Eric Hörst's Training For Climbing Podcast

If you’re a connoisseur of steep routes, this episode is for you! We’ve assembled a “Red River Pump” roundtable that reveals the training methods, tactics, and insider strategies for climbing your best on the overhanging walls of the Red — or any steep sport crag you love. Kris Hampton, Ryan Devlin, and Eric Hörst dive into Red-specific pre-trip and offseason training, mental strategies for embracing the pump, steep redpoint tactics, on-route resting, fueling and recovery, and how to “protect the send.” This is a power-packed, actionable conversation you can apply today to climb stronger, last longer, and send harder on any endurance-style route. Podcast Rundown 0:15 – Intro to T4C podcast 1:05 - Overview of the training and tactical topics covered in this episode. Listen to the full two-hour conversation of ALL things RRG at The Struggle Podcast >>

Learn five powerful lessons for achieving big, difficult goals that I took away from watching Girl Climber -- the new film that chronicles Emily Harrington’s incredible, multi-year journey to free-climb El Capitan’s Golden Gate route in under 24 hours. For me, this isn’t just a film about climbing—it’s about resilience, will power, and the triumph of human spirit, Furthermore, it serves as a bold reminder of what it takes to stay committed to a dream in the face of fear, doubt, setbacks, and even failure. As Emily’s journey shows, greatness isn’t built on talent alone. It comes from disciplined training, uncommon courage and toughness, and the willingness to keep showing up for a goal that feels just out of reach. I had the chance to see Girl Climber on its IMAX theatrical release date, August 24th, and I’ll tell you—it was excellent! Truly a must-see for anyone passionate about climbing…or simply fascinated by what it takes to push the human mind and body to their limits in pursuit of a big goal. Podcast Run

After nine years as an NFL offensive lineman for the Falcons, Commanders, and Jets, Wes Schweitzer has traded 330-pound trench battles for crimps, slopers, and steep boulders! In this inspiring conversation, Wes shares how climbing started as elbow rehab modality, turned into a passion, and even improved his football performance. We dive into the parallels between elite football and high-level climbing, his challenges with a variety of football-related injuries, and his bold goal: to become the heaviest climber ever to send V10. Along the way, Wes reflects on career highlights—Super Bowl appearances, facing Aaron Donald, blocking for Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers—and his next chapter chasing higher Kilter Board grades and new outdoor climbing adventures. Podcast Rundown 2:28 – Welcome to Wes...the first American Football player to appear on the T4C podcast 3:45 - His first Autumn without football will be filled with climbing. 7:35 - How he discovered climbing...amidst a life filled with football 9:30 - Simil

Nothing is more elemental to climbing than fear. The fear of falling, getting hurt, failing, looking foolish, or simply facing the unknown can feel torturous—and even paralyzing. To climb efficiently and confidently—and to pursue your peak performance—you must learn to assess and manage fear effectively. In this 90-minute episode, Coach Hörst delivers a tour de force of 18 fear management techniques designed to help you unlock a new level of mental mastery. These practical strategies will empower you to perform at your best on boulders, at the crag, and in everyday life. (Because effective fear management is just as vital for achieving great things off the rock as it is on it!) Podcast Rundown 0:25 – Introduction to the topic of fear management for climbers 3:25 – The 5 most common types of fear in climbing 4:10 – Reflection break: Pause the podcast and consider some of your recent climbing fears. Can you identify a few that were especially acute or held you back? Write them down, and take notes as you learn

Coach Hörst shares 15 game-changing tips to elevate your climbing this season. Performance gains aren’t made solely in the gym. As Coach Hörst explains, there’s a lot you can do in-season—technically, tactically, and nutritionally—to level up your outdoor climbing. Apply just a few of these strategies today, and you might send your project sooner than expected. Put most or all into practice over the coming weeks, and you could unlock a whole new level of performance this season! RUNDOWN 0:30 – Introduction: Why these 15 tips matter for your in-season performance. 2:20 – Tip #1: Know the context of your current training and climbing—and act accordingly. 5:08 – Tip #2: Dial in your warm-up to match the demands of your project. (Not all warm-ups are created equal!) 8:40 – Tip #3: Time your sends by planning around temperature trends and sun exposure. 10:35 – Tip #4: Build confidence by climbing routes that match your natural style. 12:35 – Tip #5: Occasionally work "anti-style" routes to promote long-term growth

