This episode is one of the most meaningful episodes I’ve ever done, and I’ll tell you why in a sec. In it, I talked with psychologist Dr. Jennifer Dragonette about DBT, which stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy, for a whopping hour and a half!

DBT is a set of psychological tools developed by Marsha Linehan to help people truly process and deal with emotion dysregulation, interpersonal conflict, and the everyday issues of daily life. DBT is very important in my own life because it’s what lifted me out of my most recent major depressive episode in 2017 and has helped me have way lower levels of anxiety and depression than I ever have before.

It helped save my life, to be honest. So when Dr. Jen contacted me to be on the show to talk about how DBT can help climbers, it was a full-body yes from me. I’ve incorporated DBT into my own climbing, and I’ve seen the incredible results it can produce in every part of life.

Dr. Jen does an excellent job of explaining some of her favorite DBT tools and how they can be used in climbing for things like:

• fear of falling
• knowing how you want to proceed when you’re having a bad day climbing
• managing the urge to grab a draw, say take, give up, or not take enough rest
• communicating effectively with your partners or spotters about what you want from them
• how to allow our emotions to flow through us and out of us so we can move on

I also go into some very personal details about how some OCD tendencies played out in my life to contribute to severe anxiety and how DBT helped me stop the OCD behaviors. As well as how I’ve been using DBT tools to help overcome body image issues.

As a climber and a psychologist, Dr. Jen has such a deep understanding of how these tools apply to climbing that you’ll hopefully feel confident using them in your very next climbing session. She’s clearly very adept at teaching DBT, and I enjoyed every moment of this conversation 🙂

Show Links

• Dr. Jen’s website: drjenniferdragonette.com
• Some basics about DBT and workseets: https://dbt.tools/
• The program I did in Boulder, CO was the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Outpatient Program at BCH

In the episode, I sit down with Coaches Matt Pincus and Alex Stiger to discuss how they go about training their clients to be better boulderers. They’re both pretty psyched on bouldering themselves, so we also talk about how they train for bouldering in their own lives.

When we started talking, I was assuming they were going to tell me all the ways they have boulderers get stronger in the weight room and on the fingerboard, but we really only talked about that for a little while.

What they did focus on were the things they find to be way more important for that in real life… things like how to get yourself to try harder, how to change your sessions to be more structured and less “just bouldering,” and how important mobility training is to boulderers. There’s a lot of tactical talk in this episode about what it takes to be a good boulderer overall.

More Details

• How to get yourself to try harder and how to quantify it
• Structured flash practice drill
• Hardest boulder circuit drill
• How to approach a boulder strategically instead of just throwing yourself at it
• Thinking in terms of style instead of grade, and how that helps you work your weaknesses
• Some talk about how to fall appropriately, and when not to fall
• Finger training, what weight training to do, and why it’s all even more important to do for bouldering
• When to shelve training and just go bouldering, and for how long that’s sustainable

Show Links

• Try out the Bouldering Program by Coach Matt Pincus for 35% off through January
• Work with Matt as your coach
• Work with Alex as your coach

35% Off Bouldering Training Program 

If you’re tired of going into the gym without a plan and you want a clearly laid-out program made by an experienced coach, our Bouldering Training Program is just that. And it doesn’t cost nearly as much as working one-on-one with a coach. Matt Pincus created this online subscription bouldering program based off of what has been super successful with his clients over the years.

There are 3 levels of training available to you, depending on how much experience you have with climbing training. You’ll go through non-linear cycles (learn more about what that means in the link below) of training power, strength, skill drills, and throughout it all you’ll be gaining all-day capacity.

Hundreds of people have felt an increase in their bouldering ability within weeks of being on this program, and you can too. It’s 35% off right now, and you get a 7-day free trial to see if it works for you. Go to the gym with a plan in your hand, trust the process, and see results.

CHECK OUT THE BOULDERING PROGRAM SALE

In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about the most common mistakes amde by climbers who are trying to break into 5.12 climbing. Sending 5.12 is the most common goal among her clients, so she has quite a bit of experience with the minutiae of what it takes to do that.

She will share her personal experience of her first 5.12’s and what she learned from her trials and tribulations. She’ll then go into the mindset shifts that are required to jump into the coveted 5.12 territory, and how she helps people do that.

While you might predict that strength training is one of the main tools Alex uses with her clients in this situation, it is not, as she says it is very rare to find a person who is climbing 5.11 who can not climb 5.12 with the strength they already have.

