If you know me I'm a huge fan of fitness toys and gadgets and ever since I was a kid I always wanted a rock climbing wall in my house. In my DREAM version it was an entire wall with multiple slants and craziness but seeing as I live in a studio apartment in LA I'm going to have to compromise.


Why?
The first question you ask yourself is maybe why would I build this beyond the initial fun of having this.

I was noticing that my forearm grip strength was under developed. I could buy grip strengtheners but I've done that in the past and they always got forgotten about in a drawer. The gym would be another option but who remembers to work their forearms when they're at the gym?!? I needed to somehow incorporate this work into my current routine, or just make it FUN. I decided on the latter.

Lastly, I wanted one of these is because I discovered a new challenge, something called a "finger ladder." My first attempt = FAIL so of course I have to practice and get better. You'll have to Google it to see what it is. 

Process
Here are some progress pics I took. I definitely had minimal tools and the project cost me probably around $100. LOL I used my parallettes to assist with the sawing and glueing of the pieces.




What's great about this wall is that there are 8 main screw holes where I can switch and move handholds around for different challenges. The 5 other holds in this picture are screwed into the board and will not move and will be used for finger strength work.

Design wise I'm going to leave it as is but sometime I'll paint it to make it fit in better and have a bit of a designy feel.

Want to build your own?
If you'd like to build your own here is an awesome WEBSITE I found that details step by step instructions. The page is a bit long so you may have to scroll to the section you need.

Another solution
If you want the best of both worlds (Pull-Up Bar and Boulders) check out this pull-up bar HERE. I got mine for about $50. It's a really nice bar and def worth the investment for the different options.