Coach Lauren Abernathy on Succeeding at More Than One Sport
Date: April 15th, 2021
ANNOUNCEMENT!
We recently released our new bouldering training program, which has 3 levels of training to choose from and between 32 and 36 fully laid-out training sessions for you. It covers strength, power, skills, and work capacity and was written by Coach Matt Pincus. Learn more here.
About Lauren Abernathy
Lauren Abernathy is a climbing coach out of Salt Lake City who recently left her corporate job to be a full-time coach. You can find her at www.goodsprayclimbing.com. In this interview we talk about how her transition to being a full-time coach has been for her (spoiler: it’s going really well and she loves it). Lauren is a passionate skier as well as a climber, so we also talk about how she’s learned to effectively do both at the same time.
She’s had some great success with her clients, many of whom don’t have much time for training, so she lets us in on some tips for how to train when you’re super busy with other stuff. This one is full of little nuggets of wisdom that you can apply to your life right now, and Lauren’s excitement and passion for climbing is infectious. I really enjoyed talking with her.
If you want to learn more from Lauren…
She’s offering $100 off her new Crush It: Sport Climbing training program right now. Or you can check out her other services on her site.
Lauren Abernathy Interview Details
- Going from corporate world to full-time climbing coach
- How to ski and train for climbing at the same time
- Minimalist finger strength training success stories
- Tips for busy climbers on how to fit training into schedule
- The biggest lessons she’s learned through coaching people
Lauren Abernathy Links
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Transcript
Neely Quinn
Welcome to the Training Beta podcast where I talk with climbers and trainers about how we can get a little better at our favorite sports. I’m your host, Neely Quinn. And I want to remind you that the Training Beta podcast is actually an offshoot of a website, I created Trainingbeta.com. Over there, you’ll find tons of resources, all about training for climbing, including training programs, and we have our new bouldering program, which we’re really excited about.
You can find that at Trainingbeta.com/bouldering. But we also have a route climbing training program, finger strength programs, an at home training program, as well as online personal coaching. So you can find all of that at Trainingbeta.com.
So tiny update on me, I’ve been getting outside climbing, which has been fun and challenging, both mentally and physically, it’s hard to take a lot of time off climbing and then come back to it and have these expectations of your body that your body just cannot deliver. So I’m trying to contend with that and just be patient with the process. I am having another wrist surgery next week, which I’m kind of excited about. I have this piece of hardware, it’s like a button in my wrist holding the sutures on to my bone. And it’s really hurting me. And my doctor thinks that if I take it out, I will feel better. So I told him to please do it ASAP. And so he’s doing it next week. And hopefully that means that I’ll be able to start training more and climbing a little bit harder.
So moving on to today’s episode, I have Lauren Abernathy on the show, she’s great. If you have never met her heard of her, definitely follow her on Instagram @goodspraycoaching.
Her website is goodsprayclimbing.com. It used to be Cinderella story, but she changed it. And she went from being a full time corporate engineer to now being a full time climbing coach because she’s so passionate about it. And she has been passionate about it for a really long time. So I talked with her about how that transition has gone for her with becoming a coach full time and leaving her job and actually moving to a different state. And it’s going really well for her and she loves it.
And I know that there are a lot of people out there who are like, could I become a climbing coach. And so she is evidence that yes, you definitely can and make it work for yourself. But we also talk about how to be more than just a climber. Not that that’s not enough. But a lot of times people want to do more than one sport, whether it’s running or skiing or mountain biking. And Lauren second passion is skiing. And so she talks about how she makes both of them work, how she ended up skiing quite a bit this season, and also continued to train for climbing. Not without some hiccups along the way and so she´ll talk about those.
She’s also going to talk about some finger strength training success stories, which we always love to hear about, and how that has helped people climb better. And the sort of protocols that she uses, which are pretty minimalistic, we talked about a bunch of things. She’s full of wisdom, and she’s got such a great attitude and spirit about her. I hope that you enjoy this. Oh, also, she has a new sport climbing training program available that she just created. Sounds like she worked really hard on it. So if you go to her website at goodsprayclimbing.com and then go to the programs area, she’s currently giving everybody $100 off, because it’s a new program. And that’s where you can sign up to work with her if you like what she’s all about. So here’s Lauren, and enjoy. And I’ll talk to you on the other side.
All right, welcome to the show. Lauren. Thanks very much for being with me today.
Lauren Abernathy
Thanks, Neely. I’m excited to be here.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. So for anybody who doesn’t know who you are, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Lauren Abernathy
Sure thing. So my name is Lauren Abernathy. I am originally from Ohio. I started out my post college career with my chemical engineering degree working for a big company first as a manufacturing engineer, and then a corporate project engineer. I always loved climbing throughout it. And I started a blog about rock climbing. And as of last September, I actually left my job to become a full time climbing coach and run my business Good Spray Climbing. So it’s been a wild ride these past few months, but it’s been really awesome too.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, well first, congratulations on that. That’s a huge step. It’s very bold and very brave. And it seems like you were just really following your passions.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, it’s it’s definitely a lot better to spend my days like even if like you — If I feel sometimes that I work more having flexibility to do what makes sense for playing outside and my schedule, and also doing stuff that makes me really happy is super awesome. So very, very glad I took the leap, even though yeah, it was definitely scary and sometimes like still is, but it’s good.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. And for people who don’t know what was what is your blog?
Lauren Abernathy
Um, it is — it used to be Cinderellastory.com, but I found that that was super hard for people to spell, so I changed the name of my company to good spray. So now you can find my blog at goodsprayclimbing.com
Neely Quinn
And what — What steps did you take to become a climbing coach?
Lauren Abernathy
Right? So it kind of started out with people in my local gym, just noticing that I sort of knew what’s up. They were like: she´s always running around with a notebook doing things. And also she’s sending things like what’s going on here? And then, you know, friends at the climbing gym were like, could you help you help me? And I’m like, I have none qualifications at the moment. But yes. And then I kind of just started like coaching my friends a little bit. And then I realized that I was kind of good at it, and people were enjoying it and progressing. And then and then the climbing gyms sort of approached me and asked like, would you want to come on as a coach that never ended up coming to fruition for many different reasons.
But then I realized like, Oh, I should get a, you know, certification in personal training. Like I’ve always had a passion for fitness anyway, like, this could be a really a really fun thing. And then, yeah, as I and I guess, I’ve just always been like a training nerd. Like I’ve probably consumed training content for basically all my time that I spent commuting to, and from my old work, was listening to climbing podcasts or fitness podcasts, and just using that time to absorb tons of information. So I think I like self educated for years before I even started doing anything in a more official capacity. So yeah, and then then I realized that I wanted to make this a full time thing. And my fiance, and I didn’t want to continue living in New Jersey anymore. So the thought was like, well, I’ll just quit and find a new job. And we’ll move out to Salt Lake City. And maybe I’ll like, try to do this on the side, in the meantime, and then I realized that I actually had a lot of people to work with me. And yeah, and then I was like, No, this is a full time thing. We’re doing it. And so now, now I’m out in Salt Lake City, coaching a lot of rock climbers. So yeah,
Neely Quinn
Also, congrats on that, again, very bold move. Very brave. And I think a lot of people are like, that’s what I want to do.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely like, it’s a big, it’s a big risk to take. And you have to take a lot of steps and make sure you know, you know, what’s up. I also have a business coach, too. So I work with Chelsey Moran over at LadyBetaCoaching. Yeah, I don’t think I would have known how to run a business unless someone actually taught me. So it’s been good to kind of like, learn how to have a business because being a good coach and being good business owner, kind of like two very different skill sets when it comes down to it. So yeah, a lot of things you got to know.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, it seems like you must have had some savings in order to take this leap. Or did you?
