The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

This episode is a LITTLE bit different than all my others in that we’re going to be talking about training, but for a different species: dogs! So many climbers have dogs, and because climbing has gotten so popular in the past couple decades, there are more and more dogs at crags and boulders.

Sometimes this is an amazing thing and sometimes dogs can be a little out of control. So I asked my dog trainer, Jenna Teti, to come on the show to shed a little light on some things we can do to get our dogs to behave better at the crag and boulders (and all the time).

Jenna is the owner and Head Trainer & Behavior Consultant at Think Smart Dog Training out of Longmont, Colorado, where I live. She has a LOT of certifications in dog behavior, and here is her description of what she does from her website:

As a behavior consultant, my goal is to go beyond teaching you and your dog skills. I work with the human client to help them better understand their dog and their behavior in a way that is informative and fun! With this deeper understanding of not just the individual dog but dogs as a whole, we can address behavior and approach it from a place of compassion and understanding that builds a stronger relationship with your canine companion as you work through the behavior modification process.

Jenna has helped me a ton with our young heeler mix, Willa, by changing the way we approach training. We talk about that in this episode, along with crag behaviors such as being able to just chill while we’re climbing, not being reactive to people and dogs, coming when called, and more.

I hope this helps you have a better experience outside climbing with your dog!

Here’s my dog, Willa, trying to be a good girl at the crag 🙂

More Details

• How she works compared to other famous dog trainers
• Difference between positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punitive training styles
• How to get your dog to chill at the crag and at home
• How to get your dog to relax without overexercising them
• Why she thinks it's fascinating that so many climbers have herding dogs
• How to improve the all-important recall ("come") with your dog
• How to train "leave it" for when your dog gets into something it shouldn't
• What to do instead of punishing a dog
• How much time to spend training each day
• Setting up an environment at the crag for success
• Her thoughts on e-collars

• Reach Program: www.trainingbeta.com/reach
• Reach Program Discount: Code “Reach” for $50 off the program
• Work with Jenna in person or online
• Email Jenna at [email protected]
• Instagram @thinksmartdogtraining

In this interview, Physical Therapist Esther Smith talks about her protocol for healing finger injuries for climbers. She and Dan Mirsky used the protocol for their own finger injuries.

Coach Matt Pincus uses climbing drills in his coaching (and his own climbing) all the time. He also put them into every single training session in the Performance Training Programs he built for TrainingBeta. But what do you imagine when you think of climbing drills? Maybe practicing heel hooks or drop knees? Perhaps you imagine practicing dynamic moves or campusing?

Or maybe you have no idea what a climbing drill is or why you would do one. That’s what this episode is for. In every other sport, there are drills: basketball, soccer, baseball, horseback riding. Heck, in every HOBBY there are drills: piano, singing, chess, etc. – all in the name of getting better at the activity and making certain movements or thought patterns second nature. But in climbing we sort of gloss over that, opting to just have fun and climb instead.

In this episode, Matt is going to talk about some of the drills he uses in his coaching, why he uses them, why it’s so important to practice them regularly, how to incorporate them into your climbing, and how even the most elite of climbers benefit from doing drills.

More Details:

• Why Drills?
• Elements of Deliberate Practice
  • Being Intentional
  • Appropriate Difficulty
  • Getting Feedback
  • Willingness to Struggle
  • Willing to Struggle
• Examples of Drills
  • Contrast Warmup + One-Leg Climbing
  • Memorization Drills
  • Pacing Drills: Attack and Defend and Sprint Laps
• Common Pitfalls and Questions

I hope this helps you gain more mastery in your climbing – this info has definitely helped Matt, his clients, and the community in our Performance Training Programs.

• Performance Bouldering Training Program ($18/mo with a 7-day free trial)
• Performance Route Climbing Training Program ($18/mo with 7-day free trial)
• Train with Coach Matt Pincus

If you want Matt to help you with your own goals, whether they’re with bouldering or route climbing, he’s available for month-long commitments where he’ll talk with you over zoom and create a program for you and keep in touch with you via the TrueCoach app throughout the month.

He’ll help you get stronger and he’ll cater to your specific goals so that the timing is right for you to send when it’s time to send.

