TBP 009 :: Mark and Mike Anderson on Their Book, J-Star, and How Less Is More

The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast

English - June 30, 2014 05:03 - 1 hour - 73.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 305 ratings
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Previous Episode: TBP 008 :: Alex Johnson on Training, Hard Female Ascents, and The Swarm

Next Episode: TBP :: 010 Kris Peters on All Things Training, Team of 2, TrainingBeta, and Cardio

I'm psyched to introduce this podcast with the Anderson brothers, Mark and Mike. We did a longer-than-usual interview this time, partly because there were two of them and mostly because they have a lot of advice to give. For the uninitiated, Mark and Mike are the Rock Prodigy guys, the authors of the new book The Rock Climber's Training Manual. They're the trainers who helped J-Star turn his training methods around in order to do "Biographie" (or "Realization", 5.15a), but they also have impressive climbing resumes themselves, despite having high-stress jobs and families.

Mike is an Aeronautical Engineer, aka robot developer. He's an officer in the US Air Force and he has 2 sons (5 and 8) with his wife and they live in Colorado. He's redpointed 5.14 sport and has done some very impressive 5.13s, including First Free Ascents of Touchstone Wall (5.13, IV), Space Shot (5.13 IV) and Thunderbird Wall (5.13 VI) in Zion, UT, and Arcturus (5.13, VI) on Yosemite’s Half Dome.

Mark (by the way, they're twins) supervises a team of computer engineers and has 2 kids with his wife, and they also live in Colorado. He's an “all-around” climber, having climbed on four continents, established numerous first ascents, freed El Cap, summited Denali, red-pointed 5.14c and on-sighted 5.13b.

Along with their book, they also partnered with Trango to make the Rock Prodigy Training Center, a hangboard they recommend. So they're kinda the shit when it comes to training.

What We Talked About

How long it took Mark to get off his 5.10 plateau
The thing Mike eats every day to stay lean and strong
Both of their biggest accomplishment in climbing (they have the same one)
The surprising number of hours they train every week
How Mike trained for one of his hardest sends in Afghanistan
Who should be campusing and fingerboarding and who should avoid it
What to do when you've been falling at the same high point for 8 weeks
Their passionate opinion on running for climbing
LOTS more