The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast TrainingBeta Podcast

This is a replay of an episode that originally aired in January, 2023. I talk with Coach Alex Stiger about the most common mistakes amde by climbers who are trying to break into 5.12 climbing. Sending 5.12 is the most common goal among her clients, so she has quite a bit of experience with the minutiae of what it takes to do that.
She will share her personal experience of her first 5.12’s and what she learned from her trials and tribulations. She’ll then go into the mindset shifts that are required to jump into the coveted 5.12 territory, and how she helps people do that.
While you might predict that strength training is one of the main tools Alex uses with her clients in this situation, it is not, as she says it is very rare to find a person who is climbing 5.11 who can not climb 5.12 with the strength they already have.
So while we spend a few minutes talking about strength training, you’ll find compelling evidence in this episode that that may not be your issue. Here are some of the other topics we discuss:
Why technique and staying calm are so important
Honing the skill of resting
How to decrease intimidation of the grade
How to learn from your falling experiences
How to have more of a competition mindset
What to climb on in the gym if you’re trying to send 5.12
A better alternative to having a perfect pyramid before entering into 5.12 territory
Why repeating climbs that are sort of hard for you is an important strategy
We talk about a lot in this episode, and I highly recommend it if you’re at the 5.10 or 5.11 level, or if you’re just not consistently climbing 5.12’s and you’d like to. Even if you are climbing 5.12’s consistently, I think a lot of her tactics will help you!


Show Links
Get the 5.12 Breakthrough Series AND the Steep Climbing Workshop for 30% Off
Work with Alex as your coach
Have questions? Email alex@trainingbeta.com or neely@trainingbeta.com

Ben Hanna is a 25-year-old professional climber originally from New Mexico. He climbs hard sport routes outside and he’s active in competition climbing. He started climbing at the age of 10 and quickly gained notoriety as a youth competitor. He’s gone on to podium at 2 national championships and climb 5.15a. I wanted to talk to Ben about how he trains, what his competition mindset strategies are, and what it’s like to be a professional, full-time climber.
He goes into detail about his “early life crisis” when he decided to put his faith in a coach to help him really level up his climbing abilities. It worked, and we go into exactly what he did during that long training phase and how it changed his body.
We also talk about the mindset tools he uses, the books he reads on the subject, and how he implements having a growth mindset and having a different definition of success than just winning and sending.
Bonus Content on Patreon
redpointing tactics on outdoor routes
his diet
honest conversation about his weight management tactics and my thoughts on that
You can find all of that bonus content and the uncut, ad-free video episode without intro or outro on my Patreon page.
GET THE AD-FREE INTERVIEW AND BONUS CONTENT

In this episode just for subscribers, Ben Hanna talks about the three most important redpointing tactics he uses to send hard climbs. These are all very relatable for any grade. We also discussed his diet and how he changes it when he wants to lose weight for an important event. Weight is a big topic in climbing for obvious reasons, and we talk about why dropping weight is important to him sometimes and how he tries to do it in the healthiest way possible, and what my thoughts are as a nutritionist on that.

This is an extra episode for subscribers only. In it, I explain how you can use a communication tool called DEARMAN to kindly ask a belayer who you don't feel safe with to make some changes to help you feel safer.

A lot of people experience bad belays, and unfortunately, some people don't feel comfortable being belayed by even their most frequent partner. That can make them unwilling to try hard above their bolts, which can take the fun out of climbing. And it can cause a lot of tension in the relationship. So you can use this tool - or this exact conversation I lay out for you - to kindly but firmly request that changes be made.

You can use this tool with legitimately ANY difficult conversation you want to have. It helps take any accusations and insults out of the equation, it keeps the conversation focused on your requests and your feelings, and it helps the person understand that you really care about them and want to make this situation better for both of you. It's a win-win.

If you are a short climber who gets frustrated by your height sometimes, this episode will give you a roadmap to look at your own feelings, values, and thoughts about the situation so that you can enjoy climbing for what it is to YOU - not how it compares with someone else’s experience.

Author, psychologist, researcher, and clinician Aric Prather, PhD  talks about the practical advice he wrote about in his book The Sleep Prescription: 7 Days to Your Best Rest and the work he does in his sleep clinic. In this interview he offers clear steps to help you sleep better so you can feel more recovered, energetic, and calm in life and in climbing. 
Things people do to help them sleep that actually undermine sleep
How to use cognitive behavioral therapy to sleep
How to properly wind down before sleep
Thoughts on drugs and supplements for sleep
Using sleep diary
Importance of standardized wake-up time
Using sleep deprivation to increase “sleep drive” to eventually improve sleep
How to deal with rumination that keeps you awake
Bonus Content on Patreon
There’s some bonus content from this episode on Patreon.
what he thinks of the drug I was on (mirtazapine) for sleep and histamine use for sleep
why my alphabet game puts me to sleep most of the time
some thoughts on biomarker testing to figure out why you’re not sleeping
why nightly wake-ups might not be so abnormal.
You can find that bonus content and the uncut, ad-free episode without intro or outro on my Patreon page. 
Help support the show and get nutrition and mindset coaching on Patreon.