The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

TBP 234: Thomas Cunningham on Biohacking for Climbing Performance

Back in April, I published an episode with Thomas Cunningham all about how he trains efficiently as a busy dad and ER physician to be able to send up to 5.14c projects in only 10-15 days outside climbing per year. You can listen to that episode in the link below: Listen to my first interview with Thomas   In that episode, we started talking about how he uses the Whoop (a wearable bio tracking device), continuous glucose meters, and some other biohacking type stuff, but the interview would’ve been reallllly long if we’d gone into all of it in details. So I asked him to come back for a second interview to talk about all of that. We’ll be doing another one soon on using bloodwork to optimize supplementation, etc. for climbing performance soon. So who is Thomas? Thomas is a 36-year-old emergency medicine physician and father of 3 children from Louisville, KY who’s been climbing for around 20 years. After talking to him for a while, I realized he is SUPER scientific about everything he does in climbing. This is no surprise because he’s quite an overachiever in his academic/professional life as well. He’s published a bunch of academic papers, he was chief resident at the University of Louisville Department of Emergency Medicine a while back, and WHILE he was doing that, he started a medical device company, Inscope Medical, and was VP of Innovations. He also completed an IronMan while he was an intern resident. Here is his CV if you’re interested. He’s an ambitious person, to say the least, and that means he has less time than some of us for climbing and training. Only getting outside climbing around 10-15 days per year, and focusing all of that time on very hard projects, he has learned that his training and all of his days outside have to be hyperfocused and specific. He also has to optimize his body for all the training he does and to be in peak performance mode when he’s trying to send. He’s used a continouse glucose meter (CGM) on himself in the past and he asked Sam Elias and Jonathan Horst to start wearing one in order to help them optimize their fueling for climbing. He came into this interview with data on both of them (and himself), including what they were eating before using the CGM, the changes they made to their diets after and while using it, and the effects it had on their climbing. The CGM basically takes a reading of your blood glucose every 5 minutes so you can see in real time how each food/meal affects you. We also talk a little more about the Whoop in this episode, which I’ve now gotten 6 of my friends and family using. It’s really interesting looking at the data each day about your sleep quality/quantity, how recovered you are, your HRV, and all kinds of stuff I’ve never paid attention to before. Thomas goes into how exactly he uses the whoop and how I’ve been using it myself. This episode was really fun for me because this stuff as a nutritionist is extremely interesting. I hope you love it too! Oh, and if you want to work with Thomas, you can do that by clicking on the link below: Work with Thomas on Your Own Biohacking

TBP 232: A Roadmap and a Checklist for Sending Route Projects Faster

In this episode, I sat down with Coach Matt Pincus to talk about his infamous “checklist” that he uses when he’s projecting a route (or a boulder – but usually routes). As a coach, often Matt’s job is less about creating strength training programs and more about using tactics to get people up their projects in an efficient way. He’s found that he’s been having a lot of conversations with clients lately about how to approach their route projects, now that it’s climbing season in a lot of places. This episode is dedicated to helping people approach hard projects (and sometimes even not-so-hard projects) to help keep yourself motivated and on the trajectory to a send. Matt uses a checklist of links and accomplishments he wants to make on a route before the final checkbox of sending. He shares how he creates that list, depending on what kind of route it is. He also talks about the following: A couple examples of his own project checklists 3 things he sees people do wrong while projecting Planning your climbing day efficiently Top down vs ground-up When to start being tactical on a route When to start giving redpoint burns   Show Links Train with Coach Matt Pincus How to Approach Routes Systematically: Top Down or Ground Up – Article by Matt Podcast Episode 134: The Principles of Projecting with Matt Article on Projecting Principles by Matt   Train with Matt Pincus If you want Matt to help you with your own goals, whether they’re with bouldering or route climbing, he’s available for month-long commitments where he’ll talk with you over zoom and create a program for you and keep in touch with you via the TrueCoach app throughout the month. He’ll help you get stronger overall and cater to your specific goals so the timing is right for you to send when it’s time to send. Learn More about Working with Matt

