Welcome to the climbing bug! I started off bouldering last year as a way to lose weight and got thoroughly addicted. Would be really good to see you do some bouldering and rope videos, plenty of good places London or just north towards Bristol way!
Mark you are hilarious and the fact you have hubris for your abilities but are still humble enough to poke fun at yourself is comedic perfection. Stretching yourself athletically and being willing to be humbled is a critical component to physical fitness over all.
As a newbie to fitness who's on my way down from 238lbs (down to 196), and whose sport of choice is climbing, this is just as inspirational as any of the other videos. To find myself better at something than Mark Lewis, whose cardio game and Hyrox competitions are some of my own goals, is hugely motivating. It just shows you how far you can come in a year. Thanks man. No better training than some humble pie.
For anyone wondering how hard it is for someone more experienced, I've been climbing 12 years, and I'm relatively explosive for a climber. I once spent 15 minutes just trying to do the two moves in the 'Tomoa Skip' (13:42), and simply couldn't. I couldn't really even get close. I was in ~V9 (7c) climbing shape at the time.
Extreme yoga sounds awesome. Infact, it sounds like like something I would have seen on ESPN 3 in the 90's on a Saturday morning while eating cold pizza trying to recover from the previous night's fraternity party keg stands.
So much technique involved in this it's so much harder than people think. Climbing is alot more about your feet than the average person realises. You use your feet to mitigate the strain on your arms, climbing dynamically, basically hopping off your feet to half the motion and power required to do the moves making it easier, more fluid and faster. Get back in the climbing gym more regularly now they are open, as soon as you understand these fundamentals you will be reaching the top of this route all day. Love your channel BTW came for the running content stayed for the bants, also as a climber this video cracked me up, I admire your optimism
I’ve been following this channel and Mark’s journey because of all the great running inspiration. I am also a climber and I know how difficult it is to climb that speed wall. It’s a huge challenge even for intermediate climbers. I’d say you’re gonna smash this goal in 6 months, Mark.
@@MarkLewisfitness that’s great news, I’d stick a few adverts in as well, Christ you deserve to get some payback for your work , till the next time bud, be safe
@@alhit007 The beauty of the new model is I don't need to - I hate doing it, and no longer have to. It makes WAY more money to post with ads, many people seem obsessed with the idea that membership is about chasing cash - the reality is it will make an awful lot LESS money, but I'll be proud of what I post and that has more value to me.
Netflix should give you a series Mark, you are great at this. I put my back out picking up a screwdriver up this morning. I was not wearing a harness. I know. Classic me.
This is a great video to use if someone wants to know what speed climing is about. When one only sees the pros compete, it is not nearly obvious how hard the route is. I've been bouldering the last year 1-3 times a week (after starting shortly before my 45th birthday) and am very happy to be able to reach the top of that route at all (in ca. 1:50 min). Your enthousiasm for sports, trying new things and challenging yourself is inspiring.
I’ve tried that same speed wall up in Edinburgh… got about 2/3rds up through I was in pretty good climbing shape at the time. It really gives an appreciation for the difficulty involved!
As someone who climbs for few years now, I almost shat my pants when you said, you're going to have a race with Matt at the end :D I would be madly impressed if you had done the full climb without ever realy climbing. Even at 80kgs. Still, probably above average for a newby ;]
It's really interesting to see you at the beginner level, Obviously you have a great base so I'm intrigued to see how you progress in climbing. As your very tall I hope your flexible! will need it! Look forwards to seeing some more climbing.
Very good concept of videos max! It helps people realise how amazing these athletes are!!! TV doesn’t show the reality of it. Think of 2.45 in high jump for example!!! It sounds doable until you check it on the wall of your house or apartment! Your grit and humility are so cool too see… keep uploading this kind of videos… You didn’t wear your Watch Ultra? Scared to break it? Because you had a good training session. Matthew Fall, I thought it was a joke first!
Good vid- something different. I watched the speed climbing champs last year- totally awesome. I had a shot on a wall last year- arms were pumped after 5 minutes- good fun.
I admire your guts to give this a go. You've just done the equivalent of having never ridden a motorbike and wondering why your lap times aren't the same as Valentino Rossi. Can't wait for the next 'learning' edition.
