About Alex Stiger

Alex Stiger is a Certified Personal Trainer, Sports Performance Coach, and Head Coach at Movement Climbing + Fitness in Boulder Colorado. Alex spends most of her week working with clients of all levels and ages to help them reach their climbing goals. She has climbed 5.13d and is currently working towards her goal of climbing 5.14.

Beyond all of that, though, Alex is one of my best friends and a super dedicated trainer/coach. I’ve watched her improve her climbing exponentially over the last 5 years through efficient and specific training. I wanted to have her on the show again to talk about how her coaching has evolved as she has, and how she’s come back strong after difficult injuries.

You’ll be hearing more from Alex on TrainingBeta soon, so stay tuned for that.

Alex Stiger Interview Details

• Difference between her coaching as a 5.13a climber and now as a 5.13d climber
• Overcoming big shoulder injury to come back strong
• How she improved her climbing so much
• More assessments, fewer assumptions in training
• How more rest helped her climb harder
• Why she changed her core workouts
• Training program coming up on TrainingBeta for women
• What she focuses on with older climber clients

Alex Stiger Interview Links 

• Instagram: @alex.stiger

• Article by Alex: 3 Ways to Develop Your Strongest Core

• 1st Interview with Alex on the podcast

Training Programs for You

Do you want a well-laid-out, easy-to-follow training program that will get you stronger quickly? Here’s what we have to offer on TrainingBeta. Something for everyone…

• At-Home Training Program
• Finger Training Programs
• Injury Protocols
• All of our training programs

Photo Credit

Photo of Alex on Homunculous 5.14a in Rifle by Jill Stompel @shmitpiex

Please Review The Podcast on iTunes

Please give the podcast an honest review on iTunes here to help the show reach more curious climbers around the world.

Transcript

Neely Quinn 

Welcome to the training beta podcast where I talk with climbers and trainers about how we can get a little better at our favorite sport. I’m your host, Neely Quinn. And I want to remind you that the training beta podcast is actually an offshoot of a website I created all about training for climbing, trainingbeta.com.

Over there, you’ll find tons of blog posts, training programs for people who are boulders, or route climbers, or just want to train finger strength or people who are just training at home. So you can find all of that at trainingbeta.com. And hopefully those resources will help you become a better climber.

So a little tiny update on me, I’m having wrist surgery next week, next Wednesday, November 17, I think it is, 2020. And again, I injured my wrist doing handstands not climbing. So it was really hard for me to find anybody who has had this surgery. And I finally found somebody. And he said that he’s climbing harder now than he did before the surgery. And so that made me feel very reassured. I’m really excited about that. So that’ll be happening next week. I’ll be out of commission for a couple weeks, and then I’ll be back on the podcast bringing you more episodes. So today on the podcast, I have one of my best friends Alex Stiger. And she is the program manager and a private coach at Movement in Boulder. And she’s been coaching for a really long time. And in that time, she’s gone from being like a low 5.12 climber to now a 13+ climber working on her first 14a. And so I have been climbing with her it for like over a decade. And I’ve watched her just become this really, really great confident climber. And it’s incredible to me to watch somebody evolve like that. And we’ve talked a lot about it a lot. And we’ve also talked about how it has affected her as a trainer, and a coach. And it has definitely changed things. And there’s a lot of wisdom and experience that’s come along with her training herself to become a better climber. And so she’s going to talk to you about that. She’s also overcome several pretty bad injuries, one of which was the rotator cuff. And she’s actually dealing with something right now her finger, she tore a ligament in her finger, hitting it on a hold while she was doing a dynamic move at the gym. So unfortunate. But anyway, she’s going to talk to you about how she deals with injury and give you some advice on that. And we’ll talk about all kinds of other things, too. So, without further ado, here is Alex Stiger. I hope you enjoy this and I’ll talk to you on the other side.

 

Welcome back to the show. Alex. Thanks for talking to me today.

 

Alex Stiger 

Hello, Neely. It is so exciting to be here with you. And I’m so happy to be back on the show.

 

Neely Quinn 

Cool. And you were on the show. We just checked and it was in 2016.

 

Alex Stiger

It’s been a minute.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah. And we’ll get to that. But for anybody who didn’t listen to that show, can you tell us where you’re at now and like what you’re doing with your life and your climbing and you can be as long or brief about that as you want to be.

 

Alex Stiger 

Awesome. So my name is Alex Stiger, and I live in Longmont, Colorado, I am currently working on projecting my first 5.14 and I am a private climbing coach, group coach a lot of different kinds of coach at Movement climbing and fitness in Boulder, as well as Program Manager. So I complement my coaching with some manager duties. And yeah, I think when I talked to you last I had just done my first 13a. So it’s been a really fun four years. In that time. I’ve also experienced my first big injury. So yeah, lots to talk about.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, lots going on. And so one of the main things that we want to talk about today, well, it’s all of those things like how did you get so much stronger in the past four years like people would — first of all you you had sort of a meteoric rise up to 5.13a too and then now four years later, you´re are projecting and one hanging your first 14a. 

 

Alex Stiger

Not one hanging yet. I wish but close.

 

Neely Quinn

Oh, I thought you did one hang it a few weeks ago.

 

Alex Stiger 

Theoretically, I thought I could have 100. 

 

Neely Quinn

Oh.

 

Alex Stiger

It turns out the top was not as bad as I thought. 

 

Neely Quinn

Okay, my bad, my bad.

 

Alex Stiger

That’s okay.