What does it take to break through to the next climbing grade? With each new milestone, the challenge grows harder—but potentially more rewarding. In this special collaboration with The Struggle Podcast, I coach Ryan Devlin as he works to push past his current limit of 5.13a and lay the foundation for his next breakthrough in sport climbing. No matter your level, the tips and strategies we share in this episode can help guide your own climbing progression. A key focus of our conversation is the concept of building a solid "grade pyramid"—a proven approach for long-term advancement. This episode follows up on episodes #86, #91, #94, and #102, where I’ve been coaching Ryan on his journey toward his first-ever 5.13. You’ll get an inside look at where he stands as of April 2025, and the specific training and climbing recommendations I’ve made for his upcoming summer season, all with an eye toward peaking in the prime conditions of Fall. Tune in to learn actionable strategies, exercises, and mindset shifts to supp

The podcast is a classic Eric Hörst tour de force of climbing wisdom! No matter your ability level, training background, or goals, listening to this episode will challenge your current approach and inspire you to reinvent your training for better results. In this hour-long lecture, Coach Hörst breaks down 10 common training mistakes. Chances are, one, two, or maybe even several of these missteps will hit close to home. But don’t get discouraged—get psyched! Identifying these flaws empowers you to train smarter day in and day out, and to course-correct your long-term plan. That’s the key to unlocking more effective training—and real gains on the rock! Start your journey toward better training and harder climbing today! RUNDOWN 0:16 - Welcome statement... 0:53 - Eric introduces the powerful topic of correcting common training mistakes. Whether you're current in a serious training block or just doing weekday maintenance training as a tune-up for weekend sending, this is a must-listen episode.  1:50 - Common Mist

In this episode, I reveal a powerful — and often overlooked — strategy for developing the mental, technical, and tactical skills needed to level up your climbing. If you're an intermediate climber passionate about improving — or an advanced climber who's hit a plateau — then this is a must-listen episode. Even veteran climbers and professionals can use this strategy to refine their skills and “sharpen the saw” each season. America’s top sport climber, Jonathan Siegrist, has shared with me that he enjoys and benefits from this approach to route climbing. So, what is this mysterious climbing strategy? Listen in now to find out! RUNDOWN 0:16 - Welcome statement... 0:38 - Eric sets the stage for revealing a powerful route climbing strategy that really can level up your mental and technical climbing skills. This approach to route climbing is NOT "projecting" or "onsight" climbing... (Learn more about projecting from T4C podcasts #76, #53, and #12 4:00 - What is this powerful strategy? 6:19 - Learn the 6 powerful

Welcome to the first episode in a special series of performance-focused conversations with my friend, Dr. Thomas Cunningham. In this fast-paced discussion, we dive into a wide range of topics, including tips for optimizing climbing training, injury prevention, key dietary interventions, performance hacks, and the role of self-discipline and sacrifice. We also explore best practices tailored for hard-training climbers over 35. No matter your age, this episode is packed with actionable insights you can start applying today! RUNDOWN 0:15 - Coach Eric Hörst's welcome statement. 0:30 - Introduction of my guest, Thomas Cunningham, MD. 2:40 - Thomas' bio and backstory  3:20 - "Medicine 3.0" ...aka functional medicine to optimize health and performance. 6:00 - Overview of topics we'll be covering today. 7:35 - Tips for older climbers. 10:00 - The importance of being intentional in your training. 11:00 - Eric's use of 2-a-day workouts. 13:00 - Scheduling your workouts. 15:45 - Specificity of training. 17:30 - Strive f

Dear Listener, How about -- together -- we all try to SEND 2025? In other words, let's try to upgrade our thoughts and actions in all we do to make 2025 our best year yet! Towards this end, in this episode I will serve up tips for improving your training, elevating your climbing, and advancing in other important life areas! RUNDOWN 0:15 - Eric's greetings... 0:45 - Introductory comments on striving to live your dream life...in climbing and beyond. 3:38 -  Upgrade #1: Improve your time management to maximize time spent engaged in important activities. 10:33 - Upgrade #2: Level-up your training by cutting the "fluff", adding some novelty, and targeting your weaknesses. 20:10 -  Upgrade #3: Elevate your thoughts and take control of your self-talk to help drive massive action towards your goals. 29:50 - Upgrade #4: Refine your day-to-day nutrition to support energy, focus, strength gains, recovery ability, and injury resistance. *** Calculate your personal protein requirements with this research-based online calc

