Scott Johnston is a world-class coach who specializes in mountain endurance sports. This episode is a masterclass in training principles and is packed full of nuggets for climbers, including boulderers. We talked about why it’s a mistake to mimic top athletes, tips for balancing climbing with other sports, capacity vs. utilization, why to back off after a personal best, developing layers of endurance, the flaw with HRV, how to test your recovery before training, how to fail successfully, the future of alpinism and mountain running, and much more!
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Show Notes:
thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/scott-johnston
Nuggets:
0:04:56 – Inventing telescopes, and refurbishing European sports cars
0:11:25 – Being a cross-country ski racer, climbing with Steve House, and getting into coaching
0:13:22 – Why Scott and Steve decided to write Training for the New Alpinism
0:15:30 – Partnering with Kilian Journett on a second book Training for the Uphill Athlete
0:19:00 – The mistake of trying to mimic people like Killian Journett or Adam Ondra
0:23:05 – Sound bites, the dumbing down of our attention spans, and applying traditional training methods to unconventional sports
0:25:09 – Who is the Uphill Athlete book for?
0:27:56 – Being a general outdoor athlete and a climber
0:28:54 – Patron question from Alex: Tips for training for bouldering and sport climbing during ski season and vice versa?
0:34:42 – Why more training isn’t always better
0:37:39 – Building capacity, and why you rarely perform well while you’re training
0:39:19 – Block periodization
0:42:09 – Monitoring your recovery, using a hangboard to check in, and the restorative effect of easy aerobic activity
0:46:59 – Capacity vs. utilization training
0:54:26 – Training vs. randomly exercising
0:57:16 – Fundamental qualities of sports, and building capacity in different qualities
1:03:32 – Putting money in the bank vs. spending it
1:07:18 – Why you should back off after you hit a PR in your training
1:12:24 – Deloads
1:16:40 – Non-linear periodization
1:18:54 – The aerobic system, and the vacuum cleaner analogy
1:25:54 – Developing layers of endurance
1:27:52 – How and why boulderers and sport climbers should train endurance
1:31:56 – More about the layers of endurance
1:38:25 – My upcoming Follow-Up with Steve Bechtel, why training needs to be more specific at higher levels, and how recovery makes you stronger
1:41:33 – How important is active recovery?
1:44:32 – The flaw with HRV for measuring recovery
1:50:20 – Tuning in to your body, and how to test your level of fatigue
1:53:34 – Using the Tindeq to test your finger strength before training (use code NUGGET for $10 off)
1:56:47 – Why monitoring your progress leads to mental toughness
2:03:19 – How to get the experience you need to climb technical mountains and alpine routes
2:06:25 – The Dreaded Water Carries, and improving muscular endurance
2:19:29 – How long and how often should our training blocks be?
2:22:20 – Losing two climbing partners on K2
2:27:33 – How to fail successfully
2:34:09 – Inventing challenges, and the essential parts of being human
2:38:02 – Scott’s current outdoor lifestyle, and trying to slow the decline as aging athletes
2:42:26 – Doing max strength to recover from hard endurance work
2:46:15 – A teaser for how to increase your weighted pull-ups
2:50:29 – Where to find Scott
2:52:33 – What excites Scott the most about the future of alpinism and mountain running
2:56:40 – Understanding training principles, and the key takeaway from this episode
EP 163: Johnny Dawes — Legendary No-Hands Climbs, How to Master Footwork, and Life Lessons From Omelets to Icebergs
EP 162: Fundamentals — How to Structure Your Climbing Year
Follow-Up: Emil Abrahamsson — Gaining Weight to Climb His First V15, Overhauling His Training, and Thinking Long-Term With Projects (Teaser)
EP 161: Sam Stroh — Botching It and Sending Anyway, and Biggest Lessons from Hard Boulders to Free Climbs on El Cap
EP 160: Fundamentals — How to Pick a Project
EP 159: Tom Randall & Sam Van Boxtel — Why YouTube is the Future of Climbing Media, and How Much $$ YouTubers Make
EP 158: Fundamentals — How to Improve Your Technique
Follow-Up: Tim Emmett — Lessons From 80+ Days on Era Vella 9a, and Changing His Diet to Thrive at Age 48 (Teaser)
EP 157: Jeannie Wall — Getting Stronger in Her 50s, the Value of Doing Challenging Things, and Slowing Down to Go Fast
EP 156: Fundamentals — How to Go on a Sport Climbing Trip
EP 155: Caleb Robinson — Reaching V13 in Four Years, Biggest Lessons From Competitive Soccer, and the Power of Consistency
Follow-Up: Aidan Roberts — Sending Alphane, Training for V18 Projects, and Listener Q&A (Teaser)
Announcing YouTube + Win a Training Bundle!
EP 154: Fundamentals — How to Go on a Bouldering Trip
EP 153: Ollie Torr — The Secret to Finger Strength, How to Climb Like Aidan Roberts, and Staying on the Bus
Follow-Up: Jordan Cannon — Sending ‘Wet Lycra Nightmare’ on the Leaning Tower (Teaser)
EP 152: Fundamentals — How to Go on a Climbing Trip
Announcing Fundamentals!
EP 151: Anna Hazelnutt — Toe Training for the World’s Hardest Slabs, and Giving Others Permission to Be Real
Follow-Up: Tyler Nelson — Cutting Edge Finger Training Ideas, and the Difference Between Active Recruitment vs. Passive Tension (Teaser)
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