Motivation and Tactics
“Two set of two?” and Other Questions
Tags: Expertise, Programming, Questions, Strength Training, Training Beta Podcast, Volume Training
by Steve Bechtel It’s funny the questions you get after an interview. At the end of 2015, I had the great honor of talking to Neely Quinn at Training Beta for a second time, and had a good chat with Kris Hampton for his new podcast that summer. The format is challenging and I felt…
Get It Exactly Right
Tags: Assessment, Habits, Movement, Planning, Practice, Skills
by Steve Bechtel You’ve heard it many times – when someone sends their hardest it feels effortless. We talk about it as the “flow” state or as having an out-of-body experience. No matter what you call it, it’s a performance state you’d like to recreate as often as possible. We usually see ourselves get to…
Go Medium, Then Go Home.
Tags: Habits, Intensity, Planning, Quality Training, Train Medium, Training
by Steve Bechtel There are any number of statements that tell you that you’re not trying hard enough. From “Go Hard or Go Home” to “Compete Every Day”, we are fed the message that in order to progress, we need to set records each and every time we are in the gym. The truth, thank…
Adaptation
Tags: Adaptation, Adaptation Persistence, Change, Expertise, Planning, Quality Training, Training
by Steve Bechtel On an intuitive level, we all understand the basic principles of training. These principles include specificity, individuality, and overload, among others. Most basic of all the principles is the idea of adaptation; we adapt to the demands placed upon us. Sports science has logically followed the lead of Hans Selye, who put…
Problems With Projecting
Tags: Planning, Programming, Project Climbing, Quality Training, Second Tier, Training
By Steve Bechtel Project climbing – trying a very hard route over and over with the goal of eventually climbing it in one push – is one of the most fundamentally rewarding facets of rock climbing. It drives us to higher grades and teaches all sorts of valuable lessons. But like anything beneficial to us,…
Write It Down – The Value of a Training Log
Tags: Assessment, Feedback, Goal Setting, Habits, Planning, Programming, Quality Training, Training
by Steve Bechtel When I first sit down with a new athlete, the first thing I ask them is where they want to go. The question usually goes like this: “In six months, what do you want to have accomplished?” That part is easy for most of us – the dreaming is not hard to…
8 Things To Do Before You Open Your Wallet
Tags: Focus, Motivation, Nutrition, Training
by Steve Bechtel I wrote a newsletter a few months back where I discussed the idea of “big rocks first.” The general gist is to take care of the most important things in your life before you obsess about the minutiae. People, not just climbers, tend to fixate on the wrong things. We obsess over…
Good Training
Tags: Assessment, Goal Setting, Habits, Planning, Quality Training, Training
By Steve Bechtel If you’ve ever had breakfast at a Las Vegas buffet, you know that quantity doesn’t always mean quality. At first glance, more seems to be better…but the lackluster experience and the ensuing gut ache will remind you that getting a lot means nothing more than getting a lot. My brother-in-law, Matt, is…
Don’t Train – Practice, part 2.
Tags: Motivation, Planning, Practice, Progress, Quality Training, Skills, Talent, Training
by Steve Bechtel The first article on practice covered the general idea that you should consider your climbing practice, and some general ideas on what that meant. In this follow up, I’ll answer questions that the first article raised, and give some specifics on how to re-structure your training sessions to include a focus on…
E-Stim Might Make You Weaker
Tags: E-Stim, Endurance, Recovery, Training
By Steve Bechtel I am as excited about the next big thing in training as the next guy. When Electronic Muscle Stimulation (E-Stim) came on the scene, I could almost feel my forearms getting stronger just thinking about it. It was a great idea for climbers; a way to train the forearm muscles when you…
Pre-Climb Rituals
Tags: Planning, Rituals, Stretching, Training, Warm-Ups
By Steve Bechtel I like to go to competitions. I like them for many different reasons, but mostly it is to watch people as they prepare to compete. See, the vast majority of pre-event activity is nothing like the way we prepare for training. At bouldering competitions, we see all kinds of craziness, and pre-climb…
How Hard Do You Try?
Tags: Habits, Intensity, Motivation, Pain, Planning, Quality Training, Training
By Steve Bechtel Why is it that some people just keep getting better while the rest of us are stuck? Further, why can I follow the same program as another climber and watch him rack up the grades while I still fail at the same level year after year? As hard as it is to…
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