Joe Kinder is a climber who needs no introduction. He has a been a top climber for decades. He has repeated hard sport routes and has developed routes in numerous areas around the world. Additionally, with Jonathan Siegrist’s recent ascent of his route Bone Tomahawk confirming the grade at 5.15a, Kinder has now established more 5.15 routes on US soil than any other climber. Clearly, he’s doing something right.
With that in mind, we thought we’d share the profile piece our friends at The Project Magazine did on Kinder. It’s a wide-ranging interview, but Kinder and editor Neal Mann really dig into how he approaches training and how he balances time training with achieving his goals outdoors.
“Preparing yourself beforehand and priming your body will give you a foot in the door for sending hard. Training for training won’t give you the same results. Having a goal will make training easier and gives you a better reason to put yourself through the hell of it all. The gym has its place, but time on the rock has its place as well. They are different animals and need to be taken into account to certain extremes depending on what the goal is and what you have to utilize for training” – Joe Kinder
Joe Kinder Profile
In talking about his training, Kinder stresses that he doesn’t have all the answers and is still figuring out what works for him and what is going to help him reach his goals. This sentiment is the main reason we’re sharing this profile. Figuring exactly what you need to improve so that you can achieve your goals is exactly what training should be all about.
“I’ve realized I do better with more rest, so training four days a week has become the norm for me. This took a lot of time to figure out, meaning I had to basically go through years of eliminating the aspects of training that didn’t work and understanding the exercises that did. You learn a lot about yourself during training phases and the more you do it the clearer things become. I always need stronger fingers so I focus a lot on that. My finger strength is pretty pathetic to be honest so that remains a go-to aspect to train. I’ve had a lot of success (and fun) with the Moonboard as it hits my weaknesses. I primarily focus on max strength, fingers, and then strength endurance later with interval climbing.” – Joe Kinder
Ultimately, the interview with Kinder covers a lot more than just his training. They touch on Kinder’s motivation for establishing new routes, how his motivations have changed over time, the mental component of climbing something at your limit, and how social media has changed his role as a professional climber.
Click through below to read the full profile for yourself. We suggest taking Kinder’s balanced approach to training and climbing outside to heart. If nothing else though, we’re sure some of Joe’s perpetual motivation will rub off on you and get you psyched to get out there and give it your all!
Full Article: The Project Magazine – Joe Kinder Profile
(photo: Daniel Gajda; courtesy of theprojectmagazine.com)
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