Our Bouldering Training Program is on sale for 25% off the normal price (regularly $27/month and now $20/month) with coupon code “bouldering.” The program consists of 3 levels, depending on your training experience, and it will help you get stronger, more powerful, and have more all-day capacity.

If you sign up for the program by February 2nd, you’ll be automatically entered to win a free hour-long consultation with Coach Matt.

Sale Ends Friday, February 4th, 2022.

In the episode, Coach Matt Pincus and I talk about navigating the overwhelming number of training options that are available to us now. Matt’s noticed that a lot of his clients come to him confused about what is the best way to train, given there are SO MANY ways to train, programs to follow, and trainers to choose from.

We try to help guide you in your decisions about the who, what, and where, and to empower you to do what’s right for you at this time in your life.

• Why there’s no universal “best” training program

• Get 25% off Bouldering Training Program with code “bouldering” until Feb 4th

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

In this episode, I talk all about how to time your meals and snacks to help your climbing performance, energy levels every day, overall mental well-being, and body composition.

You might think that when you eat food isn’t really that important – or maybe you haven’t given it much thought. But the truth is that it can be almost as important as what you eat when it comes to performance, recovery, and overall well-being.  I’ll go over some sample meal/snack time schedules and tell you about the mistakes I see many people making with it.

I’ll also go over the truth about recovery meals/snacks. Is it super important to eat right after working out? And if so, what should you eat?

This is a recording taken from a 5-day nutrition challenge I did last year in front of a live zoom audience. I talked for about 15 minutes on the topic and then took a bunch of questions from the audience (very common questions, so they’re quite relevant).

After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I did a 4-year nutrition certificate program at Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Nourishment, and Healing. I graduated in 2007 as a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist. During those 4 years, I learned about not only nutrition, but herbs, homeopathy, and other alternative practices. I’ve been seeing clients since 2007 and I’ve worked exclusively with climbers since 2013.

If you’re looking for help with your own nutrition and you feel like you need personalized coaching, I’m taking new clients right now. I also have a program that is self-paced with 4+ hours of video from me, PDF’s, and meal plans laid out for you.

• Work with me one-on-one or do my self-paced program

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

TBP 189 :: Lucie Hanes- Running and Climbing and Eating Disorder Recovery

Lucie Hanes is a 27-year-old climbing coach out of Eagle, Colorado, who is pursuing her Master’s of Science in Applied Sports Psychology.

I met Lucie in the Wicked Cave in Rifle last summer, and the next time I heard from her was when she reached out via email in response to the episode I did with Matt Pincus about running and climbing.

In that episode, Matt and I basically conclude that running isn’t going to help your climbing, and that it may in fact hinder it. And that there are other more effective ways to train endurance for climbing.

Lucie emailed me to say that she was not only a high performing climber (having sent numerous 5.13’s), but also a high performing ultra runner. She wanted to tell the story of how it’s possible to do both sports well as a counter to my episode with Matt.

Lucie is incredibly passionate about both of her sports, and my conversation with her ended up being even more enlightening than I thought it would be because it turns out she’s also in recovery from an eating disorder. And she’s very open about it, so a lot of our conversation ended up being about body image, disordered eating behaviors, her health consequences of underfueling, and how she’s recovering from all of it.

While she does provide details about her training for both running and climbing – and how she does both at the same time – I want to stress that this is not necessarily something that all humans can imitate without negative consequences. Lucie will admit herself that she may be an outlier, and she also concludes at the end of our talk that running may be inhibiting her climbing abilities and vice versa.

So this is NOT an episode wherein we are wholeheartedly advocating for people to train for running and climbing at the same time, and do it with the gusto that Lucie has. I honestly considered not publishing this episode because I knew it would be triggering for some people.

But after a lot of thought, I decided that this episode could be very helpful for people who struggle with disordered eating and over-exercising behaviors. Lucie is finding that she is healthier and happier now that she’s eating properly to fuel all of the exercise she does, and that is the lesson I want everyone to hear.

I want to thank Lucie for her willingness to talk about difficult things; Her vulnerability is invaluable to us all. I very much enjoyed this talk with her, and I felt super connected to her during it. I wish she lived closer to me so we could hang out, honestly.

If you’d like to work with Lucie, you can find her at www.insideoutathlete.com, where she consults with athletes on mental strength coaching in sport & performance.