Lauren Abernathy
I did, I was always — like I did an interview with, he has a blog called ClippingChain. So I’ve always been, that was the other thing. I was a really big personal finance nerd, too. So it was either like climbing training podcasts or personal finance, because I just hated my job that much. Sorry, old job. Some things were awesome. But a lot of things were super not awesome. Um, so yeah, it just was a lot of time thinking, you know, like, my fiance and I were both kind of like finance nerds together. So we were really figuring it out. But yeah, I just spent all my time learning about what would become my potential career and how to have you know, a runway so that I could leave the world that I didn’t enjoy as soon as possible. I was like, I want to retire in 10 years if I can. So, but now I don’t feel like I want to retire 10 years because my job is really fun. So yeah.
Neely Quinn
Big statement. Actually, how old are you?
Lauren Abernathy
I just turned 26.
Neely Quinn
Okay. Wow, that would be an ambitious endeavor. retiring in 10 years. That’s impressive.
Lauren Abernathy
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Neely Quinn
Oh, go ahead.
Lauren Abernathy
I guess if you ever want to go down the like financial independence rabbit hole, like there’s just like, go — just google financial independence and you might find a couple of podcasts and then you’ll find find some wild things like I had a co worker who, he was an engineer, but he retired when he was like 31, but also this man, he was kind of the one that introduced me to like, did you know that if you’re good at finance, you can like not do this job that we both hate forever. But he would do things like eat half of a can of Campbell’s Soup one day and then eat the other half the next day. So like, there was some levels of, you know, finance management that I was like, I’m not willing to do that. I need to eat a lot of food.
Neely Quinn
Yeah that´s extreme. It´s really extreme.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. So but yeah, that’s a whole that’s a whole rabbit hole and Clipping Chains is a really good blog if you’re into that sort of thing. But yeah, no, it doesn’t need to be like that, though.
Neely Quinn
Right. But 26 I think that’s when a lot of people can relate with being like, you know, I went to college for this thing. I started working in this field, and I don’t really like it. And so figuring out what your passion is, and following that, and being smart about it, it’s Yeah, it’s great. Congrats.
Lauren Abernathy
Thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah, it’s definitely it’s been awesome so far, for sure.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. So today, we’re gonna talk a little bit more about how it’s gotten for you. Because I think a lot of people are probably interested in like, is she being successful with this, because I think there are a lot of other people who want to be coaches and don’t really know how to go about it. But also, you’re a multi sport athlete, and we’re going to talk about that a little bit. And some other fun stuff that you’ve learned along the way.
Lauren Abernathy
Sounds good.
Neely Quinn
So a little bit more about your business? Are you finding that you’re getting enough clients and making enough sales? Like, how is that going? And you don’t obviously have to get into details at all. But like, is this fulfilling your expectations?
Lauren Abernathy
Totally, yeah, so I actually, I found that so I kind of have, I guess I’ll describe like the different like levels of working with me that I’ve kind of been able to manage my workload. So I have like, a lot of my athletes are on more of like a self guided like email support type of thing where we just like converse with each other once a week via email. And then I have other athletes where we have like regular zoom calls. And, you know, we — you can message me anytime. And then I also have a group program running right now that’s about to end. I’m so sad. But it’s been a combo program with my colleague and friend who is a nutritionist, Caitlin Holmes, and then our, and then me running a training sort of side of it. So everyone has a training program and a nutrition program. So those are kind of all in a like, container as well.
But yeah, I definitely found there was a point of overwhelm. I think I figured out like my number of people that are like, reporting to me, if you will, as like my max, and I think at the most I’ve had, like 35. And that’s been like, okay, like at different levels of like communicating with me regularly. But yeah, there was a point where I was like, I am updating 15 training plans a week. So I think I’ve figured out like what a good like, manageable workload is for athletes. So yeah, but definitely finding that I certainly have enough. And then just talking with people, and you know, I do a lot of like work on social media to make sure that I’m putting out like, helpful content regularly. And I think that helps me connect with people pretty often. So yeah, you got to put in a lot of work to like talk to people, like, it’s not a if you build it, they will come sort of thing. It’s kind of like, you need to be regularly contributing, like, helpful information and talking to people and connecting with people in different ways. So that you can, you know, build relationships and you know, those relationships might turn into athletes that want to work with you.
Neely Quinn
Right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s a lot of athletes. I know that that. Yeah.
Lauren Abernathy
I was like, I have income goals, let’s rage. And then I was like, this is a lot of people think I figured out like, what’s, what’s a good amount for me now, personally, at least where I’m at, presently, in my stage of coaching. So..
Neely Quinn
And it’s, I’m sure you’ve learned a lot in that time. It’s kind of like a crash course. Right? You’re like, I don’t know that much about coaching people, because I haven’t done it that much. And now you have like all of these people under your belt, and I bet that you’ve learned how to train people and that time, a lot better.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, cuz at first I was like, you kind of know, like, the theory of what needs to happen with programming for people. But then as you do it, you you learn like, Huh, that’s gonna be confusing, or like, you just kind of learn like generally how people react to different sorts of things, and also, how people tick in terms of goal setting and you kind of start developing like, I don’t want to say like, you end up putting people in boxes, but there’s different like archetypes that pop up as far as different athletes go, and you can kind of tell like, this person reminds me of this person. I bet that’s gonna work for them. And then yeah, just like having a bunch of different people from different backgrounds to work with with different goals has been really cool and learned, learned a ton and now I feel much more much more seasoned than when I took my first like, none friendships athletes. So it’s been really; It’s been really cool for sure.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, for sure. And I want to talk more about what you’ve learned in a few, you know, tips for people. But also I want to give you kudos because it seems like you’re putting your own training into your own climbing and seeing some success, right?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, for sure.
Neely Quinn
So tell me about your I know that you had a finger injury kind of recently.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, I guess it was. It was like 2020 was certainly the year of, of climbing being sometimes disappointing. But yeah, so basically, right before I was leaving, like, I finally left my job last September, and I was really psyched. I was like, I’m gonna go get to, like, live in a couple of places for you know, six weeks at a time. And a week before I left. I really goofed up my middle finger. So I injured the cartilage in my left, middle finger. And I was like, I just trained, like, I finally got to get back into a climbing gym to like, train for real. And then my finger was done. So yeah, it was an interesting, it was an interesting fall for those first six weeks, but then it did end up getting better. And things went, things went better for me in the Red River Gorge than they did. Yeah, I guess just a backup, I went to Romney, New Hampshire for about six weeks. And then I went to the Red River Gorge for another six weeks or so.
Neely Quinn
And that was after your finger was healed.
Lauren Abernathy
Um, it was it was basically like Romney was spent doing a ton of rehab and like, keeping it somewhat mellow while climbing outside and then the Red River Gorge is where I finally got to take the take the wheels off and start trying hard again. So —
Neely Quinn
And then you had some success there.
