I talked with psychotherapist, Sarah Brock Chavez about neuroplastic pain, which is pain that comes from a sort of misfiring in your brain because your thoughts and emotions cause you to feel unsafe when you experience the pain. I don’t want to say that this kind of pain is “all in your head” because that’s probably not how the professionals would want me to refer to it, but it’s kind of that. This past October 2023 I had a lot of neck pain and nothing was helping it. Finally I was introduced to the concept of neuroplastic pain and I immediately felt relief from the pain simply by recognizing that I was afraid of the pain and that I had been sending messages to my brain that I was not safe. By doing somatic tracking (objectively and calmly noticing the pain) and sending messages to myself that I was indeed safe and that this was just a misfiring in my brain, the pain subsided. Sarah Brock Chavez works with people on all of this as a therapist and she is incredibly well-versed in the science and the practicalities of getting yourself out of pain. If you’re experiencing pain of any kind, it’s worth listening to this episode to find out if your pain qualifies as neuroplastic and what to do about it.   Show Links Sarah Brock Chavez private practice Blue Sage Therapy: www.sarahbrockchavez.com The Way Out book by Alan Gordon Podcast “Tell Me about Your Pain” on neuroplastic pain Work with me on your mindset in climbing Work with Me to Start Loving Climbing Again  I’ve been talking to a lot of climbers lately who have lost their passion and joy in climbing because they’re comparing themselves to others, feeling disappointed with their performance, and putting a lot of pressure on themselves to be doing better, faster. I have been there myself, and I’ve worked on all of it intensively over the last few years. Through all of this work with coaches and self-reflection, I’ve come out on the other side having WAY more fun in my climbing and feeling mostly positive emotions in all of my climbing sessions. I went to school to become a coach to help people on exactly this thing (among other things, but this is my favorite). Let’s work together by having skillful conversations over zoom to uncover what’s going on underneath all those negative thoughts and feelings and make a tangible plan for you to start enjoying the process of climbing more and caring less about what others think of you. Let’s get your joy back in climbing. WORK WITH ME ON YOUR CLIMBING MINDSET

Climbing coach Matt Pincus discusses the importance of climbing drills in training, emphasizing deliberate practice, feedback, and overcoming struggles. He shares examples of drills like contrast warmup and one-leg climbing. The podcast explores the benefits of memorization drills, pacing drills, and common pitfalls in climbing practice.

In this short episode, I talk about the incredible sugar cravings I used to have that would lead to regular binges and how I stopped them. I talk about what this taught me as a nutritionist and how I've honed that knowledge into a way of eating that decreases sugar cravings by a LOT.  I'll go over what things to change about what you're eating, when you're eating, and why it's important to make these changes. Today's episode is actually a reading of an email that I put out today to my email list. I'm doing a 5-day deep-dive into nutrition this week with my email list, and if you'd like to join that list you can do that here.  Join the Email List for Regular Training, Nutrition, and Mindset Content I'm also doing a flash sale of 40% off of my Nourish program, which is an online video program that takes you through the process of working with me as a nutrition client and educates you on deep learning topics.  You'll learn: How much you need to be eating at meals and snacks When you should be eating during the day to optimize energy levels, performance, and recovery How many grams of protein, carbs, fat, and sugar you should be consuming every day and every meal Nutrition 101 on macros, calories, etc Primer on how to deal with emotional eating What to eat out at the crag Which supplements to take, if any Meal plans for many different caloric needs  Use Code "Save40" at Checkout for 40% Off Program Until Sunday the 29th

In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about the most common mistakes made by climbers who are trying to break into 5.11 climbing. 5.10 climbers make up the bulk of Alex’s clientele, so her experience with this group is vast. In this episode she outlines the most important things you need to do in your climbing and training to reliably climb 5.11’s. 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 5.10 who can not climb 5.11 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: How to practice technique and skills Which technique and skill drills to do How to practice staying composed while climbing Honing the skill of resting How to decrease intimidation of the grade How to learn from your falling experiences How to structure your climbing days and weeks to reach this goal 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 level or below, or if you’re just not consistently climbing 5.11’s and you’d like to. Even if you are climbing 5.11’s consistently, I think a lot of her tactics will help you! If you’re interested in learning more about this topic in a really immersive way, check out the 5.11 Breakthrough Course coming up January 16th.

