The Knowledge Quest with Sam Elias and Esther Smith
Climbing injuries happen. While we can be proactive with our prevention and follow a well-designed training program, if you climb long enough, you're going to deal with an injury. Whether it's a shoulder, elbow, or finger injury, you're going to be confronted with an injury of some kind. What's most [...]
Dr. Tyler Nelson: The “Simplest” Finger Training Program
Learn More from Tyler: If you want to work with Dr. Tyler Nelson on an individual basis for injuries or strength training, he offers remote consultations to people all over the world. He also teaches online classes on strength training and injuries. Learn more. The idea that finger strength is [...]
John Kettle: 6 Ways to Lengthen Your Reach
Not long ago we published an article by Neely about how she trains to compensate for being short. The response was great and it clearly seems like a topic many people are interested in and need help with. Today, we have another article about training to climb taller than you [...]
Drugs, Alcohol, and Climbing Survey: Help A Professor with His Research
UPDATE: This survey is not available anymore as they are moving on the next phase of their research. We will update you when the results are in. A while back we conducted a survey about marijuana usage among climbers and whether or not people consider it a performance enhanching drug. [...]
Transcript Highlight: Jonathan Siegrist on Trying Hard
Jonathan Siegrist is a badass. His resume of hard routes speaks for itself and, with several 9b/5.15b sends under his belt, he's in an exclusive club of the world's best rock climbers. For the rest of us, when you see that a climber of Jonathan's ability has sent another hard [...]
Esther Smith and BD Beta Videos
With all the information and videos out there, it can be hard to separate the good advice from the bad. Our best advice for the self-coached climber is to be critical of the source and heed the advice of true experts. To be clear, "expert' doesn't just mean professional climber [...]
Dan Mirsky: Gnarly Nutrition Performance Greens Review
With all the sports supplements on the market these days designed to help performance, it's pretty confusing to sort out what is the right one to use in the right situation. Should I be taking creatine even though I don't want to look like a bodybuilder? Should I take beta [...]
Transcript Highlight: Brianna Greene and How Dealing with Fear Helped Her Climb 5.12a
Dealing with fear is part of climbing. Unfortunately, a failure to manage fear is one of the things that holds peoples' climbing back the most. You can train hard, get stronger fingers, and have world-class endurance, but if you aren't comfortable climbing above a bolt you're not going to be [...]
Leif Gasch: How I Trained for Less Than Zero 5.14b
With training, it's easy to get obsessed with the idea of perfect. We all want to know what the perfect hangboard protocol is, what the perfect periodization scheme is, or what perfect set of supplemental exercises will let us reach our goals. Essentially, we want the perfect training program. Ask [...]
Neely Quinn: Training for Short Climbers
As a short climber, sometimes the way I do moves on routes or boulders is a lot different than what a taller person would do. And let's be honest: sometimes what I do is harder than what a normal-sized person would do. I'm about 5'0" with a negative 1" ape [...]