Modus Cafe: Conversations Beyond Climbing

Do you feel slow or static on most climbing moves or steer clear of dynamic moves? It might be a telltale sign of insufficient power if you're avoiding dynamic movement like the plague. In this podcast, we're joined by Steve Bechtel, who will unpack the critical role of power in climbing. We'll explore effective ways to train for power so you can be confident in your approach, clarify common misco...

You don't have to project or climb your limit to climb hard in your sessions. In this podcast, we redefine what trying hard means, and it looks different depending on the session.     Mercedes shares a bit about her training process coming back from an injury, and limit climbing is not in the cards for her. She shares what she does instead.     Katja share her transition from s...

Our special guest today shares her experience as a mom, training with little time, while in her fifties! She is seeing progress and finds joy in her training. Join us today as she shares her tips for training and how to keep consistent if you're a busy human. Enrollment is open for our climbing training membership, where we take care of your climbing training! Sign up here: https://www.modusathlet...

At Modus, we love drills, and we do many of them! But we thought we would share two drills that are our favorite and our go-tos if you have minimal time or have a tough time deciding what you need to focus on. If you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced climber, these two drills will change how you experience climbing, and as a bonus, you'll also become more confident. Katja shares her upcomi...

Join Coach Merc & Katja from Modus Athletica and climbing coach Steve Bechtel from Climb Strong in an in-depth conversation on Specific Training for Climbing. We cover more nuanced climbing training topics, emphasizing the critical balance between general strength and specific climbing training. Learn from Steve's expert insights on various training boards, the role of technique over raw stren...

There are subtle ways our ego can creep into our climbing sessions, especially when we are in "training" mode. This podcast discusses signs of ego, how we sabotage ourselves without knowing it, and how we avoid looking weak by sacrificing what's best for us.     There is also a big difference between training and performing, which is important to define and realize if you are currently t...

Do you ever feel like you don't belong in climbing spaces? Or maybe you don't quite feel like a "climber" yet? This episode explores cultural reasons why this happens and what you can do if you want to "belong." This one was definitely a deeper more emotional episode, and I was happy to have the opportunity to discuss this one!

If you ever feel heavy, like you're walking through mud with your training, or even having a hard time showing up at the gym, it could mean you are suffering from burnout.  This happens to most folks to devote time and effort to a skill. The grind is real.  In this episode, we give you a few things to consider to help you overcome burnout, or signs that you can might be reaching burnout....

Here is the second episode in our training series with Steve Bechtel. We discuss the importance of general strength training for climbers as well as across our human lifespan. We discuss exercise selection, bodyweight vs resistance training, how to choose the right intensity, and Steve's favorite exercise. We still have our free pull-up masterclass available which you join here: https://www.modusa...

In this episode of Modus Cafe, Mercedes discusses the benefits of developing pull-up strength for climbers and non-climbers. She also covers the essential exercises to nail your pull-up and provides a pull-up program framework that you can start working on. If you'd like to get our free pull-up masterclass, join here: https://www.modusathletica.com/pullup-masterclass-signup If you'd like to join o...

In this episode, we discuss the impact of failure in the context of climbing. Failure is part of our beautiful sport, and as climbing coaches, we often see that failure can lead to feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness. We propose a slightly different approach to change or redefine failure, celebrating effort and progress rather than focusing on final achievements. We also question why near-succe...

This episode embraces long-term, consistent training as a transformative lifestyle choice. Discover why dedicating a minimum of three months to training is just the beginning of experiencing significant enhancements in strength and endurance. We share insights on the pivotal role of tracking progress, physical and mental health impacts, and the art of redefining "training" to ensure clarity and pu...

In this limited series, we welcome Steve Bechtel from Climb Strong to discuss the main facets of climbing training. We'll cover Endurance, Strength, Power, Power Endurance, Recovery, and Program design. In this episode, we will cover Endurance 101 for the climber who needs and wants to train endurance. We cover what the endurance energy system is, its role in climbing, assessments, how boulderers...

In this podcast episode, we talked about the subjective nature of climbing grades. We question the reliability of the grading system, highlighting the variability among climbers and potential bias. As we know, climbing should be viewed as a skill-based sport rather than being tied to a grade, so we offer some options on how to measure your own progress, and what value you should place on your clim...

Healthy humans make healthy climbers. At Modus, this is our focus when we train our athletes. Our goal is to help athletes feel good, and perform well. Listen to today's episode to see which areas we focus on, and we highlight 3 aspects that you can take action on in your training. Did you know grip strength is a main measure of longevity? Being able to hang for 2mins means your at the top percent...

A plateau might not be what you think it is, but no matter what the definition is, if you feel stuck where you are at right now in your climbing, this podcast will help you understand where you can make changes, and possibly even change the perspective of your performance.   If you want a training program that will help you change your current level of climbing, as well as help your technique...

Modus Coach Katja shares how she went from wanting to break into V6 to sending many V6's and climbing V7's in about 12 weeks working with Mercedes in her program, Modus Performance Training. She'll share some of how she got there and what you can do too.   If you'd like to join Modus Performance Training, our next round starts February 26th! Hit this link for more info https://www.modusathlet...

In this podcast, we got a little personal and talked briefly about what it was like living in Germany, and recent travels Mercedes did. Then, we dove into the two best opportunities for recovery, so that you can climb and feel your best. As we know, recovery is an important aspect of rest, but how do we do this so that it's not overwhelming? We hope to answer this in this podcast. We outline a few...

Warming up is more than just increasing blood flow to your muscles. We cover some lesser-known topics and reasons for warming up. We even go into how to change the warm-up based on the session type, for example, climbing endurance versus climbing projecting. If you want to get started with training, we have a webinar The Ultimate Guide To Your First Training Program that includes strength training...

In this podcast, we talk about the importance of strength training for climbers, and cover in-depth the 5 fundamental movement patterns that you should focus on as a climber and human. We talk about where to start with each one and how to progress or regress the exercises to suit your needs. We also talk about whether you actually need to train your end ranges as a newer trainee and the common mis...

At Modus, we LOVE strength training, and we program it for all of our clients and members. To explain further why we do this, we decided to do a series on the importance of strength training. In this podcast, we discussed various aspects of strength training, including its benefits for climbers and the general public, the misconceptions and myths of strength training, and the importance of co...

Learn how to optimize your resting tactics and skills to stay on the wall longer. Resting on the wall is a skill; we cover the best way to start practicing this. For example, relaxing certain body parts, doing specific shake outs, focusing on specific parts of your body, focusing on breathing etc. We also talk about 1 trick you can do to change your focus on a sport climb. Want a jump start to you...

You don't need a fancy training program to get better at climbing. But what you do need is consistency. In this podcast, we cover tips on being more consistent as a busy human, and common pitfalls that you can avoid. This includes things you can do to create a habit, using placeholders if you can't make it to the gym, using the 80% rule and using the mantra of "anything is better than everything."...

In this episode, we talk about everything you can expect from our climbing training membership. Training can be overwhelming, if you're new or even if you're a seasoned climber. And we know it can be hard to get answers to your training questions. That's why we created Stronger Together training membership. If you'd like to join us, you can sign up here https://www.modusathletica.com/stronger-toge...

Goals setting doesn't have to be an overwhelming or complex thing to do. New Year's resolutions also get a bad wrap. So in this episode, we are going to approach goal setting together to help us get motivated, align our focus, and learn something deeper about ourselves. Putting some intention into our goal setting can prioritize what we really want in the next year. Get a pen and paper and let's d...