The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

  About Dan Mirsky Dan Mirsky is an understated crusher. I've been watching him gracefully take down rock climbs in Rifle for as long as I've been climbing there. Last year we witnessed his fitness (literally) in The Red when we were next door neighbors at Lago Linda's last year. And then a few months later he was kind enough to show us around The Cathedral/Wailing Wall, giving Seth and me encyclopedic beta on the entire crag from the ground. He chucked a couple laps on Golden (14b) that day right after sending Route of All Evil (14a) in the Virgin River Gorge that morning. Mirsky is PSYCHED to climb and psyched to see others succeed. He's a bright-eyed, happy, almost boyish guy with a sneaky sense of humor and a willingness to get a little crazy with friends. He knows everything about the places he climbs because he's obsessed with all things climbing. He's sent 30+ 5.14's up to 5.14c, having taken down Carry the Fire (14c), 50 Words for Pump (14b), Bad Girls Club (14c), Lungfish (14b), and lots of other hard stuff, including an FA of Solid Gold (14c), the direct line to Golden (read his "The Day I Sent Solid Gold" from EveningSends.com). He lives part time on the road and part time at his house in Carbondale. He dates my good friend and fellow TrainingBeta worker bee, Katy Dannenberg (you may have noticed her posting a bunch of awesome stuff on our Facebook page recently?), and together they are the hardest training couple I've ever known. If they're not climbing, they're doing CrossFit workouts outside of the Airstream, running half marathons, doing yoga, or hangboarding on their portable A-frame hangboard. So how does Dan Mirsky do it? He doesn't even live in a city with a climbing gym and yet he's consistently killing it. He'll tell you all about it in the interview. What We Talked About How he financially manages to live on the road for most of the year How he stays strong on long trips to the Red or other areas What he thinks doing cardio has done for his climbing How he stays super ripped and lean without starving himself (he eats - I've seen it myself) The wise advice he gave me about projecting Related Links A more complete bio on Dan Mirsky on Millet.com, one of his sponsors. His account of his FA of Solid Gold (14c) on Evening Sends Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the Training Programs on TrainingBeta. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen and Review on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings    Thanks for listening!  

Hooray!! I finally did an interview with my favorite climbing trainer, Kris Peters! He's been working on TrainingBeta with us since basically the beginning, so I've had plenty of time to get to know and love this guy. He's kind of intimidating on the outside (big muscles, beard, hardass trainer), but he's a playful teddy bear on the inside. What I've noticed is that while he jokes a lot with his clients, he takes their workouts and progress VERY seriously, and puts his all into their success. He takes on a lot in life, between working with clients one-on-one, being a part of the training/coaching duo, Team of 2, with Justen Sjong, and keeping up with his own athletic goals.  He's trained climbers of all abilities from all over the world, including Daniel Woods, Alex Johnson, Matt Segal, as well as people who just do this sport for the fun of it, and he's had amazing success with a lot of them. He also wrote our 6-Week Power Endurance Training Program, which has gotten a lot of positive feedback from climbers all over the world. What We Talked About His background as a trainer How he approaches every individual climber as a client 2 Case Studies: How he trained a 5.11- climber vs a V10 climber His thoughts on cardio training (and whether or not he'd tell Daniel Woods to run as part of his training) Who should be campusing and who should NOT All about the new training subscription program he created for TrainingBeta (coming soon) Related Links A more complete bio on Kris: trainingbeta.com/about-kris-peters Train with Kris one-on-one from anywhere in the world: teamof2climbing.com/trainer/ or email kris@teamof2climbing.com 6-Week Power Endurance Training Program Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen and Review on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings  Photo Photo by Ian Civgin Thanks for listening!