This was great fun to watch! It just shows different sports need different types of fitness to specialize. My husband is the rock climber, I prefer ice climbing... I can just blaze my own trail. 😆
You have a woman's hand me lord! Great video Mark. Been climbing for years but never tried the speed climbing. Also live in Edinburgh with Ratho being my favourite hotspot. If I'd known you were there i would've came and said hi. You'd have your first non-English groupie 😅
Been climbing for 5 years and just started learning speed. I can't imagine trying this day 1. I respect the bravado. Still, sub 25 seconds week 1, I'm quite happy with my early attempts.
Nice one Mark, just started climbing myself will be interesting to compare notes on how far we both get in 6 months. Bear in mind though that I look like the financial controller version of you ten years ago so you have a head start on strength and agility 🙃 thanks for the inspiration to push harder.
That point about the kilometre pace he's going up the wall is actually amazing. Never even thought of it that way. Also, Matthew comes across as very sweet, even though it's weird seeing Mark so inexperienced at something.
Looking forward to see how you do after you get some climbing training under your belt. Using the Tomoa skip may not be the best move for you. I’d recommend using hold 4 like Danyil Boldyrev or going from hold 3 to hold 5 like Ludovico Fossali does. Cheers!
Ive been climbing for about 6 months and knew you would struggle just getting up the wall, but very cool video nonetheless. Cant wait to see the follow up in 6 months.
This was great. I think more climbing content would be brilliant. Fits your remit of doing things that you're not intuitively suited to. Get to a bouldering wall next! No faff with rope, easier to film, and a clear grading scale if you want to be above average. I'd guess being able to climb V4 would put you above most. Most climbing gyms have comp sets every few weeks too, so you could always do one of them so you would be able to compare scores. Plus, loads of cool climbing RUclipsrs for similar collabs (Hannah Morris bouldering, Louis Parkinson, bouldering bobat, jump to mind).
I tried roxk wall gym climbing one time. I got terrified like 2 feet off the ground and decided it was much better doing activities already on the ground!!!!
Great video! Can't wait for the rematch. Would love to see you take on an pro triathlete - how fast does a pro triathlete race a sprint tri or something like that. Or how about Team above average takes on Team Charles Barclay?
Yep. It’s one of those sports where, when it’s on TV, they should always have a regular person do it first, so you can see it’s not as easy as it looks.
Any type of bodyweight exercise which requires explosive power is challenging the heavier you are. You did well and yes speed climbing or even regular rock climbing is exhausting as some part of the body must be kept under tension through the climb and most people are not used to that.
I was laughing so hard at the beginning xD "This looks easy" - it came back so quickly xD I´m a pretty good climber and its alway when somebody makes it look easy than its probably hard ^^
18:44 "and their recovery, goodness knows how many times longer." Well, since you wondered out loud, I'm in my first week of C25K. 8 intervals of a minute, 1m30 recovery inbetween, 5 minutes warm up and cool down on either side. Bear in mind, warm up, recovery and intervals are WALKING!. Took 28:30, 355 net kcal burned, and according to Garmin, 55 hours recovery.
Keep at it, it gets easier and easier. 👍🏼 before you know it, you will look back and not understand why it took you so long, but also have a great understanding of why it takes other newbies as long as it does.
How sore were your forearms the day after (and the day after that)? I used to go to the gym regularly; I took up bouldering 6 years ago and I can still remember the first few weeks being at work the next day being unable to use the keyboard. I warn everyone I take bouldering before they start that they're not going to be able to work like normal the next day.
Mark - really enjoyed that. However, there's no substitute for the real thing. Get yersel ootside and on a nice Scottish hill. You'll never look back. Cheers, Drew
Speed climbing is a hard discipline as it requires a huge amount of explosive movement ON TOP OF already having a good degree of ‘normal’ climbing ability. To give it a go with as little climbing experience as you have is always going to be hard so fair play
I've climbed for over 20 years (bouldering not speed] and still can't do this in less than 30 secs. 6secs.... good luck chuck!! I'd reccomend training those specific moves for the speed wall. General climbing training might not be as helpful as you expect. Most climbing is about stability and effciency, not speed and power.