Last month, I went on a climbing trip where I just let myself do whatever I wanted, whether it was toproping 5.11’s or taking big whips on 5.13a’s, onsighting runout 5.12’s or toproping 5.12+’s. I did what my heart told me it wanted to do and I almost never felt stressed while climbing. It was the epitome of fun, and it was very different than my normal approach to climbing trips where I pick an objective and focus on it for the trip. In contrast, last month Alex Stiger went on a trip where she picked a project and focused on it her whole trip. In fact, including her warm-ups every day, she only climbed on 3 routes the entire time she was in the Red River Gorge for I think a 10-day trip. Both of us walked away feeling like we’d had great trips and wouldn’t change anything about them. We both had fun, we both stayed true to our goals, and we both felt accomplished at the end. In this episode, Alex Stiger, Matt Pincus, and I discuss the pros and cons of each of these kinds of trips as well as a different kind of trip where you’d pick a goal other than sending one route, but the trip would be goal-oriented nonetheless. Perhaps you’d try to do a certain number of a certain grade, or onsight a certain grade. We talk about different trips we’ve gone on and what we learned from each, how each left us feeling at the end, and why Alex and I chose to have the trips we just did. This is a bit of a meandering discussion between climbers who are also friends. There’s no real “training” advice in here – just a lot of insight into how each of us operates, where we are in our lives regarding climbing, and how we try to make our experiences as positive as possible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂

Are you preparing for a trip to Hueco Tanks? Whether that trip is coming up in a month or sometime in your future dreams, this episode will help you know what to train, how long in advance to train, and what other preparations you can make to have a successful trip to this magical sandstone bouldering area. In this episode, we talked about the following: Who this episode is for Minimum amount of time you need to prepare for a bouldering trip Challenge of talking about this in general terms What Matt is focusing on now in preparation for his trip to Hueco in January Hard projecting or lots of boulders on your trip? How to prepare for a more grueling climbing schedule on a trip How to train in the gym for Hueco Injury prevention for Hueco specifically Training for stand-out or extreme holds/body positions Matt’s training schedule every week until his trip Matt will be doing a couple more episodes on specific climbing areas to help you have a successful trip. Most likely he’ll be talking about the Red River Gorge and Wild Iris, but let us know if you have suggestions! Show Links Performance Bouldering Training Program ($18/mo with a 7-day free trial) Performance Route Climbing Training Subscription Program ($18/mo with 7-day free trial) Train with Coach Matt Pincus   Try the Performance Route Climbing Training Subscription Program If you want Matt to help you with your route climbing goals, he created an extensively detailed route training program that will help you gain strength, endurance, and work capacity so you can climb harder routes, get less pumped, and have more deliberate training sessions. There are 3 levels of the program with 50 days of training in each of them – that’s 3-6 months of training written out for you step by step. The program is $18 per month and you can try it out for free for 7 days and cancel any time. Learn More about the Performance Route Training Program 

Alex Aguilar, a 28-year old climber, seeks nutrition advice to improve recovery and performance. They discuss optimizing energy levels, analyzing diet logs, and the importance of snacking. The hosts recommend supplements, discuss the impact of calorie intake on climbing sessions, and provide nutrition recommendations for recovery and performance. They emphasize the significance of electrolytes and balancing meals and snacks. Small dietary changes can lead to noticeable improvements in energy, recovery, and performance.

