Lattice Training Podcast

Part 2 of the "Endurance Mistakes" of Climbing Training! 

Endurance training is a foundational element of performance preparation or training for almost every athlete, no matter what their discipline. Boulderers, sport climbers and trad climbers should all be completing phases of endurance training during their year. What is also common across these disciplines, is a consistent set of mistakes that climbers typically make when completing this type of training. 

In part two of this podcast, Tom Randall talks about the "Style" aspect of endurance work which encompasses both grip types and terrain angle. Both of these factors in your endurance training will affect the outcomes in technical, psychological and physical performance or adaptation. 

Main grip types you want to consider:

Micro edges (less than 10mm)
Mid-sized edge (20-30mm)
Pinches 
Slopers, big open holds
Pockets

Main terrain angles to train on:

Slab
Vertical
Steep up to 30 degrees
Steep 30-60 degrees
Roof

Technical outcomes:

1. Lack of skill or technique in using particular grip types. Finger, hand and wrist positioning as well as body position especially with things like slopers etc. 
2. Lack of movement efficiency appropriate to the terrain angle. Movement on a slab is not the same as a 45 degree wall! 
3. Low skill set in hold-specific or angle-specific rests. 
4. Under developed technique in pacing for particular terrain angles. 

Psychological outcomes:

1. Not enough familiarity or exposure to specific holds or angles. Impacts confidence, anxiety levels and state management. 
2. Likelihood of lower onsight ability that fitness or technical ability should dictate. 
3. Problem solving skills for terrain type underdeveloped. Will affect onsight and redpoint grade. 

Physical:

1. Terrain-specific mobility/flexibility and also finger-hand-wrist-forearm ROM appropriate to grip type. 
2. Focusing volume of training on the wrong terrain type will under-develop the muscle groups specific (and limiting) to the terrain you do want to perform on. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Endurance training is a foundational element of performance preparation or training for almost every athlete, no matter what their discipline. Boulderers, sport climbers and trad climbers should all be completing phases of endurance training during their year. What is also common across these disciplines, is a consistent set of mistakes that climbers typically make when completing this type of training. 

In part one of this podcast, Tom Randall talks about the "Intensity" aspect of endurance work and how high, moderate and low intensity work affects the outcomes in technical, psychological and physical performance or adaptation. 

Low intensity endurance examples: Continuity or ARC training
Moderate intensity endurance examples: 50:50s or Polarised Continuity
High intensity endurance examples: 1 On 1 Off or 2 On 1 Off

Technical outcomes:

1. Speed and pace of climbing. 
2. Playing to your personal technical strengths, not working weaknesses

Psychological outcomes:

1. Good at trying when fresh, but not when fatigued
2. Low or high 'suffering' thresholds
3. Time spent working on 'flow' and 'highly efficient and relaxed' climbing

Physical:

1. Neurological e.g. de-recruitment training stimulus
2. Structural e.g. hypertrophy or vascularisation
3. Metabolic e.g. muscle enzyme activity

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In this show, we have Zo Northcutt, who has a unique story. Like many of us, they are training and progressing towards their own climbing goals. Unlike most of us, however, they have a brain tumour.

Zo is one of those individuals whose resilience and strength positively affects others around them. They have dealt with pain and trauma, but they also find a way to find joy and share that with others despite some of the struggles. We discuss with Zo, their brain tumor - named Fred - the battle of staying active despite setbacks in life and also the work that they do in the LGBTQ+ community. Zo is a queer, gender fluid climber who’s also started a number of community initiatives in their local area.

You can find more of Zo on Instagram  via this link.

We discuss:

1. What their brain tumour, Fred, means for their life and climbing
2. How they get perspective and deals with setbacks
3. The role of their partners and housemates in support
4. Dealing with unknowns whilst working with coach Maddy
5. Changes in the climbing community diversity 
6. The biggest impacts to individuals and communities 
7. Online vs in-person behaviours and how we can all move forward in these areas

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Training Plan Adherence - what does the sports psychology say?! In this solo-podcast session by Tom, he takes you through the 3 areas of behaviour that will massively increase your chances of following through on your plans and reduce the chances that it will feel like a struggle. 

Keeping It Fun! 

• Add in your friends and/or family - rely on them for accountability and support and fun banter!
• Initially, do what you like, not what you struggle with. 
• Add in new skills to your training plan. Learning and the associated quick success feelings will make you feel great. 
• Always begin slow on a training plan initially. Plans are hard to follow anyway, don't make it even harder by putting crazy high training loads into the first mesocycle. 

Check Your Life Realities

• Convenience will help massively. Look at the aspects of time, location and conflicts of scheduling
• Start with a routine and with time it'll become a habit
• Prioritise your training. Do not try to do all of your training with you're tired at the end of the day, even if you're a busy person! 

Tracking

• Keep your data collection simple. Less that 5 metrics is a good place to start. 
• Put your tracking records where you can see them regularly and where you can't possible lose them! 
• Retest if you get strange results. 
• Remember that data is just a feedback. Aim to have as little emotional attachment to your scores whether they are positive or negative. Focus on trends and not individual data points. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

George Brill is an anthropologist currently working on his PhD in locomotor performance at Cambridge Uni and has previously worked with the Lattice coaching team sharing his findings from the studies of the tree climbing Batek Tribes of Malaysia and also his passion for free diving.

