New Year's is a great time to think deeply about your goals, re-evaluate your course and strategy, and perhaps even reinvent yourself! Taking your performance to the next level—in climbing or anything—demands CHANGE, courage and commitment, and consistent goal-focused action. In this episode, Eric takes you through a series of thought-provoking exercises and, along the way, he will arm you with powerful techniques and tips to make massive progress toward your climbing and non-climbing goals!

Rundown

0:15 – Introduction and New Year's best wishes!

1:30 – "Climbing performance" and "human performance" are the same thing…so this episode will be wide-ranging.

2:25 – Setting goals isn't enough—you need a SYSTEM to get you to your goals.

3:15 – This podcast has 5 parts, each with a drill down into a topic that will improve your performance in climbing and beyond.

5:23 – PART 1: Decide that CHANGE is a must! Improving at climbing—or anything—comes no other way.

8:10 – Exercise (pause the podcast): Write down your top 5 to 10 high-value goals/endeavors. Climbing can be one item, but write down your other important life goals (in the next 3 to 10 years).

9:45 – Exercise: Rank your goals in order of importance. Now divide your list into three tiers—the top tier (2 or 3 items) defines your MISSION!

12:50 – Exercise: Now write down 1 or 2 things that MUST give up or change in order to liberate yourself to achieve greatly. What person, activity, or thing is weighing you down…making you miserable and/or consuming your time?

14:45 – Learn how to create massive leverage for change...and supercharge your motivation and progress toward your goals!

17:15 – PART 2: Build Stronger Mental Muscle. Essential for progress, since all performance begins with your thoughts.

18:45 – What we can learn from pro climbers…most of whom exhibit incredible mental muscle, day in and day out.

20:30 – Learn about Eric's "CHHOM gang" of climbers. What is CHHOM? Who are CHHOM? Strive to be like CHHOM!

22:00 – 4 mental training tips and techniques…

23:20 – a.) Supercharge your visualization.

27:25 – b.) Take control of your self-talk. Keep it 90%+ positive!

31:00 – c.) Act the part. Your posture, facial expression, and attitude create an aura that brings magical energy and synchronicity to you!

33:09 – d.) Surround yourself with positive, goal-oriented, successful people. Also, bathe your mind with positive media, books, images, etc.

35:49 – Side note: Eric's most powerful book—bet you haven't read it yet, but you should—is called Maximum Climbing: Mental Training for Peak Performance. A must-read for every serious climber!

36:35 – PART 3: Learn how to Optimize Your Training Program

37:20 – The best training program for you…is one you're not doing!

38:30 – Advice for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced climbers.

40:05 – Access to new technology, the latest sports-science, and novel training techniques is essential for Elite climbers to improve.

41:45 – The difference between "copycat" training and "modeling"—the former is bad, the latter is good!

42: 28 – Access to a good veteran coach is extremely helpful…but you can study and learn to be an effective self-coach.

43:45 – PART 4: Simplify your training—simplify your life! Learn how to apply the 80-20 Rule to improve your effectiveness and advance more quickly toward your goals.

45:05 – Eric reveals one of his weaknesses…and his decade-long battle of passions!

49:05 – Eliminate trivial pursuits, trolls, critics, and naysayers...and you'll be happier and more effective—just like CHHOM!

50:36 – Learn how to use Pareto's Principle ("the 80-20 Rule") to act more effectively in climbing, training, and other important life aspects.

53:10 – Eric comments on the advantages of occasional two-a-day training for advanced/elite climbers.

54:55 – PART 5: Strong shoulders beget stronger fingers! Make this a mantra in developing your finger training program.

57:50 – Your fingers are only as strong as your brain allows! A strong, stable foundation (rotator cuff and scapular stabilizer muscles) is essential for high-end finger training.

1:00:50 – Horst principle: "Develop stability before strength, and strength before power." This conceptual model will support long-term strength gains and reduce risk. Eric's book Training For Climbing (3rd edition) has a fully chapter (Ch. 6) on exercises for developing comprehensive shoulder stabilizer strength.

1:02:50 – Summary comments about seeing the big picture for motivation and guidance, but narrowing your daily focus on important steps you can take toward your goal. Making meaningful progress towards a goal is the simplest, yet richest source of happiness.

1:05:55 – Check out Eric's T4C Youtube channel for a short video on how to increase your effectiveness—and accelerate movement towards your goals—in any important life area.

If you enjoyed this podcast, PLEASE SHARE it with your friends via Social Media or an embed on your climbing blog. And please write an iTunes review. Thank you!

For a comprehensive study of Training for Climbing, check out the 3rd edition of Hörst's best-selling book!

Follow Eric on Twitter @Train4Climbing

Check out Eric's YouTube channel.

Follow Eric on Facebook!

Music by: Misty Murphy

Subscribe on iTunes (or other podcast player) to "Eric Hörst's Training For Climbing" podcast. You can also listen to the T4C podcast on Spotify! Please write a review on iTunes!

The Best of Halford and Brough 3/12/26

Halford & Brough in the Morning

Show logistics and guest changes

The AI-powered Podcast Player