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BLOG: Hold Fast

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  By Steve Bechtel   “How strong is strong enough?” We train strength in the gym to improve performance outside, but it’s indirect. What we’re really doing by getting stronger is reducing the chances of training-related injuries and increasing our capability to do physical work, both of which enable us to do more climbing when…

Million Dollar Arms and a Five Cent Head

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  By Steve Bechtel   In every sport, it seems like there is a metric that ties in with great performance, and that athletes tend to fixate on. In endurance sports, it’s the VO2 Max, in golf it might be your drive. In climbing, it’s starting to be our straight-arm finger strength tested on a…

Better Than Last Year

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  By Steve Bechtel   Dan John once quipped, “The goal of aging should be to make the same mistakes over and over again less often.”  Although we are in the throes of redpoint season across much of North America and Europe, many of us are already assessing what we’re going to do to get…

BLOG: Why is Improving So Hard

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  By Steve Bechtel   Most of us either over-think our preparation for the sport or we don’t think about it enough. Far too often, we end up in the mindset of accepting limits, and decide that this must be our level. Why? Because we have plucked what seems like all the lowest-hanging fruit. Let…

BLOG: The First Step Off A Peak Is Down

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  By Steve Bechtel   I have a stack of notecards in the pack I carry to work every day. On them, I have written some ideas about training for climbing that I think are essential and largely ignored by climbers. I’ve made my career by talking to advanced climbers about advanced concepts, and I…

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