Many climbers use fingerboards or what is known as campus boards to directly work on forearm and finger strength. Many fingerboards are designed with specific sized pockets for using only two or three fingers to hang on. Some develop phenomenal strength. An example is John Gill, by profession a mathematics university professor who is known as "the father of American Bouldering", and was a gymnast in college. He reportedly could do one-finger one armed pull-ups. Don't try this - it would blow out the tendon on most of us. He is also known (sometimes reviled) for introducing the use of gymnastic chalk on climbs.
This is probably the one sport where your weight hurts you the most. Speed climbing definitely isn’t designed for someone who weighs 100+ Kilos or 200+ lbs.
Looks fun if your not scared of heights. Looking forward to seeing you get to the top. "My hips want to sit down.." :) Made my first ever 5 mile run this week. Thanks for the inspiration Mark.
00:12 No, even after ~2 years of bouldering I still think "how is that even remotely possibly" 😅 It's like someone doing 5k at Usain Bolt speed, or win a drag race vs a Bugatti on a bicycle. Physics should not allow this, and somehow it still does work 🤔
A HUGE thank you to Matthew Fall for his time and keeping me alive. I have now 100% got the climbing bug 😁
Welcome to the climbing bug! I started off bouldering last year as a way to lose weight and got thoroughly addicted. Would be really good to see you do some bouldering and rope videos, plenty of good places London or just north towards Bristol way!
@@grampsz. definitely looking forward to doing more of it as part of my training week.
@@MarkLewisfitness Don't go all out on speed climbing, especially when starting. Your muscles may handle it but the tendons definetly won't!
Maybe you can collaborate with Magnus Midtbø to get right kind of grip exercise routine 😉
@@kperttul I wish! He may be out of my collab league 😂
Awesome having you up in Edinburgh - I'm looking forward to our rematch in 6 months time ;)
Mark you are hilarious and the fact you have hubris for your abilities but are still humble enough to poke fun at yourself is comedic perfection. Stretching yourself athletically and being willing to be humbled is a critical component to physical fitness over all.
As a newbie to fitness who's on my way down from 238lbs (down to 196), and whose sport of choice is climbing, this is just as inspirational as any of the other videos. To find myself better at something than Mark Lewis, whose cardio game and Hyrox competitions are some of my own goals, is hugely motivating. It just shows you how far you can come in a year. Thanks man. No better training than some humble pie.
Just wanna let you know that today I completed my first 5k because you have inspired me through your videos. Thank you for setting me on this journey.
Nice work. 5k is a decent distance - once I got there, I was able to jump to 10k not long after. 👍🏼
V good 👍 well done
It gets easier and more fun from here, congrats!!!
For anyone wondering how hard it is for someone more experienced, I've been climbing 12 years, and I'm relatively explosive for a climber. I once spent 15 minutes just trying to do the two moves in the 'Tomoa Skip' (13:42), and simply couldn't. I couldn't really even get close. I was in ~V9 (7c) climbing shape at the time.
I love how positive Matthew was the entire time.
Great video. Five stars. Would recommend to a friend.
He was! Even when I was rubbish 😁
I love your 'It cant be that hard' attitude
That is the exact attitude that had me trying 'Extreme Yoga' for my first time.
It is that hard!
Extreme yoga …. Now that sounds interesting ! 😂
I do normal yoga, that's enough 😂😂
Extreme yoga sounds awesome. Infact, it sounds like like something I would have seen on ESPN 3 in the 90's on a Saturday morning while eating cold pizza trying to recover from the previous night's fraternity party keg stands.
So much technique involved in this it's so much harder than people think. Climbing is alot more about your feet than the average person realises. You use your feet to mitigate the strain on your arms, climbing dynamically, basically hopping off your feet to half the motion and power required to do the moves making it easier, more fluid and faster. Get back in the climbing gym more regularly now they are open, as soon as you understand these fundamentals you will be reaching the top of this route all day. Love your channel BTW came for the running content stayed for the bants, also as a climber this video cracked me up, I admire your optimism
Man, I love your content. Always so fun, unique, and refreshing
I’ve been following this channel and Mark’s journey because of all the great running inspiration. I am also a climber and I know how difficult it is to climb that speed wall. It’s a huge challenge even for intermediate climbers.
I’d say you’re gonna smash this goal in 6 months, Mark.
Thanks! My fingers are crossed! 😂
‘Touching the Void’ You’re a good sport Mark. That 5 degree slant gives me vertigo just thinking about it. Good effort big man!
