Alvaro Rangel, Al, is back on the podcast after 2+ years! Al was one of the first guests and one of the best. The last podcast we did was incredible, but somehow Al managed to top it with today’s episode. He is the founder and head coach of Team Class 5 in San Diego, CA. Al is also part of the Team USA coaching staff and supports the team at World …

Matt Heyliger guides me through rehab for a minor A2 pulley injury. We talk about how the injury happened, what I should have done to nip it in the bud, the remodeling phase, when to do density hangs, when it's ok to push it, thoughts on taping, pain threshold testing, acupressure rings, how to climb around a pulley injury, and more. Stay tuned for…

Fundamentals Season 2 (Part 5 of 6) — Injuries suck. And unfortunately, they happen to most of us who push against our limits. In part 5, we talk about what to do when you get injured. We cover the emotional and psychological side of injuries and share some tips and pitfalls to help you get back to climbing stronger than ever. Listen to more Fundam…

Melina Costanza is an 8x US National Champion. Sometimes as a youth, sometimes as a collegiate, sometimes in Open, sometimes in bouldering, sometimes in lead, sometimes both. Yes, last year at Open Nationals (2023) she won both Bouldering and Lead. She is set to compete in the 2024 Open Nationals coming up in a week, so after you listen to this pod…

Molly Beard was the first female L5 routesetter in the US. We talked about what climbing gyms were like in the 90s, how she got started in routesetting, learning the language of movement, getting her L5, dealing with misogyny, staying up to speed on setting trends, how to have longevity as a routesetter, budgeting your body dollars, advice for youn…

Ward Byrum is the Director of Routesetting for all Movement gyms in the East Region. Yes, that Movement. The biggest climbing gym chain in America and probably the world. That means that Ward and his team decide what the climbing will be like for thousands of climbers. Scratch that, ten’s of thousands of climbers. It might even be hundreds of thous…

Fundamentals Season 2 (Part 4 of 6) — Everybody wants stronger fingers. In this episode, Jesse and I share our top tips and pitfalls when it comes to building functional finger strength for climbing. We cover our favorite finger training methods, key principles to follow, how to apply your strength to the rock, how to avoid finger injuries, the pow…

Tom Randall is an iconic climber and founder. You might know him as one of the Wide Boyz, as one of the founders of Lattice Training, as a high level coach, or for his 5.14 Trad FA’s or even his FA of the worlds hardest crack boulder, aptly named “The Kraken” [V13]. Ya, Tom’s done it all, and has helped the best in the world do it even better. In t…

Alex Megos is a German professional climber and a living legend. He recorded this podcast from the Flatanger campground during his recent sending spree in Norway. We talked about sending Change 9b+, why he is practicing his kneebar skills, future 9b+ and 9c projects, what it meant to him to send Bibliographie, his America Tour in 2013, how onsighti…

Another phone call with Ron Kauk. Donate to Sacred Rok if you wish: sacredrok.orgOleh Ron Kauk

David Fitzgerald is back after an absolutely incredible season. Dave was previously on for Testpiece Episode #55, a total fan favorite. Last season Dave had a list of climbs in different styles to tackle. Tierrany, a V14 endurance bloc in Yosemite. Equanimity, a V15 ultra tech testpiece in Tahoe. Lucid Dreaming, the V15+ straight forward power prob…

Fundamentals Season 2 (Part 3 of 6) — In part 3, we step into the weight room. We cover weight training fundamentals, including the SAID principle, progressive overload, RPE, autoregulation, the big 4, and the rule of 10. We also discuss why we both lift, why climbers should train differently than weight lifters, programming ideas, common mistakes,…

Girls Gone Hueco is an all-female bouldering film now available on Vimeo. In this episode, I sit down with V11 climber Midori Buechli and filmmaker Long Truong to discuss the making of the film, the power of climbing with a girl gang, hidden costs of making a film, trash can showers, pad-less sends, imposter syndrome, advice for aspiring filmmakers…

Garrett Gregor was the head routesetter for the Paris Olympics boulders! That’s all you need to know. Just stop reading this description and start listening now. Garrett is also an accomplished competitor, placing as high as 4th at Nationals, an experienced coach at the legendary Team ABC, and did we mention he’s an elite routesetter?! IFSC Level 5…

Yves Gravelle returns to the podcast to help me get stronger fingers. We talked about my current finger strength goal, how to build a 3-month training program, best joint angles for edge lifting, limiting factors, the challenge for climbers with building finger strength, forearm hypertrophy exercises, how to know when you need more rest, how to com…

Dr. Tyler Nelson is the founder of Camp 4 Human Performance, a company focused on bringing the principles of sport science to climbing. Tyler is focused on being a cutting edge resource for training and rehabilitation of climbers. This means he is always knee deep in research papers from all sorts of sports and asking how we might apply those lesso…

Fundamentals Season 2 (Part 2 of 6) — In part 2, we share our top tips for training on spray walls and home walls. We cover training setup considerations, route setting tips, best apps for saving and sharing climbs, mastering benchmark climbs, how to iterate on your climbs for incremental progress, hacks for building a home wall on a budget, and mo…

