Is 195 too heavy to climb "hard?"

I'm 6' 195lb. I always feel like I'm the heaviest guy at the gym or crag. 

I'm just climbing 10's  

See's you all are climbing 12's.

Maybe there's hope for me yet :-)

Eric Marxwrote:

I’m 5’9” with 0 ape and weigh 185. Im certainly the heaviest climber I know for my height to weight, and also the strongest climber I know for my height to weight. I’ve climbed 12d trad and done lots of scary headpointing. I boulder v9 consistently and could push harder if I bouldered more often. I could also climb harder routes, into the hard 13s if I wasn’t on a massive pyramid building scheme. 

A lot of spray, but point being your weight should not be a limiting factor.

I know several boulderers who are 5’9” to 5’11” and in the 180-195 pound range that have climbed multiple V12’s and V13’s. I also know a couple string climbers around 180-190 that have done 13d to 14a….@op it comes down to body type and how/where you’re holding your weight. None of these dudes I have mentioned held their weight in their mid section, if you catch my drift. They are all muscle-y dudes. 

One of my more ego-gumby comments in rumney years ago. I think I was getting off tatanka it was my first 11b send and some dad who I assumed was at the crag because he couldnt handle a longer approach(maybe 5'10'' 210 lbs) came up to me and asked, 

"Is this thing hard?"
Me, "uh yeah it is not easy, way harder than the other climbs here!" Tatanka is directly left of a 13 and 3 12as. And directly right of some 5.9s.
He asks, "is it as hard as those 12as?"
I say, "I don't know" (kinda regretting my choice of words)

we are packing up and I walk back to my water bottle and he cruised it on his onsight attempt lol

Edit: to JT I thought it was funny

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

One of my more ego-gumby comments in rumney years ago. I think I was getting off tatanka it was my first 11b send and some dad who I assumed was at the crag because he couldnt handle a longer approach(maybe 5'10'' 210 lbs) came up to me and asked, 

"Is this thing hard?"
Me, "uh yeah it is not easy, way harder than the other climbs here!" Tatanka is directly left of a 13 and 3 12as. And directly right of some 5.9s.
He asks, "is it as hard as those 12as?"
I say, "I don't know" (kinda regretting my choice of words)

we are packing up and I walk back to my water bottle and he cruised it on his onsight attempt lol

He was playing you, old timer style, he”s been doing that route for years. Probably FA’d it….also what’s the relevance to this thread? The OP already said he climbs harder than that and asked about “hard” grades…

Edit to Trevor: 5/10

bryans wrote:

 It's true I don't train, and that long ago I decided projecting wasn't for me. 

Combine this with what you wrote about gaining 20lbs of non-muscle as you've aged, and you have a pretty obvious list of 3 things you could do if you wanted to improve, without really worrying one way or the other about being 195lb per se:

Lose a bunch of your belly fat (sorry to mistakenly assume this is where your 20lb of weight gain went - you said this thread was inspired by someone's comment about your gut or non-sport-climber-looking body)

Train your climbing muscles

Project

6' 195# isn't too big to climb hard, but late 40s, never training, never projecting, and carrying around a big spare tire is probably not going to let you climb hard.

blakeherringtonwrote:

Combine this with what you wrote in the 1st post, about having already gained 20lbs of non-muscle as you've aged, and you have a pretty obvious list of 3 things you could do if you wanted to improve:

Lose 20lb pounds of fat

Train your climbing muscles

Project

While you're at it, if you wanna lend me some of that extra natural ability you have over here, I'll take it.

Eric Marxwrote:

I’m 5’9” with 0 ape and weigh 185. Im certainly the heaviest climber I know for my height to weight, and also the strongest climber I know for my height to weight. I’ve climbed 12d trad and done lots of scary headpointing. I boulder v9 consistently and could push harder if I bouldered more often. I could also climb harder routes, into the hard 13s if I wasn’t on a massive pyramid building scheme. 

A lot of spray, but point being your weight should not be a limiting factor.

This is inspiring to hear Eric, thanks for sharing. I have pretty much the exact same dimensions, maybe a little long ape index. I was a college wrestler and have a stocky build. I have sent almost 30 12as-12bs and am pretty close on a 13a. Do you do a lot of hang-boarding? 

Maybe it’s that chip on your shoulder that’s holding you down.

I don’t think anyone had the intention to insult you or body shame you so your response is very odd. 

Weird thread full of weird spray 

Perfectly on brand for MP though

Another attention whore.

You already said you climb for fun. Yet you have never tried to put the work in. You have never tried to climb hard. You just climb for fun. It has never being in you in the past 20 years. It is all about your character makeup. You don't have it in you.

Just answer this: What makes posing this question on MP, all of a sudden, making you to put in the grind, put in the hard work, to climb hard?

NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

Just another attention whore

5.12s: fun grades. You climb these for fun, for warmup.

5.13s: a bit harder routes, but still manageable. You routinely see ordinary people walk up to popular crags to send 13s on first or second go in Europe. Americans climbers are just weaker in general. Americans think 12s are big deals. Real climbers do laps on12s for fun.

