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.
- Climbing Training Series
- 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 for Quarantraining (By Brianna Boney) - Behavior change expert Brianna Boney provides clear, helpful tips on how to build mental toughness during CoVID quarantine (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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Taste of Climbing: The Third Sense (By David Barnes) - A climber describes climbing from a unique perspective - taste.