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…
by Mark Anderson A few years ago Steve Bechtel gave me an article called “40 Years of Insight” by strength Coach Dan John. The article is a list of 40 lessons Dan learned in his 40 years of coaching strength athletes. I liked it so much, I keep it on my nightstand and re-read it…
This is part 2 in a two-part series about our experience (so far) training Pro Climber Jonathan Siegrist. You can check out “Trainer to the JStars: Part 1” here. We had learned quite a bit the first time around, and by the end of his first cycle, Jonathan was training completely independently, though occasionally asking…
The family and I just got back from a great week in Lander. If you’ve never been, Lander is a throw-back; it’s a small community at the foot of the Wind River mountain range in Wyoming, so the pace of life is a little slower, and life is a bit simpler. When we’re in Lander,…
Focus is all about summoning maximum concentration and attention at the moment it is crucially needed. Most climbers think of this when its time to send, but the ability to summon and maintain sufficient focus is also vital during daily training. With training cycles that last for months, often involving several weeks of training on plastic,…
As implied here, I’m inspired by the climbing career of the legendary Jerry Moffatt. During his prime, Moffatt was the best climber in the world, and he dominated on redpoints, onsights, boulders and competitions. What inspires me most though, was his commitment to hard work and his dedication to training. He was a phenom in his…
As promised, here is some hangboard resistance data from my recently concluded Strength Phase. This was my first full phase using the Rock Prodigy Training Center. I thought it would take a while to get the loads dialed in correctly but I was able to get pretty close to the right resistance during the first…
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…
Tom brought up a couple of questions which I will start to address here: tom on July 25, 2012 at 2:35 pm said: “you brought up two very interesting areas i hope you will discuss in detail: a) being aggressive in climbing – what’s the mindset, how do you turn it on? how do you…
Intensity is simply a matter of how much effort you put into a given training activity. In other words, how “hard” you are trying. You may already be performing the perfect training activity, but if the intensity is wrong, you won’t get the proper results. After observing many climbers in their natural habitat its clear…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 