I'm psyched to introduce this podcast with the Anderson brothers, Mark and Mike. We did a longer-than-usual interview this time, partly because there were two of them and mostly because they have a lot of advice to give. For the uninitiated, Mark and Mike are the Rock Prodigy guys, the authors of the new book The Rock Climber's Training Manual. They're the trainers who helped J-Star turn his training methods around in order to do "Biographie" (or "Realization", 5.15a), but they also have impressive climbing resumes themselves, despite having high-stress jobs and families.  Mike is an Aeronautical Engineer, aka robot developer. He's an officer in the US Air Force and he has 2 sons (5 and 8) with his wife and they live in Colorado. He's redpointed 5.14 sport and has done some very impressive 5.13s, including First Free Ascents of Touchstone Wall (5.13, IV), Space Shot (5.13 IV) and Thunderbird Wall (5.13 VI) in Zion, UT, and Arcturus (5.13, VI) on Yosemite’s Half Dome. Mark (by the way, they're twins) supervises a team of computer engineers and has 2 kids with his wife, and they also live in Colorado. He's an “all-around” climber, having climbed on four continents, established numerous first ascents, freed El Cap, summited Denali, red-pointed 5.14c and on-sighted 5.13b.  Along with their book, they also partnered with Trango to make the Rock Prodigy Training Center, a hangboard they recommend. So they're kinda the shit when it comes to training. What We Talked About How long it took Mark to get off his 5.10 plateau The thing Mike eats every day to stay lean and strong Both of their biggest accomplishment in climbing (they have the same one) The surprising number of hours they train every week How Mike trained for one of his hardest sends in Afghanistan Who should be campusing and fingerboarding and who should avoid it What to do when you've been falling at the same high point for 8 weeks Their passionate opinion on running for climbing LOTS more Related Links Mark and Mike's website is www.rockclimberstrainingmanual.com Their recent posts about training J-Star (part 1 and part 2) Their book, The Rock Climber's Training Manual Their hangboard, the Rock Prodigy Training Center by Trango Jonathan Siegrist's interview with me about training with the Anderson brothers Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen and Review on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings    Thanks for listening!

Download on iTunes Direct Download RSS Feed - http://trainingbeta.libsyn.com/rss After many months of trying to find a time that worked for both of our crazy schedules, Alex Johnson and I finally sat down and had a conversation about her climbing, training, eating, and other aspects of her life. Alex Johnson is an athlete on The North Face team, and she travels the world as a professional climber. She has some V12 ascents under her belt, she's a 2-time world cup winner and 5-time national champ. She's currently living in Las Vegas, but before that she was living out of her RV, following the good weather to her favorite bouldering areas. She spent a lot of time this winter in Bishop trying The Swarm, a V13/V14, which we talk about in the interview. I've always been a fan of Alex Johnson, and I remember watching her at The Spot competing when she was just a kid really. Her confidence and poise, as well as her incredible strength, have always impressed me. What We Talked About Her biggest accomplishments and biggest failures as a climber Which training styles have worked for her and which have not What it was like for her to train with the Euros How she's training for Vail this year (it's a secret so don't tell anyone) How her diet affects her climbing (if at all) Whether or not her hard ascents have been downgraded because she's a female How she balances being friends and fierce competitors with Angie, Puccio and the other girls Related Links Alex's website is www.aj-ontherocks.blogspot.com Alex on Facebook: www.facebook.com/alexjohnsonclimber An article in Rock & Ice about Alex's negative experience training in Europe: "Unbroken: The Alex Johnson Profile" Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! Subscribe to the newsletter to find out when our new training programs are available.  If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings  Photo Portrait of Alex Johnson by Forest Woodward   Thanks for listening!

Download on iTunes RSS Feed - http://trainingbeta.libsyn.com/rss I was honored and excited to interview the great Steve Bechtel, a long-time climber and trainer who knows his stuff when it comes to getting strong, honing in on 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. I've been following Steve's stuff for a while, and I post his articles on our own Facebook page because I consider him an expert in a field that has very few experts (climbing training). But I wanted to interview him partially for selfish reasons - I'll be honest ;) We took a few minutes of the interview to use me as sort of a guinea pig. I asked him what he'd do with me right now while I'm trying to send a powerful, pretty short route at my limit. He gave me some great advice. I also asked him as many other technical questions as I could, and tried to make those questions applicable to as many people as possible, so you can take some usable advice from this conversation. After all, that's the mission of TrainingBeta: practical training advice. Steve has worked with a lot of climbers through the years, so he doesn't have any problems rattling off big scientific words and answers to all of our common climbing training questions. Hopefully we'll talk again on the show soon! What We Talked About How and why he learned so much about training How he approaches new training clients How to train power endurance and overall fitness What he'd do with me as a client to help me send my current project Whether or not running is good for climbing How to lose weight for climbing That our conversation was really awesome and we want to do it again soon Related Links Steve's website is Climb Strong at www.climbstrong.com Climb Strong on Facebook: www.facebook.com/climbstrong Steve's gym in Lander is Elemental Performance and Fitness at http://lmntl.net Steve's book (on Amazon) about training power endurance: LINK Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings  Photo Portrait of Steve Bechtel by Mei Ratz   Thanks for listening!  