TBP 231: Common Sense Energy Systems Training with Alex and Matt

In the episode, I sit down with Coaches Matt Pincus and Alex Stiger to discuss how they go about training their clients in the different energy systems. The “energy systems” we’re talking about are power endurance, endurance, strength, and power. Basically, they both feel like these things are extremely confusing to climbers, and they wanted to simplify what those systems require, what it takes to train them well and efficiently, and what workouts they prescribe for each of them. The thing is that it’s not super clear-cut because in climbing, we’re constantly switching from energy system to energy system. We’re not usually climbing at an easy steady state for very long, and we’re also not usually climbing super powerfully for very long. We go in and out of trying hard, resting, climbing easier stuff, etc. So they do their best to explain what is categorized as which energy system and exactly what to do, and when, in order to get better at one or all of them. As always, they did an amazing job of preparing for this interview, and both of them have so much experience at this point with training people that their advice is truly simple and easy to follow. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. Show Links Try out the Bouldering Program by Coach Matt Pincus for 35% Work with Matt as your coach Work with Alex as your coach   Bouldering Training Program 35% Off  If you’re tired of going into the gym without a plan and you want a clearly laid-out program made by an experienced coach, our Bouldering Training Program is just that. And it doesn’t cost nearly as much as working one-on-one with a coach. Matt Pincus created this online subscription bouldering program based off of what has been super successful with his clients over the years. There are 3 levels of training available to you, depending on how much experience you have with climbing training. You’ll go through non-linear cycles (learn more about what that means in the link below) of training power, strength, skill drills, and throughout it all you’ll be gaining all-day capacity. Hundreds of people have felt an increase in their bouldering ability within weeks of being on this program, and you can too. It’s 35% off right now, and you get a 7-day free trial to see if it works for you. Go to the gym with a plan in your hand, trust the process, and see results. CHECK OUT THE BOULDERING PROGRAM SALE

TBP 230 :: Alex Stiger on How to Approach the Different Angles of Climbing

Steep Climbing Workshop May 2nd, 2023 Coach Alex Stiger is hosting a 2-hour presentation + Q&A on how to train for steep climbing on the wall and off the wall. She’ll be using a series of videos and other resources to describe some climbing drills, strength training tactics, and mindset shifts to help you feel less intimidated and more confident on steeper angles of climbing. Alex will show you all the drills, all the strength exercises, and all the mindset practice you need to unlock steep climbing for yourself. You’ll find out exactly what to incorporate into your training plan and climbing sessions in this 2-hour workshop. What: Live presentation with Q&A throughout and afterward When: May 2nd at 6-8:15pm MDT Where: Zoom (you’ll receive details after purchase) Recorded: Everything will be recorded in case you can’t make it live Online Course: 3 months access to videos, drills, etc, from the presentation Cost: $39 If you sign up by this Friday, April 28th, you’ll be entered in a raffle to win Alex’s recent 5.12 Breakthrough Series (all the recordings), which is about 7 hours of video/audio content and worth $147. ​Sign Up for the Steep Climbing Workshop​     How to Approach the Different Angles of Climbing In this episode, I talk with TrainingBeta Coach, Alex Stiger, about the differences between the different angles of rock climbs: slab vertical slightly steep (less than 30 degrees) standard steep (30-45 degrees) We go over our own experience and mindset around each angle of climbing, what skills are involved with each, how to strength train for each, and mindset issues that come up around all of them. This is a lovely little exploration into the nuances of all of these different angles of climbing, and once again, Alex came prepared with a detailed outline of information that’s usable right away and interesting to listen to. She truly is such a keen observer of our sport.   Show Links Enroll in Alex’s Steep Climbing Workshop Work with Alex as your coach Have questions? Email alex@trainingbeta.com or neely@trainingbeta.com   Photo Credit Daila Ojeda enjoys the views of Monaco while climbing at La Turbie, France. Photo by Colette McInerney @etteloc    

