TBP 313: Research on Burnout, Performance, and Mental Health in Climbers with Dr. Maria Stefania Ionel

Dr. Jared Vagy, “The Climbing Doctor,” is back on the podcast to talk about crimping. Specifically, he covers the finger and hand muscles most climbers never train, and why that might be important for your pulleys and overall hand health. Jared has a new book, The Resilient Climber, which breaks down 40 climbing movements by their mobility, strength, and movement demands. In this episode he applies that framework to the crimp. His core argument: climbers train their long finger flexors in one direction, over and over. That’s a lot like runners who build huge quads and hamstrings but neglect the side-hip muscles that stabilize the knee. The smaller stabilizing muscles in the hand get left behind, and Jared sees that pattern constantly in injured climbers.

Coach Matt Pincus recently got back from an extremely productive 2-month bouldering trip to Rocklands in South Africa, and he’s on the podcast to tell us all about it. Matt’s hardest boulder to date is V12, and on this trip he sent 36 new boulders:

Coach Zoe Sayetta is back on the show, and this time she’s talking about something she’s been seeing constantly in her coaching: athletes who have trouble holding two feelings about the same performance at once. You either crushed it or you blew it. You’re a good slab climber or a bad one. There’s no room for “I’m proud of this AND I’m disappointed by this,” and Zoe thinks that binary trap is quietly shaping how climbers see themselves, compete, and recover from setbacks. We get into how to actually sit with disappointment instead of talking yourself out of it, why social comparison isn’t automatically the enemy, what it looks like to let a competitive “killer instinct” back into a team culture built on support, and why owning your biggest goals out loud matters more than people think. We close on a heavier but important topic: body image, RED-S, and eating disorders among elite climbers, and how coaches can respond responsibly when they see an athlete in trouble. Find Zoe at www.sayettacoaching.com.

Coach Alex Stiger joins Neely to break down what a "plateau" actually is — because most climbers lump together very different problems under that one word, and that's part of why it's so hard to get unstuck. In this episode:

Lillian Frances is a rock climber, music producer, and the author of Finger Banging for Climber Boys, a 50-page illustrated guide to female sexual pleasure, consent, and communication written for the climbing community. She makes a compelling case that asking for what you want isn't a mood-killer: it's the thing that makes everything better, on the wall and off it. We talk about how to set boundaries before a sexy situation escalates, why saying no is actually hot, how "belay on / climb on" is consent too, and why the way a partner reacts to a "no" tells you everything you need to know about them. Fair warning: we use explicit language throughout.