Breaking Beta | The Science of Climbing – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Written in Stone tells the (mostly) true stories of the most groundbreaking ascents in rock climbing history. Hosted by Kris Hampton, you’ll hear the narrated, sound designed stories about what led to new levels in climbing, alternated with conversations with today’s top climbers about what inspired them about what went down way back then. Season One is focused on the 1990’s, and will tell the stories of how sport climbing came to dominate, how women climbers made their mark, and explore the characters who made it all happen. Moon, Skinner, Gullich, Hill, Nicole and more! Like Todd Skinner always said, ”never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

Learn more at www.plugtoneaudio.com/written-in-stone

In the final episode of Season 2, Kris and Paul discuss beta-alanine, a nutritional supplement, and its impact on climbing performance as investigated in:

Beta-Alanine Supplementation and Sport Climbing Performance

Authored by Krzysztof Sas-Nowosielski, Judyta Wyciślik, and Piotr Kaczka; published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in May, 2021.

They’ll explain what beta-alanine actually is and does chemically, and how this might translate into improved climbing performance. They’ll consider the pros and cons of the experiment’s design and thus the validity of its results in an attempt to determine whether or not climbers should consider using beta-alanine.

New episodes of Breaking Beta drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share!

And please, tell all of your friends who want a deeper look into what science is actually saying about rock climbing, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Season 2 of Breaking Beta is proudly supported by Gnarly Sports Nutrition. For a limited time, Breaking Beta listeners can take 15% off their purchase using the code BETA15 at checkout! Or simply click the link above to shop and have the discount automatically applied.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

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If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In the Season 2 premiere, Kris and Paul take a look at two papers that deal with measuring isometric finger strength in climbers:

Authored by Dave Giles, Oliver Torr, Thomas Randall, Remus Knowles, and Stephen Atkins; published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in January, 2020.

&

Authored by Eva López-Rivera, Juan José González-Badillo, and Vanesa España-Romero; published in Gait & Posture in October, 2021.

They’ll attempt to determine whether or not isometric finger strength has been proven reliable in predicting climbing ability, and if how it’s measured affects this reliability.

New episodes of Breaking Beta drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share!

And please, tell all of your friends who claim their $2000 force gauge is the only valid way to measure their finger strength, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Season 2 of Breaking Beta is proudly supported by Gnarly Sports Nutrition. For a limited time, Breaking Beta listeners can take 15% off their purchase using the code BETA15 at checkout! Or simply click the link above to shop and have the discount automatically applied.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss a paper from the International Rock Climbing Research Association that introduces and assesses a battery of ten tests designed specifically to measure climbing performance.

Performance Assessment for Rock Climbers: The International Rock Climbing Research Association Sport-Specific Test Battery

By: Nick Draper, David Giles, Nicola Taylor, Laurent Vigouroux, Vanesa Espana-Romero, et al. Published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Human Kinetics, 2021.

*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:

Flexibility Assessment and the Role of Flexibility as a Determinant of Performance in Rock Climbing By: Nick Draper, Simon Brent, Gavin Blackwell, and Chris Hodgson; published in the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport in 2009.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

For a few weeks after recording the episode on the IRCRA postion statement, some of my comments didn't sit quite right with me. They weren't false, but they weren't the whole story. In this addendum episode we look at a little more of the complete story by examining the paper:

Female excellence in rock climbing likely has an evolutionary origin Published by Collin Carrol in Current Research in Physiology, 2021

Thanks to Irene Di Lauro for sending this paper in! 

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss a position statement paper from the International Rock Climbing Research Association that seeks to bring uniformity to how rock climbing research is collected and presented.

Comparative grading scales, statistical analyses, climber descriptors and ability grouping: International Rock Climbing Research Association Position Statement By: Nick Draper, David Giles, Volker Schöffl, et al; published in Sports Technology, 2016.

*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:

Reporting climbing grades and grouping categories for rock climbing By: Nick Draper, Jorge Couceiro, Simon Fryer, Tabitha Dickson, David Winter, Greg Ellis, Michael Hamlin, Jerry Shearman, and Chris North; published in Isokinetics and Exercise Science, January 2011.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss the process they use to choose and read research papers, both for Breaking Beta and for their own interests as climbers and coaches.

*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:

Beall’s List of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers

How to (seriously) read a scientific paper by Elisabeth Pain; published on Science; March 21, 2016.

Ten simple rules for reading a scientific paper by Maureen A. Carey, Kevin L. Steiner, and William A. Petri Jr.; published on PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY; July 30, 2020.

How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists by Jennifer Raff; published on Violent Metaphors; August 25, 2013.

How to read scientific papers quickly (and effectively organize them for a literature review) published on Genius Lab Gear.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss statistics and their significance with data analyst and fellow Power Company coach, Dale Wilson.  He explains his views on statistical models, p-values, and more — and breaks down how we should be looking at all this data as climbers.

*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:

Scientists rise up against statistical significance by Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, and Blake McShane; published in Nature 567 (305-307), 2019.

800 scientists say it’s time to abandon “statistical significance” by Brian Resnick; published on Vox; March, 22, 2019.

Systematic review of the use of “magnitude-based inference” in sports science and medicine by Keith R. Lohse, Kristin L. Sainani, J. Andrew Taylor, Michael L. Butson, Emma J. Knight, and Andrew J. Vickers; published on PLOS ONE; June 26, 2020.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss what they learned from Season 1.  They break down the specifics — from finger strength to injury prevention, flexibility to nutrition — that they’ll be incorporating into their own coaching and training going forward.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of jumbled and conflicting training info out there, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Better Call Paul | Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

In this episode, Kris and Paul bring things full circle, ending the season with another hangboard study from Eva Lopez:

authored by Eva Lopez Rivera and Juan Jose Gonzalez-Badillo; published in the Journal of Human Kinetics in 2019.

They’ll attempt, once more, to determine whether or not scientific evidence exists in favor of a single hangboard protocol being more effective than the rest. Tune in to find out if we have a clear winner in the ring between Max or Intermittent Hangs, or if Paul and Kris are destined to be discussing hangboard studies for many more seasons to come!

*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:

From Episode 1: The Effects of Two Maximum Grip Strength Training Methods Using the Same Effort Duration and Different Edge Depth on Grip Endurance in Elite Climbers authored by Eva Lopez Rivera and Juan Jose Gonzales-Badillo; published in Sports Technology, 2012.

Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please, just like in Episode 1, tell all of your ridiculous friends who still claim that they know the best hangboard protocol, that you have the perfect podcast for them.

Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.

Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 

Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 

If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.

Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.