Lauren Abernathy
I did. So I got to — my goal for 2020, before all of the all of the things that befell us was to send my first 13a, and then then a lot of 2020, was spent on the hangboard with some kettlebells. And then I got to get in the gym a little bit. And in the Red River Gorge, after getting to project something, and having a finger that was finally functioning, I ended up sending my first 12d, which was Jesus Wept.
Neely Quinn
Nice. Good job. Thanks. So it seems like your finger rehab worked. And it seems like with finger rehab, you can get stronger in the process because finger rehab involves hangboarding Is that what you did?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, so I worked with Tyler Nelson on a rehab protocol, essentially. So while I was in New Hampshire, I just did a lot of just a lot of hanging for a long these like 45 second hangs on a really big edge, but it definitely helped keep my keep my strength up throughout it. And I still was able to by the end of my trip to New Hampshire, I was able to put down a couple of 5.12´s pretty quickly. So it was nice to like, put some of those on the board. And like you know, get back to where I was sending before — before heading off to do the red and then by the time I got there, it felt like really good and fortunately, I didn’t have like a big pulley injury or anything like that.
But it was like when I started rehab, I could not hang on a 20 millimeter edge for even two seconds. And like to put it in perspective, I think I before that, I would be able to hang like 55 or 60 pounds on a 20 millimeter edge for 10 seconds. And then injury happened. Can’t use a 20 millimeter all and then by the end of it, I was pretty much like back — maybe not fully, fully back to like where my finger strength was pre injury but like, close enough. And fortunately, the Red River Gorge, like Jesus Wept has like some pockets, but it’s not, you know, it’s not necessarily like a slabby crimpy situation where, you know, I needed to have like full full crimp strength. So I think I was able to choose some beta wisely and make it work even with a not full strength finger.
Neely Quinn
Right? Yeah. Well, that’s great, thankfully, up and up for you for at least a while. Yeah, we all get injured someday. Yeah, so one of the things we wanted to talk about was how people can be multi sport athletes, because part of the reason that you moved to Salt Lake City was so that you can ski right?
Lauren Abernathy
Right.
Neely Quinn
And so when you say you told me that you’re a multi sport athlete, but is is it just skiing and climbing? Or are there others as well?
Lauren Abernathy
I’m for right now is just skiing and climbing. My friends keep trying to get me into mountain biking, but an embarrassing fun fact about me is that I can’t ride a bike. So that’s probably not happening.
Neely Quinn
I don´t think I have ever heard anybody say that. You just can’t ride a bike?
Lauren Abernathy
Okay, so you know, they say it’s like riding a bike. It’s like I used to know when I was seven. And then I ended up working at an extreme sport summer camp. And I was actually like the camp counselor for a bunch of little like 10 year old girls that absolutely tear it up on BMX bikes. And they’re supposed to be like a staff, BMX race. And all my little camp girls were like: Oh, you have to do it. Lauren, you have to beat everyone. And I had to, like, stare at these 10 year olds in the eye and be like, So guys, I and like, I’ve never seen a group of little kids lose respect so fast. They still thought it was cool. But they’re like, you can’t ride a bike. And they’re just like, you know, doing tabletop jumps on BMX bikes. I’m like, No, sure can’t. And they’re like, but you’re doing flips off the ski ramp, but I’m like, No, I know. I know, guys. Well, yeah, I think I’m sticking to skiing and climbing. Those I won’t hurt myself.
Neely Quinn
Well, totally. Yeah. So this is something that I think that a lot of people are, like, kind of struggle with. And I’ve had nutrition clients who want to do both at the same time in the winter. And I have to always ask them to sort of taper one down for a while. But so let’s talk about that. What is the ski season for you?
Lauren Abernathy
So this was my first season actually living somewhere where it wasn’t, you know, New Jersey or Ohio level of ski season. So that’s fun. Um, but I would say usually, like, probably what will be typical for salt lake city would be maybe December through March. And maybe I mean, I think I might be going skiing today. So there’s still like, a little bit that can go on in April, too. But I would say if I had to give an estimate, December through March would be when I want to be skiing two or three days a week in a —
Neely Quinn
Okay. And so does that mean that you’re not climbing very much during that time? Or are you doing both pretty intensely?
Lauren Abernathy
I would say how it ended up working this season was I was kind of in — I’m super in training mode. Well, I’m about to get out of training mode and go try to send the things. But I would say yeah, it was pretty much like climbing training mode, and then going skiing, and just trying to figure out how much rest I needed around all of that. And also figuring out what can I what sessions can happen, like on a ski day or the day after a ski day, and what kind of sessions will not work if I’m super tired from skiing, so that was kind of the grand, I called it my experiment and running myself into the ground. But fortunately, I ended up I ended up being pretty okay.
Neely Quinn
That’s good.
Lauren Abernathy
But yeah, it was kind of figuring that out. Like, how can — and, I’m about to find out too. Like, you know, how, how much how was, how effective was my training this winter, when I was skiing a lot and putting a lot of energy toward that. So I think I mean, definitely seen some gains in my training. So I’m feeling good about it. I think maybe I didn’t strike a solid balance. But that was kind of the biggest thing is understanding how much my body can handle. And there were, I like to joke about this. But there were times where I would look at my little like, trainer eyes calendar, because I worked with a power company coach throughout all this. And I was like, if I were my own athlete, I’d be very stressed out about how many rest days I took. But I think I figured it out towards the end as I started getting more and more rundown. So yeah.
Neely Quinn
Oh, like you didn’t take enough rest days?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, yes. Sometimes
Neely Quinn
Meaning like, how many times a week were you training?
Lauren Abernathy
Um, I probably like on my weeks where it was, I would say maybe a little much, I would be like, I would train like three times a week. But these were kind of harder sessions and then be skiing on the days in between. and then it would get to the point where there were a couple weeks in a row where I had done something pretty strenuous like six days on, I did that like two or three times. And I didn’t feel too good after doing that. And that will mostly happen when I wanted to get my training in but also there’d be a lot of snow. So yeah, it’s such a hard thing to do too, because you’re trying to like schedule your training around like the weather, because if it’s going to be a ton of snow and you’re going to get to see a bunch of powder. And you’re you’re a kid from Ohio that wants to ski powder because you finally get to it can be it can be kind of hard. So that was probably when I realized like this is a bit this is a bit much.
Neely Quinn
So what did you What did you do to change it so that you could ski?
Lauren Abernathy
So I kind of had to realize like, okay, it’s actually not a big deal because I would kind of have this goal in mind and that was like this idea like, okay, we want to get like these three sessions done every week, like, we want to do a really good hard limit boulderer session, a capacity boulderer session where we’re kind of doing a ton of like, a ton of boulders like boulders on the minute kind of thing. And then, you know, a strength session that involved resistance training and hangboarding. And so I kind of had to, like, get unmarried to the idea that I was going to do all of those sessions every week, and just kind of like, play it by how my body felt. And also this crazy concept where you take two rest days in a row sometimes if you need it. And I think once I realized, like, I’m still gonna get better. But maybe if I don’t have all of these sessions in all the time, like, it might be a little bit slower, as far as progress goes, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. And I’m still going to improve, even if it’s, you know, I get all the sessions done every 10 days instead of every seven, and then I won’t feel like garbage and risk injury and all these things.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, I think that’s a really important concept for people like when I first got that it didn’t have to be a seven day week, basically, make it eight days or nine or 10 days, and still feel like you’ve accomplished something and get enough rest, it’s really helpful. It’s just sort of hard to schedule that because a lot of times people are like, well, I get to climb on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays or whatever, you know, and now you have to sort of be more flexible with that.