 

Neely Quinn 

And then I know that you — I mean, I watched you like rehab yourself through a pretty bad injury. And you’re doing the same right now with something else. And I think that that’s something that a lot of people struggle with, but also like how your coaching has changed and evolved through all of this. So I’m assuming that it is a little bit different now than it was four years ago,

 

Alex Stiger 

It is a ton different. Because I just started coaching and I kind of lucked into a head coach position four years ago. Oh, no, I had been coaching for several years when we talked. But when I had gotten that head coach position, I had lucked into it and just kind of rose up to meet the challenges, but was definitely a new coach to climbing. And now that I’ve been coaching for six, seven years, I feel yeah, it’s definitely different.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah.

 

Alex Stiger

And my level changing too has changed how I thought about different things from past and now.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Well, do you want to start with that?

 

Alex Stiger 

Sure.

 

Neely Quinn 

Cool. Let’s talk about it. I mean, that’s what people are here for is learning about training and coaching themselves. And you’re one of the longest standing coaches that I know a lot of, there are a lot of new coaches out there now. And there are a lot of online coaches who don’t actually see people in person. And one of the things about you, that I think is so cool is that you have seen people in person for seven years.

 

Alex Stiger

Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn

And you’re making their programs, you’re teaching them technique, you’re, you’re talking about mental coaching, like all of it. And so when you were a 5.13a climber, how were things different than than they are now½.

 

Alex Stiger 

Big Question. But I would say, I feel like I’ve just learned a lot more about focusing on things that actually matter. And that was a mentality I had previously of really strength and weakness focuses and dialing in. And as a coach, it was my job to help people figure out what those actually were for them. But I was really relying on outside sources to tell me what needed to be strong to be a better climber. And now that I am a stronger climber, I think I’m able to make that assessment for that individual better, if that helps into what’s actually holding them back from sending their project, not what’s holding them back in comparison to other strong climbers. —

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay.

 

Alex Stiger

— I would say.

 

Neely Quinn

So do you have any examples of that? I know, I’m putting you on the spot there, but…

 

Alex Stiger 

Yes, I do. So previously, let’s say I would — can I create somebody.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah.

 

Alex Stiger

So let’s say I’m working with a female climber who is 33, has been climbing for somewhere around 10 years and is trying to send their first 13a. I had no idea really, like I had a lot of ideas of why I climbed my first 13. But I didn’t actually know because I just found a couple, it was a new territory for me. So with that client, previously, I would have been like, well, we need to get your finger stronger. We need to talk about how you’re mentally approaching your project, we need to look at your total volume and consistency of climbing. All awesome things. But now I would instead of picking items that I just knew to be good, I would actually do more assessments and rule out a lot of things. I think that’s the difference. So instead of just saying, let’s do this all because something will help you. I really try and do less. But have it be more.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because that same climber might have like extraordinarily strong fingers and may not even need that, hopefully.

 

Alex Stiger 

And before, I wouldn’t really test it as much. A little bit here there. But I just didn’t even know what to do with that information I received from the testing.

 

Neely Quinn 

So like, how are you testing people?

 

Alex Stiger 

A lot of it from watching, right? Watching to see what the weak links are. So when I’m watching a client for the first time, I want to see them warm up, I want to see them go from V0 up to their max level, and looking for any obvious weaknesses. So can they keep their pinkies on hold? Are they using all different kinds of hand positions while they’re climbing? Is their shoulder giving out? What — are they pulling with their hip through an entire movement versus stopping? So using that experience of just having been around higher end climbing a lot more to dial that in and get get to the source of the weakness way faster.

 

Neely Quinn 

That’s so funny. That’s not what I thought you were gonna say. I thought you were like, I will use this strain gauge and I have them do max pulls you know, and like —

 

Alex Stiger 

I’m fascinated by all of that. But I found in practice, it’s some that can kind of lead a little bit more towards the mentality of, I need a better number to be a better climber.

 

Neely Quinn 

Mm hmm.

 

Alex Stiger 

And for me and my coaching style, I prefer it to be a little more subjective, I guess.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay. If you, if you were coaching online, that’s not something that you would even be able to do, right? Or would you just have, do you think that having people send videos to you could do it?

 

Alex Stiger 

Videos are awesome. And I have done quite a bit of remote coaching through COVID. And that was my first experience doing remote coaching, and loved it, I found it very effective for building programming, maybe a little less effective for working on specific projects. So if somebody comes to me, and they’re like, this is my project, we’re going to really dive in and make their training program specific to their goal.

With remote coaching.. Well, actually, it works too, because it’s so discussion based, and that element can be completely remote that does not need to be in the gym. Yeah, videos are great. Videos, and I’ll just have people position their cameras so I can see what they’re doing. And it hasn’t been too big of a limitation.

 

Neely Quinn 

So let’s go back to this 33 year old female who wants to climber first 5.13a. Yeah. And you’ve watched her climb? What do you find?

 

Alex Stiger 

I find that she is a closed crimping champion. Yeah, and she really likes to climb with an open hip position. Okay, so I would instantly go, cool. Let’s go upstairs and see how you hang in some open finger positions, a half crimp. Where those capacities are for that individual, because I’m seeing some overriding techniques, right, like, she is a master at an open hip pulling into a hold. Closed gripping it, moving on. But when it comes to some pinches, or maybe some slopers or needing to hit a hold open and reeling it in, it’s not quite there. Or she’s getting really pumped, because she’s close crimping everything. So she’s using way too much energy, than she should be for those same moves. So that’s a big one. Usually, I find a weakness in a half crimp or a quarter crimp position. And getting that closed hip into the mix as well.

 

Neely Quinn 

What’s a closed hip? Can you describe that?