TBP 229: Thomas Cunningham Climbs 14c as an ER Doc and Father of 3

A couple weeks ago, Sam Elias texted me and said, "Hey. This ER doctor here in Louisville just sent his first 14c... He's SUPER intelligent and really researched about training, nutrition, and personal optimization. I think y'all should have him on the podcast. He has a lot to offer." Turns out this was his second--not first--14c, which I found out in my interview with him, but everything else Sam said about Thomas was spot on, and I was psyched to reach out to him for an interview. Thomas is a 36-year-old emergency medicine physician and father of 3 children from Louisville, KY who's been climbing for around 20 years. After talking to him for a while, I realized he is SUPER scientific about everything he does in climbing. This is no surprise because he's quite an overachiever in his academic/professional life as well.  He's published a bunch of academic papers, he was chief resident at the University of Louisville Department of Emergency Medicine a while back, and WHILE he was doing that, he started a medical device company, Inscope Medical, and was VP of Innovations. He also completed an IronMan while he was an intern resident. So he's an ambitious person, to say the least, and that means he has less time than some of us for climbing and training.  Only getting outside climbing around 10-15 days per year, and focusing all of that time on very hard projects, he has learned that his training and all of his days outside have to be hyperfocused and specific. He takes us through his training program, including how he trains aerobic capacity, power, power endurance, and strength. He also talks about his research (he's also a researcher!) on the use of a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to figure out what food fuels him best, and at what times of day. He's currently doing some experimentation with Sam Elias with a CGM, and Thomas and I talked about having a part 2 to this discussion to go more in-depth about that and how he uses other monitors like the Whoop in his every day life and training. More to come on that, though. This interview and our talk afterward actually inspired me to get a Whoop myself (no affiliation, but check it out if you're interested in biodata). Oh, and we also talked about how he rehabbed not one but two pulley ruptures and came back stronger afterward. I loved this talk - it was super inspirational on all levels - and I hope we hear a LOT more from Thomas in the coming years. He will be an asset to the climbing community to take us to the next level in training scientifically, like so many other mainstream sports have already done.

TBP 228 :: Majka Burhardt on Being a Pro Climber while Raising Twins

In this interview I talk with professional ice and mixed climber, Majka Burhardt, about her new book, More. In it, she describes the transition she went through from being a full-time pro climber to having twins and balancing her life with her two children as a new part of it. The book is a compilation of letters she wrote to her kids through the first 6 years of their lives about the emotional rollercoaster she went on trying to balance it all. Not only is Majka a climber and a mother, she also founded an international non-profit called Legado that works with indigenous cultures to make sure they have what they need for their communities and their environments to thrive. We discuss how she makes time for all of the things she juggles in her life so successfully. We talk about how motherhood changed her life as a climber, how it affected her relationship with her husband, and how she’s grown from it. We talk about how female climbers have very few rolemodels for how to be a climber and a mother and make it all work, and we talk about how her parenting style is so different from what she received as a child (it’s really quite progressive). This was a super inspirational conversation, and if you’re a parent or an aspiring parent, Majka’s wise words will likely resonate with you.