• Why running is her form of moving meditation

• Instagram @luciehanes

Photo of Lucie climbing by Charlie Postlewaite

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

Matt is a boulderer and a sport climber based out of Wyoming. He splits his time between training at home in Jackson and traveling to pursue his climbing goals around the world. Matt is also a coach at TrainingBeta and he’s been seeing clients from around the world since 2017. He’s currently taking new clients, so if you’d like to work with him, you can sign up here.

Matt just started offering 1-hour remote coaching sessions so you can get your training questions answered and have guidance on how to build out a training program for yourself. Consider this offering as a gift for the climbers in your life, or for yourself if you’re not ready to commit to a coach full-time.

In the episode, Coach Matt Pincus and I talk about rest. We’ve been getting a lot of questions from our clients who are scared to take off any time from climbing over the holidays for fear that they’ll lose all of the gains they’ve worked so hard for.

Matt describes 3 client scenarios with different circumstances and the guidance he gave about rest:

1. A person who just came off a performance cycle and is a little tweaky and is going home to visit family for a week.

We give our own anecdotal stories about whether or not resting has hurt or helped us in the past, and we talk about professional climbers’ use of long and short rest periods.

We also discuss what the research says about how long it takes to actually lose strength and endurance during taper and off-season periods in other sports.

Enjoy!

• My story about sending after 5 days completely off

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

Photo of Adam Peters on Make It A Double by Matt Pincus @mpincus87

Matt Samet is the editor of Climbing Magazine, the author of several books, a prolific route developer, and a very strong and dedicated climber. He’s also a friend of mine and someone I respect a lot, so I’ve been wanting to interview him for a while.

He’s a father of 3, works full-time, and just sent a 5.14 project a couple days before his 50th birthday, which is the same max grade he was sending 20 years ago. It’s always inspiring to me to see people just make it work in climbing, even if they have a million things going on in their lives and are at an age many climbers believe to be limiting.

Another notable thing about Samet is that he battled an addiction to benzodiazapenes and other psychiatric drugs for over a decade, and he still deals with neurological consequences of that. He’s had to alter the way he trains and his expectations of himself, and yet he still gets out climbing and trains more often than most of us ever will.

In this interview we talk about his dedication to route development, how his training has changed over the years, his stint with anorexia and how he’s overcome it, among many other things.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

• Why he loves route development so much

• Instagram @phorrizzler6514

Photo of Matt on Nephson (5.13+) at Hillbilly Rock in the Flatirons by Ryan Pecknold

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

In the episode, Tyler explains how we should be warming up our youth teams (and ourselves) in order to make climbing sessions more effective, and more importantly, for injury prevention.

Once again, Tyler pored over the research and came up with a very progressive way of doing things – much differently than what we’re used to. Gone are the days of just warming up for climbing by doing some easy climbing: there’s actually a better way.

Tyler Nelson has a lot of qualifications, so I’m going to let his website sum those up for you:

Tyler is a second generation chiropractor whose father was a leader in chiropractic sports medicine for many years. In graduate school he did a dual doctorate and masters degree program in exercise science with an emphasis on tendon loading. He completed his masters degree at BYU and was a physician for the athletics department for 4 years out of school. He currently is the owner of Camp4 Human Performance where he treats clients through his license as a chiropractic physician. He also is an instructor for the Performance Climbing Coach seminar series and a certified instructor for gobstrong. When he’s not working he’s climbing or hiking outside with his family.  

You can find Tyler in Salt Lake City at his clinic, Camp 4 Human Performance, where he tests athletes, creates training programs, and treats all kinds of athletes for injuries.

Tyler’s ability to question what we take for granted and provide relevant research is unparalleled, and I was psyched to hear about this new way of doing things. He is well-spoken and a wealth of knowledge about how the human body responds to climbing and training.

Other Episodes with Tyler

• TBP 168: New Insights on Finger Training

• Why just climbing easy stuff isn’t the most effective way to warm up

• Personal website: camp4humanperformance.com

Learn More from Tyler: If you want to work with Dr. Tyler Nelson on an individual basis for injuries or strength training, he offers remote consultations to people all over the world. He also teaches online classes on strength training and injuries. Learn more.

Do you want a well-laid-out, easy-to-follow training program that will get you stronger quickly? Here’s what we have to offer on TrainingBeta. Something for everyone…

• At-Home Training Program: trainingbeta.com/covid

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

In the episode, Coach Matt Pincus and I talk about running for climbing fitness. In our practices as a coach (Matt) and a nutritionist (me), we see a lot of people who run in the name of climbing training. But there are some common mistakes we see people making in their training schedules, their nutrition practices, and their reasoning behind their actions.

