Training Isn't Sexy

Why Great Workouts Are Boring To Behold

There are fun exercises. There are fun sessions. As a climber and coach, I really like to find modes of exercise that are enjoyable yet also help my athletes become better. The difficulty of training is that there comes a point where the play gets a bit too hard to be play anymore. And when it becomes work, we start to lose our momentum.

We can look at the difference between exercise and training in terms of getting a new puppy. You get a new puppy, and if you are disciplined and do some careful training, you’ll end up with a great dog when it gets older. If instead you decide to play with the puppy constantly and just have fun, the puppy never learns proper behavior and ends up acting like a puppy forever.

Climbers who constantly seek entertainment with a possible side effect of improvement are like that puppy.

Training can be fun sometimes. If it’s fun all the time, you’re probably not getting everything out of it you can. This circles back to the idea of first, second, and third-order results. The first order result of training is not that great. Structured. Difficult. Probably done alone or with a serious partner. Not done in a “session with the boys.”

The second order result is great - improved climbing. The third order is a phase shift in many facets of your life, including discipline, focus, health, and more. But many of us have a hard time caring about that. It’s not organic enough. It goes against what we like most about climbing. It goes counter to the dirtbag mellow bonfire culture many climbers seem to enjoy even more than the climbing itself.

I understand the counter-culture idea. I just don’t understand how one can expect all of the benefits of society or culture without playing by the rules. Wealth without work makes you a piece of shit, usually. Natural talent can make you dismissive of your skills. And high performance without paying the price, well it isn't going to be all that high.

We revere the soul climber. The one who goes out and climbs what is in his heart. The one who is out on the rock instead of in the gym. I get it. I also get the emails from those same climbers, asking how they can get better or get over an injury. Performance is performance.

There are personality types that love the process of training. The repetitive, organized structure can be soothing. The tangible progress. The clear path. But training eats your time, might keep you away from the rock, and sometimes doesn't go as well as planned.

I've had people that wanted to train with me in the gym over the years, to just take part in one of the sessions I was doing for myself. If it happens to be a limit bouldering day, that's pretty fun. Most of the time, though, it's fighting the clock on lock-offs, working around and injured shoulder, or trying to get back some ankle mobility. Stuff that doesn't feel like climbing. Stuff that seems like it might not matter. Stuff that gets better by such tiny increments as to be imperceptible.

You wouldn’t think much of my workout.

Not fun.

Not sexy.