David Mason is a British boulderer who's climbed up to V13/14 (King of Limbs in South Africa) and many boulders between V10 and V13. In 2014, he managed to send 20 boulder problems between V11 and V13 during a 17-day trip to Vastervik, Sweden. He's a Senior Coach at The Climbing Works, a gym in Sheffield, England, and he does personal training/coaching for people there. He's known for his relentless training, and that's what we talked about in this interview. 

• Dealing with failure

• Video of David Mason on King of Limbs

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

Date: January 27th, 2016

Matt Lloyd is a long-time friend of my husband, Seth, having started climbing on the same team in Denver about 15 years ago. He's known for his bold R and X-rated ascents, and now for having started a small gym in Denver called Mountain Strong that's devoted to training for climbing.

What We Talked About

How he prepares for free solos

Matt Lloyd's gym: www.mountainstrongdenver.com

Nina Williams is a boulderer (and budding trad climber) who lives and trains in Boulder, CO. She's climbed V13 and she won the Dark Horse comp in 2015, but she spends most of her energy climbing outdoors and training for that. Being a full-time sponsored climber, she's able to travel often, and she's spent time in Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, Hueco Tanks, and other popular climbing destinations. I sat down with Nina to talk about how she trains, what she eats, her attitude toward climbing, and what it's like training and climbing with Alex Puccio.  

• Why she did highball boulders and why she doesn't anymore

• Nina Williams on Instagram

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

Dave MacLeod is one of the most famous climbers, having put up many first ascents of sport, boulder, mixed, and trad climbs. Honestly, I'm not going to do him justice with a short introduction of his climbing and career, as he's accomplished so much in his 37 years. So here's his Wikipedia page. Please read it - it's fascinating. 

• His climbing career

• Dave's blog: www.davemacleod.blogspot.com

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

Tom Randall is one of the infamous Wide Boyz offwidth climbers from Sheffield, England. He's climbed 5.14 offwidth, trad, and sport climbs, and he's a professional climbing trainer as well. He and his team at Lattice Training put hard science and historical data from other climbers into their training plans and robust assessments of their clients. He's pretty nerdy, in the best way possible. 

• His assessment of Seth's climbing strengths and weaknesses

• Lattice Training: www.latticetraining.co.uk

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

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Podcast is on iTunes is HERE

Thomasina Pidgeon is a Canadian boulderer - one of the strongest Canadian female climbers, actually, having done over 40 boulders V11 to V12. She's also competed quite a bit, and been quite successful on national and international levels. She does this at the age of 40, all while living out of her van, which she's done since she was 19 years old, and while raising her 9 year-old daughter. 

• Van life and being a mom

• Thomasina's website: www.thomasinapidgeon.blogspot.com

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

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Mike Chapman

I was honored and excited to interview the great Steve Bechtel for a second time. Steve is a long-time climber and trainer who knows his stuff when it comes to getting strong, catering to individual training needs, and staying lean, among many other things. Steve runs ClimbStrong.com, a website where he writes articles and training programs for climbers. You can subscribe to the site to get full access to all of his info. He also runs a gym in Lander, WY called Elemental Fitness, where he works with climbers and athletes of all kinds.

• What makes a good climbing trainer

• Steve’s website, Climb Strong at www.climbstrong.com

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

Isabelle Faus is a 22 year-old boulderer out of Boulder, CO. (Yes, I know that a lot of my guests are from Boulder, but there are just so many amazing climbers here!) Isabelle climbed her first V14 in South Africa recently, and has done several V13's, including Nuthin' but Sunshine in a day. She also just started sport climbing and did her first 5.14a the other day. She'll tell you all about her climbing, training, and diet in this episode. 

• Her bouldering career highlights

• Isabelle on Instagram: @Fausey

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

FrictionLabs (my favorite chalk company by far) is offering you a discount on their awesome chalk - woot!

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Justen Sjong is a prolific climbing coach out of Colorado, who's also had a successful climbing career, having established up to 5.14a big walls with none other than Tommy Caldwell, and crushing 5.14 sport climbs across the globe. He currently works out of Movement Climbing and Fitness in Boulder and does online coaching via www.climbingsensei.com. He has a thing or two to say about climbers improving their mental game and becoming better climbers overall. 

• The difference between a climbing coach and a climbing trainer

• Justen's online climbing services: www.climbingsensei.com

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

FrictionLabs (my favorite chalk company by far) is offering you a discount on their awesome chalk - woot!

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Andrew Burr Photography

TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes 

(Get 10% off Armaid by using "climb" at checkout.)

Will Anglin is a 27 year-old climber and head climbing trainer at Earth Treks in Golden, CO. He minored in Exercise Physiology in college and is a certified personal trainer, and he's studied climbing training quite a bit. He trains people in person and online. One of the reasons I wanted to interview him is that he's not only a well-respected trainer, but also a prolific climber himself, having sent V13 and 5.14.

He has a lot to say about training, and this was a dense conversation (in the best way possible).

• The importance of strength training

• Will's website

If you haven't heard of the ArmAid yet, definitely give it a look-see. It's a nutcracker-type self-massage tool for your poor, overused arms, and it actually works.

We wrote a glowing review about it here.  Use the code "climb" at checkout for a 10% discount!

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

• Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE.

Thanks to Matty Hong for the photo of Jon Cardwell.