The TrainingBeta Podcast: A Climbing Training Podcast
Sports:Wilderness
Back in April, I published an episode with Thomas Cunningham all about how he trains efficiently as a busy dad and ER physician to be able to send up to 5.14c projects in only 10-15 days outside climbing per year. You can listen to that episode in the link below:
Listen to my first interview with Thomas
In that episode, we started talking about how he uses the Whoop (a wearable bio tracking device), continuous glucose meters, and some other biohacking type stuff, but the interview would’ve been reallllly long if we’d gone into all of it in details. So I asked him to come back for a second interview to talk about all of that. We’ll be doing another one soon on using bloodwork to optimize supplementation, etc. for climbing performance soon.
So who is Thomas?
Thomas is a 36-year-old emergency medicine physician and father of 3 children from Louisville, KY who’s been climbing for around 20 years. After talking to him for a while, I realized he is SUPER scientific about everything he does in climbing. This is no surprise because he’s quite an overachiever in his academic/professional life as well.
He’s published a bunch of academic papers, he was chief resident at the University of Louisville Department of Emergency Medicine a while back, and WHILE he was doing that, he started a medical device company, Inscope Medical, and was VP of Innovations. He also completed an IronMan while he was an intern resident.
Here is his CV if you’re interested.
He’s an ambitious person, to say the least, and that means he has less time than some of us for climbing and training.
Only getting outside climbing around 10-15 days per year, and focusing all of that time on very hard projects, he has learned that his training and all of his days outside have to be hyperfocused and specific.
He also has to optimize his body for all the training he does and to be in peak performance mode when he’s trying to send. He’s used a continouse glucose meter (CGM) on himself in the past and he asked Sam Elias and Jonathan Horst to start wearing one in order to help them optimize their fueling for climbing.
He came into this interview with data on both of them (and himself), including what they were eating before using the CGM, the changes they made to their diets after and while using it, and the effects it had on their climbing. The CGM basically takes a reading of your blood glucose every 5 minutes so you can see in real time how each food/meal affects you.
We also talk a little more about the Whoop in this episode, which I’ve now gotten 6 of my friends and family using. It’s really interesting looking at the data each day about your sleep quality/quantity, how recovered you are, your HRV, and all kinds of stuff I’ve never paid attention to before. Thomas goes into how exactly he uses the whoop and how I’ve been using it myself.
This episode was really fun for me because this stuff as a nutritionist is extremely interesting. I hope you love it too!
Oh, and if you want to work with Thomas, you can do that by clicking on the link below:
Work with Thomas on Your Own Biohacking
TBP 235 :: How to Get Better at Climbing by Watching World Cups
TBP 232: A Roadmap and a Checklist for Sending Route Projects Faster
TBP 231: Common Sense Energy Systems Training with Alex and Matt
TBP 230 :: Alex Stiger on How to Approach the Different Angles of Climbing
TBP 229: Thomas Cunningham Climbs 14c as an ER Doc and Father of 3
TBP 228 :: Majka Burhardt on Being a Pro Climber while Raising Twins
TBP 227: How to Stay Motivated (Almost) All the Time with Alex Stiger
TBP 226: How Bridget Roell Went from 13a to 14a with Coach Matt Pincus
TBP 225 :: Dr. Tyler Nelson on Unlevel Grips for Finger Injuries and Training
TBP 224 :: Dr. Jen Dragonette's Psychological Tools for Climbers
TBP 223 :: How to Be a Stronger, Better Boulderer
TBP 222 :: Breaking into 5.12 Climbing with Coach Alex Stiger
TBP 221: Good Crag Etiquette for Great Climbing Days
TBP 220 :: Tactics for Sending Long Pumpy Routes with Coach Alex Stiger
TBP 219 :: How David Farkas Changed His Nutrition to Improve His Climbing
TBP 218: Intermittent Fasting and The Keto Diet for Climbers
TBP 217 :: Kevin Roet on Climbing Psychology for Optimal Performance
TBP 216 :: Hazel Findlay on Overcoming the Most Common Fears in Climbing
TBP 215: How We’ve Grown as Coaches Over the Years (Matt, Alex, Neely)
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