Photo Credit: Bryn Sillorequez

Writings in this category touch on mental and physical self-improvement for climbing, or on the mental or physical aspects of climbing.

Listed alphabetically:

• ​​Achilles (by Naomi Gibbs) - Author Naomi Gibbs tells a moving story of an achilles rupture that occurred when climbing her multi-year project. 
• A Climb Worth Fighting For (by Michael Sirianni) - A Climb Worth Fighting For... "It’s a sense of self-confidence that can only be earned through this personal journey, told by the movements on the wall, or a problem that roadblocks our life...." This is a tale of the personal journey, we as climbers can understand.
• An Ode to Ice and Friendship By Hendrik Schaal - ​Hendrik Schaal shares a very personal story - his struggle with bipolar disorder and how ice climbing gives him hope, focus, and friendships. Trigger Warning: The following article contains themes of mental health and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, there are some resources at the end of this article.
• ​Climbing Through Life (By Nick Ducker) - ​"This utterly arbitrary pursuit of getting one's physical being from point A to point B, in maybe the most difficult manner possible, has continued to have a profound impact on how I perceive my experience in this world. It has also accompanied me through and contributed directly to some of the most definitive moments of my life."
• Climbing Training Series
  • Climbing Warm-Up: Shoulders and Fingers (By Collin McGee) - Certified physical trainer Collin McGee shows us four ways to warm up our shoulders and fingers for climbing: using a hang-bar, a hangboard, the climbing wall, and at the crag. In this informative article, article Collin explains the why's and how's to do a warm up to help prevent injury. 
  • Effective Training: Are You Getting Stronger or Just Getting Tired? (By Collin McGee) - Professional physical trainer Collin McGee shares tips on how to build strength for climbing and avoid pitfalls.
  • ​Improving Hip Mobility and Strength (By Collin McGee) - Hip mobility and strength are critical for high steps in climbing. Physical trainer Collin McGee shares helpful information about how to improve your high-step game. ​
  • Rock Climber Mobility (By Collin McGee, CSCS, FRCms) - ​​How does our range of motion (ROM) relate to potential injuries in climbing? How might a "canned" online training session become injurious to us if we don't know our true range of motion? How do we best train when considering range of motion - both to prevent injury and get stronger?  Climbing physical trainer Collin McGee walks us through these important climbing training concepts - ones that are often ignored to our own peril. ​ 
  • ​Train the Mind: Mental Toughness Tips  (By Brianna Boney) - ​Behavior change expert Brianna Boney provides clear, helpful tips on how to build mental toughness (that can be applied to climbing or life beyond) .

• 12-Weeks to Onsighting a 5.8 - Now available from State of Readiness - THE definitive online rock climbing training program - 12-Weeks to Onsighting a 5.8!
• Encouraging Words - At Any Age (By Dierdre Wolownick) - Dierdre Wolownick explores the role of encouraging words in climbing and beyond. If you think what you say doesn't make a difference, you might think differently...
• Everyone Around Me Is Better Than I Am (By Tony Ferrar) - Tony Ferrar describes his struggle with sending a route that others walked up to and did as a warm up.  He takes us through the ego-driven blackhole of comparing ourselves with others and shares some helpful mental tips.
• Falling Far Enough (by James Crump) - First ascentionist and long-time Texas climber James Crump knows a few things about falling. Check out this lively collection of three "falling" short stories to illustrate a few "rules" for falling.
• Fear, Pride, and Exploration (by Tony Ferrar) - So much of climbing is mental - it's how we frame our experience. Tony Ferrar takes us on a journey of progression in climbing moving from fear to pride to exploration. 
• How Auto-Immune Disease Affected My Climbing (By Stefani Dawn) - It’s funny, but it’s not. I was on pitch 5 of 9 and I just…how do I put this tactfully?... shit myself. It wasn’t a lot, but it was uncomfortable, disheartening.
• Lessons from a 30-Foot Ground Fall (By Jeff Smoot) - ​"It happened in an instant, almost by surprise. I was making the crux move, thirty feet off the ground, feet smeared out on a slick overhanging wall, reaching up from a sloping knob to a jug that was just out of reach. It was close, so close, and impulsively I lunged for it. And missed. And then I was falling..."
• Mastering Joy on Easy Street (by Stefani Dawn) - Sometimes there are moments when a special experience reveals the right goals.
• Mind, Body, and Soul: Bouldering and Climbing (by Jonathan) - A thoughtful piece about how rock climbing impacts the whole being - mind, body, and soul.
• My Demon Has a Name (By Jason Glasgow) - Trigger Warning: This story contains references to suicide, sexual abuse, self-harm, violence, and trauma. "Untreated trauma has a way of sneaking up on you, making you take a hard, second look at things. I’d never imagined that daily consideration of suicide could be 'real life' for me, but for years it was. I’d also never imaged that hardened deposits of sand, crystals, and minerals pressed against my fingers and toes could have helped save me, but they did."
• Never Give Up on Setting New Year’s Resolutions (By Brianna Boney) - Brianna Boney is a climber and behavior change expert who shares why she believes New Year's Resolutions are helpful and how we can best achieve them. 
• Of Cartoons and Quickdraws (by Juan Rodriguez) - A climber has a Wile E. Coyote moment as he is suspended mid-fall, in disbelief, quickdraw in hand.
• Psychological First Aid (By Jamie Lange) - Whenever there is a physical injury or accident while climbing, mental stress injury can also occur. This is true not just for the injured person, but also to anyone who witnesses the event or participates in the rescue. In this article psychologist and climber Jamie Lange shares how stress injuries can be mitigated by administering Psychological First Aid either during or immediately following exposure to psychological stress. Jamie describes what is Psychological First Aid and how it can be used to prevent the initiation of survival mode and stress injury formation. 
• Push and Pull (by Grey Hensley) - There is a common misperception that climbing uses all of our muscles. It doesn’t. Ignoring those other muscles can affect climbing performance. Find out how to easily fix it.
• Sorcerer and the Kidney Stone (By Stefani Dawn) - Ow… ow…. Owwwwwww…. I sure as shit am not going to die on Necromancer – the dark black patina-covered wall in Red Rock Canyon named after a person who communicates with the dead…
• Take Risks - You'll Remember Them Later ​(By Jess Sanson)​ - An exploration of how climbing memories are formed in the brain and why we remember some better than others.
• The Art of Climbing Without Rock: How to Stay Strong and Stay Inspired in a “Climbing Desert” (By Jesse Montgomery) - What happens when life throws you a curve ball and you end up at a location where there is very little climbing nearby? Jesse Montgomery encountered this very thing when stationed in the middle of Georgia and shares a solid plan of how to keep climbing front and center in your life. ​
• The Devil’s Game (by Grey Hensley) -  Buddha versus the devil...Improve your climbing by letting a little bit of your devil out!​
• ​The Eye (By Reagan Solt) - Teen author and gym-team climber Reagan Solt shares the story of the first time she climbed outside at Horseshoe Ranch in Arkansas and bit off more than she could chew.  
• The Taste of Climbing: The Third Sense (By ​David Barnes) - A climber describes climbing from a unique perspective - taste. 

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