Lauren Abernathy
Right? Exactly. I think that can be the problem too, where if you’re like, but I only have these certain days, so if I don’t do something, another tip, I have:
So I have since moving from New Jersey, and having a little bit more room. And you know, less than like one bedroom apartment, I definitely put together a little bit of a training space in the basement. So that’s kind of nice, too, because then I could sort of slot in like a strength and hangboard type of session, like when it worked for me, and it didn’t involve like, going to the gym or something. So if anyone’s like, well, I want to be able to do stuff at my house. And I think you know, if your your work schedule is not working out, it’s so helpful to have even just a little bit like I always say like if you can have a hangboard and a little bit of weights at your house or a TRX or something and you can get a session done in like 30 or 45 minutes, even if climbing isn’t working out, or you’re just not fully up to a climbing session, that could be such a huge, such a huge win and such a huge time savings if you are really constrained.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, it seems like as long as you have a doorway in your house, you have equipment,
Lauren Abernathy
Right? ven if you’re like, I don’t want to have a bunch of weight sitting around, like, get a TRX there’s plenty of hard bodyweight stuff you can do like there’s a ton of things if you’re like, you know, willing to let go of the perfectionism of like, what I won’t have a bench press or something like that. So..
Neely Quinn
Yeah. Well, one question for you. Did you ever end up doing a ski session, as well as a climbing training or just a climbing session In the same day?
Lauren Abernathy
Oh, boy. Yes. So what I kind of figured I’ll tell you about one day where I, it was really dumb, what I did, but yeah, so we so many lessons were learned, it was really good.
But I think I figured out like I could, if I had a more like I would say like more moderate ski day. Or if I didn’t ski like all day, like let’s say I just went for like a half day skied while the snow was really good. And then was done after maybe like three or four hours, I could still certainly come home, like eat a snack and crank out like a good strength session. Or there were some days where you know, like my coach program, kind of like a low intensity day that was more about moving well on the wall and less about exerting high efforts. So I could also have like a ski day, eat some food, and then in the evening, still be able to have like a quality session that was more about like, let’s work on some movement drills or let’s like perfect, my technique on some moderate problems. And that I think can be a really good thing for people as well. Like if you’re not feeling and have like a low intensity backup session, if you’re, you know, if you’re like I really need to go climb, or I need to do something like have a session that you have in mind that is less about doing hard stuff and more about moving really well and practicing your skill because skill practicing climbing is probably I would say for in a lot of situations as a blanket statement is extremely important. So you can still have a really quality session on more moderate terrain where you’re learning how to move well and that won’t require you to be fully recovered and everything like that. So you can do like two things in a day. also eat so many snacks. I’m sure you could comment on that. But like, yeah, learning to eat while I skied was really important for this as well. Because otherwise I would have like no energy.
Neely Quinn
Right? It is something that I found with all of my people who are trying to ski and train for climbing at the same time as they would go out and ski for sometimes like eight hours, and they would bring like a tiny snack with them. And so we ended up having thermoses full of actual food, or they would bring full sandwiches, and they would just like sit and eat for even if it was just five or 10 minutes. And I think that’s super important, especially if you’re trying to come back and do any sort of strength, like you have to, you have to bring a ton of normal food and then extra carbs as well.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, I think I got to, I started realizing that all the fructose and the fruit letters was hurting my stomach. But there was a period of time where I was eating like I would just bring like, fruit letters are so convenient if you’re skiing because they’re flat, so you can just fit them in your pocket. But I would eat one fruit letter an hour or like one fruit letter every run. I want to say they’re like, I don’t know, the ones I have are like 50 or 60 calories, but I would just be like slamming those all day. They’re very tasty. And they’re very easy to shove into your mouth when you have to like put your mask back up. So they were convenient.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, yeah. I mean, another easy thing to do is just put like scratch labs and protein powder into your water bottle. And then at least you’re getting that
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, but yeah. Oh, also just to like circle back on the fructose comment. I have like, pretty messed up. I have some pretty like gnarly gut dysbiosis going on right now that needs needs address. So yeah, my stomach’s just sensitive at the moment as I as I fix these things. So that’s why I think free letter was messing me up a little bit. But for anyone whose stomach functions properly eat all the fruit letter, you want probably you’re going to have a great time.
Neely Quinn
Well, I mean, things about that. A lot of people have a problem with problems with like dried fruit in general, it’s really hard to digest.
Lauren Abernathy
Hmm.
Neely Quinn
So you’re not you’re not — you’re totally normal on it. But also high fructose foods are not the best fuel for like you want high glucose foods when you’re exercising because your liver has change that into glucose and it’s just not efficient. So like, I always suggest people having higher fructose fruits or more more, preferably like actual starchy foods, like sugar in the water.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, that makes sense. I did find these, these Haribo gummy bears that were very convenient to that are, they’re like, they use like, it’s like advertised on the pack. It says, like glucose syrup instead of fructose. So those are kind of like switched out as my like, easy pocket snack that I just knew I would eat. And those have been, those have been really good. They probably don’t pack too much nutritional value, but at least ..
Neely Quinn
I mean, when you’re skiing like that, it’s you’re just looking for the fuel, honestly.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah
Neely Quinn
I mean, yeah, we could go into nutrition. But that’s not we’re here to talk. Anyways, so. So what you’re saying is, when you would do those sessions, you would make sure that it wasn’t like a super intense day of skiing, and then you could go back and do something low intensity. So what you’re seeing are like skill drills, anything else, like what do ARC or do really easy boulder problems for, you know, being on the wall for a long time, or what else could people do?
Lauren Abernathy
Right. Yeah, so one of the things that I like to have my athletes do on their low intensity day, it’s a drill called perfect repeats. So basically, this has been a really good thing to give people actually, especially if they’re, you know, we address like, Huh, we’re not too good at slopers are we or something like that where you know, you know, you have about somewhat anti style that you’re not as good at, it’s a great time to, like, pick out a problem that’s more moderate. And work on that and, like, get used to moving on, like, holds that you’re maybe not that good at or something like that. So that’s, that’s one thing you can do.
Like definitely warm up with skill drills. I didn’t do too much. Personally, I didn’t do too much endurance work. But if you are, if you are an athlete that you know, has big, big endurance projects coming up, but you don’t want to spend a ton of time like working on like, you know, maybe some some low endurance like ARCing like you’re saying could be helpful or even or even maybe like rhythm intervals like endurance work that’s somewhat decoupled from skill could work really well to, I guess, let’s see, I guess to comment further on endurance like I just didn’t personally I didn’t end up training it too much because endurance is usually one of my strong suits and in the middle of like the winter like long before I’m actually going to be trying to sport climb, it just didn’t. It wasn’t a it wasn’t a training priority just yet. But if you are looking for like, I just want to be able to do something like working on Yeah, I would say working on like Climbing skill and doing, you know, movement drills, that sort of challenge you can be, can be very helpful on those those days.