I climb at Ratho, it took me 6 months of trying to get to the top of that wall, and I've only managed it once! I totally understand your pain!
Excellent 👌 great video Mark, glad you didn’t take to long to post again,,,
Once a week is the plan for public vids 👍🏼 maybe the odd week off for holidays 😂
@@MarkLewisfitness that’s great news, I’d stick a few adverts in as well, Christ you deserve to get some payback for your work , till the next time bud, be safe
@@alhit007 The beauty of the new model is I don't need to - I hate doing it, and no longer have to. It makes WAY more money to post with ads, many people seem obsessed with the idea that membership is about chasing cash - the reality is it will make an awful lot LESS money, but I'll be proud of what I post and that has more value to me.
You looked totally out of your comfort zone but did it anyway. Hats off to you!
I hope Mark is half way to Edinburgh! 6 months is up!
Great Vid 👌🏾. Someone may have already mentioned it but that film you were trying to remember was called Vertical Limit 👊🏾
Netflix should give you a series Mark, you are great at this. I put my back out picking up a screwdriver up this morning. I was not wearing a harness. I know. Classic me.
I am actually so excited for this😂 something totally different to anything you've done before. Love the vids and the naivety😂
This is a great video to use if someone wants to know what speed climing is about. When one only sees the pros compete, it is not nearly obvious how hard the route is.
I've been bouldering the last year 1-3 times a week (after starting shortly before my 45th birthday) and am very happy to be able to reach the top of that route at all (in ca. 1:50 min).
Your enthousiasm for sports, trying new things and challenging yourself is inspiring.
This cheered me right up after a long day.. great work!
I’ve tried that same speed wall up in Edinburgh… got about 2/3rds up through I was in pretty good climbing shape at the time. It really gives an appreciation for the difficulty involved!
Glad to hear, proper climbers, find it tough to!
As someone who climbs for few years now, I almost shat my pants when you said, you're going to have a race with Matt at the end :D I would be madly impressed if you had done the full climb without ever realy climbing. Even at 80kgs. Still, probably above average for a newby ;]
This is crazy, Mark! It looks so easy from the outside...just grab the hold and pull yourself up!! Wow. Great video.
ha! That's what I thought 😂
Mark and Matthew, brilliant and hilarious best ever great chemistry you guys 👍👏
Adding holds is like having the Wally rails up at the bowling alley 😂
Thanks Mark. This made me laugh a lot and was a real eye opener to just how elite these athletes are 😮
It's really interesting to see you at the beginner level, Obviously you have a great base so I'm intrigued to see how you progress in climbing. As your very tall I hope your flexible! will need it! Look forwards to seeing some more climbing.
Very good concept of videos max! It helps people realise how amazing these athletes are!!! TV doesn’t show the reality of it. Think of 2.45 in high jump for example!!! It sounds doable until you check it on the wall of your house or apartment!
Your grit and humility are so cool too see…
keep uploading this kind of videos…
You didn’t wear your Watch Ultra? Scared to break it? Because you had a good training session.
Matthew Fall, I thought it was a joke first!
Good vid- something different. I watched the speed climbing champs last year- totally awesome. I had a shot on a wall last year- arms were pumped after 5 minutes- good fun.
Love this video and the channel. Never fail to laugh out loud while watching. So funny
Cheers for the video mate
I admire your guts to give this a go. You've just done the equivalent of having never ridden a motorbike and wondering why your lap times aren't the same as Valentino Rossi. Can't wait for the next 'learning' edition.
Can't wait for part 2
This was great fun to watch! It just shows different sports need different types of fitness to specialize. My husband is the rock climber, I prefer ice climbing... I can just blaze my own trail. 😆
You have a woman's hand me lord! Great video Mark. Been climbing for years but never tried the speed climbing. Also live in Edinburgh with Ratho being my favourite hotspot. If I'd known you were there i would've came and said hi. You'd have your first non-English groupie 😅
The Father Ted reference was a welcome surprise 😂 great video
Been climbing for 5 years and just started learning speed. I can't imagine trying this day 1. I respect the bravado. Still, sub 25 seconds week 1, I'm quite happy with my early attempts.
............that 6 month mark is coming up Mark.