 

Alex Stiger 

Absolutely. So it’s not quite, I don’t call it a drop knee, because a drop knee I think of as a very specific thing where you drop your knee down, pull yourself into the wall, but a closed hip, I’m just talking about rotating through your movement. So that like if I was going right hand, I’m going to have my right hip into the wall, versus an open hip position where my right hip is open towards the wall. So I’m locked off in the same part of my body, but in a different orientation.

 

Neely Quinn 

So you’re not getting the length or potentially the power that you could.

 

Alex Stiger 

Exactly, yeah.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay. And so with this person, now, you know that she needs to work on certain other grips and do more close hip positioning, what do you do with her?

 

Alex Stiger 

So a mix, I love combining physical training, and actual climbing, the more climbing and the more specific I can make her program, the better. So I would have her start doing — I’d pick a finger protocol for her, I think there’s so many great fingerboarding protocols, and depending on who I’m working with, and their past experience with the hangboard will be what kind of format I determine whether it be Max 10 second hangs, repeaters, maybe a one arm hang protocol with weight taken off. But definitely getting those quarter crimp half crimp positions more comfortable, so she’s more likely to use it on the wall. But having that be a smaller percentage of her program.

 

So let’s say she would warm up with really mindful techniques of close hip on every move or arm swings where I’ll have her drop an arm off and swing it up to her next hold. So she’s having to really drive through her hips, and be very mindful about it and get up to where she feels like she could try really hard, go upstairs, hang for 15-20 minutes max, and then go back downstairs and maybe project while trying to incorporate some of those same ideas and focusing on the energy system. Right.

 

So let’s say our 33 year old has a 13 in mind, but she’s getting way pumped and she feels she’s never going to do it because three quarters of the way up, she is terminally pumped. So I wouldn’t necessarily just say four by fours, right? I’m like, I’m gonna look at those techniques that she’s presenting and pick what we could add in to actually help with that not just increase her power, endurance or endurance.

 

Neely Quinn 

So like, what would you do?

 

Alex Stiger 

Um, I think, really what I mentioned, right, like, oh, you’re only closed crimping. So we have to get you some more gears in their climbing, right? Like, can you open hand these few moves and then go to a half grip? And then when you get really tired, can you start closing it? Or maybe you start closed on the moves that you need to? But how many holes is she grabbing that she doesn’t need to be close crimped on?

 

Neely Quinn 

Oh, so you’d have her be doing boulders or routes switching these techniques up?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. And switching from a closed hip position to that open. Because sure, there’s going to be some moves that she has to do a certain way. But there’s a lot of other moves that we kind of carry that method over, instead of switching gears.

 

Neely Quinn 

Okay. And how is this different? I know that you said that it’s different than how you would have done things back in 2016. That in that you’d be more specific to the person. But tell me more about that.

 

Alex Stiger 

I would say I was a one trick pony before, right, like, grab a hold crimp high step pull. And I’ve had to really expand my technical repertoire to climb harder grades. As you know, maybe everybody listening does not know I’m not quite five feet tall.

 

Neely Quinn 

Mm hmm.

 

Alex Stiger 

I am definitely smaller than you. I thought I was taller. I am not. Yeah, so I’m little and I’ve had to really work on expanding my repertoire and moves. And I think that’s something I didn’t coach or have even the ability to coach before. Just like this. That was all I knew. Right?

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. And so you’re seeing these things, because you had to notice them in yourself.

 

Alex Stiger 

Mmm hmm. And a big reason I had to notice them was injuries, right because I was only doing the same things over and over. And they were very effective. On certain terrains. Just the right climb at the right grade. I had some injuries result because that part of my body was just done.

 

Neely Quinn 

Like the grab a hold, put your foot up high, lock off as hard as you can?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yes, my shoulder got really annoyed with that. And I’ve had a lot of lower body injuries also, that are kind of random, but have —

 

Neely Quinn 

You’ve had like a hamstring and a calf, or —

 

Alex Stiger 

And a shin muscle, Achilles. Like all sorts of weird stuff, because of how I used my lower body before. And every time I’ve had one of those injuries, I feel like I’d become a better climber, because I’ll have to go three months without heel hooking or three months without a high foot toe and move. And overall, that really helped me climb harder grades.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. I mean, what I’ve noticed in your climbing is that you’re much more confidently dynamic.

 

Alex Stiger

Sweet.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah. Like you your aim is good. Which is hard, I think, and you know exactly how to move your body so that it goes in exactly that direction.

 

Alex Stiger 

That is a huge compliment. Thank you so much. And those are things I’ve definitely had to mindfully work on. So I try and help my clients with that early.

 

Neely Quinn 

With the being dynamic, and —

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, and just picking those weaknesses. Because when you knew me before, that was not — I was not dynamic. Whatsoever. And my body, if it got to the right position, it was a miracle. But usually I just moved throughout no matter what. I’ve always been more on the strong side, I would say, but not, but really held back by technique. So I want to help my 33 year old female, before she sends her first 5.13 then have to rewire even more, because I think when we get success from sending something, it reinforces the way we climb to the way that we did it.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Well, and we want to help her or you want to help her avoid injury. And so let’s talk about that injury and the rehab and what it did for you.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, I wanted to say one more thing about our female getting more fit to send a project is probably one of the easiest things we could do and I think we’re all in our minds trying to go towards and why people are approached me a lot is like: Oh, if I fitter I would be able to send my project. So I’m going to work with a personal trainer who’s a climbing coach. That’s often not the path we end up taking. It’s more looking at the things they could change technically, right?

 

Neely Quinn

Right.

