There’s a lot to admire about the all time great project climbers like @chris_sharma , and one of the traits that stands out most to @neil.gresham is Chris’s ability to lock in on an attempt, but not let the pressure get to him (on route or off).
So— how do we care and yet not care at the same time? Check out the full convo for Neil’s perspective, after coaching and climbing with some of the greatest climbers of all time.
Neil Gresham has coached more than 3,000 climbers over the past 30 years. He’s seen it all. So, what patterns have emerged? What works (and what doesn’t)? This convo goes deeeeep into training, performance, and how time-strapped weekend warriors can get the most out of our training. It’s a banger!
🎙️Neil Gresham: How Busy Climbers Break Through Plateaus (Without Training More)
AKA: Psych high, time low 🤘
In this deep dive with elite climber and coach, @neil.gresham , we explore:
- The thing coaches don’t talk about
- Turning life stress into climbing fuel
- How he trained @timemmett to send 14d / 9a
- The most impactful training modalities
- Why it’s good that most of us don’t train like pros
- His low inflammation nutritional breakthrough
- Technique pitfalls and fixes
- Why having kids can level up our climbing
- Chris Sharma‘s winning mindset
Shoutout to episode sponsors @arcteryx and @physivantage 🫶
Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your pods. And then go get after it!
📸: Kieran Duncan / Ian Parnell
Congrats to @kev__edwards for his fastest 7b+ send to date, after following his fourth training plan from me. That isn’t a misprint and it’s been a joy to see glutton-for-punishment, Kev rise from struggling on 6bs four years ago to sending his first 7c.
I’ve always found it more rewarding to work with ‘normal’ climbers like Kev, who juggle climbing with a busy schedule. Most elites are good because they started young and they have talent and time to train, but climbers like Kev remind us that we can still make incredible improvements if we put in the hard work and get the strategy right.
Kev commented that he’s feeling strong and excited to see what he can do this season. He’s currently heading to Kalymnos where he’s planning to consolidate around the mid 7s before pushing for 7c+ on return, or maybe the dream 8a. Did I just say that on Instagram?
If you’d like to join the 3000+ climbers who’ve improved after doing one of my plans then visit
#climbing_is_my_passion #climbingtraining #climbing_photos_of_instagram
I hope I will never use the age card as an excuse but I’m finding now that I need to focus more and more on keeping my strength. As such I made my biggest ever focus on bouldering over the winter so as expected, the transition onto routes has been tough this Spring. I’m not convinced that I’ve lost much raw endurance but I’ve definitely lost flow and today felt like the first time in a while when I wasn’t wrestling the volumes to death!
📸 Max Gresham @depotmanchester .
@lasportivagram@lasportivauk@petzl_official@ospreyeurope #climbingtraining #climbing_is_my_passion #climbing_videos_of_instagram
SAFETY IN KALYMNOS - With so many climbers heading out to Kalymnos for Easter, recent tragic events have prompted questions about re-equipping and safety. I’ve been closely involved in the development of Kalymnos since the onset and here’s my take.
Regarding re-equipping, firstly I want to commend the individuals who give their time and do a great job; however, I’m concerned that too much time and budget is being allocated to replacing clipper lower-offs on the easier and most popular crags. I don’t want to get into an endless debate about clipper lower-offs here; however, what I see on Kalymnos is that expensive clipper-lower-offs are being replaced up to 3 times a year on honey-pot crags, meantime many harder, steeper routes on crags with longer approaches are simply not being re-equipped. I think this accident has made this clear and I hope that the necessary policy changes will be made.
Regarding what you can do to stay safe in the meantime, the official advice is to avoid routes which haven’t been re-equipped that were bolted before 2005 and to me, this is the case-in-point as this scenario shouldn’t exist. Personally, I’d say that this timeline isn’t sufficiently conservative. If you do some quick research on the corrosion times for 316 stainless-steel in marine environments (set back from the sea) you’ll see that significant degradation can occur between 10 and 20 years. Also, critical failure often occurs due to internal stress cracks, which can’t be determined by visual inspection. Bottom line, if you you don’t see blatantly new-looking expansions (eg. Lappas) or preferably glue-ins (eg. Raumer) then use good judgment and consider avoiding the route.
Unfortunately, the state-of-play is going to have the effect of further-concentrating the traffic on the honey-pot crags, which is precisely the affect that many of the equippers were hoping to avoid, but let’s all keep an eye on the situation and see what the future holds.