Nice one Mark, just started climbing myself will be interesting to compare notes on how far we both get in 6 months. Bear in mind though that I look like the financial controller version of you ten years ago so you have a head start on strength and agility 🙃 thanks for the inspiration to push harder.
That point about the kilometre pace he's going up the wall is actually amazing. Never even thought of it that way.
Also, Matthew comes across as very sweet, even though it's weird seeing Mark so inexperienced at something.
"That can't be hard" is the opposite of what I thought when I saw Speed-Climbing on TV.
😂😂😂 no idea what you said after 6.11 as I was laughing so hard 😂😂
He has ridiculous sized fingers 😂
Entertaining as always!
16:31 that's what he said!
PLEASE TO MORE CLIMBING STUFF OMG
Vertical Limit is a good action movie with climbing.
Looking forward to see how you do after you get some climbing training under your belt. Using the Tomoa skip may not be the best move for you. I’d recommend using hold 4 like Danyil Boldyrev or going from hold 3 to hold 5 like Ludovico Fossali does. Cheers!
Ludovico's on the Tomoa skip now, no? Tbh I've never seen a man more physically suited to Boldyrev's beta (other than boldyrev lol) than Mark
The phrase "they make it look easy" exists for a reason.
Ive been climbing for about 6 months and knew you would struggle just getting up the wall, but very cool video nonetheless. Cant wait to see the follow up in 6 months.
I was a bit over optimistic 😂
I am so here for the Mark Lewis rock climbing arc
I did some rock climbing a week ago, and afterwards my forearms felt like lead!
Given his English accent he definitely is thinking 'what the f am I doing I'm Scotland'
More climbing please!
"Yeah, that's the problem, it's the chalk" - Mark Lewis 😆
This was great. I think more climbing content would be brilliant. Fits your remit of doing things that you're not intuitively suited to. Get to a bouldering wall next! No faff with rope, easier to film, and a clear grading scale if you want to be above average. I'd guess being able to climb V4 would put you above most. Most climbing gyms have comp sets every few weeks too, so you could always do one of them so you would be able to compare scores.
Plus, loads of cool climbing RUclipsrs for similar collabs (Hannah Morris bouldering, Louis Parkinson, bouldering bobat, jump to mind).
17:28 Don't forget Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
MORE CLIMBING!!!!
I tried roxk wall gym climbing one time. I got terrified like 2 feet off the ground and decided it was much better doing activities already on the ground!!!!
If you aren’t used to it, it is a bit disconcerting to be that far off the ground 😂
The Dawn Wall is a must watch
Mark " That Mt Everest looks like a cheeky little hill, wont be that hard "!
It looks small on TV. Bit snowy though 😂
@@MarkLewisfitness yeah maybe try Snowdon first ,with a Sherpa of course
Great video! Can't wait for the rematch. Would love to see you take on an pro triathlete - how fast does a pro triathlete race a sprint tri or something like that. Or how about Team above average takes on Team Charles Barclay?
I absolutely do not enjoy climbing, however I thoroughly enjoyed watching your attempts.... 😁👏👏 The 'kid' definitely makes it look easy 😂👌
Yep. It’s one of those sports where, when it’s on TV, they should always have a regular person do it first, so you can see it’s not as easy as it looks.
Any type of bodyweight exercise which requires explosive power is challenging the heavier you are. You did well and yes speed climbing or even regular rock climbing is exhausting as some part of the body must be kept under tension through the climb and most people are not used to that.
I was laughing so hard at the beginning xD
"This looks easy" - it came back so quickly xD
I´m a pretty good climber and its alway when somebody makes it look easy than its probably hard ^^
18:44 "and their recovery, goodness knows how many times longer."
Well, since you wondered out loud, I'm in my first week of C25K. 8 intervals of a minute, 1m30 recovery inbetween, 5 minutes warm up and cool down on either side. Bear in mind, warm up, recovery and intervals are WALKING!. Took 28:30, 355 net kcal burned, and according to Garmin, 55 hours recovery.
Keep at it, it gets easier and easier. 👍🏼 before you know it, you will look back and not understand why it took you so long, but also have a great understanding of why it takes other newbies as long as it does.
@@MarkLewisfitness Thankfully I'm a lifelong on-and-off runner. Just getting back into it after covid reset me to factory settings :)
@@kjlovescoffee Thats cool - when you have already gone down that road it is so much easier to retrace it.