 

Alex Stiger

I just wanted to reiterate that because for her, we could do a ton of endurance. And she can maybe even send that 13a, but then she wants another one for two years.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Well, and that’s something else that you did in the last four years as you did get a personal trainer certificate. And how did that change your training?

 

Alex Stiger 

Mind blowing, I was very much a by experience coach. And I feel my experiences were decent. But adding in that exercise science background, and with a lot of continued education and working with PTs, really trying to constantly expand that knowledge. I personally think is a mandatory thing we should all be looking for with people. We’re reaching out for coaching.

 

Neely Quinn 

And you think that like the normal personal certification, or personal training certifications, are sufficient for climbing — for fun climbing coaching.

 

Alex Stiger 

I think all of the main organizations out there right now, like, I went through ASM and for a long time ASM has been considered the leading, but I think they’re super solid foundational programs that really have a big focus on injury prevention, and continued education. So I don’t think you can go wrong. But I do really support anybody who’s serious about coaching, to get that knowledge.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Because Yeah, then that’s when you start talking about energy systems and how muscles are actually activated.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, understanding all of those things throughout the curriculum of my program. It completely changed my coaching. And I realized and corrected many areas where I was just not following what the science shows, right, where maybe in practice, it works. But a lot of things in practice works if we think they’re going to work. So kind of toning it back a little and trying to stay up to date, I think is really important.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Do you feel like over the last four years, you’ve seen more success with your clients?

 

Alex Stiger 

Definitely. Yeah, and I’ve had a lot of the same clients for that long too, which I really love. But way more success in way fewer sessions, I would say, it’s less of a trial and error. And it’s a lot less one way. Yeah, when I climbed 13a, I was really sure it was just one thing, or three things. This is why! Now I’m like, there’s a lot of different ways. There’s a lot of different ways to train. So well.

 

Neely Quinn 

So if you were your client, you’re trying to send your first 14a what? What do you need to do? Like, if you could take a look at yourself on the wall? What is it?

 

Alex Stiger 

Great question. So I think I’m experiencing some serious mental barriers. And I feel like I’m battling myself. And confidence is coming into that mix, too. And I would tell myself, I need some mental coaching. So tomorrow, I have a mental coaching session with Hazel Findlay, I’m super excited, because I have told many clients and refer them to a mental coach previously, and this will actually be the first time I’m getting mental coaching. So yeah, I’m taking my own advice. Great question.

 

Neely Quinn

Because you think that you’re strong enough and fit enough?

 

Alex Stiger

I think I’m strong enough. I think I’m good enough. I have a bum finger. We’ll talk about that more, I’m sure. But yes, it’s just a matter of the internal struggle.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, I have to ask this question too. Because as a nutritionist, I get people coming to me all the time who are like, look, I’m, I’ve been climbing for a while and I’m not progressing like I want to and I think my only answer is I need to lose weight. And my answer usually is that’s not your it’s not actually the answer, but I will help you do that if you want to, and if it is safe. Is that ever a thing that you say to people like this is the only thing holding you back?

 

Alex Stiger 

Never.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah

 

Alex Stiger

And I really don’t believe that it is either. It’s of course something we’re always thinking about. And I just think so often, it’s bogus. And if we could just get that out of our head. It’s way better. I weighed myself yesterday. And I went into it — I, I don’t weigh myself very often because I don’t like to dwell about it. But I do ask myself before stepping on the scale how I’m feeling. And I was like, I feel great. I feel really fit. I feel like my weight´s good. And it’s good enough to do my project. I was heavier than I thought I was going to be. And it was so awesome to just step back off the scale and be like, so what? Right? I feel great. 

 

Neely Quinn 

That’s awesome to hear. Yeah, cool. We don’t need to dwell on that. But I’m glad to hear you say what you just said. Let’s talk about the injuries that you had. And this isn’t like Alex’s isn´t a PT. Like, you’ve been to a lot of PTs and had a lot of health. But this isn’t meant to like heal people’s injuries. But it is meant to talk about how you can have a process to get back into climbing and get strong. So tell us what happened with your shoulder.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, so amazingly, prior to my shoulder injury, I had had a lot of those random lower body injuries, but never anything major that made me need to stop climbing. And while working on Homunculus, that’s my project in Rifle. I felt close to sending, I was doing really good at doing big links, done all the moves. I just started working at movement. So I was incredibly excited about getting all my clients who I could only boulder with previously on the ropes, and didn’t really consider the overall toll I was taking on my body by doing like seven hours a day of top rope belaying and then going to rifle and climbing on one route. And going back to Boulder and Blaine. And then going back to Rifle that my shoulder was giving me some warning signs of fatigue, but I just ignored it. I was super excited about everything going on. So I was just like, Oh, it’s fine.

 

And while climbing, I just started to feel kind of a dull pain. There wasn’t any big, I hurt myself moment, I did slip out of a knee bar and held it. And I felt that kind of dull pain when I pulled back on. But honestly, I’d slipped out of that same knee bar and held it like 20 times. So I didn’t think anything of it. And it wasn’t a sharp pain. It wasn’t something I was like I need down right now. I climbed to the top. I rigged up a rope which was pretty excruciating, actually looking back where I was like, Oh, my like that was a warning sign that something wasn’t right. And lowered off. Belayed, everything was fine. Got back on it and was like, Oh, my shoulders still achy. I climbed halfway up and then just asked to lower because like, I think I should listen to this. And I’ll just rest tomorrow. And we were there for a week actually.