Dr. Amy Frugé (DPT) is a former Martial Arts World Champion, rock climber, and the founder of Converge Physical Therapy. We talked about extremity and finger pain from unusual sources, how to maintain a healthy spine, how emotions and stress affect our pain, psychedelic experiences, the pain, tension, and fear triangle, ways to empty your stress bu…

This is the episode to learn everything about one of, if not the, most important parts of our climbing kit — chalk! The real topic here is how to maximize friction between your hands and the holds, which is crucial for sending your hardest. Kevin Brown joins the pod and goes deep on the science of how to get the best friction on holds. He talks abo…

Professional climber, coach, routesetter, and frequent Testpiece podcast guest, Tim Kang, is on the pod this week to share his thoughts about the Paris 2024 Olympics. Tim may be best known for his highball ascents that culminated in the film Focus, but Tim is also a seasoned competition climber with multiple World Cups under his belt. Tim loves com…

Fundamentals Season 2 (Part 1 of 6) — In this episode, Jesse and I each share our top tips and pitfalls for how to climb on a training board, such as a Tension Board, Moonboard, Kilter Board, Grasshopper Board, etc. This episode contains nuggets for folks who are just getting started with board climbing, as well as seasoned board lords. Listen to m…

We're back with Fundamentals Season 2! Jesse Firestone joins me again for six new episodes covering some of the fundamental elements of becoming a better climber. In season 2, we'll dive deeper into several important aspects of training, injury recovery, and how to break plateaus. Stay tuned for more episodes coming soon. Listen to Fundamentals epi…

Tom O’Halloran is arguably the best climber in Australia. He’s an Olympian, he’s climbed 15a and v14, and done FA’s nearly up to those grades as well. But the reason we wanted to have him on the podcast is because of the amazing YouTube content he puts out. He dives into the nuances of hard climbing in a way that actually helps people climb hard. T…

Allison Vest joins me to talk about the Paris Olympics! We talked about our biggest surprises from the men’s and women’s combined semifinals, our thoughts on the route setting, what defines an “electric” boulder, why speed was so great to watch, heartbreaking results, men’s and women’s combined finals, who we are most excited to see bring their Oly…

Ethan Salvo is back on the podcast! Ethan's first episode (linked here) was a fan favorite so when Josh visited Squamish for a few days they met up do an impromptu live/in-person recording. Since the last recording, Ethan has climbed arguably the hardest climb in Squamish, The Singularity. The experience he had on it was fascinating and made him qu…

Natalia Grossman is a World Champion and 3x overall World Cup winner and will compete for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. We talked about spending time in Mexico as a kid, her breakout year in 2021, dealing with public criticism, working on her mindset, how to win without being the strongest person competing, hard outdoor sends and goals, her happi…

Noah Wheeler and Benn Wheeler represent the next generation of climbers. At 21 and 19, they are some of the strongest board climbers in the world and their styles reflect that. They also are bring a unique point of view to the world of climbing content with their YouTube channel, Wheel Rock. These brothers have climbed up to V16 outdoors, FA’d up V…

Colin Duffy is a 2x Olympian, 3x World Cup winner, and V16 boulderer from Colorado. We talked about puzzles, studying applied math, early competitions, joining Team ABC, getting 70th in his first open event, learning how to lose gracefully, qualifying and competing in Tokyo, how the Olympic scoring has changed, his strategy for Paris, future outdoo…

AJ has been competing at the highest level for decades. She has won multiple Bouldering World Cups and she climbs just as hard outdoors with her iconic send of The Swarm (v13/14) in Bishop which was recently featured in Reel Rock. AJ also coaches some of the top up and coming Youth Athletes (one of her athletes recently won Nationals), through her …

Emma Hunt is the US speed climbing record holder and will compete in the Paris Olympics. We talked about her intro to speed climbing, how strong you have to be for speed climbing, speed training, how speed shoes compare to other climbing shoes, her mental game and strategy in comps, prejudice against speed in the climbing world, whether the speed r…

Drew Ruana is one of the strongest boulders in the world. Period. He over a hundred V14+ sends, and lots of then are V16. While some other climbers may have that amount of blocs under their belt, no one has accumulated this many in such a short time. Drew goes into his infamous “Send Colorado” journey, which is his goal to send all V14 and up bould…

Shauna Coxsey is the most successful competition climber in the UK and the first British woman to climb V12, V13, and V14. We talked about becoming a mom, sitting in and sharing our emotions, human nature and the joy of climbing, inspiration vs. aspiration, motivation vs. commitment, competing in Tokyo, retiring from comps, sending Hazel Grace V14 …

Felipe Camargo is one of the top climbers in our sport with sends up to 9b and V15. That’s impressive… But what’s more impressive is that he began climbing Brazil where there was no professional climbers, no routes past 8b+, and no modern training facilities. Felipe managed to send the iconic 50m 9a+ Papichulo by mainly training on a 3x3m spray wal…

