You’ve heard the headlines, right? Your diet is low in magnesium! If you’re like most adults (45-85% of all men and 48-70% of all women), then you only get an estimated 352 milligrams of magnesium per day—even less (256 milligrams) if you’re a woman. Considering that the official RDAs for men and women are 400-420 and 310-320 […]
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Creatine Supplement Guide
Creatine is quite possibly the most ergogenic supplement a climber can take, whether they primarily sport climb or boulder. It boosts strength, power, and power endurance, not to mention the long-term gains from better training.
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A Good Rule of Thumb for Sports Nutrition
There is a ton of sports nutrition advice out there, and it can be difficult to parse. In time, I hope to cover all the major aspects of sports nutrition right here on this blog (as it pertains to climbing, anyway)—but I haven’t yet, and until I do you’re going to be reading or hearing about […]
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When Should a Climber Use a Sports Drink?
Sports drinks have their time and their place. As eager as I am to extol their performance benefits, they are not helpful in all situations. Like any other aspect of nutrition (or training), it’s worth understanding the context of timing sports drinks so you know when it’s good to use one and when it may not be useful. […]
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Don’t Be a (Carb) Hater
There is a camp amongst athletes that favors a high-fat, low-carbohydrate approach. Their enthusiasm is fueled almost entirely by the work of three researchers (Stephen Phinney, Jeff Volek, and Tim Noakes), who despite over 30 years worth of research have yet to produce any notable studies that demonstrate a low-carb diet to work better than—or […]
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My Promise to You
The state of science changes all the time. Usually, it advances in small steps. Occasionally, by greater bounds. Regardless of the pace of change, it goes without saying that some of the things we know now will have been dismissed completely or evolved in depth 50 years from now. Dave Sackett (one of the early […]
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How Much Protein Does a Climber Need (Part III)
In Part I of this series, I discussed a new model of protein intake (20 grams of protein every three hours). In Part II, I addressed some common misunderstandings and misconceptions about protein. If you haven’t read these first two parts, then I recommend you go back and do so now! In this final part, I’m going […]
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Is Salt Really So Bad?
I’m about to take off on a short trip to San Francisco, so I probably won’t be writing anything for the next few days—but I didn’t want to leave you completely empty-handed for an entire week! So instead of a full post I’m going to write a really brief one and link you to a […]
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Why Creatine Is So Important to Climbers
I haven’t written an official supplement guide for creatine yet—believe me, it’s on my to-do list—but I wanted to “prime” my readers to one of the reasons why creatine is potentially such a helpful supplement. Creatine, if you did not know, is used in one of our body’s primary energy systems. The phosphagen system (or […]
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How Much Protein Does a Climber Need (Part II)
In Part I of this series of articles about climbers and their protein needs, I described a new model for determining how much protein you need, a model that doesn’t rely on your bodyweight, sex, or chosen sport: Aim to get about 120 grams of protein per day. Divide that 120 grams into six meals […]
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