This is an interview with Ryan Vachon, a 43-year-old who won the Ouray Mixed Climbing Competition this year (2016) and sent Saphira, M15- shortly afterward. As a full-time climate scientist at his company, Earth Inititiatives, he has a lot on his plate. He's the ultimate weekend warrior, and he puts in long hours of training most weeks in order to stay super fit. 

Ryan is a Rab athlete, and we recently teamed up with Rab to get you a 20% discount on their stuff. Get the discount here. 

• What is mixed climbing and where do we draw the line between mixed and sport?

• Ryan's work website: earth-initiatives.org

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

This week, in our sixth mini episode of Ask Kris, we talked about how to improve overall fitness for climbing. I was actually a little bit confused about what "fitness" really meant, and Kris helped me understand what it is and how to gain more of it. 

Here's what we talked about:

• What fitness actually is

All of the programs that Kris wrote for trainingbeta.com have a focus on overall fitness. He's a big advocate for creating great all-around athletes because he believes that strong people make strong climbers. 

If you want 3 complete workouts every week to get you stronger and help you stay injury free, check out our bouldering training program or our route training program.

• More about Kris

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

This is an interview with Aaron Mulkey, the 39-year-old who was dubbed the "Patriarch of Cody Ice" for his 100+ first ascents in the Wyoming area. We dig in to what motivates him to find new routes and climb so hard, all while maintaining a full-time high-stress job and helping to raise two teenagers. 

He's been training his butt off and divulges all the details about his daily, monthly, and yearly cycles of training so he can stay strong all year. 

• Ice climbing training and how it ties in with climbing and kayaking training

• Aaron's website: www.coldfear.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

This week, in our fifth mini episode of Ask Kris, we talked about how to improve core strength for climbing. Having just spent last week in Rifle on my project, I realized that I need to gain a lot of core strength myself, so I loved this episode. 

Here's what we talked about:

• What our "core" actually is

All of the programs that Kris wrote for trainingbeta.com have a focus on core stability and strength.

If you want 3 complete workouts every week to get you stronger and help you stay injury free, check out our bouldering training program or our route training program.

• More about Kris

Do all of the exercises below without stopping, except for the noted rest times. 

TRX Pikes (Video):

• Reps: 25

TRX Saws (Video):

• Reps: 25 

AB Hip Raises (Video):

• 25 reps 

TRX Planks (Video):

• 1 minute

Toes to bar

• Reps: 15

Ab Roller

• Reps: 20

V-Ups (Video)

• 25 v-ups

All done - nice work! 

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

This is an interview with 25 year-old Mathilde Becerra, who's on the French National Climbing team. In 2015, Mathilde ended up in the top 10 overall in lead climbing, and even though she doesn't have much time for outdoor climbing, she has climbed up to 5.14a and V11 outside.

You may have heard Mathilde's name in my last interview with Sean McColl because she's his long-time girlfriend. I thought it'd be really interesting to hear from a European lady crusher. She started climbing when she was a kid, and excelled very quickly.

In this interview, we talked about what it's like being on the French team (as opposed to the US or Canadian team), how she makes it work financially as a full-time pro climber, and how she trains physically and mentally to perform so well at comps.

• What her training cycles look like

• Mathilde's website: www.mathildebecerra.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

This week, in our fourth mini episode of Ask Kris,wedecided to talk about shoulders - one of my favorite topics.Alot of climbers have shoulder issues, and we discuss how toavoidinjuries and how to prevent them. 

• Most common shoulder issues for climbers

All of the programs that Kris wrote fortrainingbeta.comhave a focus on shoulder stability, strength, andinjuryprevention.

If you want 3 complete workouts every weektoget you stronger and help you stay injury free, check outourboulderingtraining program or our routetrainingprogram. 

• More about Kris

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

This is an interview with 28 year-old Sean McColl, a well-known Canadian climber who's accomplished amazing things both outdoors and in competitions. 

I can't describe his amazing accomplishments better than he does on his website, so here's an excerpt... 

"Sean was the Canadian Youth Champion in his age group ever year from 1999-2005 having won every National Championships he attended. During his youth career, Sean claimed 5 world titles; since no other youth competitor has won more titles; this achievement is unsurpassed in youth climbing history to this day."

"Since Sean started competing on the World Cup circuit, he has won 4 events (2 in bouldering, 2 in lead) and been on the podium another 23 times. Sean has won the Overall CombinedRankings and has been 2rd and 3rd in the Lead and Boulder Overall rankings respectively."

"As an outdoor climber, Sean has onsighted 5.14a (8b+) and climbed multiple 5.14d’s (9a). On the bouldering side, Sean is one of a dozen climbers in the world to flash the grade of V13 (8B) and redpoint V15 (8C)."

He seems to only be getting stronger as he gets older. In March of this year (2016), he won the Rab CWIF, a big competition in Sheffield, England, where he beat out Ty Landman, Jimmy Webb, and Jorg Verhoeven (video).

He spends most of his year training for competitions, and only sometimes makes it outside to climb on real rock. 

Whew! Sean is a badass. We've all seen videos of his crazy training (here he is on the campus board), but I wanted to find out more details about how he trains. 

• How he trained as a kid

• Sean's website: www.seanmccoll.com

This week, in our third mini episode of Ask Kris, we decided to talk about the similarities and differences between training for bouldering vs routes, and what crossover there is between them.

• Why route climbers need to train power and how to do it

• More about Kris

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

This is an interview with Teal Dreher, a V8 boulderer who climbed through the grades in just a few years using various training programs. She also regularly puts in 70 hours per week as an environmental engineer, so I thought she'd be a perfect person to represent normal non-pro climbers. 

She takes us through her evolution of climbing training, starting with the Anderson brothers' program, then through Eric Horst's teachings, and finally with our very own Kris Peters, who she's currently training with. 

I honestly loved talking with Teal because I felt like we could relate on climbing on a different level than my pro climber guests. I hope you like this very informative conversation as much as I did!

• V8 in 3 years

• Teal's website: www.tealasaurus.wordpress.com

• Check out our Route Climbing Training Program for route climbers of all abilities.

We're going to do something new on the podcast every week (or as often as we can). Kris Peters and I will be tackling a specific subject and hashing some details out for about 15 minutes. Don't worry: I'll still be doing the regular podcast episodes every week, too!

We'll also take questions from you guys and answer them on these mini episodes. This week, in our second episode, we decided to talk about the three best lifts for rock climbers.

Kris Peters is a climbing trainer who's worked with some of the strongest climbers in the world, as well as a ton of regular Joes like you and me. He's seen his methods work on 100's of climbers so far, and so I thought I'd give him a platform to share his knowledge with you guys. Here's episode 2 of "Ask Kris", and hopefully we'll get one out every week. If you have a question for him, email me at [email protected] and we'll try to answer it.

• Why climbers should weight lift

• More about Kris