Nutrition
Train Like You (Should) Eat
Tags: Micah Elconin, Nutrition, Planning
by Micah Elconin Long before my career coaching rock climbers, I worked as a private chef. My niche was healthy cooking and menu planning for those on restricted diets. I worked with all sorts of clients. From those battling cancer to the rich and famous, I developed and prepared menus that fit the specific wants,…
Fundamentals of Energy Expenditure
Tags: energy expenditure, Nutrition, Taylor Carr
Taylor Carr, MS Sports Nutrition, MS Strength and Conditioning Energy is something I never seem to have enough of. After I rush to work each morning, I spend 8 hours pushing others to get stronger. Then I come home to make dinner with little motivation. And where does that leave me for my evening training…
Recovery Training
Tags: Balance, Nutrition, Recovery, rest
We get good at pushing hard into training. We all have been in that super-pumped zone or so sore we can barely move the next day, or so exhausted from a week’s training that we stay on the couch the whole weekend. As good as learning to go hard is, there is a critical Yang…
Optimal Climbing Weight
Tags: diet, fat loss, muscle mass reduction, Nutrition, Q+A, Weight Loss
Q: Specifically I would like to know more about effective ways to reduce unnecessary muscle mass from the legs. I come from a road bike racing background and so I have more muscle on my thighs and butt than necessary for climbing (or mostly anything besides racing a bicycle) and I would like to slim…
Fat Loss and Weight Management for Climbing (Part 1)
Tags: Carbohydrates, Nutrition, Paleo, Planning, Program Design
By Steve Bechtel Your fat roll is killing you. OK, as a climber, and especially one who is reading an article about training, I’ll bet your body fat percentage is pretty low. On the flip side, though, you are reading an article about weight management. Chances are you’re holding the same weight you usually hold,…
Fat Loss and Weight Management for Climbing (Part 2)
Tags: Carbohydrates, Nutrition, Paleo, Planning, Program Design
By Steve Bechtel There is a war going on, and it’s not the one you think. The war is not between the right way to eat and the wrong way to eat, it’s between what’s right and what’s “righter.” Should we go low carb? Low fat? Paleo? Vegan? In the end, it doesn’t really matter…
Getting Back to Top Form Quickly
Tags: Conditioning, Endurance, Finger Strength, Intensity, Nutrition, Planning, Quality Training
By Steve Bechtel In a perfect world, we’d redpoint hard routes every weekend, all year long. We’d always feel recovered, and we’d be able to boulder at our limit one day and free big walls the next. But in this world, we have obligations, injuries, and seasons that keep us from climbing well for large…
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…
Training Considerations for Older Climbers
Tags: Aging, General Training, Nutrition, Older Climbers, Planning, Program Design, Recovery, Tactics
By Steve Bechtel Climbing is a lifetime sport. Unlike, say, gymnastics or football, you can expect to climb and climb well for many many years. Due to the multifaceted nature of the sport and training considerations for older climbers, you can improve factors such as technique and endurance even with the natural decline in strength…