The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

Kat Lumby is a Sport and Exercise Psychologist in Training (SEPiT) out of Wales, UK who works with all kinds of athletes, especially climbers and surfers. She has been a climbing coach for many years and has been able to take her skills to the next level with her SEPiT education. In this episode she talks about the specific kind of therapy she uses with athletes to deal with fear (and other barriers to performance). It’s called Rational Emotion Behavioral Therapy (REBT), and she will literally take you through the “ABC’s” of this modality. She also does a quick therapy session with me during the interview where we talk about my fear of falling. We come to some pretty great insights, which I’ve been using ever since in my climbing sessions. We also talk about some research she did on climbers and how you can put this kind of concrete thinking to use in your own climbing. You can work with Kat Lumby as your coach or your sport psychologist at labyrinthclimbing.co.uk.

I recently received an email from someone asking for a podcast episode that talked about resting. They wanted to know how elite/pro level climbers spend their rest days, how often they rest when they’re projecting, when they’re training, and generally just how they think about rest. So I reached out to a bunch of elite climbers and got 13 responses to these three questions: How many days a week do you rest when you’re projecting? What about when you’re in a training cycle? What do you do on your rest days in terms of physical activity when you’re projecting? What about when you’re in a training cycle? How old are you and how long have you been climbing? They sent me emails or a voice memo and here’s who responded: Emily Harrington Alex Honnold Lynn Hill Hazel Findlay Jonathan Siegrist Bill Ramsey Katie Lamb Paige Claassen Matt Pincus Alex Stiger Luke Parady Sam Elias Dusty Rasnick In this episode I’ll give you a short bio of each of these climbers and then either read or play you the recording of their response. Hopefully you learn something from this episode, but mostly it’s just interesting to see how pro/elite climbers approach resting. Enjoy!  

In this episode, Coach Alex Stiger talks about her experience being coached by Alex Puccio and Robin O’Leary (ROAP) for the past 6 months and what it’s done for her climbing. She started board climbing 2 grades harder and has improved her outdoor climbing experience as well because of the coaching she received. Alex strongly believes in the benefits of being coached and talks a little bit about being coached for the video game StarCraft as well. She’s currently offering a 6-month coaching package for 15 new clients and she talks about what it’s like working with her at the end of the episode. Episode Details Why she wanted to be coached and why she chose ROAP What worked for her How their coaching style is different from hers Why it made her try harder and be more consistent in her training The thing that Puccio said to her that changed her climbing immediately How her board climbing improved by 2 grades almost right away

Collin McGee (@liftsmcgee) is a personal trainer and coach at C4HP with Dr. Tyler Nelson. He is also a personal trainer and coach to athletes of all sports, ages, and abilities and he has a firm grasp on how to become a stronger, better athlete no matter what your objectives are. In this episode he breaks down the basics of training and how to get better at climbing even if you have a busy schedule. Here’s what he covers: Assessment Strength Training Power Training Endurance Flexibility Making a Plan

Doug Hartman is a 46-year-old ER doctor from Oakland, CA who is married with 2 kids. He’s a busy guy, but he figured out how to optimize his training and climbing in order to send his first 5.13a at the age of 46. He’s going to tell you the main things he learned from podcasts and coaches that helped him the most, and a little bit of advice about how to be a good spouse and parent, even when you’re a passionate climber. The two main things Doug changed about his climbing were: Resting more Following a non-linear vs linear training program He wrote up an entire description of everything he changed and how he trains so you can peruse it for yourself. >See Doug’s Training Plan  Suggestions for Menopause/Perimenopause Guests In the beginning of the episode I asked for suggestions for guests to talk about their personal experience with perimenopause/menopause and clinicians who work with people going through menopause/perimenopause. I want to educate climbers about this topic because it’s super important and impactful, and doctors are not doing a good enough job of educating us. Please email me at neely@trainingbeta.com with your suggestions! I’d prefer to have people on who are also climbers.  

This interview with Jeff Rotkoff is about how he used simple information from the TrainingBeta Podcast to improve his climbing. Jeff is a 46-year-old climber from Austin, Texas, who has a full-time job and 13-year-old twins. So he’s a busy guy. He started climbing seriously about 9 years ago and started making these changes a few years ago. He learned one nutrition tip from me and one weightlifting tip from Matt from this podcast and was able to start climbing harder, doing more in his sessions, and feeling more resilient to injury. Listen up to hear exactly what he changed and how it affected his climbing. You can find Jeff on Instagram @rotkoff.

Coach Matt Pincus recently got back from a 7-week trip to Margalef, Spain, where he intended to get into projecting mode and climb 5.14. It turns out that the weather was rainy and he didn’t reach that goal, but he came away from the trip with some insights about his own climbing and some wisdom for the rest of us. Matt is taking a few new clients right now if you’re interested in working with him on your own climbing training. You can find his services here. More Details: What his intentions and goals were for the trip What happened on his trip How to go into a trip to have a good time even while climbing at your limit What he learned from climbing with/near some of the world’s best climbers on this trip Train with Coach Matt Pincus at Discounted Rate Matt is taking 6 new clients for a 12-week stint with him at $260 per month instead of his normal $295 per month

I asked Dr. Tyler Nelson to come back on the show to talk about some new research about finger strength-to-weight ratio and climbing performance. In other words, how much does all that finger training really affect how hard you climb? He goes over some studies done on the topic and we talk about the point at which people see diminishing returns and how (if at all) training your fingers contributes, or is correlated, to injuries.

Lea Cleary, a 40-year-old machine learning engineer from Boston, shares her inspiring journey from a 5.10a to a 5.12a in just three months. Overcoming performance anxiety and fear through mental training, she worked with Coach Alex Stiger to shift her mindset and embrace the joy of climbing. They focused on self-awareness, emotional management, and enjoying the process rather than just achieving grades. Lea now climbs with confidence, regularly sending 5.11s, and hopes to inspire others to conquer their fears and reach new heights.

Madeleine Crane is a Sport Psychologist from Austria who runs www.climbingpsychology.com. In this episode we discussed the mental and emotional struggles that many people encounter while projecting climbs. Hopefully this discussion will help you bring awareness to your own mental experience and give you some tools to deal with fear of failure, negative comparison to others, and knowing when to call it quits on a project. Madeleine is offering a 30% discount on her mental skills training programs at unblocd.com using the code “trainingbeta” at checkout.