Almost time for a race
I suggest you try some bouldering. There's no time element for the casual climber and it's heaps of fun.
My local centre has that - on my to do list.
Bouldering is so much fun. Problem solving. Patience. Fitness. Technique.
Yet the Ninja remains....unmentioned, taunting or better haunting, us all.
How sore were your forearms the day after (and the day after that)?
I used to go to the gym regularly; I took up bouldering 6 years ago and I can still remember the first few weeks being at work the next day being unable to use the keyboard. I warn everyone I take bouldering before they start that they're not going to be able to work like normal the next day.
Please apply for the new series of SAS who dares wins filming this summer
Mark - really enjoyed that. However, there's no substitute for the real thing. Get yersel ootside and on a nice Scottish hill. You'll never look back. Cheers, Drew
Didn't expect to see a fellow LUBE climber on this channel!
was there another climbing video?
@@coldfireza unfortunately this video did very badly so we never followed up
Speed climbing is a hard discipline as it requires a huge amount of explosive movement ON TOP OF already having a good degree of ‘normal’ climbing ability. To give it a go with as little climbing experience as you have is always going to be hard so fair play
Going to miss this when I can't watch it on the big TV in my living room😢😢😢
What's wrong with you TV??? 😂
I saw Eric Noya (spanish speed climber) training on a speed wall once. It is absurd. Oh and did you mean Vertical limit?
This is so cool.
So ironic an ACE climber is called "Fall" :)
Mark, you missed an opportunity here to make your own cliffhanger shot! 😉
But otherwise top entertainment as always.
I want to see you try out regular non speed climbing!
I've climbed for over 20 years (bouldering not speed] and still can't do this in less than 30 secs.
6secs.... good luck chuck!! I'd reccomend training those specific moves for the speed wall. General climbing training might not be as helpful as you expect. Most climbing is about stability and effciency, not speed and power.
Im sure someone else has said this but Vertical Limit?
I can't wait to see the confusion on Mark's face when he sees all the "V0 in my gym" comments and doesn't know what they mean
In Swedish Mark menas ground 😂
Get yourself a fingerboard for the garage, there is the delightfully named Beastmaster 1000, which sounds right up your street.
Yep. Been suggested!
Vertical Limit is the movie
Do climbers directly work their forearms or do they just get stronger from repeated climbing?
Many climbers use fingerboards or what is known as campus boards to directly work on forearm and finger strength. Many fingerboards are designed with specific sized pockets for using only two or three fingers to hang on. Some develop phenomenal strength. An example is John Gill, by profession a mathematics university professor who is known as "the father of American Bouldering", and was a gymnast in college. He reportedly could do one-finger one armed pull-ups. Don't try this - it would blow out the tendon on most of us. He is also known (sometimes reviled) for introducing the use of gymnastic chalk on climbs.
You should try Brazilian jiu jutsu. Not many things as tiring as grappeling with someone who knows what they are doing.
Whats next, a hill climb Mark Lewis vs Andrew Feather?
That's a brilliant name for a climber. xD
😂 I know. It’s like it was meant to be!
Love a bit of Father Ted!
The relative size of his quads and hands is telling where the secret to this lies.
His hands are huge. 😂
good video
This is probably the one sport where your weight hurts you the most. Speed climbing definitely isn’t designed for someone who weighs 100+ Kilos or 200+ lbs.
Word of warning Mark, he's the only climber I've ever seen who can squat his own bodyweight, there are no leg days on a climbers calendar
He’s a solid lump for sure!
Magnus has a reasonably strong lower body. X2 bodyweight deadlift for reps.
A bit more cliffhanger. 😂
Can't have too much 😂
Okay that was hilarious
I think you mean impressive 😂
@@MarkLewisfitness ...sure 😂
Looks fun if your not scared of heights. Looking forward to seeing you get to the top.
"My hips want to sit down.." :)
Made my first ever 5 mile run this week. Thanks for the inspiration Mark.
00:12 No, even after ~2 years of bouldering I still think "how is that even remotely possibly" 😅 It's like someone doing 5k at Usain Bolt speed, or win a drag race vs a Bugatti on a bicycle. Physics should not allow this, and somehow it still does work 🤔