The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast TrainingBeta Podcast

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. 

In this bonus episode, I get personal with Aric and ask him his thoughts on long-term usage of the drug I was on for 10 years to help me sleep, and we talk more in-depth about drugs for sleep in general.

We also talk about why an alphabet game I use to go to sleep actually helps and might help you, too. We discuss some testing that might be able to be done to help figure out why you're not sleeping, how menopause can affect sleep, and the fact that biphasic sleep (waking up in the night and then going back to sleep some time later) is actually quite normal historically and why it's so stressful for us now.