 

So I was super gung ho and excited. But I was like, I’ll just rest in that way. I’ll know it’s good for the next day. And I woke up unable to lift my arm. So yeah, and that was like a struggle. got through that trip, saw the PT, I got a lot of mixed diagnosis and I never got an MRI actually, but I think I got some really sound advice and a lot of great testing and, some ultrasound. And so and then reading of the ultrasound, fast forward partial tear my super spanatous and about a four month rehab, two like three months, no climbing, and then slowly progressing.

 

Neely Quinn 

Mm hmm. And it wasn’t really that slow because you basically started climbing and then I saw you in the red and you were on Ultra Promotional sending.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, so I was I think very fortunate and just mentally not fatigued, right? I was I was really psyched. I was feeling really confident about my climbing going when the injury happened and and had some great advice and help rehabbing through it so I felt ready.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Like you listened to your — you weren´t pushing it.

 

Alex Stiger 

Oh no I listened. Yeah, I am like a cross the T dot the I. Any nutrition advice,  any advice I got. So I think that all really helped.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Well, what’s your advice to other people who have major injuries like that? And how is it now?

 

Alex Stiger 

It’s actually great. It’s been off and on. I think an MRI is in my future and possibly some more digging down that road, but at the moment, it’s not bothering me at all. So knock on your bed, because we’re sitting on your bed. But it’s doing great. And my advice would be to seek appropriate medical like, help as quickly as possible. So don’t wait.

 

And I think seeing a climber is necessary. If you have a climbing injury, you need to see somebody who knows at least knows climbers. And understands the loads that we’re putting on our body. And thankfully, living here in Boulder in the community I was in I was able to get some great advice right away. Because that I didn’t I didn’t spend any time dwelling on I think I’m hurt. I instantly was on a rehab program and had things to do and knew what was wrong. Right. So yes, seek appropriate help right away. Don’t wait. Just make an appointment.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Great advice. I wish I would have taken it myself in April when I messed up my wrist. Because then you waste so much more time. It’s probably okay. But if you just at least get it imaged you can know right away if it’s like, actually messed up.

 

Alex Stiger 

And it sucks to be in that headspace of not knowing. I think it’s one of the worst mental places I’ve ever been. Which sounds so selfish. And so first world and I feel like almost ashamed to say it. But yes, being injured, was incredibly difficult on me mentally. But as soon as I got that help, it’s like, okay, you have a plan. You have a program. You know what things you could be doing?

 

Neely Quinn 

I would like right now to like you tell us about your finger.

 

Alex Stiger 

Oh, yeah. So my only goal was to not hurt myself while doing a maintenance session in the gym. And in hindsight, I wish I would have listened to that and just not climb because I I´m pro rest I love resting. And but I did. I went into the gym, and it was a Tuesday. I was going to rest Wednesday, Thursday and then go to Rifle Friday. And I pulled on to a V7 crimp boulder and went for the next hold with a lot of gumption like I was going for it. Unfortunately, there was a massive V1 foothold in my way. And my hand smacked into the hold really hard.

 

I’m sure we’ve all had that happen to us. I know I’ve had it happen like 20 times without any consequence. But this was one of those times where I instantly knew I just hurt myself. Like I hit my first knuckle came down, ran to the wall got on I think like V0. I was like it’s fine. And then I was like, Oh no, it’s not fine.

 

 And went straight to Urgent Care got x-rays found out it wasn’t broken. Just badly sprained is what they said. And again, the advice of seek appropriate medical care right away, I think is so applicable because Urgent Care stuck me in a very straight brace and was just like, stay like this for two weeks, and then do these exercises and gave me a printout and off I went. Thankfully, I know better. And I know that that’s probably not the advice for somebody who is a climber, right? And somebody who depends on their finger being able to bend. And Neely you gave me a great recommendation. And I called a hand therapist, and went and was there the next morning. And so thankful I did that because completely the splint that I had had was not the right splint for my injury. And yeah, started trying to rehab it was just a bummer in timing because it was exactly 10 — No, not 10 days, like 13 days before a week long plan climbing trip to Rifle.

 

So I’ve only done that twice – planned a week long climbing trip and both times have uhm. Yeah, so maybe week long trips and Rifle are not my thing. But I don’t know, I’ll keep trying. So I basically was like, I need to be climbing 5.14 on this finger in two weeks. And the hand therapist looked at me and was like, well, we can try. And so I just did everything I possibly could for it. And yeah, my first climb on it in two weeks was in Rifle. And it was one of my normal warm ups. And I was over gripped I was trying not to use it. It was an experience, let me tell you. And through the course of the week of climbing one day on one day off, I ended up being able to do 90% of the moves on him on Humoncolus with that finger.

 

So yeah, unfortunately, the finger is not great. I could pull on it, and it’s fine. But I can’t hit it on anything without really sharp pain. So I’m getting an MRI tomorrow, because I have a trip to the red in three weeks. So yeah, I think injuries I’ve come to terms with, they just happen. And I thought of it as a sign of weakness previously, and I was so almost embarrassed to have an injury.

 

Neely Quinn

I know, that’s how I feel.

 

Alex Stiger

And it was amazing how natural that feeling was. And now I’m having to really kind of fight that and accept it and realize if you want to climb really hard for a long time, they’re going to happen. And they happen to everybody and I love athletes who are really representing that and being very authentic towards the injuries they’ve had. And recovery, rehab. I think we’re kind of in a cool time in sport where we’re seeing that a lot. So I get inspiration. 

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. And I was talking to my husband about this, who was saying that like because he’s struggling with an injury right now too. And he usually is, let’s be honest. Some of us are just like hyper mobile and just are more prone to injuries. But he was like, in every other sport and every other professional sport. People get injured all the time. Then they just take off time they get it fixed. They come back to their sport.