But yeah, I would say like just to give a quick example, like, get warmed up, and then maybe pick like a couple of problems where if you, you’d maybe already sent it before, but you want to go back and do it really well, like perfect, perfect your boulders essentially, on those days, especially if they’re like moderate to hard, like maybe it was something where it took you like, two or three times to send it initially, then go back and try to like, make it really good and really smooth. And also, you know, take video of yourself doing it. So you can see what actually needs to work better. Like a lot of my — I had one athlete who was also recovering from finger injury. So we did a lot of this because he needed to be moving more, less, less dynamically, if you will. So he sent me all kinds of videos of like, how can I make this boulder even better? And it was like a really engaging activity where it was like, how can we make this like, perfect. So that can be a good thing to do. If you’re, if you are tired, but you still want to go climb.
Neely Quinn
But you definitely wouldn’t do a strength session or any sort of power session or capacity on those big days or on the skiing days?
Lauren Abernathy
I would say like, it kind of depends. For me, I have definitely been able to have like pretty good strength sessions after I ski, I think with with strength training, depending on what you’re doing. And if you are, you know, if it’s kind of one of those like, punch the clock, I need to get my hangs done. And I need to do a little bit of strength work. But you’re not trying to be overly powerful. Like if it’s more like building up max strength versus like exerting a lot of snappiness and power I think you can do a strength, strength day, either the day after or like the day of so that that usually ended up being fine.
Especially if you’re doing like a quick session that’s like 30 minutes of hanging and a little bit of like pressing or squatting exercises or something like I think you can probably get that done. And it’s this is kind of where I get with people is like with my athletes too. I’m like you should experiment like I can kind of tell you, it’ll probably work but like, experiment with it report back to me. And then just look at how your sessions are going. And you’re gonna learn and then obviously, like, Bonus points if you actually take notes about how you feel with these things so that you can like, look back and be like, That felt good or that session was really bad. Like maybe we figured out that that won’t work.
There was one day Oh my God, this was I don’t know what I was thinking. But now I know to not do it. So I’ll call it a win. There was one day where I skied in the morning. I did a limit boulderer session. And then I’m actually in the middle of training for a kettlebell certification, which involves just a lot of high volume, kettlebell pressing and snatching. So there was one day where I did, I skied in the morning, and then I went to the gym at night, and I did a limit boulderer session. And then I followed it up with doing like, what ended up being like a 40 minute high volume kettlebell session, and that was a big old mess. So I won’t be doing that again, like, Oh, it was so hard, like finishing. Yeah, it was. That was bad. Now I know, not happening. Well,
Neely Quinn
Yeah. I mean, it’s good to figure that out, especially for yourself. It just clicks so much better.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. Like I can tell people not to do things or like, look at something and be like, this objectively looks like a bad idea. But you won’t know until you do it. And you’re like, that was certainly not fun. I won’t be doing that again. So..
Neely Quinn
Yeah. Can you give me sort of a, I don’t know an outline of what your schedule ended up looking like. And I know that it’s different for you, because you have a flexible schedule. So like you could go skiing during the week, but a lot of times in you know this very well, like people are weekend warriors for all of their sports. Yeah. And can only go to the gym at night during the week. And so what did your schedule look like? And what tips Could you give for weekend warriors who are trying to do two sports at once?
Lauren Abernathy
Totally. And I will say this like, my my fiance have you know, he’s he’s my ski buddy. And he has like a normal a normal schedule. So I still feel like sometimes I ended up getting tied to the the old weekend warrior mode. And also all of our storms this year pretty much came on weekends anyway. So like, all the good snow happened on Saturday. So it ended up being like that.
Anyhow, but yeah, I would say my schedule ended up looking okay. If I had to break it down. So let’s say I ski on Saturday, and Sunday. And then on Monday, I would go ahead and do like a strength and hangboard type session. On Tuesday, I would rest this is kind of like what this is what good looks like this didn’t always happen, obviously. But yeah, Tuesday, take a rest day, Wednesday, we’ll probably be like a limit boulder and power sort of day, Wednesday, or let’s see, then Thursday, rest again. Friday do like a hard boulder interval session. And then that would be like, obviously exhausting. But I’m not — with skiing too, I guess we don’t have to be so much worried about like, like, I’m just trying to get out and go skiing. I’m not like trying to like, participate in ski races, or I’m not super worried about performance, I mostly just want to make sure I can have fun when I get on the slopes so that I can have like a solid session on Friday, go skiing over the weekend.
And then like, rinse, repeat as it were, sometimes that would be a lot though. And I would more need like, and then it would just become like, yeah, I need to rest days in here. And I’m just gonna get like, less sessions done. So sometimes after that, like, Saturday, Sunday, Monday of skiing and training, I would take like two rest days. And then I would just kind of realize like, okay, we’re only getting like, one good climbing session done this week. That’s the other thing too. I think I got a lot done. In my training sessions. Like I was somewhat surprised. I was like, especially now like seeing that I’m objectively much more powerful and like doing well at things I’m pretty excited to get on real rock. I’m like, I really didn´t end up needing to like, train for climbing that much. Like I thought, you know, you have this perception of like, once you get to a certain level, like, it has to be all crazy and everything. But I think you can just keep this in mind that like, maybe it doesn’t have to be like that. And like three really good sessions a week could very well be plenty is you know, really important to remember for athletes.
Neely Quinn
Right. Okay, that’s super helpful. Thanks.
Lauren Abernathy
Cool. Hopefully, yeah, all you skiiers out there, you’re gonna be okay, you can still get better. Just eat some food. And be smart and rest.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard for people to rest. That’s like my number one piece of advice. Is rest more, because people are, it’s cool that we hang out with such overstoker’s, because everybody’s just like, so motivated, like, almost all the time. But it can also be our downfall.
Lauren Abernathy
Totally. And I never understood it. Like when I was, you know, out in different places that didn’t have awesome outdoor things all the time. I used to not like be able to understand the concept. I was like, Well, yeah, like resting is important. How can you not do that, and then all of a sudden, you know, you have friends and everyone’s like, We’re going skiing, hop in losers, we’re going skiing, and you’re like, I really shouldn’t. But also, this sounds really fun or like.
So it’s really tempting, because it’s fun to hang out with your friends and do sports outside. But I think just, yeah, having – -knowing what your priorities are to like, if you’re okay with maybe like, it taking longer for you to get to where you want to be with your training or your climbing, like, not in like a long term sense. But just thinking like, like owning that decision of like, I’m okay, if I don’t, you know, progress in climbing, you know, as quickly or I don’t get as many training sessions in as maybe I originally wanted to, but I got to have a lot of fun days doing this other thing that I love, and I’m super okay with that. So it’s kind of like to own the decision and not, you know, pretend that this isn’t happening. Right? Like you need to be, you need to be an adult about it and be like, okay, I can’t get mad at myself, if for some reason I don’t like, you know, achieve my goals, or if things don’t work out the way I wanted them to, because I spent more time doing this thing. But I also think doing multiple sports can actually like, save you from overdoing it on climbing. And I think it can just help you develop, like, in different, you know, random ways. Like I feel like with skiing, it definitely helps me like a lot of my friends are very into, like, let’s find something to jump off of. And then it helps me kind of like with the mental aspects of climbing where it’s like, okay, I don’t know exactly what is over this cliff, but I’m gonna jump off with it. And I think I’ll be fine. And I kind of just have to like rip the band aid and go. So it’s like, these different like fringe benefits that having like multiple sports can help you with that. I think we don’t always consider but yeah, being a multi sport athlete could be like a really good thing for your climbing actually.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. Yeah. And we don’t need to be like training super intensely for one sport all the time. It’s actually pretty bad for us.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. And you’ll get like burned out, like the number of times that I have asked like, like when athletes are like, I mean, I love it when people want to keep working with me, but I’m always like, do you like Do you want to take a break though? Like you’ve been hitting it hard. Like, you can go like sometimes I want to be like, Hey, stop doing a ton of stuff and go climb outside and flex on some rocks. Alright. You need to go like reap the benefits of your training and then like come back with renewed Stoke, like it’s okay to not be hitting it hard all the time or be like super focused training. Like you could very well get burned out so.