In this brief episode, I invite you to join my "Send 2025" New Year's Challenge! JOIN the SEND 2025 CHALLENGE by filling out this brief Google Form >> I designed this free 6-week challenge to help motivate and inspire a fresh, focused, and optimistic start to the new year...and hopefully help you set off on your best year ever! The challenge is action-oriented -- so we'll ask you to set some achievable short-term goals to reach for during the 6-weeks of the challenge. These action items can relate to your training and nutrition goals for the new year, but also target bad habits you’d like to change…or other behaviors that are holding you back from reaching the next level in climbing, in your career or relationships, or any other important life area. To serve as your North Star for this challenge, we will ask you to select a specific "Challenge Goal" for the 6 weeks of the contest, as well as set a "Send 2025 Mega Goal" that you'll be working towards throughout the year ahead. We hope that with our encouragem

The title of this podcast may have you thinking "WTF?" Well, this is a special episode of the T4C podcast...and I think you're going to really enjoy it! THE Alex Megos has recently launched his own podcast, and during his recent visit to the States he asked me to sit down for a conversation about the history of training, personalized program design, nutrition and recovery, and much much more.  Of course, I was excited for this unique opportunity...and we had a very lively hour and ten minute conversation that I think every stoked climber will enjoy! There's lots of talk of training and nutritional nuance...and numerous wide-ranging clues for elevating your performance. Listen in! Here's a rundown of some key moments: 0:30 - Eric's intro to this collaboration with the new Alex Megos podcast on Spotify and YouTube Channel. 2:40 - To begin, Alex asks about my backstory as a climber...and my interest in training for climbing. 5:30 - Some interesting training history. 9:00 - Beginning of climbing performance rese

In this episode, coach Hörst shares 13 little things that can make a BIG difference when it comes to sending your near limit—or, perhaps, beyond limit!—project boulder or route. Quite often it's the tiniest of things that can make or break your ascent. Eric covers a lot of territories including the power of proper breathing, the best time of the day to send, the effects of food and drink on energy and focus, how to get the perfect warm-up, how long to rest between attempts, how to win the skin game, the importance of the shoes you wear, how your thinking can make or break a send go, and so much more. RUNDOWN 3:40 - 13 Little Things That Make a BIG Difference When Limit Climbing 4:15 - 1. The first “little, big thing” is to breathe more intentionally. Learn how to do it...to save energy, accelerate recovery, and help maintain focus and confidence. 10:30 - 2. Climb during the optimal time of the day. Learn how to plan your send goes for your strongest (and the stickiest) time of day. 14:17 - 3. Eat & drink

One of the ironies of climbing performance outcomes is that as hard as you've physically trained in preparation, the outcome often hinges on the quality of your mental game. The power point, here, is that when it comes down to the final days and hours leading up to an important climb, the keys to performing your best are largely mental! While many athletes "shoot themselves in the foot” in any number of ways in the days or hours leading up to competition — or even during the sports event itself! — a well-coached and mentally apt and experienced individual will act in deliberate ways to set the stage for peak performance. Towards this end, I'm going to detail 8 so called "last-minute" things you can do (or not do) that will help set the stage for climbing your best when it counts most. The more of these items that you deliberately optimize, the better you’ll sort of stack the deck for performing your best when it counts. Support the TFC podcast...and amplify your training and performance with PhysiVantage Nutr

This 20-minute flash episode will delve briefly into two topics: 1. Popular training biohacks, including sauna use, cold plunge, and intermittent fasting.  2. The value of getting an occasional blood work-up to monitor how your health and performance-related biometrics change as a result of diet, training, and aging. This episode features an interview I did earlier this year with Kush Khandelwal of The Ageless Athlete podcast. T4C Podcast sponsor ==> Visit PhysiVantage.com the leader in climbing-specific performance nutrition. Get 15% off full-priced items with checkout code: PODCAST15 (North America only). Europe and elsewhere visit EPIC-TV Shop or BananaFingers.com to get your PhysiVantage! SAVE on La Sportiva shoes here >> Thank you! La Sportiva, Maxim Ropes, DMM Climbing, Friction Labs Music Remix of the Police Follow Eric on Twitter @Train4Climbing Check out Eric’s YouTube channel. Follow Eric on Facebook! And on Instagram at: Training4Climbing Copyright 2024 Eric Hörst | Horst Training, LLC.