 

Alex Stiger

Yes.

 

Neely Quinn

That´s just like —  it´s a fact of life.

 

Alex Stiger 

It’s a fact of life. I love basketball. And I follow the NBA and I love it. And those guys. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And it’s just —

 

Neely Quinn 

I know, we’ve been watching the bowls documentary. Like, have you seen Michael Jordan’s fingers? There’s so mangled.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. No, some of the advice. One of the PTs, I love getting advice from was PT for a professional basketball team. And he looked at my fingers, like I’ve seen that all the time. I was like, yeah, but —

 

Neely Quinn 

But yeah, that´s cool. But anyway, the point of the story is that I guess it does happen. And you have found a way to work through them and like even go on trips and not push it so hard that you’re like, that’s too much. And I mean, you said that normally you wouldn’t do one day on one day off, right? It’s like a new thing for you. It’s just like a, you know —

 

Alex Stiger 

It was a blessing. It was actually a vacation. Because all my other vacations, you try your hardest, and you come back and you’re exhausted. And every day is this pressure. And because of my finger, being where it was in its recovery, every day was what it was. And it was so relaxing and rewarding. You know, I was like, Oh, I couldn’t grab that hold yesterday, and now I can. It wasn’t Oh, I didn’t get a high point on my project. I didn’t, you know, am I going to send or not send?

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, so yeah, being injured definitely makes you appreciate climbing for what it is to.

 

Alex Stiger 

I’ve told all my clients this week that at least once a year, they should schedule a climbing trip, whether it be long or short or anything. That’s just for fun.

 

Neely Quinn

What´s that mean?

 

Alex Stiger 

Like, don’t try hard? Like, I don’t know, don’t don’t have expectations. Just enjoy yourself. climb a lot of moderates.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. I love those trips.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, I think we all do, but we don’t prioritize them. So I think it was great, actually.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. The other thing we wanted to talk about a little bit more was how you became so much stronger over the last four years. And obviously, it’s really subjective, like we’ve talked about. And it’s different for everybody. But do you want to talk about that at all?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, I would love to. Yeah, I think it is super subjective. And I can’t guarantee I’m very accurate with what I say. But I would say my biggest factor is consistency. Just chugging like picking a project and really chipping away at it and being consistent in my training, but also prioritizing rest.

 

Even up to the point we last talked, I think I was just starting to figure out that rest was good, but I I was still an overtrainer, for sure. And through projecting on harder things I realized you can’t try your hardest if you’re not recovered. And I could try my, what I felt like to be my hardest when I was climbing 5.12s. But I can’t actually do that on 13+´s. So yeah, rest, and like prioritizing rest. So scheduling my trips around rest, right.

 

So I’m going to Rifle on Friday of this week. So I made sure yesterday was my last climbing day.

 

Neely Quinn

Which is Tuesday.

 

Alex Stiger

Tuesday, so I’d have two full rest days. And I’m not close to sending like I wanted to be right now. And if I was I would rest three days.

 

Neely Quinn 

Which almost nobody I know, does.

 

Alex Stiger 

I love resting three days, I feel so good. 

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah.

 

Alex Stiger 

And it was great. Because yesterday, we went to the gym, and I wanted to do four sets of doubles on 12´s. Like I wanted to get in a solid session for me. But they gave an announcement that it was — the gym was being closed for a reservation period in like 30 minutes. And then the next reservation was full, which I should know as a gym employee, but I didn’t. And it’s just 2020. And I think, you know, we keep having all these things come at us in different ways. The world is weird.

 

So I ended up climbing four routes, and then going home and had to decide, do we go home and train? Or do we go to a friend’s and have an awesome meal and a margarita. And previously, I would have been like, of course we go home and train like this is we’re resting two days, and then we’re going to rifle. I think I’ve grown up a lot because I said I definitely want to go to a friend’s house and get a enchilada plate and a margarita.

 

Neely Quinn 

And do you think that the training session would have just put you over board?

 

Alex Stiger 

No, but I’m not worried that I didn’t get it to its full capacity. Where before I would have panicked, like I would have kind of freaked out about it. And then like, but I didn’t hang and I didn’t —

 

Neely Quinn

Like you trust your fitness?

 

Alex Stiger

I trust my fitness and I trust in maintenance that you don’t have to do very much to maintain where you’re at.

 

Neely Quinn

Yeah.

 

Alex Stiger

And anybody who’s trying to send their project, I think you have to be realistic. Like, either you’re fit enough to do it or you’re not. But if you’re not, then you need to address that through like a progressive training program. It’s not pre-send.

 

Neely Quinn 

Right? Yeah, totally. Yeah, that’s a really good point. I think that that alone can like chill people out a little bit.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, people need to chill out a little. And I tell that to my clients all the time.

 

Neely Quinn 

Just tell me about that

 

Alex Stiger 

Rest. Yeah, I was working with somebody yesterday. And we had a hard session. And then and then she went, I’m gonna go to a boulder this afternoon, and work on it. And I was like, and I didn’t think people could see my obvious facial expressions through a mask. But instantly, she was like, I’m not going to a boulder this afternoon? And I was like, of course, you’re not going to a boulder this afternoon. Like, we just crushed you for an hour and a half.

 

Neely Quinn

Like why Why not?

 

Alex Stiger

I think we just have to trust in the work that we do. Right. And we don’t need to always be doing more.

 

Neely Quinn 

But what would have happened or what could have happened if she went up to that boulder and like obviously was a boulder that was hard for her.

