EP 35: Steve Bechtel — Changing Your Mind, Lessons From Studying Sprinting, and Creating Better Habits

Steve Bechtel is a strength coach and the founder of Climb Strong. We talked about the gift of changing your mind, lessons from studying sprinting and how to apply them to climbing, developing aerobic capacity, why Jonathan Siegrist and BJ Tilden are such successful climbers, the “real secret” to success, creating better habits, and Logical Progression 2.  

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patreon.com/thenuggetclimbing  

Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/steve-bechtel  

Nuggets:  

2:25 – Steve’s house  

3:38 – Kids, self-taught Parkour, and climbing at Orpierre  

5:54 – The Climb Strong Training Camp, the complexity of climbing training, and why the questions always outnumber the answers  

9:00 – Changing your mind, learning, and ego  

11:41 – Simulation vs. specificity, changes in glycolytic or power endurance training, and when to train skills  

15:39 – Peaking and adaptation persistence  

17:22 – Studying speed and power, Charlie Francis’s workouts for 100m runners, and the Hi/Low training model  

21:02 – Developing alactic capacity for boulderers  

22:58 – Example alactic capacity circuit  

26:46 – Developing the aerobic system (the “Low”) and shrinking the anaerobic zone  

28:57 – Training the “High” via alactic intervals and strength and power, and the Zlagboard test  

29:39 – Route 4x4s as an alternative to ARC training (and how to not screw them up)  

31:31 – Three cues for finding the right intensity for route 4x4’s to develop aerobic capacity: 1) nasal breathing, 2) conversational intensity, 3) light fatigue or no pump  

33:56 – Other activities to develop general cardiovascular capacity, and the MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) heart rate formula for aerobic training (180 beats minus your age)  

37:08 – Training general cardiovascular capacity in a city, Margo Hayes on ‘La Rambla’, and learning to calm down  

40:00 – Jonathan Siegrist’s aerobic capacity, sub-goals, and big days  

44:39 – ‘9 Out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes’, climbing with BJ Tilden, and the difference between the pros and everyone else  

46:31 – The real “secret” to success, habits, and systems  

48:33 – Behaviors, and first, second, and third-order results  

50:18 – Why BJ is so strong and successful as a climber, taking time off, and focusing on doing things better  

56:03 – BJ’s training for ‘Biographie’, juggling a business and kids, and his partner Emily  

58:31 – Thing I was confused about #1, the role of strength training, the 2x2 deadlift workout, and why Jonathan Siegrist only trains in his offseason  

1:04:14 – Steve’s hangboard experiment for maintaining strength, strain gauges, finding the bare minimum, and testing yourself on benchmark climbs  

1:08:04 – Simple strength benchmarks for climbers, and strength training as we get older to maintain muscle mass  

1:11:10 – Thing I was confused about #2, hung up on finding the “best” program, and seeing programs through to fruition  

1:16:27 – The ice cube analogy  

1:17:49 – Looking behind the curtain on your training program  

1:19:03 – Hangboarding, expected results, and the true marks of a successful program  

1:24:53 – Jonathan as a “redpoint climber”, and risking failure vs. having a successful training session  

1:27:15 – Why Steve is so excited about skill development as the next big thing in “training”  

1:30:52 – Logical Progression 2, and an example strength focus block of training  

1:35:31 – “What got you here won’t get you there”, and avoiding a common mental trap  

1:37:58 – Is the 2nd edition worth buying if you own the original?  

1:38:24 – Gratitude for Ellen (Steve’s wife)  

1:39:44 – Dinner and meeting the Climb Strong team, and learning from his own coaches