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 193 :: How Bobbi Bensman Is Still Climbing 5.13 at 58
TBP 192 :: How My 68-Yr-Old Mother-In-Law Still Climbs 5.12
TBP 191 :: Matt Pincus on Navigating Training Options if You're in a Plateau
TBP 190 :: Meal Timing for Climbing Performance and Recovery
TBP 189 :: Lucie Hanes- Running and Climbing and Eating Disorder Recovery
TBP 188 :: Rest - How Much Is Too Much and Navigating the Holidays
TBP 187 :: Matt Samet on Training and Climbing Hard at 50 and Route Development
TBP 186 :: Dr. Tyler Nelson's New Injury Prevention and Warm-Up Protocol
TBP 185 :: Running for Climbing Fitness: Does It Work? And How to Avoid Common Mistakes
TBP 184 :: Carbs for Climbers - How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why
TBP 183 :: How to Break Into 5.13 with Alex Stiger
TBP 182 :: How He Climbs Outside 4 Days a Week With a Demanding Job
TBP 181 :: Understanding and Assessing Your Injuries with Dr. Evan Ingerson
TBP 180: Grades - How to Keep Your Ego in Check with Matt Pincus
TBP 179 :: How Small Changes to Her Diet Led to Big Changes in Her Climbing
TBP 178 :: Making the Most Out of A Bad Gym Session
TBP 177 :: Lor Sabourin on Coming Out + Mindset Advice for Climbers
Neely Quinn on The Nugget Climbing Podcast with Steven Dimmitt
TBP 176 :: The Art of Trying Hard in Climbing
TBP 175: Protein for Climbers 101 – How Much, What Kind, Timing, and Why
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