TBP 282: How Steve Bechtel’s Training Philosophies Have Changed in the Last Decade

Steve Bechtel is one of the OG big daddies of climbing training. He founded and runs climbstrong.com where he has 19 coaches helping climbers all over the world get better at their sport. He’s written countless books, a ton of online climbing training programs for climbstrong, he’s hosted training seminars around the US (that I had the pleasure of teaching at), and is an accomplished 5.14 climber himself.

He was my 7th guest on the TrainingBeta Podcast back in 2014, and I’ve had him on many more times after that (see below for the list). We decided it would be fun to catch up on how things have changed in the climbing world and how his philosophies have evolved in the decade since we started collaborating.

What We Talked About

• His growing understanding of how your training “age” affects your programming
• Assessment use now vs before
• More focus on how mental/emotional aspects affect climbing performance
• How our waning attention spans affect our climbing and training
• 6 Things that go into building a training plan
• What’s changed in his own climbing and training
• New appreciation for using aerobic endurance training instead of power endurance
• Where training is going in the next 10 years

Previous Podcast Interviews with Steve

• TBP 007: Training, Finger Strength, Power Endurance, Weight Loss, and Running
• TBP 036: Periodization and Finger Training Confusion, Psychology of Change
• TBP 080: How to Design a Training Program for Yourself
• TBP 110: Training Endurance for Climbing
• TBP 147: Steve Bechtel, Kris Hampton, and Tom Randall on Best Practices for Training at Home