Steve Bechtel is one of the OG big daddies of climbing training. He founded and runs climbstrong.com where he has 19 coaches helping climbers all over the world get better at their sport. He’s written countless books, a ton of online climbing training programs for climbstrong, he’s hosted training seminars around the US (that I had the pleasure of teaching at), and is an accomplished 5.14 climber himself.
He was my 7th guest on the TrainingBeta Podcast back in 2014, and I’ve had him on many more times after that (see below for the list). We decided it would be fun to catch up on how things have changed in the climbing world and how his philosophies have evolved in the decade since we started collaborating.
What We Talked About
His growing understanding of how your training “age” affects your programmingAssessment use now vs beforeMore focus on how mental/emotional aspects affect climbing performanceHow our waning attention spans affect our climbing and training6 Things that go into building a training planWhat’s changed in his own climbing and trainingNew appreciation for using aerobic endurance training instead of power enduranceWhere training is going in the next 10 yearsPrevious Podcast Interviews with Steve
TBP 007: Training, Finger Strength, Power Endurance, Weight Loss, and RunningTBP 036: Periodization and Finger Training Confusion, Psychology of ChangeTBP 080: How to Design a Training Program for YourselfTBP 110: Training Endurance for ClimbingTBP 147: Steve Bechtel, Kris Hampton, and Tom Randall on Best Practices for Training at Home