So while we spend a few minutes talking about strength training, you’ll find compelling evidence in this episode that that may not be your issue. Here are some of the other topics we discuss:

• Why technique and staying calm are so important
• Honing the skill of resting
• How to decrease intimidation of the grade
• How to learn from your falling experiences
• How to have more of a competition mindset
• What to climb on in the gym if you’re trying to send 5.12
• A better alternative to having a perfect pyramid before entering into 5.12 territory
• Why repeating climbs that are sort of hard for you is an important strategy

We talk about a lot in this episode, and I highly recommend it if you’re at the 5.10 or 5.11 level, or if you’re just not consistently climbing 5.12’s and you’d like to. Even if you are climbing 5.12’s consistently, I think a lot of her tactics will help you!

5.12 Breakthrough Series

Coach Alex Stiger is hosting a 4-part series all about how to break into 5.12 climbing. She will do 4 90-minute zoom calls starting January 17th all about what holds people back from sending 5.12 consistently and exactly what you can do to break your 5.11 plateau.

The cost is $147 (2-payment option available), and you’ll get all of the recordings of the zoom calls plus a bonus recorded coaching session with one of the participants.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 5.12 BREAKTHROUGH SERIES   Show Links

• Enroll in Alex’s 5.12 Breakthrough Series
• Work with Alex as your coach
• Work on your nutrition with Neely
• Have questions? Email [email protected] or [email protected]

In this episode, Coach Matt Pincus and I discuss the extremely important topic of crag etiquette. As more climbers join the sport and crags and boulder fields become more crowded, there’s a growing need for us all to be on the same page about who gets to climb when, how to communicate with each other, and what our expectations are of each other in general.

This conversation’s purpose is to bring some difficult topics into the light and hopefully to help climbers understand each other better, have more tools to use with each other in sticky situations, and to–more than anything–help us all have an amazing and safe time climbing outside with each other.

Here’s what we talked about:

Communication

a. Who’s climbing when b. For how long c. Permission to join bouldering crew d. Brush holds e. Beta sharing desires f. Encouragement desires

Taking up space

a. Yard sale b. Loud conversations c. Taking long time to get ready when there’s a queue d. Talking to belayers

Impact on others

a. Smoking b. Music c. Screaming performatively on climbs d. Wobbling e. Yelling at ppl for waiting for a route you’re currently on f. Dogs

I hope this conversation sparks conversations of your own with your climber friends!

Show Links

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt for 15% Off
• Work with Matt as your coach
• Do Matt’s Bouldering Training Program for 35% off
• Have topics you want us to cover? Email [email protected] or [email protected]

In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about the tactics she used to send Silky Smooth, 5.13c (8a+) in the Red River Gorge last week without training endurance beforehand. She went into the trip feeling like she had low endurance, in fact, but she used specific tactics to send the route in 7 sessions.

There are a lot of little tips and tricks in this episode, and so many observations that Alex has made over the years about endurance climbing, including:

• Maintaining Composure
• Breathing
• Pump Management
• Nailing Sequences instead of Winging It
• Eliminating Fear
• Managing Discomforts
• Increasing Confidence
• Having Patience with the Process
• Dealing with Cold Weather Climbing
• Eating for Cold Weather Pumpy Climbing

We actually spent quite a bit of time talking about making climbing in the cold more tolerable, so if you’re a cold-a-phobe like I used to be, this is a good one to listen to!

I learned some things from this episode, and Alex is really good at calling out issues and then making very relatable, useful suggestions that you can put into practice right away.

Show Links

• Get Alex’s Holiday Workshop Bundle
• Get the Route Climbing Program Holiday Discount
• Get the Bouldering Program Holiday Discount
• Work with Alex as your coach
• Work on your nutrition with Neely
• Have questions? Email [email protected] or [email protected]

David Farkas is a 49-year-old climber who works as the Adult Programming Manager at The Front Climbing Club in Salt Lake City, UT. He’s been climbing since 1991, and found himself in a bit of a slump with his climbing and nutrition when he signed up to work with me in 2018.

After working together on his nutrition and him working on his climbing training with various trainers and coaches, he went from climbing 5.10 to 5.12 in about a year, lost some weight he’d been trying to lose, and found that his energy levels were much better. He also found relief with some digestion and skin issues he was having.

In this episode, we talk about the struggles he went through before, during, and after working with me, and what kinds of things we changed about his diet and lifestyle to get him the results he wanted. He was living in a van at the time, so we talk about how to improve your diet even if you don’t have a kitchen of your own.

David is one of my all-time favorite clients, and the results he’s seen are inspirational (but not abnormal when working with nutrition), so I asked him to share his story. I was impressed with his willingness to be vulnerable and honest about his journey, and I hope you love it as much as I did.