Learn More about Working with Matt

TBP 189 :: Lucie Hanes- Running and Climbing and Eating Disorder Recovery

Lucie Hanes is a 27-year-old climbing coach out of Eagle, Colorado, who is pursuing her Master’s of Science in Applied Sports Psychology.

I met Lucie in the Wicked Cave in Rifle last summer, and the next time I heard from her was when she reached out via email in response to the episode I did with Matt Pincus about running and climbing.

In that episode, Matt and I basically conclude that running isn’t going to help your climbing, and that it may in fact hinder it. And that there are other more effective ways to train endurance for climbing.

Lucie emailed me to say that she was not only a high performing climber (having sent numerous 5.13’s), but also a high performing ultra runner. She wanted to tell the story of how it’s possible to do both sports well as a counter to my episode with Matt.

Lucie is incredibly passionate about both of her sports, and my conversation with her ended up being even more enlightening than I thought it would be because it turns out she’s also in recovery from an eating disorder. And she’s very open about it, so a lot of our conversation ended up being about body image, disordered eating behaviors, her health consequences of underfueling, and how she’s recovering from all of it.

While she does provide details about her training for both running and climbing – and how she does both at the same time – I want to stress that this is not necessarily something that all humans can imitate without negative consequences. Lucie will admit herself that she may be an outlier, and she also concludes at the end of our talk that running may be inhibiting her climbing abilities and vice versa.

So this is NOT an episode wherein we are wholeheartedly advocating for people to train for running and climbing at the same time, and do it with the gusto that Lucie has. I honestly considered not publishing this episode because I knew it would be triggering for some people.

But after a lot of thought, I decided that this episode could be very helpful for people who struggle with disordered eating and over-exercising behaviors. Lucie is finding that she is healthier and happier now that she’s eating properly to fuel all of the exercise she does, and that is the lesson I want everyone to hear.

I want to thank Lucie for her willingness to talk about difficult things; Her vulnerability is invaluable to us all. I very much enjoyed this talk with her, and I felt super connected to her during it. I wish she lived closer to me so we could hang out, honestly.

If you’d like to work with Lucie, you can find her at www.insideoutathlete.com, where she consults with athletes on mental strength coaching in sport & performance.

• Why running is her form of moving meditation
• Her running and climbing achievements
• Her studies and aspirations as a sport psychologist
• Why she feels the need to be doing something physical all the time
• How the low points of her eating disorder and RED-S felt
• Tools she uses to deal with body image as her body changes
• How she trained for both sports during her eating disorder vs how she trains for them now
• What she thinks about running for climbers in general and how she thinks it affects her own climbing

• Instagram @luciehanes
• Lucie’s coaching website: InsideOutAthlete.com
• Train with Coach Alex Stiger in her Team Program starting next Tuesday, January 18th

Photo of Lucie climbing by Charlie Postlewaite

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

In this episode, I talk all about what to eat at the crag and the couple days before going to the crag so that you can have all-day energy and climb hard.

I know it’s tempting to just not eat all day at the crag so you can feel “light” and climb hard, but the truth is that we need food at regular intervals every day, especially when we’re trying to perform athletically at a high level.

So I’ll tell you what foods to pack in with you, what kinds of nutrients to focus on, and how to structure your day so it feels doable to get all the food you need. Not only will this help your performance on that day, but it’ll also help you recover better so you don’t feel like you got hit by a truck the next day.

This is a recording taken from a 5-day nutrition challenge I did in 2020 in front of a live zoom audience. I talked for about 15 minutes on the topic and then took a bunch of questions from the audience (very common questions, so they’re quite relevant).

Nutrition Podcast Episodes in This Series

TBP 209 :: Calories for Climbing Performance and Body Composition

TBP 190 :: Meal Timing for Climbing Performance and Recovery

TBP 184 :: Carbs for Climbers – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why

TBP 175 :: Protein for Climbers 101 – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why

After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I did a 4-year nutrition certificate program at Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Nourishment, and Healing. I graduated in 2007 as a Certified Integrative Clinical Nutrition Therapist.

During those 4 years, I learned about not only nutrition, but herbs, homeopathy, and other alternative practices. I’ve been seeing clients since 2007 and I’ve worked exclusively with climbers since 2013.

If you’re looking for help with your own nutrition and you feel like you need personalized coaching, I’m taking new clients right now. I also have a program that is self-paced with 4+ hours of video from me, PDF’s, and meal plans laid out for you.