Trainer Tips Tuesday

Reading time: 4 – 5 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! It's been just under a week since I returned home from my 9-day excursion up Mt. Whitney with my brother and some friends. The climbing was fun, the views were amazing, and plenty of challenges were overcome: Hiked 40+ miles, carrying a gear-filled pack for roughly half the distance Gained about 20,000 ft of elevation from hiking Gained another 2,000 ft of elevation from climbing...

Reading time: 3 – 4 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events including the (mostly) weekly Hiking Club, technique courses, and more! Last weekend I participated in an indoor rock climbing competition—Adventure Rock's Quick on the Draw. It's an annual event that I'd done a few times before, although the last few times were somewhere between twelve and twenty years ago! Since then, my training priorities have shifted. For a long stretch,...

Reading time: 2 – 3 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events including the (mostly) weekly Hiking Club, technique courses, and more! Have you ever noticed how quickly we forget about our goals after achieving them? I don't mean forget forget—of course we remember what we've accomplished. I mean a kind of minimizing forgetfulness. We hit a target and almost immediately shift our focus to the next one. That's not a problem on its own. Goals...

Reading time: 2 – 3 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! Last week I explained how I dial in my attention prior to every set during training and where I focus when snatching a kettlebell. An expected follow-up line of questioning might be: "Do I really need to pay attention to all that stuff when training? Can't I just show up and move?" To which I'll answer: Yes and no (to the first question). And, no and yes (to the second). Let's...

Reading time: 2 – 3 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! I'm currently in Wyoming with my brother for my second of three climbing trips this year. This time we'll be summitting the iconic Grand Teton before making a quick jaunt to Colorado to hike Mount Elbert, the second highest peak in the 48 contiguous states. (If you missed the story & tips from the first trip of the year to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, you can...

Reading time: 2 – 3 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! I'm not much of a YouTube watcher or podcast listener. But last weekend I was referred to this 13-minute clip of the Huberman Labs podcast in which Dr. Andrew Huberman (a neurobiology professor) and David Goggins (a retired Navy SEAL, author, & ultramarathoner) were discussing willpower, and I found it fascinating. Goggins drops more than a few f-bombs, so maybe don't watch the...

Reading time: 3 – 4 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! In the previous two weeks' tips I've discussed some reasons to prioritize strength development and high-level concepts about how to develop strength. This week I'm going to take a quick pass through the science about why the concepts from last week actually work. To start, let's dig deeper into one of last week's lynchpin comments: Strength is a skill You're not alone if that...

Reading time: 3 – 4 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! Yesterday was the third annual TNT & Friends New Year's Day hike. It's a tradition that began a little over two years ago when KG and Cindy, two hiking club regulars, decided that they wanted to do something awesome, challenging, and epic on New Year's Day 2022: hike 22 miles, in tribute to the year. So just after sunrise on January 1st, a group of current and former TNT members...

Reading time: 2 – 3 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! You may think that subject line seems a little self-serving considering that I operate a gym and co-operate an online training business and lifting event. But that doesn't change the fact that you and everyone else (myself included) really do need to exercise. At least, we do if we want to increase the probability of leading long, healthy lives. Let me explain... I'm currently...

Reading time: 3 – 4 min Reminder: Make sure to check the bottom of this message for details about upcoming events! Last Sunday I went rock climbing and rappelling in Necedah with my brother (Derek) and a group of friends who are summitting Grand Teton with us in July. Derek and I have been climbing for just over 20 years now, but this was the first outdoor rock climbing experience for all the others in the group except one. (And, yes, each of them came home safely!) If you've never been rock...