounds like your location is a large part of the problem. Sorry to be stereotypical about New Yorkers, but yeah, sounds like NYC kind of thing. (My family lives in NYC, btw, and I visit there regularly, which included visiting the climbing gyms, so I do know what I am talking about. People there are way more uptight and inconsiderate than in other gyms I have visited).

Sounds like your gym sucks, sorry about your luck.

It's a balance really, a crowded gym sucks for the obvious reasons, but then the owners have more money to invest back into it, whereas a quiet gym will generally be a crappier gym.

I can't follow your alphabet soup, but I did enjoy your psychoanalysis. The roots of my ostentation must be buried deep in my unconscious mind, because my conscious mind thinks I look like an idiot when I'm training. ARCing is pretty much the antithesis of showing off. You get sweaty and worked on easy routes. The Brahs working the V11 are not impressed by me doing 4x4's on their warmups. Showing off is sending that V7 you have wired in front of the new girl in yoga pants...then downclimbing the problem she was working...when you were supposed to have an easy endurance day.

More like, "Harden the fuck up, look the n00b in the eye, and inform him that you're going to be on the route for 20 minutes."

Like Guangzhou says, they're paying the bills so you can train. So, remind them what they're fuckin' there for.

Jay

Noobs and advanced climbers alike can take some 10-20 minutes to finish a route that is well above their grade their warm-up/onsight grades.

You V.S.C.'s crack me up with your ill concealed attempts to show off. Not fooling anybody. Would you train for a world cup downhill on the bunny slope at a commercial ski area? And get pissed when someone got in your way? If you seriously want to do all that baloney go do what the X.S.C.'s do and build your own dedicated venue. Don't whine about the $$$ - the private barebones club won't set you back any more. It will just lack the pizazz, Shouldn't matter if the goal is to "train" and not to see and be seen.

but ya, perhaps in NYC Jay's talk is considered polite and proper and its just an issue of cultural relativism, but in Canada, we generally talk to people like human beings, like we're equal, and not as douche bags. amazing how many more flies you catch with honey... just a thought