Winter climbing in Colorado is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get. This year has been no exception, with an almost comical oscillation between too hot and too cold, too windy and too wet. In the Air Force we like to say: “Flexibility is the key to airpower.” – Italian General…
by Mark Anderson Roof climbing is my nemesis. As someone who “grew up” climbing at Smith Rock, I always gravitated towards clean, monolithic faces that sweep skyward in one continuous plane of consistent steepness. My best angle is probably plumb vertical, and the steeper it gets after that, the more I struggle. The climbing on…
In a previous article, we showed you how to build an Adjustable Mount for your Rock Prodigy Training Center so that you can take maximum advantage of the built in ergonomics of the most innovative fingerboard on the market. While it gets the job done, the French Cleat technique described in that article is difficult…
Hello, this is Janelle…Mike’s wife. Since someone is off to Germany enjoying his 12 hour long flight, I thought I would seize the moment and post on his beloved blog without permission. HA! You know your husband is a little INSANE when he turns the basement into a movie set straight out of the ET! Keep in…
Ever since I first conceived of the Rock Prodigy Training Center, I’ve been pondering a cheap and simple mounting system that would allow for instantaneous spacing adjustments. Once the RPTC was unveiled I got a number of great ideas from other climbers. Julian Marks suggested a “French Cleat” system in this Mountain Project thread, which uses…
The Rock Climber’s Training Manual is now available! Order your signed copy HERE We get a lot of comments from folks that they would love to use the Rock Prodigy training method, but they can’t because they don’t have access to the right tools; primarily a hangboard and campus board. They may live in…
Throughout my first several years of systematic training, I believed the Strength Phase (in which hangboard training is the primary activity) was the most “important” phase. That is, I thought the quality of the Strength Phase was the key predictor of whether the upcoming season would be successful or not. If the phase was flat, I…
by Mark Anderson I think if people realized how little I train (and climb) they would be shocked. I often joke with my wife that I should be quarranteened in a plastic bubble and studied by teams of cruel government scientists (ala E.T.). There is certainly a trend among top climbers to perform massive quantities…
I permanently installed my Rock Prodigy Training Center last week, and I’ve done my first few hangboard workouts of the new season. To install the RPTC, I took a bunch of measurements of my old, sprawling setup, and used those figures to optimize the spacing of the RPTC. In the end I settled on 4.5″…
The Rock Prodigy Training Center is now available for purchase from Trango’s website! The initial manufacturing run produced a modest number of units, so order right away if you want to be the first climber on your block to have one. This ground-breaking hangboard was designed by me, with help from my brother Mike and Lamont…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 