 

Alex Stiger 

As I said the chance of injury does not outweigh the potential benefit. Like it just the scales are not in the right favor. Same training session deciding whether to do 400 meter sprints to work on like, anaerobic capacity for an upcoming trip. Okay, what how can we do anaerobic work in a safer way where we have less chance of like injury, right? So you have the overtraining, the chance of injury skyrockets, it just does. So whenever I think about adding something in, I think what you have to you just have to factor that in, like, is it worth it? What am I hoping to even gain out of it? Yeah. And often you can’t come up with a logical answer. If you ask the right questions. So.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, I feel like people just want to punish themselves.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. And I think that’s so negative, and it’s so detrimental. And it’s a passion of mine to really help athletes realize that, that does not need to be a factor in our sport. And yes, it’s a gray area, because sometimes we need to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone to get better, almost all the time. But there is an appropriate zone and what’s healthy and negative it’s kind of a fine line sometimes.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. I know, I have clients who climb, you know, 5.10, 5.11. And they’re climbing and training six days a week. And they’re wondering why they’re not getting stronger.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. So the first thing I tell them, if I start working with them is they’re only up four days a week. And that’s max. And then every now and then they need three days a week, you know, even two days a week is fine.

 

Neely Quinn 

And then amazingly, miraculously, they start climbing harder.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, I did. It worked really well, for me. And I think the harder I climb, the more I have to rest.

 

Neely Quinn 

Mm hmm. Yeah, and that’s not the case for everybody. Like there are outliers. Like, there are pro climbers who can go and project every other day indefinitely. And, and so, but I feel like they are really the outliers, and we are normal.

 

Alex Stiger 

They are the outliers. And we, everybody probably has an example or a role model, who is one of them. And we have to be realistic. And as a coach, that’s what I really try and provide to people. It’s just a realistic approach in mental space towards their progression. And it’s not Adam Ondras. It’s just not.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, it’s not any of us really, yeah. The last thing I wanted to talk about was, actually, we did talk about how you got so much stronger. And it was just consistency and —

 

Alex Stiger

Consistency, resting, also technical focuses, not just trying to be stronger. That I think was really big. I know, we talked about it a little already, but really looking at what was holding me back technically and working on that. And even taking that into the training room, right? To develop those strengths and to develop those abilities. And for everybody, I think that’s different. But for me, it was getting out of this like crimp high step repeat cycle, and learning how to have more body tension and use various kind of feet and toe hooks in heel hooks and various things that I just didn’t really incorporate very much.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

 

Alex Stiger 

And I would say a lot of the things I’ve gotten stronger for has actually been just for injury prevention, not actually to climb harder.

 

Neely Quinn 

And you did write a blog post for us, it’s coming out soon. And I’ll link to it in the show notes. But about like, the core exercises that you do, and how you changed what you were doing.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yes. Right.

 

Neely Quinn 

You want to just touch on that. Okay, yeah.

 

Alex Stiger 

So I really like focusing on strength progressions for my core, or shoulders, or legs. All of my supplemental training I do for myself for climbing, I try and keep under eight reps, and often even six, like, sometimes even four, like four weighted pull ups, something like that, I think, especially if it’s with our upper body, we already do so much with our upper body, that it’s really easy to get some overuse issues. So I like to focus on intensity, and shorter duration, more longer rest periods, then endurance volume based supplemental training. 

 

Neely Quinn 

Right so you’re doing TRX stuff. That’s really hard.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. And I just got certified in a TRX program, and I loved it. It was awesome. I learned so much. But I really like the higher intensity, shorter exercises, so like TRX saws, things like that. Weighted pull ups, deadlifts, overhead presses, but again, keeping the number kind of low, and not being afraid to start stepping up the weight, which can be really scary. Daunting, but that’s been kind of where I’ve been diving into recently.

 

Neely Quinn 

Cool. Not only helps with your shoulders,

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah. Again, I don’t think I need any of that training to climb my project. I think it’s just as to help stay healthy, and to continue rehabbing and things like that.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Cool. So was there anything else that you wanted to talk about?

 

Alex Stiger 

Actually, there is I have been recently in the past year working with a lot of aging climbers, who are really between the age of 50 and 75. And they have some serious climbing goals and are making phenomenal progressions in their training. And I think it’s really hard to find good resources on how to train or what realistic progressions are in that age range. So I’ve been loving it diving into learning more about it. And along the theme of women’s specific training, I think it’s fascinating. And yeah, there, I have 70 plus year old clients who are making gains every week. And that’s so cool to see.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Well, so what are the main components of what you’ve learned about it? And what’s working for them?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, so definitely a little more time in the strength and conditioning side of things than I would normally have for somebody, let’s say between 20 to 50. Because of they have off — like the clients I’m working with have been climbing for a long time. So technically, they are on point. But it’s just really kind of stepping back climbing less and supporting their system more. Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn

Getting them to gain back some of the muscle that they lost?

 

Alex Stiger

Mobility gained some strength, even if it’s not like hypertrophy, per se, but definitely getting confident with weight range of motion. And then applying that, I think it’s been really inspirational to me.

 

Neely Quinn 

So like, are you having them be in the weight room more?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yes, and a lot more with like the TRX and suspension trainers, even rings, but really working on the supplemental training to complement the experience they already have. Yeah, and a lot of — I’m going to generalize, but a lot of my clients who are in that age bracket, haven’t spent much time training, they’ve spent a lot of time climbing, but not actually training. So the progressions they’re seeing are fantastic.

 

Neely Quinn 

And you’re having them do like the same kind of reps that you’re talking about where it’s lower, are you having them do more?