📸 @kieranjduncan
#climbing_is_my_passion
(These opinions are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the views of my sponsors)
Following the tragic news from Kalymnos, my sincere condolences go to the family of the climber and also to the kind and brave people who were involved his rescue.
I bolted the routes either side of the route concerned and also raised funds for the first rescue stretcher on the island, so this is somewhat close-to-the-bone for me. The event has triggered such contrasting emotions - on one hand Kalymnos is a paradise bubble and yet on the other ….this.
I’ll avoid making any political statements here out of respect for those involved but will follow this post with my thoughts on re-equipping and what we can all do to stay safe in Kalymnos and avoid a repeat of this tragedy.
#climbing_is_my_passion
The biggest takehome from this morning’s @lasportivauk athlete meet is that you should only use a manufacturer-approved resoler. Here’s why:
1. These shoes were resoled by a resoler who claimed online to specialise in climbing footwear. However, they took the quick, easy option of grinding the old sole off rather than heating and peeling it off, hence the critical damage to the underlying midsole, which renders the shoe useless @rhysconlon is not amused.
2. How it should be done: heat and peel the sole but carefully! Different shoes require different temperatures and timings in the oven. Get it wrong and you can tear the midsole. Only the manufacturers know the nuances. @onceuponaclimb & @lucy_mitchell3003 give it a go.
3. Would @billyridal want his shoes to be reassembled with unofficial components? Err, no.
4. Lasts are 3D foot models which are used in manufacturing and which play a pivotal role in determining the fit. It stands to reason that you need to use the intended ones. Billy checks the fit.
5. The formula of the glue has a huge bearing on the performance characteristics of the shoe in terms of stiffness and feel and it’s not the case that one-type-sticks-all. These are trade secrets of the manufacturer.
In short, if you want the same shoes, use the same processes and materials. Check LaSportiva.com for the list of official resolers.
@lasportivagram #climbing_is_my_passion
@johnsamways1@chrisg_adv
Scenes from today’s @lasportivauk athlete team meet @lyonoutdoor in Cumbria:
1. Shoe expert and former World Cup boulder event winner, @markcroxall presents the new products.
2. Skwama Lite, a softer, flatter more comfortable Skwama for slightly less hardcore use. Can’t wait for this.
3. Solution Comp Junior. All the DNA of this iconic shoe with way less tension & stiffness for the growing foot. Urgently needed by a great many.
4. Hyper-Ez. New tech has been used to create a climbing shoe with the look and feel of a trainer for beginners at the gym or for long multipitch routes. Groundbreaking.
5. @onceuponaclimb James Pearson fills the team in on the latest developments.
6. Reasonably well known trad climbers 😉 @climbermacleod & @francocookson compare shoe notes.
And that was just day 1. Looking forward to a resoling workshop in the morning before the climbing action commences.
@lasportivagram #climbing_is_my_passion
More on training with a weight-vest: We hear a lot about the importance of trying hard in climbing, especially in bouldering when the effort window is so narrow. Yet when projecting we often experience the sensation that we’re giving our best, yet it still isn’t enough. For me, this is the main reason the vest has been a revelation. The first thing you notice is that the power-band is much broader, meaning that by really grunting and giving a war-cry, you can find that elusive extra gear.
The other day I was succumbing to the classic demons and convincing myself I wasn’t strong enough, then my pal @mattleighindustries showed up. It was Matt who inspired me for this current weight-vest campaign, so I got the psyche on and promptly sent the boulder I’d been failing on. This has been my experience most of the time. Training with the weight-vest is like one of those dreams when you’re running away through quick-sand. The gains are there on the table and it often boils down to how much you want them.
(As mentioned before, this should only be tried by those with a long history of strength training behind them, and with great caution).
Personalised plans available at
📸 @matheson98@kendalwall_lcc
#climbingtraining #climbing_is_my_passion #climbing_photos_of_instagram
When training with a weight-vest everything is scrambled. Some boulders may look innocuous yet prove to be a total barrier, whereas others turn out to be surprisingly ok. I’ve found that anything which involves holding swings, cross-overs or slopers feels considerably harder. I also have to drop my grade when the board gets steeper than 40 degrees, whereas I don’t have to do this when training without the vest.
When I first started this campaign 5 weeks ago I was nowhere near this one (‘All too Well’ V6) at 40 degrees with 6kg yet last session I managed it at 45 degrees with 9kg, so this feels like solid improvements.
Personalised plans available at
📸 @adriannelhams@kendalwall_lcc@lasportivauk@lasportivagram@petzl_official@ospreyeurope #climbingtraining #climbing_is_my_passion #climbing_videos_of_instagram