5.14s and up: hard routes

A V wrote:

Look at this chuffer saying 5.14 is hard. Those are warmup grades these days. It only starts getting hard at 5.15 and even then it’s still pretty easy

Illiterate. I said 14s and up.

Why are there so many assholes on MP with empty tick lists?

OP — you got some genuine replies. Hell yeah you can climb hard at a heavy weight. And I replied largely because I sympathize a LOT with your post. Literally a few days before hitting the gym and surprising myself with PRs, I was looking at 190 on the scale and thinking “Ffffffffffff—“. Screw the number. Just get strong and keep climbing!

Jake Fosterwrote:

Another attention whore.

What does that make the guy being a a**hole. Your trying to high jack the attention by being some ‘hard’ climber.

5.13s: a bit harder routes, but still manageable. You routinely see ordinary people walk up to popular crags to send 13s on first or second go in Europe. 

This isn’t even remotely true. I am not even close to your grades here and the only person in Italy who climbed harder than me was an American I had met before. Italians came up to me and called me buff. But there isn’t a reason to say this in…other than be a dick. I’m sure you’re a better climber than me, but you’re also a better pos. I would rather be a Gumby than a pos any day.

Spain > Italy 

Up to mid 5.12s sport mid 5.11 trad not super regularly but I also don’t really go for red points, usually just like to go for onsights and try new routes and a lot of them so I only occasionally push that hard.  Southern California so I’d like to think they’re true to grade when I go for the upper parts of my limit. I also recently started bouldering and I noted the last 5.11d I redpoined felt pretty easy for me. I bring that up to say I think training finger strength via bouldering is very helpful and I wish I did it sooner.

I weigh about 200-205 6’2. I’m always the heavier one. I don’t think I have much useless body weight. I weight lift regularly which is sorta contra-climbing for the most part but this isn’t my only aspiration. Not that I’m done super powerful body builder. If I stopped I’d probably drop 10lbs though.

I don’t think it’s capping you, maybe only for belay partners but even then my 125lb girlfriend belays me regularly and has prevented some bad falls with her solid belaying technique. Keep crushing dude, plus it’s all about having fun and going on an adventure of your choosing. You’re not gonna be the next sponsored athlete and if you’re hoping someone’s gonna lay with you because you climb 5.x then climbing and weight aren’t your biggest issues lol. 

You guys are taking Jake’s post seriously? 

Cesar Cardenaswrote:

…  if you’re hoping someone’s gonna lay with you because you climb 5.x then climbing and weight aren’t your biggest issues lol. 

wait you’re saying climbing 5.13 won’t make girls like me!?

They'll tell you that you climb harder because of your reach advantage regardless of your mass disadvantage. 

Flex, jiggle and giggle!!!  Enjoy yourselves dudes. 

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

What does that make the guy being a a**hole. Your trying to high jack the attention by being some ‘hard’ climber.

This isn’t even remotely true. I am not even close to your grades here and the only person in Italy who climbed harder than me was an American I had met before. Italians came up to me and called me buff. But there isn’t a reason to say this in…other than be a dick. I’m sure you’re a better climber than me, but you’re also a better pos. I would rather be a Gumby than a pos any day.

Which part of what I said was not true?

1. On my comment on bryans' original post, my position is very clear: it is not in his character nature/makeup to climb hard and he will not be able to climb hard.

There are only TWO TYPES of climbers:

a. Climbers who climb for fun. Those people love get on everything. They climb for volume. They must do xx number of routes or problems per session/day. They only climb routes that they know they can climb.

b. Climbers who climb for performance. Those people have only a one singular focus: they want to be the best climber they can possibly be. Every session/outing, they have one singular focus: to project the hell out of what they intend to project. To be better and much better than the day before. They put in lots of hard work into everything they do.

These are the only two types. There is no in-between. The best climbers are those who STICK CONSISTENTLY to type b. Many type b started out as type b, but they lack the focus, dedication, and determination, and slowly drift towards type a, because doing hard work day-in day-out is very hard work, and guess what, they don't want to put in the work and would rather climb for fun.

It is very clear bryans is type a. How can a habitual type a who has been having fun for 20 years, all of sudden, make kick into the mindset of type b and do all the hard work that is required to climb hard? Sorry to point out the obvious, it is NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

2. On my comment about climb grades, hate to break it to you. 5.12s are really the easy, fun grades. I am myself Americans, but I hate to admit it: Americans are big softies compared to Europeans climbers. 12s here in the States are big deals when they really are not. Come to Utah, or Colorado, or other major cities with strong climbers. People do laps(up and down climb) on 12a to 12d like they are nothing. They are really nothing. By definition, the max hardest move for 12a is V4, max hardest move for 12b is V5, max hardest move for 12c&d is V6. V4 through V6, give me break, do you really believe when you say V4, V5, and V6 are hard? 

Get out of your neck of woods and go to majors gyms in Utah and etc and see for yourself, people routinely do up and down climbs on 13a,b, and sometimes c.