The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

Dr. Jared Vagy, “The Climbing Doctor,” is back on the podcast to talk about crimping. Specifically, he covers the finger and hand muscles most climbers never train, and why that might be important for your pulleys and overall hand health.

Jared has a new book, The Resilient Climber, which breaks down 40 climbing movements by their mobility, strength, and movement demands. In this episode he applies that framework to the crimp. His core argument: climbers train their long finger flexors in one direction, over and over. That’s a lot like runners who build huge quads and hamstrings but neglect the side-hip muscles that stabilize the knee. The smaller stabilizing muscles in the hand get left behind, and Jared sees that pattern constantly in injured climbers.

Show Links

The Climbing Doctor: Jared’s site, with free blog posts and programs

The Resilient Climber

Climb Injury-Free

Videos from the episode:

Finger extensor strengthening

Pom-pom gripping

Pen rolling

Finger joint decompression

Jared sees climbers in person in Los Angeles and does remote sessions for climbers in CO, UT, and CA. He also keeps a referral list of climbing-savvy providers on his site.

Coach Matt Pincus recently got back from an extremely productive 2-month bouldering trip to Rocklands in South Africa, and he’s on the podcast to tell us all about it.

Matt’s hardest boulder to date is V12, and on this trip he sent 36 new boulders:

3 x V11

4 x V10

4 x V9 (1 flash)

9 x V8

1 x V7

9 x V6

and a bunch of V5 and lower

At one point, he sent a double digit boulder 6 sessions in a row climbing day on day off!

In the episode, he explains:

how he prepared for the trip (not much)

how he planned out his climbing schedule

how he maintained his skin

why he didn’t focus on any one boulder for very long

what he realized he needs to train that he's been neglecting for years

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Matt had such an amazing trip after making the lifestyle changes this past year that he talked about in ​his last interview​.

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Or find episode 319 of The TrainingBeta Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was just super exciting to hear about all the success Matt had – sending is fun, and it’s gratifying to see all of Matt’s hard work as a climber pay off for him this year.

Matt Can Help You Send Too

Matt can help you reach your own climbing goals, whether they’re with bouldering or route climbing. He’s available for coaching commitments where he’ll talk with you over zoom and create a program for you and keep in touch with you via the TrueCoach app throughout the duration of your training program.

He’ll help you get stronger and he’ll cater to your specific goals so that you can go out and send your dream boulders and routes.

​Learn More about Working with Matt

Coach Zoe Sayetta is back on the show, and this time she’s talking about something she’s been seeing constantly in her coaching: athletes who have trouble holding two feelings about the same performance at once. You either crushed it or you blew it. You’re a good slab climber or a bad one. There’s no room for “I’m proud of this AND I’m disappointed by this,” and Zoe thinks that binary trap is quietly shaping how climbers see themselves, compete, and recover from setbacks.

We get into how to actually sit with disappointment instead of talking yourself out of it, why social comparison isn’t automatically the enemy, what it looks like to let a competitive “killer instinct” back into a team culture built on support, and why owning your biggest goals out loud matters more than people think. We close on a heavier but important topic: body image, RED-S, and eating disorders among elite climbers, and how coaches can respond responsibly when they see an athlete in trouble. Find Zoe at www.sayettacoaching.com.

Coach Alex Stiger joins Neely to break down what a "plateau" actually is — because most climbers lump together very different problems under that one word, and that's part of why it's so hard to get unstuck.

In this episode:

The three patterns of progress: linear, growth-spurt, and wave

Four types of plateaus — psych, strength, grade, and mental — and why the fix is different for each

Why some plateaus don't need fixing at all

Zooming out before zooming in: consistency, overusing what already worked, trap grades, recovery, and structure

Alex's story of climbing better while getting weaker, and what that reveals about false narratives

Practical tools to progress in every session

Why changing your partner, gym, or discipline is one of the fastest ways out of a rut

Alex has three coaching spots open right now for the first time in a long time! Email her at alex@trainingbeta.com to work with her.

Lillian Frances is a rock climber, music producer, and the author of Finger Banging for Climber Boys, a 50-page illustrated guide to female sexual pleasure, consent, and communication written for the climbing community. She makes a compelling case that asking for what you want isn't a mood-killer: it's the thing that makes everything better, on the wall and off it.

We talk about how to set boundaries before a sexy situation escalates, why saying no is actually hot, how "belay on / climb on" is consent too, and why the way a partner reacts to a "no" tells you everything you need to know about them. Fair warning: we use explicit language throughout.