Josh Hadley is a leading flexibility coach in climbing and the face behind the Lattice YouTube Channel. I’ve struggled with stretching routines over the years, and this episode completely changed my flexibility training. In this episode, Josh shares his top 4 stretches for inflexible climbers and introduces key concepts like chasing horizontal, wei…

Tim Kang is a frequent guest on the podcast, but now you get to hear him do a more typical interview. Tim is a professional climber and coach that has competed at the World Cup level, won a Psicobloc competition, climbed v14 and 5.14d, but he is best known for his daring sends of the wildest highballs in Bishop which culminated in the popular film …

How are granite climbing holds made? Are there benefits to training on rock? In this episode, I am joined by Mads Bulow Duus and Pawel Rogowski from Nature Climbing. We go behind the scenes on the origin story of their brand, the craftsmanship behind their beautiful products, how to build a successful brand, training and skin conditioning on granit…

Greg Loh was one of the strongest boulders in the world during the mid 90’s and early 00’s. He traveled all over the world putting up FA’s of V13+ and climbing with the best. He competed in WC’s, the X-Games, and even won Nationals twice for speed climbing. He is known for being one of the first people who truly embraced bouldering as a discipline …

Justen Sjong (The Climbing Sensei) is a world-class climber and coach who specializes in technique and mental game. This episode is a technique masterclass. We talk about the four stages of technique, how to practice any new skill, how to send faster, his goal to climb 9a before 60, and Justen coaches me on how to float on the wall using his drop-d…

In this episode, I crack open a beer with Tony Bell and David Bress, the two founders of Revival Climbing Coalition. The two of them installed my dream home wall in 2.5 hours and I was blown away by the craftsmanship and elegance of the design. We talked about their backgrounds, how they bootstrapped a climbing wall business, what sets their produc…

Entitlement is the opposite of flow and perhaps the most damaging frame to have over the long term in your climbing. This can come from training, previous sends, or comp placement. Hear stories about Daniel Woods and other pro-climbers who have avoided this frame. And hear from Tim Kang and Josh Horsley about how they coach others and themselves to…

Jana Švecová is a professional rock climber from the Czech Republic who has emerged as one of the top female boulderers in the world. We talked about her upbringing and her early success in competitions, her pivot to outdoor bouldering, her inspiration for choosing ‘Terranova’ 8C+/V16 as a project, making the first ascent of ‘Nova’ 8C/V15, using he…

We love board climbing. And if you do too, or even if you are just board curious, this episode it for you. The history of boards, board training, board ethics, board best practices, the future of boards. BOARDS!! This was a special in person recording in Colorado with part of the Tension Climbing crew (Will Anglin, Michael Rosato, and Quinn Spadafo…

Aidan Roberts returns to the podcast! Aidan is at the cutting edge of bouldering and is one of the most genuine people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to. We talk about professional climbing and today’s media landscape, and he brings us up to speed on the last year and a half of his climbing and shares the full stories of ‘Spots of Time’ and ‘Arri…

Dave Burleson is one of the top agents for professional climbers. He's part of Reppa Athlete Managment that represents athletes like Sean Bailey, Nathaniel Coleman, Nina Williams, Jesse Grupper… the list goes on, but all of them have been on the podcast so we put them here first! Before being an agent, Dave worked at the iconic brands Petzl and The…

Paul Houghoughi (The Climbing Physio) returns for our promised part 2! This was every bit as good as our first episode. In part 2 we focused on how to build bulletproof knees and hamstrings for heel hooks, how to prevent shoulder injuries, how to strengthen and mobilize your neck and back, some of the most common changes to climber’s bodies as we a…

Keenan betrays his mustache by revealing its deepest secrets, and then talks about his experience with 'Insomniac' V16, his trips to Japan, what stood out to him about the Japanese climbing culture, favorite anime, home wall dreams, footwork tips, and his nearest misses while highballing and how they changed his feelings about future highballs. Bec…

Episode #100!!!! Thank you all for the support. What a journey it’s been. This episode was an absolute banger that encapsulates a lot of the Testpiece message. Tim and Josh break down the ‘Simple’ path that the best climbers follow to being great. And then they detail the appropriate role that strength plays in this path. They also go over the late…

Keenan Takahashi is one of the top boulders in the world. We talked about the origin story of his clothing company ANTIGRAV, the importance of carving out space for creativity, establishing his latest V15 FA ‘The Gold Standard’, watching Sean Bailey send ‘Devilution’, unclimbed king lines in Bishop, shifting his focus to meaningful hard climbs, his…

Nina Williams pushes the limits in every discipline of climbing there is… comps, bouldering, highball bouldering, big wall, sport climbing, and even free soloing. In this episode she takes us through a harrowing experience she had while free soloing the Casual Route of the Diamond, a multi pitch 5.10. Nina ended up off route during the climb and th…

Alannah Yip is a professional climber from Canada who competed at the Tokyo Olympics. We talked about getting diagnosed with alopecia and the emotional journey of losing her hair, taking back her power, preparing for the Olympic Qualifying Series, lessons from Tokyo, mantras for slab boulders, her involvement with IFSC policies to prevent eating di…