Follow along all month long as we share topics in celebration of Women's History Month!

Just as beautiful on the inside as on the outside and twice as strong; the stories told by and about the heroine women in this following list of must-read books, really pack a punch! These powerful women have overcome tremendous obstacles, fought for equality on different fronts, and now their stories show us how we can rise up to achieve our own goals, just as they’ve achieved theirs. This week for Women's History Month, we're recommending a reading list for anyone who wants to gain a different or new perspective from a variety of influential women. 

EMPOWERING MUST-READS

Becoming

Michelle Obama

“She is taking the country by the hand on an intimate tour of everyday African-American life and ambition while recounting her rise from modest origins to the closest this country has to nobility. She’s meditating on the tensions women face in a world that speaks of gender equality but in which women still bear the greater burdens of balancing career and family” -- Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times

Girl, Stop Apologizing

Rachel Hollis

“It’s time to truly embrace your greatness, and there is no better rally cry than “Girl, Stop Apologizing.” Unapologetic herself, Rachel is the fearless girlfriend you need to help you leap into the bold unknown and fulfill that big audacious goal you have been waiting to achieve.” -- Amy Porterfield, Online Marketing Expert

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More

Janet Mock

"I aspire to be as unflinchingly brave! Janet Mock's story simultaneously embodies, complicates, and subverts the concept of American exceptionalism and self-creation." -- Laverne Cox, actress, advocate, and star of Orange Is the New Black

The Radium Girls

Kate Moore

"Radium Girls is frighteningly easy to set in a wider context. The story of real women at the mercy of businesses who see them only as a potential risk to the bottom line is haunting precisely because of how little has changed; the glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still." -- Genevieve Valentine, NPR

Unbowed

Wangari Maathai

“Wangari Maathai is the rare leader who knows how to create independence, not dependence. On the page as in person, her example makes each of us a little stronger, wiser, and braver than we ever thought we could be.” -- Gloria Steinem

We Should All Be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“An enchanting plea by the award-winning Nigerian novelist to channel anger about gender inequality into positive change. Employing personal experience in her examination of ‘the specific and particular problem of gender,’…Adichie makes her arguments quietly but skillfully. A moving essay that should find its way into the hands of all students and teachers to provoke new conversation and awareness." -- Kirkus Reviews

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Malala's Magic Pencil

Malala Yousafzai

"This is a wonderful read for younger students that will also provide insight and encourage discussion about the wider world. ... The simplicity of Yousafzai's writing and the powerful message she sends, make this book inspirational for all." -- School Library Journal

March Forward, Girl

Melba Beals

“Beals writes openly about her feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, though her courage and resolve are just as evident. It’s a no-holds-barred reflection of the physical and psychological toll that prejudice, discrimination, and hate take on a young life” -- Publishers Weekly

She Persisted

Chelsea Clinton

“Exemplary . . . This well-curated list will show children that women’s voices have made themselves emphatically heard.” -- Booklist

SUPPORT A GREAT CAUSE!

For Women's History Month, Sender One is donating 25% of net proceeds from the Sender One online store to The Loveland Foundation. This foundation is committed to "showing up for communities of color in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls. [Their] resources and initiatives are collaborative and they prioritize opportunity, access, validation, and healing."

Bouldering League season is here and we have everything you need to get started! If it's your first time participating you should know that bouldering league is not just any community event - it's where teams climb together to score based on progress, not just prowess.

Whether you are brand new to climbing or have years of experience, you have an equal chance to win the ultimate title of Bouldering League Champion! The best part is, participants receive perks including:

• a Bouldering League shirt or tank
• entry in a raffle on finals night for a chance to win sweet swag
• to participate in 4 weeks of Bouldering League!
• to compete to win the title of Bouldering League champion and a coveted Bouldering League trophy!

To sign-up for Bouldering League or review more FAQs, check out our Bouldering League page.

If you are brand new to climbing, you can also check out our "Climbing 101: The Essentials" blog that will introduce bouldering grades, how to complete a route, climbing techniques, and more!

Scoring

Climbing for a Score

You will submit your scores once a week on the first day that you attempt the Bouldering League routes. Since you only get to earn points on the first day you climb the routes, be sure to leave it all on the wall that day!

You are welcome to come back and climb the Bouldering League routes again, they just won't count towards your score.

Earn points based on Handicap

While you can earn some points for completing routes below your handicap, most of your points are earned by completing routes at or above your handicap grade. Try to focus your energy on some of the more difficult routes since that's where you will score big time!