TBP 227: How to Stay Motivated (Almost) All the Time with Alex Stiger

Climbing Fitness Breakthrough Series Before we get started, Coach Alex Stiger is hosting a 4-part series all about how to increase your overall climbing fitness. She will do 4 weekly 90-minute zoom calls starting March 21st all about how to use efficient, quick sessions in the gym to reliably make you feel stronger and have more endurance. The cost is $147 (2-payment option available), and you’ll get all of the recordings of the zoom calls, a group Slack channel where you can ask Alex questions for the month, plus a bonus recorded coaching session with one of the participants. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FITNESS BREAKTHROUGH SERIES   How to Stay Motivated in Your Climbing In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about the ways she stays so motivated in her climbing almost all the time. It’s actually really amazing to me that she’s so psyched so often… Alex is a firm believer that if we are enjoying what we’re doing, we will make the most progress in whatever we’re doing. AND we’ll have an amazing happiness-building activity for the long haul.  These are some of the questions we pondered in this episode Should training be torture??  Why is that concept so romanticized Why do we treat climbing and training like two separate things?  How did old school mentalities shape how we are approaching our sport today?  How can we stop believing that doing things we don’t want to do will make us better?  How did our childhood sports and gym class shape the way we think about climbing and training? One of Alex’s superpowers is staying psyched 80+ % of the time, and she thinks that partly comes down to her being homeschooled and always being able to choose what she was doing with her time. We talk about how her habits and her great success with horsemanship in her younger years really shaped how she thinks about climbing now.  She doesn’t do what she doesn’t want to do. She gives herself freedom to choose between structures and that works really well for her. She knows exactly what is on her “love to do” and “don’t love to do list” and she checks in regularly because it changes. She recognizes that what might affect her climbing and training psych the most is life factors and she takes that really seriously. Her desire to enjoy her sport is a driving force to de-stress, optimize, create space, and in general increase her well being. Stress is a big enemy of motivation!   The Tools She Uses to Help Keep Motivation High We talk about all of these tools in detail in the interview. Other people Routine Timers Measuring progress Setting mini goals Having a hard session time stop Regular “want” weeks Fueling for my sessions Strategic planning to avoid feeling late or rushed Mental check ins (green, yellow, orange, red) Acknowledging “druthers” out loud Gratitude practice You’ll find a lot of common sense tactics to make our sport sustainable, but also some surprising little hacks that Alex has come up with to make it fun for herself almost all the time. I loved this talk with Alex 🙂   Show Links Enroll in Alex’s Climbing Fitness Breakthrough Series Work with Alex as your coach Have questions? Email alex@trainingbeta.com or neely@trainingbeta.com

TBP 226: How Bridget Roell Went from 13a to 14a with Coach Matt Pincus

This episode is a bit different in that Coach Matt Pincus is the interviewer/coach and I (Neely) am just in it to introduce Matt and his guest, Bridget Roell. Bridget is a long-time climber who was working her first 5.13b when she first reached out to Matt a few years ago to coach her. Through the training and tactics they employed, she was able to send her first 5.13b's, her first 5.13c’s, and her first 5.14a, which was her long-term goal. In this conversation, they talk about the changes they made in her physical training and her redpointing tactics that helped her the most. They also discuss her goals going forward and help her with her training right now. This one was super inspirational for me, and it really highlights Bridget’s commitment to putting herself out there with her climbing and Matt’s ability to figure out exactly what any level of climber needs to improve.   Show Links Train with Coach Matt Pincus Bridget’s Instagram @bridget.roell   Train with Matt Pincus If you want Matt to help you with your own goals, whether they’re with bouldering or route climbing, he’s available for month-long commitments where he’ll talk with you over zoom and create a program for you and keep in touch with you via the TrueCoach app throughout the month. He’ll help you get stronger overall and cater to your specific goals so the timing is right for you to send when it’s time to send. Learn More about Working with Matt    

