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 095 :: Zahan Billimoria on Alpine Training with Minimal Equipment
TBP 094 :: Esther Smith - Treating Knee and Hip Injuries in Climbers
TBP 093 :: Matt Pincus on Training Through Injuries and Transitioning from Bouldering to Routes
TBP 092 :: Dr. Jared Vagy's 4-Step Pyramid for Healing Injuries
TBP 091 :: Tom Randall and Ollie Torr on How Their Training Research Can Help Us
TBP 090 :: Charlie Manganiello on Training for Multiple Sports
TBP 089 :: Paige Claassen on What It Took to Send 5.14c
TBP 088 :: How Adam Ondra Sent The World's First 9c / 5.15d
TBP 087 :: Paige Claassen Spells Out How To Successfully Project A Route
TBP 086 :: How Paige Claassen Trained for Roof Climbing in Flatanger, Norway
TBP 085 :: Esther Smith - Neck and Back Injuries in Climbers
TBP 084 :: Dr. Tyler Nelson on Injury Rehab and Blood Flow Restriction Training
TBP 083 :: Maureen Beck Climbs 5.11+ with One Hand
TBP 082 :: Lee Sheftel on Climbing 5.13 into His 70's
TBP 081 :: Skin Care for Climbers with Justin Brown of Rhino Skin Solutions
TBP 080 :: Steve Bechtel on How to Create Your Own Training Plan
TBP 079 :: Daniel Woods on Training, Comps, Life Stuff, and The Pressure to Send
TBP 078 :: Natasha Barnes Tells Us The 4 Best Lifts for Climbers
TBP 077 :: The Best Supplements for Climbers with Shannon O'Grady
TBP 076 :: Esther Smith on How to Heal Your Finger Injury
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