Neely Quinn
Words of Wisdom right there.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, like, go have fun and climb rocks outside. It’s okay. You’re not gonna get super weak like, it’s fine.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. Yes. But on sort of the opposite of that, one of the things we were going to talk about too is how you help busy clients fit training in, it’s kind of different, because I think what we’re talking about here is when people are really busy with work or kids family, stuff like that, and trying to stay psyched and fit things in. And I think that sometimes, it’s just a matter of convincing people that something can be better than nothing. Yeah. And that doesn’t have to be like this perfect session, that’s three hours or four hours long every time.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah.
Neely Quinn
But tell me, what are your methods for that? And what kinds of experiences have you had with your clients?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, so one thing like I always try to remind people is that I would rather it take you like, five or six weeks to get all the sessions in this block done, and have you show up like recovered and feeling good, then you like cram a bunch of stuff in. So that’s, like, always a key thing. And it kind of like depends on the athlete too, because some people are like, accountability is hard for them. And like getting to the gym is hard. So like, you kind of have to temper how much flexibility you give people, once you figure out like, Okay, this person, like does their stuff, we’re good. So now I can give you like, the flexibility and be like, hey, it’s okay.
So that’s one thing that kind of helps people with like, the perfection aspect of all of this. But yeah, I’m honestly super big on simple understandable and fun is very important for busy athletes. Because if you’re like, confused, or just like the sessions complex, like I think it’s, I think, first of all, I think it’s really nice to like have what you’re doing written down or in an app or something. So it takes like the thinking out of it when you get to the gym. So that’s kind of one tip.
The second tip is, don’t discount how much you can get done in an hour if you know what’s up. So there’s a couple I call it like, express limit bouldering. Like, I guess what I end up referring to it as, but it’s kind of a, it’s a session that I ended up needing to do when I was really busy in New Jersey, because I guess how it ended up working for me with my work schedule was, I would be, I’d be able to get like an hour in the mornings a couple of times a week. And then maybe like an hour in the evenings, like just with traffic and how much I was working. And all the things that can never be a lot of times, it couldn’t be two solid hours, it would just be like an hour here and there. But I think it actually really helped with power development. Because I think what can happen with athletes a lot of the times is that you just like, go in for a big session that’s meant for developing power, and then you like go way beyond where you were actually like primed and powerful.
So Express limit bouldering, I will elaborate. Basically, you’re going to do, you’re going to like still warm up. So whatever your maybe off the wall warm up is like five, probably five minutes of that, if this is an hour session, like I know, like, it’d be a beautiful world, if everyone like took took time to like really get warmed up. But like I get it, if you have 60 minutes, it’s just not gonna happen, you’re going to rush through it, and you’re going to somehow get yourself like, off the wall warmed up five minutes. However that may be. And then like, do a little bit of you know, moderate boulders with some movement drill work for the next like 15-20 minutes, then spend, like, let’s see. So that puts us at about like, about a half an hour, okay, then maybe like, part of that needs to be doing harder boulders. So maybe something you could send in like, two or three tries like a drill that I really like that I get my athletes a lot of the time is called like three strikes. So it’s where you take, you know, you take three tries at a boulder that is probably beyond your flash level, or like near your flash level, somewhere in there. So you’re kind of like getting the harder bouldering in but also in a fast organized way.
And then head over to your limit Boulder, you got like 20 minutes, put in four or five good attempts. And like that’s your session and you might be like, that’s not a lot. But if you do that a couple of times a week and you’re getting these like really good reps in. I think it can be a really powerful thing. Like it certainly helped me when I was working on power development. And I think that’s like, that’s a big tip like don’t discount what you can get done in an hour. Additionally, if you’re trying to get like a high volume session in, you can kind of do that with a more like capacity oriented boulderer session, too. So you can just kind of like set a timer for 10 minutes, try to climb a ton of boulders rest for five or 10 minutes do that again and you probably just got a lot of volume in it not a lot of time.
So use like your small time buckets. And then I think my last tip if you’re really busy would be oh man if you can get some kind of setup at your house where you can get a strength session done in with a hangboard I think saving that commute time is huge. So that would be, that’s like a really big thing. Like, if you can just invest the money to get like hangboard, and a couple of little things that your house and then you can get a lot done without having to travel to the gym.
Neely Quinn
So if somebody had to buy three things, what would it be?
Lauren Abernathy
Okay, I’m really partial to kettlebells. So I would say, if I had to pick, I would say get a tension grindstone because I love that hangboard. It’s so nice. It has all the things: oh, my God, what a good hangboard. And then I would get the I would get two kettlebells, I would get one that’s going to be heavier, that you’re probably going to use for like kettlebell swings. So that’s, if I had to guess, like, maybe try it out at the gym, and like, see what feels good, but probably something that’s going to be like, a third to maybe like a third to like half of your body weight, depending on where you’re at with, you know, hip pinching and squatting and things like that. And then like, I guess, to back up kind of like where you’re at with your deadlift or what feels like a good weight, and then get something that you’re going to be able to like press overhead. So that’s probably going to be more like, a quarter of your bodyweight or less with the kettlebell. And then yeah, those would be the three things I would get, you can get so much done. And then a bonus one would be a TRX. So and I guess this also assumes that you’re going to be able to use the hangboard as a pull up bar.
Neely Quinn
Since you can with that hangboard?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, you can. So it’s got like jugs, at the top that you can use. So yeah, that would be my like, really, really good home setup starter pack. Like if an athlete came to me with that, I’d be like, we’re in business. So…
Neely Quinn
Really good home setup. I’m writing that down. That’s what people want to know. And you know, it’s been interesting for me too, because I’m like, I don’t I’m not that into kettlebells. I know that a lot of trainers are, I’m not a trainer. But I’ve never known what size to get. And I think it’s confusing for people. So that was very helpful. Thank you.
Lauren Abernathy
Cool. Yeah, it can be really hard, especially because you look at when you’re looking at kettlebells. If you’re like used to dumbbells, too, you can be like, What is going on? There’s like a 10 pound jump between all of them. Like, what? So it’s kind of like a whole, a whole thing to get used to. But yeah, I would say like, if you can play with them, like at the gym to figure out what you need before you like go in and get them just because that’s going to be a good thing. That’ll be a good thing to do. So you don’t buy something where you’re like, I actually can’t press this at all. Oh, no.
Neely Quinn
Right. And the cool thing about kettlebells too, is that you can strap them to your body and hang with them on you or do weighted pull ups.