In today’s podcast, Tom and George explore some of the evolutionary history of tree climbing, what this has taught him about movement and also some of the parallels that free-diving may have with climbing performance. 

You can find more about George and his work at:

Instagram: George Brill
Website: Georgebrill.co.uk

Key concepts and terms covered:

• What is an anthropologist and how does this possibly relate to those of us interested in climbing?
• What is locomotor performance?
• What is the “elastic concept” of the body? 

Interview Topics:

1. The Elastic Concept of locomotor performance.
2. Batek Tribe studies and practicalities.
3. What can we learn from tree-climbers?
4. What are the similarities and difference between tree climbing and rock climbing?
5. What does an ideal tree climber looks like… age, size, weight, areas where they’re strong, flexible etc. 
6. Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules and relationship to climbing. 
7. Do the Batek tribe train for tree climbing? What’s valued most in tree climbing?
8. Risk and the culture surrounding it in the Batek. 
9. Freediving Mind-body connection: visualisation, using the link to our advantage

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Lattice coaches Tom Randall and Maddy Cope sit down to discuss their own experiences and their work with clients on two topics, of which at least one, will resonate with almost all climbers out there.

The first is the fear of falling and the second deals the subject of goal setting. Whilst these may appear somewhat separate at first glance, Maddy and Tom have worked with both during their pro climbing careers and also help their clients improve on both fronts.

Fear of falling

The fear of falling can be particularly challenging for climbers who flip between cycles of training (indoors and on a bouldering wall a lot of the time) and performance on rock as they're very different in terms of the exposure or fall practice/experience that occurs. A trip to Spain mid-winter for performance can be problematic when a climber hasn't been on a rope for potentially a few months! 

• How long does it take to build confidence or reduce fear?
• Can it be "trained" before a trip?
• Are there any quick fixes?

Goal setting

Alongside this form of fear, is also some anxiety and stress that climbers feel around how to create and manage goals. Some goals are small, some are larger and much more extensive in the time they require, but almost all follow a similar process. Maddy and Tom discuss a number of strategies they use themselves and also with their clients and athletes. 

• Exploring "value" in goals.
• Having a strategy in preparing for setbacks towards your goals.
• How your goals match your climbing "way of thinking" or personal attitude towards growth or learning. 
• The concept of "holding lightly" to goals. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In this latest video and podcast episode, Lattice coach Ella Russel is joined by Dr Emma Ross and Dr Bella Smith from 'The Well HQ' (Instagram - @thewell_hq).

Tune in for some brilliant discussion by Ella, Emma and Bella, as they address common questions about hormonal contraception for the female athlete.

Intro: (0:00)
Types of contraception: (2:40)
Personal experiences: (9:33)
Choosing a contraceptive: (20:27)
Tracking your period: (22:16)
Effect on training adaptation: (25:37)
Outro: (28:03)
Find out more about our Lattice Training Plans here: https://latticetraining.com/plans/

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The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In this long form conversation Maddy and Joy talk about strength training during pregnancy and postpartum. They cover the changes that occur during pregnancy and how these impact climbing. 

This provides the foundations of understanding how we can get back to training and climbing after being pregnant. Coming from a strength and conditioning background Joy talks about weight training, choosing appropriate movements, and how to progress these. Not everyone is comfortable with doing weights, so some of the exercises discussed in this podcast may benefit from in-person sessions to learn how to do them. 

Joy provides great content in this area on her Instagram (@calliejoyblack) so if you are pregnant, have been pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant in the future check it out!

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In this latest podcast episode, we had Tom Randall sit down with Mary Eden: AKA @tradprincess to talk about how she trains, prepares and performs for trad climbing. 

Mary has been working with Lattice and coach Jen Wood for a couple of years and has steadily progressed from her first 5.12 in the summer of 2018 to her first 5.13 in mid 2019. From there, she's gone on to complete multiple 5.13 ascents in various crack styles, including some of the best runs of "offwidth form" that have ever been witnessed in the US scene. 

Mary talks about her process for preparing physically, mentally and technically for her hardest sends - including general preparation for climbing trips/seasons. She also shares her experiences with how much sport climbing and bouldering has improved her trad climbing. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The world's first 9b? Maybe.... maybe not! Or is it just a really hard 9a+?! 

Will Bosi recently made the long-awaited 2nd ascent of Steve McClure's "Mutation" at Raventor which was first put up in 1998 - yes that's before Will was even born! On the back of an incredible run of form from Will - multiple 9a to 9b+ sport routes, and countless V12-V15 boulder sends this year, he's been on the form of his life. Yet despite this, Mutation took some serious effort to complete and pushed Will to really get everything just right. 

Tom Randall sat down with Will to chat through the whole story behind his ascent of Mutation. When he first started trying it, what the process involved and what he really thought about the grade. They dive into the nuances of vertical-style limestone crimping, how some things are just "hard to do" and what lies ahead for Will's next season. 

Don't forget to check out Will's YouTube channel 'William Bosi' for some awesome send footage from his brilliant season so far and more.... www.youtube.com/WilliamBosi

Special thanks to Birds of Birds, Will Bosi, Adidas and Five Ten and photo credits to Band of Birds. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.