Life on the other side of the plateau – Rediscovering your psych
Do you remember when you first fell in love with rock climbing? That first route you completed? The exhilaration of climbing so high up? The thrill and excitement of progressively hitting higher and higher grades? Climbing, like many other endeavors, has a steep and quick growth phase for most. Successes seem to almost rain out of the sky: […]
How Exercise Can Help You Fight Your Addiction
Recovering from an addiction is far more complex than just stopping the habit and showing up to counseling. You need to give yourself the tools to cope with withdrawal and for the hole in your life left behind by your habit. Exercise, with its myriad mental health benefits and its potential for an immediate feel-good […]
Super Bowl Focus: Eight lessons to take your climbing to the next level
Who would have believed it? A second-string quarterback who had never won a playoff game prior to this year, on an underdog team, catches a pass in the end zone thrown by a tight end who had perfectly deceived the most successful team in the NFL by receiving a hand-off from an undrafted running back […]
5 ways to improve heart health – National Red Day
You may have noticed our employees sporting red shirts at the gym today. That is because today is National Red Day. According to the CDC about 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Cardiovascular disease in the U.S. kill approximately one woman every 80 seconds. […]
Neuroscience, squirrels, and belay safety
Have you ever had the experience of walking into a room to say . . . grab your climbing shoes to go climbing at Bliss Bouldering and Climbing Complex . . . only to get into said room and completely forget why you were there? Of course you have. We all have. Why is that? […]
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Just stop it!
Jonathon Babinski was the best at it. One of the members of my organic chemistry study group, I can still hear his whiny little voice: “Dr. Channing is the worse! He must be tenured, because he obviously isn’t interested in teaching!” “I’m sure the school purchased this lab equipment in the 20’s. No wonder we […]
Lead climbing and the wisdom of Mr. Iacocca
I grew up in the 80’s. It was a turbulent time. The economy was in trouble, inflation was rampant and interest rates where in the double digits (can you say 18% on a car loan?). All of this hit one of America’s giant auto makers especially hard. Chrysler Corporation was on the verge of bankruptcy. […]
Proving them wrong: the wisdom of Dave Graham
A number of years ago my son Caleb and I attended the Hueco Rock Rodeo. It’s an epic event, with climbers from around the nation converging on the farthest SouthWest corner of Texas for an outdoor bouldering comp in the iconic Hueco Tanks State Park. Boulders established by many of the legends of our sport […]
Hans, Frans, and beating the pump
‘Ve jus vont to PUMP —(clap clap) — YOU UP!’ Hans and Frans Professional Body Builders Saturday Night Live OH ya! I am all about Hans and Frans and how hot my biceps look after a hard work out. All that blood filling every fiber of my perfectly sculpted musculature, I totally get LMFAO: ‘I’m […]
Lessons from Prince Charming (or how to fit climbing shoes on your princess feet)
When the handsome prince pulled his LandRover up to Cinderella’s mountain cottage, he had no idea that he was about to become the first ever climbing shoe sales person. Trying desperately to manipulate that delicate glass slipper onto fat, sweaty appendages — anyone who has ever fitted a good pair of rock shoes can definitely […]