This interview is with Kris Hampton, a climber, trainer, artist, business owner, and all around great guy. I met him last fall at his home crag, the Red River Gorge, when we both had projects in the Motherlode (I was on Snooker and he was on Transworld Depravity).  He's a super chill, obviously smart guy, and we were quick friends. It wasn't long 'til he was writing the 8-Week Endurance Training Program for TrainingBeta (here), and we were discussing all the ways we wanted to improve the online availability of climbing training advice.  As a climber, he started out as a trad guy and then years later switched over to sport, early in his 30's. He quickly realized that if he was going to keep up and meet his own personal climbing goals, he'd have to get strategic about his training, especially because he's so busy with life outside of climbing. So he learned as much as he could about training tactics, and quickly took himself from a 5.11 climber to a solid 5.13 climber, now on his way to hopefully sending his first 5.14a.  He represents those people who do NOT climb full time, who do not live on the road. He speaks for and to those climbers who only have a couple days a week to crush it outside (if that), and need to make the most of their time out there, which he does himself handily.  What We Talked About How and why he learned so much about training Life as a rap artist, and his new album Having a real job and a real life and still training and climbing hard Why he gave up offwidth and crack climbing and started sport climbing  His current 5.14a project How he approaches new training clients All about the 8-Week Endurance Training Program he wrote for TrainingBeta Related Links Kris' website is www.powercompanyclimbing.com The 8-Week Endurance Training Program he wrote for TrainingBeta Kris' music at odubmusic.com Kris' new single "I Would Like to Live" on SoundCloud Support The Podcast This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com.

This interview is with one of my really good friends, Jonathan Siegrist, aka J-Star. I met Jonathan about 4 or 5 years ago and for some reason we just clicked and have stayed tight ever since. He's one of my favorite people, and you'll understand why that is if you listen to this interview :) The interview was actually done at the house we just shared with him for a few months in Las Vegas, where we spent a lot of time up at the Promised Land and some other awesome areas with Jonathan. I got to belay him on his recent first ascent of the 5.14c he put up, Spectrum, and I can say that no matter how many times I watch him climb, it’s always incredible. I mean, besides the fact that he warms up on my epic projects, it’s incredible ;) He always tries hard, he’s psyched to be climbing, he doesn’t toss wobblers – or at least I’ve never seen him do it – and I think it’s because he’s truly grateful for every opportunity he gets to be on rock outside. He’s also really into training indoors, especially because he’s got some big goals for this year. We’ll talk about his goals and his training in the interview. He's done something like 140 routes rated 5.14a and above, including 19 5.14c's and 6 5.14d's. He won a Golden Piton Award for Breakaway Success in 2009 after his groundbreaking trip to the Red River Gorge, where his highlights included quick sends of the 5.14c’s Lucifer, Southern Smoke, and Fifty Words for Pump, three 5.14a flashes, three 5.13c onsights, and onsights of 10 routes graded either 5.13a or 5.13b, among other things. You can see his full climbing resumé here. Jonathan and I sat down in my closet in Vegas (it was a big closet and the only place that didn't echo in our house - ha ha!) and talked about all things J-Star, including how he trains now compared to how he used to train, what he eats, his love life (he's taken for now, ladies), and his dreams. What We Talked About His favorite kind of climbing His biggest achievements and biggest failures Whether he'll try to be a pro climber forever How traveling so much affects his relationships with the ladies Where he'd like to call home someday 5.15? What it takes to climb 5.14+ How he keeps his skin in shape for sharp crimpy routes How he trains now and who he's coached by How that compares with how he used to train What he eats and why (he's a pescatarian) What he thinks body weight's role is in sending hard How often he parties Related Links Jonathan's website is www.jstarinorbit.com Jonathan interviewed me on his site here. He helped me create a training plan for myself (that worked!) and I blogged about it here. Sponsors The podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending! If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com. Listen on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Music Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings  Thanks for listening!    