Flashing

Flashing means that you completed a route on your first attempt. Flashing a route will help you earn extra points!

Weighting

Bouldering League is all about rewarding progress. To reward progress, scores are weighted each week. This means that your score in Week 4 will count more towards your overall score than your score in Week 1. Here's an example of how weighting works (numbers may not be exact to what is used in scoring):

Week 1: score x 1

Week 2: score x 1.5

Week 3: score x 2

Week 4: score x 2.5

Individual Scores

Each week you will complete as many routes as you can in one session, and submit all of them for a score. However, only the top 5 scores earned will be used to calculate your total score of that week. Since you won't know which route will earn more points, be sure to submit them all!

If you aren't able to complete 5 routes that's okay. You may miss out on a few points but you can make up the points next week!

Team Scores

In your team of 4, only the 3 top scores each week are used for your total score. This is helpful if a teammate is unable to participate that week, or if someone is just having  a high-gravity week!

Written by Anneka Peterson

Relax, Breath, Stretch and Climbing On!

September has officially started, which means it's the start of yoga month! That being said, many climbers know the benefits of how impactful yoga can be for building climbing strength and technique. According to climbing magazine “‘That ability to feel your body and know your body, and have that core strength that you're going to gain through yoga—it'll directly translate to your ability to stay calm on the rock because you'll have a lot more confidence.’” Personally, I have not had much experience with yoga, I am truly a total noob, but I have heard countless stories and seen the technical growth just through working at climbing gyms and talking to the community. 

Are there prizes?

1st Place - a free month membership.  2nd place - a Manduka Mat.  3rd Place - A Sender Logo Merchandise (probably one of our coffee mugs -).

Additionally:

For every 5 classes taken, the attendee receives an extra guest pass on their account.  These guest passes will be added at the END of the challenge.   

Rules:

For each yoga/mat Pilates class a person attends at their home gym, they will get one star.  The yoga challenge is SPECIFIC to each gym.  If you are an LAX member and drive to SNA, the class will not be counted towards the yoga challenge.

Members do NOT have to sign up for this challenge, but they do have to sign up and be checked into class to receive a star.  

Sounds pretty cool, right? Honestly, I think I might start making yoga a part of my regular life, with an incentive like that, who wouldn’t haha. 

We offer yoga at 4 out of our 5 locations. Find your nearest Sender One and book your class today!

LAX | SNA | WW | LKW

Written by Hailey McFelia | Photos by Jason Chang & Elias Hardt

Next weekend is arguably the biggest Sender One weekend of the year. Saturday August 24th will be our 3rd annual Summer Send-Off Rock Climbing Competition and Sunday, August 25th will be our Sender City Lakewood Grand Opening Party!

Summer Send-Off:

Say farewell to Summer with the ultimate all-level rock climbing competition! Here’s the rundown of everything you need to know about this end of summer celebration and competition.

“The category is……” (Hope you read that in a Ru Paul voice). Okay but seriously, the categories will be broken down by:

-Men | Women 

-Recreational | Advanced | Open

If you need a little help with breaking it down, we’ve got ya covered. Here are the category breakdowns: 

Recreational (v0-v4)

Advanced (v4-v7)

Open (v7+)

Highly recommend you stick around for the Open Onsight Finals as 6 finalists from each Open Category will battle it out for the Gold, Silver and Bronze. For the first time in Summer Send-Off History, the Onsight Finals will be set with BRAND NEW holds sponsored by SOiLL!! If you enjoyed watching Bouldering in the Olympics on-screen, Onsight Finals will be your chance to watch a similar comp in-person!

Summer Send off is more than a competition though! We love our Sender One community and are so stoked to share another Summer Send off with you. To celebrate you can expect games, crafts, and a local vendors village. 

VENDOR VILLAGE AND FOOD OPENS @ 12PM

Food trucks! Fun goodies! Exciting things to look at!

BEER TABLE OPENS @ 12:45PM

That’s right beer! Hurray Beer! Beachwood Brewing Company & Athletic Brewing Company (Non-alcoholic options available!)

GRAND OPENING RIBBON CUTTING @ 1PM

Let’s make the grand opening of Sender One Lakewood official!

What kind of games & crafts can be expected? We know our climbers love a good challenge. So we will have a few physical challenges and Sender City challenges for y’all. For those who are just in it for the fun of it, kick back with some lawn games 🙂

If you're really into crafting and a more family-focused climbing vibe, our Sender City Grand Opening Party is for you! For our crafts, we will have a tie dye station for your new Lakewood Sender One shirt and a rope craft station where we will take dead rope and convert it into door mats and koozies! Sunday will include rolling Sender City sessions, Top-Rope sessions where staff will be on stand-by to belay, family yoga classes, and a face painter!