  Work with Me on Your Nutrition

I’m currently taking new clients, and if you’d like to work with me to improve your climbing performance, overall energy levels, digestion, and blood glucose, I’m here for you.

We can do an hour session, a month session, or you can do my self-paced nutrition course: Nourish and add a single session onto that for more personalization.

>>>Find Out More about My Nutrition Services

In this episode, I talk about the pros and cons of the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting for climbers. In my sessions with clients I often get questions about these very popular diet tactics, so I wanted to lay out in plain terms what I see happen–both good and bad–when climbers try them.

This recording is taken from my Nourish program, which is a self-paced online course I created for climbers to help them change their diet so they can improve their climbing, energy levels, sugar cravings, and digestion. Check out the program here.

Work with Me on Your Nutrition

If you’re looking for help with your nutrition and you feel like you need personalized coaching, I can work with you on an hourly or a monthly basis to help you increase your energy levels, improve digestion, and feel more satisfied every day. I also have a course just for climbers that is self-paced with 4+ hours of video from me, PDF’s, and meal plans laid out for you.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY NUTRITION SERVICES   Other Nutrition Episodes

• TBP 213 :: What to Eat at the Crag for Optimal Performance
• TBP 209 :: Calories for Climbing Performance and Body Composition
• TBP 190 :: Meal Timing for Climbing Performance and Recovery
• TBP 184 :: Carbs for Climbers – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why
• TBP 175 :: Protein for Climbers 101 – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why

Kevin Roet is a climbing instructor from the UK who’s been teaching workshops on climbing psychology for about 7 years now. He recently wrote a book, Climbing Psychology: Mind Training for Optimal Climbing, all about the topic, and I wanted to have him on the show to talk about the things he most commonly helps people with in regards to climbing psychology.

This was a really enjoyable conversation for me, not only because Kevin is a humble Brit who’s well-versed in this topic, but also because it’s one of my own favorite topics. We talked about how he helps people with the fear of falling, the fear of failure, and recognizing their negative mindset.

We also went over the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, what exactly the flow state is, the psychology of pumped forearms!, and performance anxiety. We also discuss the overlooked importance of communication between belayer and climber, and how much that can affect your climbing negatively or positively.

I hope this conversation helps you dive a little deeper into your own psychology, and maybe take some steps to work on your mindset in climbing.

  Show Links

• Kevin’s website: riseandsummit.co.uk
• Get Kevin’s book in the UK here or in the US here
• Rise and Summit Instagram @rise_and_summit
• Work with me on your nutrition: www.trainingbeta.com/nutrition

You may have heard me say that I’ve been doing some mental training coaching with Hazel Findlay this year to help with some fears and mental “blocks.” Well, it’s been so valuable working with her that I wanted to have her on the show to talk about some of the same things we’ve talked about in our sessions together.

Hazel is a 33-year-old professional climber and mental training coach. She made a name for herself at a young age for her bold trad ascents, having been the first British female to send E9 (basically 5.13d but with death fall potential).

She went on to be become the first British female to send 5.14b, and this year she did her first 5.14d (9a). She’s also done a lot of big wall climbing, having done the 3rd ascent of Magic Line (5.14c R, 8c+, E10).

About 7 years ago, she began coaching after completing 2 coaching programs, and she’s been seeing clients ever since. This year she created an online program for climbers, which I took and highly recommend, called Strong Mind. And now, she’s offering the Strong Mind Community, which is an ongoing learning experience for climbers all about mental training.

I wanted to have her on the show to talk about some of the most common things she sees that are holding climbers back mentally. We discuss the ins and outs of fear of falling, fear of failure, and social fears, and how she helps people work through all of them. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

 

Show Links

• Hazel’s Strong Mind Course
• Hazel’s Strong Mind Community
• Hazels Instagram @hazel_findlay
• Skills and Drills Workshop with Alex Stiger

In the episode, I sit down with Coaches Matt Pincus and Alex Stiger to discuss how our coaching styles, confidence levels, and tactics with clients have changed over the years. Matt and Alex talk about their practices as climbing coaches and I discuss my practice as a nutrition professional.

Some things we all have in common are that we’re less perfectionistic and rigid in our coaching now than when we first started, and that we focus on different facets of climbing or nutrition now than in years past.

We also go over what we believe to be the most important values of coaching, like professionalism, honesty, and compassion.

We also do a check-in about all of our big fall climbing projects, and some of us are doing better than others… 😉

  Show Links

• Do an hour coaching session with Matt
• Work with Matt as your coach
• Do Alex’s new workshop on Skills and Drills
• Work with Alex as your coach
• Work with Neely as your nutritionist
• Have topics you want us to cover? Email [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]