I met Angie Payne in 2004 when she first moved to Boulder. I worked at the Spot Bouldering Gym and she lived at the Spot Bouldering Gym. Not really, but she was there an awful lot. She was quiet, shy, sweet, and studious (she studied in the café where I "worked"). And obviously strong as hell. She won three ABS National Championships and two PCA competitions during the 2003-2004 season. Over the next six years, Angie stood atop more than ten podiums as a top 3 finisher in bouldering competitions. She doesn’t just crush inside, though — Angie has been a trailblazer among female climbers on boulders outside, too. Between 2004 and 2010, Payne did first female ascents of 17 V10-V12 boulder problems. In 2010, after climbing European Human Being (video) V12 and No More Greener Grasses V12, Angie completed The Automator (video), becoming the first woman in the world to climb a confirmed V13. These accomplishments earned her two Climbing Magazine Golden Piton honorable mentions and the 2007 Everest Award in Women’s Bouldering. Angie graciously sat down with me last summer (2013) to talk about how she got to be such a badass, how she continues to be such a badass after so many years competing, and how her "rivals" - who are also some of her best friends - keep her motivated. I'm lookin' at you, Puccio. We also talk about... Being a female in a man's world, and how she avoids the notorious downgrading of her FFAs How she trains What she eats How weight affects her climbing Her struggle with eating disorders Her roller coaster relationship with competition climbing Why she's not a full-time pro climber The mental blocks she gets with projects and how she overcomes them Her thoughts on climbing a V14 And lots of other things... Oh, and I apologize for the temporary outdoor noises in the background intermittently. Recording a podcast outside is nice because of the birds in the background, but NOT good for the noise factor. Duly noted. Show Links You can read her full bio here. Check out her website here. She also wrote an article about how she trains on TrainingBeta here. The podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending. Listen on iTunes Link to the TrainingBeta Podcast on iTunes is HERE. Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world ;) Thanks for listening!

I sat down with Jamie Emerson last summer and had a really interesting chat with him. Jamie is, I think, an important voice in the climbing community. As an accomplished and ambitious climber himself, having sent up to V14, he has his finger on the pulse of the climbing community's players and their ascents. He has a deep appreciation for not only trying hard and sending hard, but also doing it all in style. I've always thought that Jamie would be the best person for the job of MC-ing big competitions because he knows a lot about everyone, and he truly cares about their accomplishments, failures, and their characters. As the writer at www.B3Bouldering.com, he not only keeps us all up to date on the most current sends, he also asks the hard questions and calls people out on ethical issues that no one else would dare to. This has earned him his nickname, "The Sheriff", which we discuss in this podcast interview. We talk candidly about a couple of his most controversial moments with other climbers, and whether or not he'd do it all over again if he could. In a sport where people regularly use shady tactics for cleaning boulders, terrorize the land surrounding those boulders, manufacture holds, trespass on private property, make up their own start holds, and "send" things without anyone witnessing said send (I mean, it didn't happen unless it's on video, right?), somebody needs to be the one to say, "You didn't follow the rules. Hey everyone, what do you think the rules are here so we can tell this person the rules?" That's Jamie, and I for one appreciate his honest, forthright style, and his willingness to fight for some semblance of order and respect in the sport, even if some think he might take it a little too far sometimes. In this interview we talk about all that, and also this: His biggest achievements in climbing His biggest failures His climbing aspirations His um.. interesting ascent of Gang Bang How he trains and the differences between the methods of all his different trainers What he eats What he thinks about his body weight as it relates to climbing How he likes being called the sheriff, and where that nickname came from What he wants to do in his professional life Why he loves finding and developing new boulders Why he started writing his blog The surprising ways his climbing has changed as he's gotten older What climbing means to him now compared with 10 years ago And more! Show Links Jamie's blog at www.b3bouldering.com Looking for more training advice? Check out our training programs here.

I sat down and chatted with my very good friend, Paige Claassen, before she took off on her Lead Now Tour around the country this past year. We talked about being driven by success, how she's managed to pull off proud 5.14 ascents with style, and how food affects her climbing. Since our talk, she's been traveling the globe, climbing rad sport routes, sending even more 5.14s, and raising money for her favorite non-profits all along the way. If you'd like to donate to her noble cause, you can do so here. Climbing and Training How she got into climbing How she trains and how she pushes herself How often she trained before her big trip The role breathing loudly plays in her climbing and what it’s done for my own climbing Her one rule in climbing Her strategy for doing more moves in a short gym How she works her abs and other cross-training she does The one exercise that helped her climbing the most How she stays psyched to climb, and what she does when she’s not psyched Diet & Weight An explanation of her rapid weight loss years ago How food affects her climbing What role her weight has played in her hardest sends What she eats now and what makes her feel amazing before climbs Why food is a little frustrating for her The surprising foods that make her feel the best A day in the life of Paige’s eating