We talk about some better choices people can be making with their running, whether it’s scientifically been shown to help with climbing fitness at all, and how to proceed with your running and climbing regimens.

Enjoy!

• How common running is among our clients

• Bouldering Program (Levels 1-3) to help you work your way up the grades

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

In this episode, I talk all about carbohydrates and how to use them properly in your diet to help your climbing performance, energy levels every day, overall mental well-being, and body composition.

Carbs are a tricky topic because we’ve been taught to fear and hate them, even though in reality they’re what fuel strength and power activities. They’re also paramount to keeping your blood sugar and mood stable all day every day, as well as helping you to fall asleep and stay asleep. If you’re eating the wrong kinds of carbs in the wrong amounts at the wrong times of day, in conjunction with the wrong amount of protein and fat, you’re going to have issues.

But if you know some basic guidelines around carbs, including what kinds to eat, how much of them, and when, it can make a world of difference in your life and your climbing. These changes can literally happen overnight, so listen carefully to this episode and try to make some tweaks to your diet for some potentially big changes.

This is a recording taken from a 5-day nutrition challenge I did last year in front of a live zoom audience. I talked for about 15 minutes on the topic and then took a bunch of questions from the audience (very common questions, so they’re quite relevant).

After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I did a 4-year nutrition certificate program at Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Nourishment, and Healing. I graduated in 2007 as a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist. During those 4 years, I learned about not only nutrition, but herbs, homeopathy, and other alternative practices. I’ve been seeing clients since 2007 and I’ve worked exclusively with climbers since 2013.

If you’re looking for help with your own nutrition and you feel like you need personalized coaching, I’m taking new clients right now. I also have a program that is self-paced with 4+ hours of video from me, PDF’s, and meal plans laid out for you. You can find more information about my services and the program at www.trainingbeta.com/nutrition.

You’re welcome to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions at all.

• Common symptoms of low and high carbs in my clients. 

• Work with me one-on-one or do my self-paced program

In the episode, Coach Alex and I tackled the topic of breaking into 5.13 and what you need to do physically and mentally to do it.

We both share our experiences of our first 5.13’s, which were quite different actually, and our processes of projecting things that are hard for us. We talk about how to turn the try-hard switch on and off on hard routes, and how to stay focused and calm enough to not overgrip and get super pumped.

We also talk about resting tactics, and how important it is to be able to rest on hard routes, whether it’s on the route, between burns, or the days leading up to getting on your project. Alex even shares some resting drills to use to practice at the gym.

We discuss how your training needs to change from generalized strength and technique to more route-specific technique and strength building. And how to do that in the gym.

I talk a little bit about proper nutrition on projecting days (and the days leading up to them) and Alex shares her story of how I helped her tweak her diet to make her projecting days more productive.

We also discuss advanced techniques like heel hooks and knee bars, as well as some mental tricks for avoiding overwhelm on big projects.

I loved this conversation with Alex, and whether you’re breaking into 5.12+, 13- or 5.13, the tips in here should help you.

• Our first 5.13a’s and how hard they felt for us, mentally and physically

• Work with Alex as your coach

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

TBP 182 :: How Brian Lichtenheld Climbs Outside 4 Days a Week With a Demanding Job

Brian Lichtenheld is one of my close friends and one of my favorite climbing partners. I asked him to be on the show because I don’t know another non-professional climber who is more psyched on climbing, and I wanted to share his infectious positive attitude with you.

No matter what season it is, Brian climbs outside a LOT. During the spring, summer, and fall, he’s basically outside 4 days per week, and that is on top of having a very demanding 50 hour-a-week job as a Certified Financial Planner. He’s also devoted to spending quality time with his girlfriend, as well as having regular volunteer commitments, among other interests.

Despite having time commitments and life stressors like the rest of us, Brian just makes it work all the time, rain or shine, and I’m constantly inspired by him.

In our conversation, we talk about why climbing is so important to him and how he manages his schedule to accommodate everything. We talk about his level-headed approach to long-term projects and how he never tosses wobblers or seemingly ever even gets upset when he fails.

Over the years, Brian has only gotten stronger and better at climbing, and at the age of 36 he has climbed 182 routes between 5.13a and 5.14a. He’s a solid climber, and we can all learn something from him about making it work, no matter what.

• Who Brian is: his work, other activities, relationships, volunteering

• Brian’s Instagram

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.