This 15-minute flash episode will delve briefly into two topics: 1, Stretching for climbers -- learn what to do and when. 2. Recent injury trends...and the number #1 thing you can do to lower your injury risk. This episode features an interview I did earlier this year with Kush Khandelwal of The Ageless Athlete podcast. T4C Podcast sponsor ==> Visit PhysiVantage.com the leader in climbing-specific performance nutrition. Get 15% off full-priced items with checkout code: PODCAST15 (North America only). Europe and elsewhere visit EPIC-TV Shop or BananaFingers.com to get your PhysiVantage! SAVE on La Sportiva shoes here >> Thank you! La Sportiva, Maxim Ropes, DMM Climbing, Friction Labs Music Remix of the Police Follow Eric on Twitter @Train4Climbing Check out Eric’s YouTube channel. Follow Eric on Facebook! And on Instagram at: Training4Climbing Copyright 2024 Eric Hörst | Horst Training, LLC.

In this Flash episode, I'm going to talk briefly about raising happy, healthy kids with a passion for climbing! There's no "right" way to raise kid climbers...but I'm going to share the approach that my wife and I used to develop well-rounded kids who, today as young adults (ages 22 and 24), love climbing more than ever! This episode features an interview I did earlier this year with Kush Khandelwal of The Ageless Athlete podcast. T4C Podcast sponsor ==> Visit PhysiVantage.com the leader in climbing-specific performance nutrition. Get 15% off full-priced items with checkout code: PODCAST15 (North America only). Europe and elsewhere visit EPIC-TV Shop or BananaFingers.com to get your PhysiVantage! SAVE on La Sportiva shoes here >> Thank you! La Sportiva, Maxim Ropes, DMM Climbing, Friction Labs Music: Remix of The Police Follow Eric on Twitter @Train4Climbing Check out Eric’s YouTube channel. Follow Eric on Facebook! And on Instagram at: Training4Climbing Copyright 2024 Eric Hörst | Horst Training, LLC.

This month, I'm serving up multiple "Flash Episodes" of the T4C podcast -- released weekly -- that you can consume in less than 20 minutes.  The topics covered in this first episode...include the pros/cons of online coaching...and a generalized look at how training (and nutrition) for climbers has changed over the last 40 years. Upcoming Flash Episodes in September (released weekly) will examine these topics: How to raise kid climbers...to be happy, healthy athletes...and, hopefully, pass on the gift of becoming a climber for life. How (and when) to stretch and train flexibility for climbing. Also, a pithy discussion of climbing injury trends. Potential benefits (and drawbacks) of ice baths (or cold plunges), intermittent fasting, and sauna use. This episode features an interview I did earlier this year with Kush Khandelwal of The Ageless Athlete podcast. T4C Podcast sponsor ==> Visit PhysiVantage.com the leader in climbing-specific performance nutrition. Get 15% off full-priced items with checkout code: 

What does it take to climb your first 5.13a? In this episode, you'll hear my recommendations for Ryan Devlin as he closes in on completing his first 5.13a, a Red River Gorge classic named "The Force". This is a follow-up to episodes #86, #91, and #94, in which I coach Ryan through the long process of training for and working on his first-ever 5.13. You will hear where Ryan is at with his project--you'll learn some of his struggles along the way, including a minor finger/hand injury early this year. We'll discuss Ryan's training plan for the next 6 to 8 weeks until the Autumn "send season" arrives. We'll also dig deep into these important topics:  What went right and wrong on the almost-send last season How to carry a project over from one season to the next The secret to being a successful route climber Aerobic vs Anaerobic endurance training The science of building route fitness Why many climbers are training endurance wrong So lean into this podcast and learn what actions, exercises, and strat

Many enthusiastic climbers work hard to level up their performance year over year, and some of us invest great time, effort, and resources into pursuing our climbing goals. One powerful tool for gaining a performance edge is the use of a functional medicine approach to blood testing…which is the focus of this episode of the T4C podcast. My expert guest joining us for this episode….is Thomas Cunningham, a Louisville Kentucky-based doctor, who also happens to be a 5.14 climber! Dr. Cunningham is a board-certified physician, researcher, and functional medicine specialist who believes in combining evidence-based medicine, nutrition, and training to improve your health, wellness, and human performance. The specific focus of this podcast is the use of regular blood testing, and how you can potentially use blood test results to adjust your nutrition and training in ways that amplify your efforts, accelerate recovery, boost performance, and enhance your overall health and well-being. RUNDOWN 00:15 – T4C podcast missi