Here’s the beta for PARKING for BOTH Saturday & Sunday! You’re going to want to pay attention to this folks! This is actually your reward for making it all the way to the end of the blog.

Do not park in F&M Bank lot

Parking in front of gym accessible through Lakewood Blvd

Parking behind the gym accessible via Del Amo Blvd

Additional parking can be found at the Westfield Mall across the street

RSVP for either or both days today! 

Saturday - Summer Send-Off Competition

Sunday - Sender City Grand Opening Party

Can’t wait to see you Saturday and/or Sunday! If you can’t make it, tune in to our Sender One Instagram for coverage throughout the competition! 

Written by Anneka Peterson

In 2020, sport climbing became recognized as an olympic sport. However, due to Covid, no one actually competed in climbing until 2021. When discovering that climbing is an internationally recognized sport for the Olympics there are many questions that tend to come up; mainly, how is it judged? Well, like all the other extreme sports, they are based on completion and skill, but there are 3 main categories that Olympic climbing falls under: Lead, Bouldering and Speed.

Photo from IFSC

Olympic Lead: Climbers are given six minutes to ascend as high as they can on a 15-meter wall that's tilted five degrees. They can't see the route before they start, and must also clip their belay rope into quickdraw carabiners along the way for safety. Climbers are awarded points for reaching the highest holds on the wall, with the top hold earning 100 points. 

(most lead climbs are estimated to be at the 5.10b range or higher).

Olympic Bouldering: The bouldering portion is next. In bouldering, a climber attempts to scale shorter sequences (commonly called “boulders” or “problems”) without a rope. The climber will be allowed to attempt a given boulder as many times as they wish within a 4-minute time limit. However, when those 4 minutes are up, the climber must move on to the next boulder. The athlete will be judged on how many zones they can go past (about half way up the problem), as well as how many tops they get (putting both hands on the last hold of the problem).

Photo By Marco Kost

Sender One’s LAX location actually has an Olympic standard speed wall, if you have never seen it before, it's definitely worth checking out 🙂

Speaking of the Olympics, Sender One is having a gym-wide challenge in honor of the upcoming events. We will be hosting the Send-Lympics across all of our 5 locations; do you have what it takes?

Here is how it works:

Our Challenge will be running from July 29th - August 26th

Each gym will have specific challenge climbs, and they will be noted by one of these postcards next to the tag!

An attempt or send will count toward the challenge! Once attempted (or sent) the climber will bring their postcard up to the front desk where our staff will stamp in the corresponding circle to their gym location! 

• "With what stamp?" I can hear you thinking. Not to worry! These will be dropped off at the same time as the postcards!

 As noted on the postcard, there are, of course, prizes associated with this challenge:

• If you complete 4/5 trials, you get 5 raffle entries and a 15% off discount on your next retail purchase!
• If you complete 5/5 trials, you get 10 raffle entries and a 25% off discount on your next retail purchase!

The Raffle:

• Once someone submits their postcard, they will be entered into the raffle! 
• The raffle is for either a Sterling Ion 60m or Evolv Drop Pad! The winner of the raffle chooses their prize!
• An additional way to earn raffle entries is to post an attempt (or send) on Instagram, and to tag @senderone on the post/story! 5 entries for each post (limited to one post per challenge)

Because the olympic climbing athletes must compete in all of the events, they must be incredibly, and evenly, skilled. As someone who is mainly a lead climber, personally, this sounds insane! But hey, so are climbers.

Climbing has gone so far to even be recognized in the Paralympics. Paralympic climbing athletes come from all different backgrounds and disabilities. From vision impairment to physical and neurological disabilities, Paralympic athletes compete with the same vigor and talent as the standard Olympic athlete. Most have a unique set of circumstances and restrictions that they must follow based on their ability, this creates an even playing field between all the competitors of similar circumstances. Athletes are put into Sport Class based on their disability, to allow those with a disability of a similar nature to compete within the same category. This also means that events are specialized to create the most suitable, and safe environment for competitors. Having worked closely with some of these athletes, such as Jake Sanches (pictured on the left), I am continually inspired every day by these individuals. Climbing truly has no limits!

We are so excited to see that another extreme sport has entered Olympic recognition. Who is excited to watch it this year?