Are you planning a climbing trip sometime this winter? Next spring? Any time in the future? Are you wondering what to do to prepare for that trip, whether it’s a month-long European extravaganza or a 5-day trip to Wild Iris? Well, Matt Pincus works with his coaching clients on this all the time, and he’s successfully prepared for many climbing trips himself. So in this episode, Matt is going to lay out the main principles of preparing for a trip (training, mental prep, etc). He made a handy dandy outline for the episode, so I’m just going to copy and paste it here for you. This is everything we talked about in this episode. Matt will be doing a few more episodes on specific climbing areas to help you have a successful trip. Most likely he’ll be talking about Hueco Tanks, the Red River Gorge, and Wild Iris to start. Outline of Episode Start with broader thinking/considerations and zoom in Where are you in your year? Are you fit and in season or will you be coming off a training block? Is this a period of transition? Changing climbing styles: i.e. sport to bouldering Indoors to outdoors What kind of trip are you going on? Onsighting vs redpointing? Quick sends/volume vs projecting?  Are you trying to break into a new grade/climb at your limit or climb a lot of different routes/boulders at a lower intensity and experience a lot of a new area/areas? How long is the trip and what is your planned climbing schedule? 1 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off, ect? What your planned climbing schedule is should be reflected in your training.  A long trip where you can climb yourself into form versus one where you need to hit the ground running? Area-specific characteristics Injury concerns with a climbing style – what do I need to work on to ensure I stay healthy?  Climbing area characteristics: this is where most people start General angle Common length of routes/boulders Predominant hold type Specific goal climbs  Do you have a singular or couple of main climbs in mind? If not, that’s ok and stay general. Stand out or extreme holds/positions? Time under tension demands?   Show Links Performance Route Climbing Training Subscription Program ($18/mo with 7 day free trial) Train with Coach Matt Pincus I’m taking new life coaching clients   Try the Performance Route Climbing Training Subscription Program If you want Matt to help you with your route climbing goals, he created an extensively detailed route training program that will help you gain strength, endurance, and work capacity so you can climb harder routes, get less pumped, and have more deliberate training sessions. There are 3 levels of the program with 50 days of training in each of them – that’s 3-6 months of training written out for you step by step. The program is $18 per month and you can try it out for free for 7 days and cancel any time. Learn More about the Performance Route Training Program 

Even when we’re climbing outside a bunch on projects, for many people there’s still a lingering question about what we should be doing in the gym to stay strong, powerful, and have everything we need to send those projects. How much should you be climbing outside of your project? How much should you be training fingers, weight lifting, doing core, etc. when you’re climbing outside 2-3 days a week? In this episode, Coach Alex Stiger talks us through the ins and outs of this and we go over some sample situations of different kinds of climbers’ schedules. This one will really help you prioritize what to work on, when to work on it, and when to stop training altogether. Show Links Learn More about the Climbing Video Analysis Workshop Work with Alex as your coach Have questions? Email alex@trainingbeta.com or neely@trainingbeta.com   Climbing Video Analysis Workshop Coach Alex is hosting a Video Analysis Workshop on October 17th, 2023 where she’ll analyze 5-10 people’s video footage of them climbing on their projects and explain the main things to look for when looking at your own videos. Video Analysis Workshop Details Date: Tuesday, October 17th Time: 6-8pm Mountain Daylight Time Where: Zoom (link sent immediately after purchase) Cost: $39 What: 2 hours of video analysis of participants + pro tips Ongoing Support: 2 weeks of video analysis in Slack channel by Alex Recorded: You don’t have to be there live because it’ll be recorded! LEARN MORE ABOUT THE VIDEO ANALYSIS WORKSHOP

In this episode, I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about her recent send of Homunculus 5.14a (8b+) in Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado. I’m SO excited for her as this has been a 4+ year siege for her with lots of ups and downs. Alex went through 3 pretty serious injuries on this route, was thwarted by fires and floods, and yet she stuck with it with a positive attitude almost the entire time. Having been on the route over 100 times, this is a story of determination, tenacity, and grit. She learned SO much over the course of her journey on this route, and she’s going to to tell us all about what those learnings were and why this project was so important to her to complete. Work with Alex as your coach Have questions? Email alex@trainingbeta.com or neely@trainingbeta.com Alex Is Taking New Clients Now that Alex has sent her long-term project, she has some unexpected openings in her schedule to take on new climbing coaching clients. The options to work with her include the following: Initial Coaching Call – A 2-hour Zoom call to talk in depth about what you need to do in your climbing, training, and mindset to reach your goals and become a better climber overall. Alex will provide 1-2 weeks of sample programming for you, and you can talk about next steps in your training with her. 3-Month Coaching Deep Dive – A 2-hour initial zoom call, then 60-minute follow-up calls every 2 weeks, access to 3 of Alex’s workshops or courses, full training program for the 3 months, and anytime Q&A with Alex. 1-Hour Coaching Call – Chat with Alex about your situation, training equipment, and goals to learn what you need to do moving forward to reach those goals. If you’re ready to take your climbing to the next level with an experienced, seasoned coach, click the link below. LEARN MORE ABOUT WORKING WITH ALEX