Lauren Abernathy
Yes. Oh my gosh, I forgot to mention that. Okay, I’m some I’m somewhat of like a hater of like, having to put like plates together to hangboard with. Also I think it’s because I’m short. So whenever I’m, like stepping up to hangboard, which inevitably happens, because like, we need to have the hangboard high up because my fiance’s a lot taller than me. But yeah, so then if I have to step and I have this, like big plate attached me then it’s like hitting the step. And I’m just like being short is so stupid. The kettlebells are nice, because they’re like, shorter. So that doesn’t happen. And it’s easier to like, strap them on to you because it’s just like there’s literally a handle. So
Neely Quinn
It’s true. Yeah. Yeah, well, so those are some good succinct tips for people who are strapped for time. And hopefully, that’ll help you guys.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah
Neely Quinn
And then we’ve got the really good home set up. And one of the last things we wanted to talk about was what you can accomplish in a pretty short period of time with finger strength training. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, okay, so one of the most fun like, like not that I’m like obsessed with finger strength but it is just such an easy thing to measure and an easy thing for me to ask athletes to like check in with to make sure we’re loading them appropriately. So I have a couple fun minimalist finger training stories to tell so couple, a couple of my athletes some some finger training success we’ve got going here so I won’t use their names but hopefully they they know who they are. Good job way to do your sessions, guys. You guys are awesome.
So we have one of my athletes added 25 pounds to his max hang in 10 weeks. So he went from bodyweight plus 10 pounds to bodyweight plus 35 pounds and I think he’s about like a 150-160 pound male just for just for reference. And then another one of my athletes went from 45 pounds to 70 pounds in eight weeks as well. So pretty, pretty fun results for doing like not a lot of hangboarding honestly like I’m very like, minimal effective dose. Let’s see how much we can get out of not doing a ton and it certainly works.
Neely Quinn
So what kinds of like what is minimal about it? What, how many sessions were they doing? And what were they doing in them?
Lauren Abernathy
Right? Okay, so basically how it ended up working for both of them, I would give them about like, six to eight hangs, that would be contained in a, like strength training session. So, and I really like Eva Lopez’s max hang protocol, so we’re just taking like 80% of the max weight they added. So for the one guy who started with 10 pounds, it was like, you’re gonna hang with, I think we probably did like eight pounds was kind of arbitrary. So maybe it was like five to seven pounds, whatever made sense for that time. So he would do like a 10 second hang with 80% max added weight for three for six total rounds. So it’d be like hang strength, exercise strength exercise, like a couple of different circuits like that in within a strength session. So that was one day a week. Then another day on his limit. boulderer day, I guess this is this is kind of how it worked out for both of them live in boulderer day, I really like 7 53 repeaters. So these are like weighted hangs, and you do like four to six hangs seven seconds on 53 seconds off with, again, like 70 to 80% of your max out of weight. So I think when I told it all up, it ended up being like 150 to 200 seconds. This is like top of my head math of time under tension, like two days a week. And that yielded some pretty sweet results without feeling like you’re spending your life on a hangboard.
Neely Quinn
Seven seconds on 53 seconds off. How many times?
Lauren Abernathy
Like four to six times.
Neely Quinn
Got it? Yeah, so 53 seconds is enough to change your weight.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, basically to just like, come down to and so I would kind of slot it in, like in the middle of a bouldering session. So it’s like your fingers are already really warm, because you’ve probably done a few like, harder problems. And then you hop on the hangboard hang, half crimp. And then you don’t really have to like spend time warming up your fingers to hangboard because you’ve already been climbing for probably like 45 minutes.
Neely Quinn
Oh, not in the middle. So like after your bouldering session.
Lauren Abernathy
It’d be okay. So it’s kind of like the the final final finger warm up before you limit boulderer. So it’ll be like, warm up, get moving, do some harder boulders, but not necessarily your limit boulders hit the hangboard for, you know, six or seven minutes and then head on over to your limit boulders.
Neely Quinn
Hmm.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah.
Neely Quinn
So you’re activated. And you’re activating for your max for your limit boulders.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, I think I think it can be like a really huge benefit, especially if you’re like, getting on a, like a crimpy boulder because that way you’ve like really like yeah, like you said, like you’ve really activated your fingers and got them nice and warm before you start pulling really hard.
Neely Quinn
I think that’s a really smart way to do it. I’ve never had a coach say that before. Because I think a lot of people are like, after my climbing session, my fingers are really tired. And I don’t have time.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah
Neely Quinn
And im late. And I’m all the things. And so like putting it into your sessions seems really efficient.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. And it’s like a nice like, it’s almost like a mental reset to where you’re like I am about to limit Boulder. But I have like time to hangboard and one day, because one of my athletes was like, not like being you know, contrary, but he was like, does it really matter? Like, can I just do it at the end? Like because just some gyms are like weird and they have like the hangboard somewhere like four floors away or whatever. And they’re like, Can I just do it at the end? And I’m like, I mean, I guess and then I was like, let me try it. And I like switched out my own session to put the hangs like, at the end instead of in the middle. And I was like, that sucks. You should do it in the middle. Like I hate doing it the end. It’s always good to kind of like for me I prefer it in the middle. And I think yeah, I think when my athletes have experimented with it as well. They’re like, nope, middle is good. And these..
Neely Quinn
It’s a fingerboard sandwich.
Lauren Abernathy
Tasty.
Neely Quinn
So these guys were just doing this two times a week. ish.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, pretty much.
Neely Quinn
Nice work on that.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah.
Neely Quinn
Did they see improvements in their climbing? Obviously that’s the goal.
Lauren Abernathy
Right? So my one the one athlete that added 25 pounds in 10 weeks, I think, Oh man, we’ve been working together. Wow. I think it’s like been almost nine months. So I’m really psyched. He’s about to head out on his first trip to get to climb outside a lot. He’s definitely seen some like bouldering gains for sure. He hadn’t really like climbed outside a ton. When we like first started working together especially with like sport climbing or bouldering. He does. He was he’s Like, he loves trad. So he does that, too. He does a lot of things.
But um, yeah, so he’s about to head out on his first trip. I’m very, very excited for him. But as far as like metrics with his climbing sessions, like, absolutely. When we started working together, we were doing a session that was, you know, boulders, like, it’d be like a few rounds of six boulders every two minutes on the minute. And when we started out, like he was doing that with maybe like V1´s V2´s, and maybe like a V3 here and there. And then by the end of that 12 weeks working together, he was doing like, yeah, like, V3´s, V4´s. And now like, when we do that session, he’s easily able to put like, V5´s, like every minute on the minute. So yeah, definitely measurable success with his climbing in that regard. And then I’m very, very stoked to see what he does when he goes outside, upcoming.
Yeah, really fun. And he’s just like, and like, I watched videos of him. And I’m like, Scott, you’re like a different climber. Like we’ve obviously worked on like movement and tons of other things. But, you know, finger strength is fun, because it’s easy to measure. And it feels good. It’s always one of those things where you can like, pat yourself on the back, or you’re like, yeah, my fingers are stronger. Like, you know, I have like a measurable about this training, working on top of like, feeling like I’m climbing better, too. So..