 

Alex Stiger 

I’m having them do more. And that’s something I’m interested in learning more about, for sure. But definitely, as of now, the eight to 12 rep range instead of going under that.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, it seems like that could be better for joint health.

 

Alex Stiger 

And it’s just more supported in the research and science at this point.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, I want to add something to that, too. In the last year or so Seth, and I both taught our moms how to weight lift and TRX.

 

Alex Stiger 

Amazing.

 

Neely Quinn 

I know. And it’s because both of them have osteoporosis. And Seth’s mom actually started reversing her osteoporosis, after many years of trying with everything else, and supplements and diet and all this stuff. We were like, No, you have to lift heavy things. And so she’s sort of deadlifting and TRXing. And she still does it, like now at home with quarantine. And it’s just incredible. Like, what happened with that? And how much stronger she got at climbing too.

 

Alex Stiger 

That makes me so happy. Yeah, so I’m currently very passionate about this topic. And I think there’s just a need for —

 

Neely Quinn 

We should make a program about that.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, absolutely. Cool.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah. Thanks for bringing them up. Yeah. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our plans in the future. Alex and I have been talking about creating a program for training just for women. And sorry, guys, it’s all of the — a lot of the concepts are the same. But there are a few things that Alex feels like women need different attention to. And so that is to be coming out next year, early next year. 2021. So stay tuned for that. But Alex, tell me sort of a few of the major components of the program.

 

Alex Stiger 

Yeah, so first of all, I’m so excited. I can’t wait. It’ll be a four week challenge program similar to the nutrition program you just ran. And a lot of the women only components are going to revolve around planning your training around your menstrual cycle, and specific weight training and different modalities that we need as females to help us in our sport.

 

Neely Quinn 

Give me one example.

 

Alex Stiger 

All right, one example would be really focusing on how to increase our shoulder stability and education around our shoulder girdle scapular strength and why we need to be focusing on that to reach our climbing goals. And in context of our menstruation cycle, and how to time things how to track I’m going to mention another one because I think it’s really important. A lot of the mental sides of being a female climber. With, specifically with menstruation cycles, because I know we’ve all been there where pre period can be an absolute nightmare where we are terrified and having a really hard time. So the program is going to be very focused on building that confidence. So you know, and can accept the changes that are happening in your body and know you’re doing the right training at the right time.

 

Neely Quinn 

Yeah, so important. When I´m — oh my gosh when I figured that stuff out, I was like, oh, that’s why I’m so scared today. And I wasn’t last week.

 

Alex Stiger 

It’s amazing. I had one of those days in Rifle this past week, where even on the warm up, instead of it taking me my normal five minutes, it took 15 maybe even 20. And I lowered off and I was like, I was such a battle. And, yeah, so the whole day ended up being a battle. And at the end of the day, I was just like, oh, oh, I know why,

 

Neely Quinn 

Right. Look at your tracker, like, oh..

 

Alex Stiger 

Oh, it’s fine. And then I was like, cool. My next climbing day, I’ll be great. Again, it’s not a problem. And you don’t even think about it anymore. Right? You’re not beating your head about how you just suck as a climber all of a sudden.

 

Neely Quinn 

Confused and ashamed all at the same time.

 

Alex Stiger 

So double the length of the time It normally takes me to do a climb. I’ve done it least 50 times. And I was doubtful. I didn’t want to use a foot. I was yeah.

 

Neely Quinn 

Cool. So that’s kind of some of the things that Alex is going to talk about in this program. And we won’t talk about it too much. But I just wanted to bring it up so that you know that she will be making an awesome program for females coming up soon. Did we miss anything? Is there anything else?

 

Alex Stiger 

No, I’m so excited to do more work with you in the future. And yeah, if anybody has any additional questions, I love diving into it and answering if anybody wants to work with me, they definitely can reach out. You can reach me at Alexandra.stiger@gmail.com.

 

Neely Quinn

That’s S T I G E R.

 

Alex Stiger

Or find me on Instagram @Alex.Stiger or something like that. If you type me in, you’ll find me. And feel free to shoot me a message.

 

Neely Quinn 

And then tell us again, what gyms do you train out of?

 

Alex Stiger 

I am at Movement Boulder. And I can train at some different facilities through El Cap in the area. But with my current schedule, I’m sticking just to Boulder.

 

Neely Quinn 

All right. Well, thank you. And you are definitely an inspiration to me. So thank you for that. And good luck on Homonculus, coming up next week. Next week, not this weekend?

 

Alex Stiger 

Yes, I have three more weekends to make as much progress as possible. Neely, you are an inspiration to me. Thank you so much. And it was great to be here.

 

Neely Quinn 

 

Yeah. All right. Take care.

 

Right. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Alex Stiger. You can find her on Instagram. She’s pretty active over there. She’s pretty funny, too. It’s at Alex.Stiger. And again, that’s S T I G E R. And then stay tuned for the program that we’re going to put together for women, by Alex. And that should be coming out hopefully in February of 2021.

 

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Thanks so much for listening to this podcast. Thanks so much for listening all the way to the end. If you like the podcast, you can go to iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and give us a review. And by us, I mean me. It’s just me over here. And again, you can find training programs, if you’re looking for help with your training and you don’t feel like thinking it through yourself. We have training programs that are all laid out for you.

 

That’s kind of the theme over here at training beta as we’re trying to make things as simple as possible because when I built this website, it was because I was looking for information that was simple to understand and simple to implement, and I couldn’t find it. So check us out at trainingbeta.com and on social media @trainingbeta, and I will talk to you soon after my surgery. Wish me luck.