Every sport climb and boulder problem is graded. Most of them you won't be able to do. You'll need to spend weeks at first to get good enough to even do the easy ones. The hard ones will take years to get strong enough for, and even then will still require you dedicate a month of specific training for that one single route.
Leveling up? It's got that too. Climb at the gym for a while and soon you'll get to the point where you've done your first V1 problem. V2 is an order of magnitude harder, as is V3. The scale goes to V16 (at the moment), and 15 years of motivation have thus far only gotten me as far as V8. Given the dedication of a recovering WoW addict, I think climbing would fit your psyche perfectly.
Oh, and it's crazy fun too, so no more of this "I should go to the gym" crap. You'll go. You'll be upset if work intrudes on your climbing time. You'll start taking climbing trips instead of vacations, and eventually forget when it was that you last boarded a flight without your rock shoes.
You'll start spending your winters climbing rocks at Tonsai beach [1] in Thailand. I'll buy you a beer when you get there.
SCUBA sort of works, but isn't really strenuous enough.
It's not zero energy, but I get more exercise loading and unloading cylinders on the boat than I do actually diving.
SCUBA has measurable goals, but alas they mostly just measure how much money you've spent on SCUBA diving instruction. (I've spent enough to get myself to Rescue Diver.)
Come back with a friend when they're not busy and get them to teach you how to tie knots and stop each other from hitting the ground when you fall, then give toproping a try.
While you're there, notice that most people around you aren't taking it too seriously, and are mostly there to socialize. Talk to some of them and you'll quickly find yourself invited out on the rock next weekend.
Great exercise and addicting in a good way. It's a side benefit that the girls that climb regularly are very fit and attractive.
It's a good skill to have in general, but it's difficult to beat in terms of a workout (especially if you go to a gym that doesn't coddle). When I run, sometimes I get lazy and go slowly for a bit. When working the bag, though, I slow down and the guy that runs the gym will notice and yell. Even better, when sparring, if you slow down and get lazy, you will get hit, so you squeeze every ounce of energy out. It's valuable for the mind, too, as it keeps your mind from wandering and forces you to pay attention to what you're doing because if you stop thinking about strategy or recognizing patterns the other fighter is showing, again, you get hit. And it begins to be the most relaxing thing you do, when you go into a room where there is no computer, no cell phone, no distraction, just what you're doing now. (It's also surprising how much strategy goes into hitting people; it broadens the mind.)
I've found that increasing the demands I make on my body causes me to naturally eat better. Your body makes demands; for example a lack of iron may cause you to crave beef. Training made me start drinking more water and less coffee, and fast food started to actually taste bad. It's like turning up the volume on your body's demands, so what is healthy and what tastes good to you start to align.
The first two weeks are the worst, but it's addictive after that.
Deal?
I rather doubt they have any real influence or electability, though. As bad as the dichotomy in US politics is /now/, there are some levels to which we just can't quite stoop to.
Though not in the context I was under. I was listing organizations that the general swarm of liberal types on sites like HN may feel strongly polarized against.
I could extend the list to something like BNP/Republican Party/Microsoft/SCO's legal fund/the Nazi party - the list is valid even though comparing Microsoft to the Nazi party makes little sense in any other context.
I think a lot of it is the routine or your habits... for example, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I perform better at my work when I take at least 30 minutes in the morning to walk and listen to something positive. More bonus points for taking even 5-10 minutes to meditate. Yet historically my stick-to-it-iv-ness for those activities always seem to go away when presented with the days urgencies or more mindless 'busymaking' like random surfing.
For anyone near Springfield, MO, look up this guy: http://czechusout.org/meet_pavel.php
For exercise purposes, you might want to look into energetic dances, like collegiate shag or the lindy hop. But even slow waltzes provide a surprising amount of exercise, and nothing motivates like interacting on a physical basis with the opposite sex.
just get a pull up bar and some weights and do it at home.
You'll save like an extra hour in the process by not having to go to/from the gym.
In this case, peer-pressure is a good thing.