By Mark Anderson

On January 17th, the Boulder Rock Club hosted a panel discussion on training. The panel included myself, renowned climbing coach Justen Sjong, Chiropractor & Physio Dr. Brent Apgar, double-digit boulder and author Peter Beal and Physical Therapist Dr. Stacy Soapmann. It was a really fun and informative event. We fielded questions submitted online as well as questions from the live audience. The discussion was pretty lively and lasted a good 90 minutes.

Louder Than Eleven was on-hand to record the event for the community. You can listen to the Podcast here:

Our discussion covered the following topics:

• How to identify Strengths & Weaknesses (@ ~2:49 in the podcast)
• How to get Strong Fingers (8:12)
• What is Core Training and is it a waste of time? (10:09)
• Injuries, Prevention, Rehab and how these relate to Training Volume and Intensity (18:40)
• The problem with the Gym; Indoor Training vs. Outdoor Climbing; balancing learning how to move well vs. how to perform well vs. training to get stronger; and what is Good Technique? (33:13)
• The importance of Adventure and Route Finding, and the value of figuring out Beta (47:13)
• Selecting the right Project, how to train for Freerider, onsight vs. redpoint grade (51:29)
• Rehabbing Over-use Injuries in climbers, hardware vs. software and the power of the mind in healing (56:15)
• Youth Climbing, training & injuries; American Ninja Warrior and the future of Comp Climbing; and is it healthy to be elite? (1:06:45)
• Definition and value of Antagonist Training, training Patterns vs. Parts, proper Form (1:15:51)
• Diet, Nutrition & Fuel with respect to performance; Alex Huber; individuality & variety of diet; sleep & rest; intermittent fasting (1:22:46)

I hope you find some of this useful, or at least entertaining. Thanks to everyone who participated in the panel, all the attendees, the BRC for hosting, Tara Gee for moderating and especially Brent Apgar, Aubrey Wingo and Mark Dixon for organizing.