Neely Quinn
I know. Climbers are so into measurable success. I mean, it’s why we do it. It’s partly why I do — Why climb, because it’s like a number and letter. It’s like, very, very measurable. And I feel like finger training for me has sometimes been just as just as rewarding as climbing because you’re like, I added three pounds, I’m amazing.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. And I think we need those things too. Because a lot of times stuff can be really subjective. And the grades can be like, annoying, cuz you can be like, like, climbing is great sometimes. But then if you make it, this grade, and this place on these holds, and I can’t climb that grade at all, or whatever. So I think it’s like not that I support people going down like a finger rabbit hole and getting mad when they’re like, Well, we’ve added 50 bajillion pounds to my hang, but I’m still not like, climbing better. Like we can’t get — you know, we have to see the big picture. But I think like, training is a grind. And climbing is like a big long thing. So having these like measurable wins to celebrate is super important. So..
Neely Quinn
Definitely. Well, I think we’ve covered almost everything. We wanted to talk a little bit about how having a coach yourself has helped you.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah,
Neely Quinn
Looking back on my own life, I have climbed my hardest routes when I had a coach myself too, because they make you do things that you don’t necessarily want to do.
Lauren Abernathy
Totally
Neely Quinn
So I can relate in ways but yeah, tell me a little bit about that.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, okay, I guess I would say like, sort of as part of, so it’s kind of funny, like, as soon as I like launched my own coaching services, I realized I’m like, I’ve been self coached the whole time. Like, I should probably do some, like consumer product research and see what it’s like to have a coach myself, right.
So that’s kind of like why I started it. But then I was like, Oh, this is so nice. Because I think we can get so caught up in our own ruts of things that we like doing. And our coaches will give us like, different weird stuff, not weird, but just things that we wouldn’t have thought of, or things we would have actively avoided, or they just see things in our climbing that we don’t see ourselves. So it’s been super helpful. I also think like, spending a ton of my time writing training plans. Like if I had to write one for myself, I would probably get like, overwhelmed with decision making, or I would just do like a bad job. I don’t know, like, it’s just like, I need I need a coach, I need external accountability, especially since like going from going from weekend warrior mode, where my work schedule was somewhat dictated by an employer to like, making my own thing, like, I need external accountability from somewhere. So having a coach that’s like this is generally what we want to be doing is super important. Because otherwise i don’t think i wouldn’t get any training done because I would just like let work, run my life.
And like, I went coachless like after, after I got done with my trip to the Red River Gorge. And I like, sent the thing I was like, wow, I’m super tired. I’ll just like get a little bit of maintenance training done over the next two months. Like it’ll be fine. I’ll certainly do it. And then I just like, between trying to like get get our lives in order to move and like working and Christmas and family. Like I didn’t do anything. I feel like I probably spent the first month of this year just getting back to like, where I was where if I would have just like, had a coach for that time, even if I was like, Hey, I just need someone to be like, what if you didn’t live on the couch for the next two months, you actually did something.
So that’s probably my one, my one regret, I suppose like if I would have just or just gone into, like that phase of my life with some kind of plan of like, here’s the maintinance strength session, here’s a little bit of this, try to get this done and just had some kind of focus. Maybe I wouldn’t have done that. But I think I think the accountability is super important for me, and like having some structure coming from somewhere. And I just have learned so many, I’ve learned a lot of things that I’ve been able to, like, apply to my own clients, or like having someone to answer to that’s like, Yeah, what if you didn’t run yourself into the ground like you’re doing right now, Lauren.
So it’s been, it’s been great to work with a coach. And I highly recommended if you’re feeling like you’re at a place with your climbing where you like, feel like you need to change or feel like you’re in a rut, and you just keep doing the same stuff over and over again, a coach is totally going to get you to like, do different things. And, you know, push yourself.
Neely Quinn
No, I think that’s cool. That you are humble enough to be like, I’m a coach, but I need a coach.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah. Totally. And it’s just one of those things where I’m like, No, this needs to be outsourced, like my brain hurts.
Neely Quinn
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you telling us all of these things, and bringing your wisdom to the show. So thank you for that. Is there anything that you want to leave us with? Not to put you on the spot or anything?
Lauren Abernathy
No. Okay. I think the biggest, the biggest lesson that I’ve learned since starting to coach people, and in the past, like six months is the — two things.
One, it’s the importance of fun, like, find ways to make things fun, like, add music, I don’t know, but keep yourself motivated by remembering that we are doing this. Like largely for fun, even if it feels like we’re not sometimes. So remembering that that’s important. And just, you know, fun is important. So give yourself the space to have fun with your climbing and training in some way, even if fun just means I record my progress. And sometimes I look back at it and like give myself a pat on the back and see that I got better. Um, okay, so that fun, very, very important.
And two, um, I think a lot of climbers get stuck in, like, feeling weird that they don’t have like, big, audacious goals or something like that. Like, I’ll ask people like, what do you want to get out of this climbing trip? Or what do you want to, you know, like, whatever. And they’re like, I don’t really know, but I just want to get on some stuff. Like, I think that’s great. I think like the one step further that you can take if you feel like maybe you don’t have specific goals for things, but you’re like, training anyway. Like, maybe you just come up with goals that are very, you know, like process oriented, like maybe your goal can be like, I want to take some falls or I want to get on a boulder that scares me and do it anyway, like make like little goals that inspire you that maybe don’t have to be like, I want to red point the thing, right? So having some kind of goal that you’re working towards, even if it’s little as long as you’re excited about it, and it makes sense to you, then I think that’s really awesome. Those are probably my last like, two little tidbits that I’ve learned.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, very poignant. Thank you.
Lauren Abernathy
No problem.
Neely Quinn
So how can people work with you?
Lauren Abernathy
Right on, so I just, I just updated my website. Hooray. So now you can go to goodsprayclimbing.com. And if you go to the programs page, you’ll see a big old list of ways you can work with me. But primarily, you can work with me one on one. So I should have VIP I don’t know when this will really be released. But I will have like a few VIP coaching spots opening up probably in the next couple of months.
And then oftentimes, I will have like email support spots where you can get custom training for me and then I support you via email, if you will. And then I also just this week, the week of today’s the 14th of April, as we’re recording this, I suppose I just released my first 12 weeks sport climbing program. So you can get that on my website. Right now. It is a 12 week program that allows you to take stock of a physical assessment, do a movement, self analysis, and then there’s a lot of different ways that you can customize the program for you your weaknesses and what your outdoor objectives are. So I’m really excited that that is out in the world. You get a program manual and a training log, you can keep track of everything. So if you need a sport climbing program, I got your back.
Neely Quinn
Nice congrats on that. And then they can find you on Instagram at
Lauren Abernathy
goodspraycoaching on the ground.
Neely Quinn
Alright, well thank you so much, Lauren. I really appreciate it.
Lauren Abernathy
Yeah, this was awesome. Thanks so much for having me, Neely.
Neely Quinn
Yeah, of course. All right. Take care.
Lauren Abernathy
You too.
Neely Quinn
All right, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Lauren Abernathy. Again, you can find her on Instagram @goodspraycoaching. And her website is goodsprayclimbing.com and again, she has a new sport climbing training program. If you’re interested in that, you can find it on her programs page.
Also, don’t forget that we have our brand new bouldering training program. And you can find that at Trainingbeta.com/bouldering. And it’s a brand new interface that we had created by some developers and a bunch of people are in there using it and enjoying it. So if you’re interested in getting some structure to your bouldering training, definitely check it out again, Trainingbeta.com/bouldering. So thanks for listening all the way to the end. You can find us at Trainingbeta.com and on Instagram and Facebook @TrainingBeta. I really appreciate you listening and I will talk to you soon.