TBP 225 :: Dr. Tyler Nelson on Unlevel Grips for Finger Injuries and Training

In this episode, Dr. Tyler Nelson talks about a small but very effective change to make in your finger training protocol to help you get stronger and avoid injuries. Last year, Tyler saw over 600 patients with finger injuries, and he believes that using unlevel edges that are bigger than what we’ve been told to use could have, in part, prevented those injuries while still making the climber stronger. This interview was really fascinating to me. I didn’t even know what an unlevel edge could possibly look like, but Tension Climbing has created a board with them and it’s called the Whetstone Board.   Here’s part of the description of it from Tension: The top jug on the Whetstone is something new. The edge profile was designed to promote a more “active” grip and reduce “over-wrapping” the wrist. A series of “ergo-bumps” was included to both improve the comfort of the grip and also to act as an edge that can be draped in an open-handed grip to more evenly distribute force between each finger as an aid for rehabilitating some finger tweaks. This is not meant to be a Whetstone advertisement and I have zero affiliation with them, just fyi. But what Tyler is talking about in the episode are those “ergo-bumps” you see in the photo above. As always, I learned a lot from this episode and now I kinda want to get a Whetstone board… About Tyler Tyler owns and operates Camp 4 Human Performance, a chiropractic sports medicine clinic and strength & conditioning business in Salt Lake City. While earning his doctoral degree, he completed a dual program Master’s degree in exercise science at the University Of Missouri. While in graduate school he worked with the University of Missouri athletics department and currently is employed through two colleges in Utah. He is certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and spends any extra time in his life with his wife and 4 kids or trad climbing or bouldering. You can find Tyler in Salt Lake City at his clinic or online, Camp 4 Human Performance, where he tests athletes, creates training programs, and treats all kinds of athletes for injuries.   Other Episodes with Tyler TBP 212: Dr. Tyler Nelson’s New Insights on the Limits of Fingerboard Training TBP 202: Dr. Tyler Nelson on Finger Injuries in Youth Climbers TBP 168: New Insights on Finger Training TBP 162: Dr. Tyler Nelson on Endurance Training for Fingers TBP 155: Dr. Tyler Nelson on High Volume Power Training TBP 149: The Different Roles of Stretching for Climbing TBP 133: The Simplest Finger Training Protocol with Dr. Tyler Nelson TBP 084: Injury Rehab and Blood Flow Restriction Training TBP 098: Isometric Movements to Prime and Test Your Body TBP 108: Bood Flow Restriction for Injury Healing and Performance TBP 118: Latest Technology for Finger Training and Performance Testing TBP 128: Surprising Methods for Healing Tendon Injuries TBP 186 :: Dr. Tyler Nelson’s New Injury Prevention and Warm-Up Protocol   Episode Links Personal website: camp4humanperformance.com Take an online class with Tyler: camp4humanperformance.com/store Do a consultation with Tyler Instagram: @c4hp Facebook: @camp4chiropractic

TBP 224 :: Dr. Jen Dragonette’s Psychological Tools for Climbers

This episode is one of the most meaningful episodes I’ve ever done, and I’ll tell you why in a sec. In it, I talked with psychologist Dr. Jennifer Dragonette about DBT, which stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy, for a whopping hour and a half! DBT is a set of psychological tools developed by Marsha Linehan to help people truly process and deal with emotion dysregulation, interpersonal conflict, and the everyday issues of daily life. DBT is very important in my own life because it’s what lifted me out of my most recent major depressive episode in 2017 and has helped me have way lower levels of anxiety and depression than I ever have before. It helped save my life, to be honest. So when Dr. Jen contacted me to be on the show to talk about how DBT can help climbers, it was a full-body yes from me. I’ve incorporated DBT into my own climbing, and I’ve seen the incredible results it can produce in every part of life. Dr. Jen does an excellent job of explaining some of her favorite DBT tools and how they can be used in climbing for things like: fear of falling knowing how you want to proceed when you’re having a bad day climbing managing the urge to grab a draw, say take, give up, or not take enough rest communicating effectively with your partners or spotters about what you want from them how to allow our emotions to flow through us and out of us so we can move on I also go into some very personal details about how some OCD tendencies played out in my life to contribute to severe anxiety and how DBT helped me stop the OCD behaviors. As well as how I’ve been using DBT tools to help overcome body image issues. As a climber and a psychologist, Dr. Jen has such a deep understanding of how these tools apply to climbing that you’ll hopefully feel confident using them in your very next climbing session. She’s clearly very adept at teaching DBT, and I enjoyed every moment of this conversation 🙂 Show Links Dr. Jen’s website: drjenniferdragonette.com Some basics about DBT and workseets: https://dbt.tools/ The program I did in Boulder, CO was the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Outpatient Program at BCH