Lattice Training Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, Ollie Torr is joined by Aidan Roberts, Andy Cave, Maddy Cope, Tom Herbert, and Dr. Ed Gibson-Smith to explore one of the most debated supplements in climbing—creatine. Does it actually help climbers perform better, or is it just another fitness industry fad?

The panel breaks down the science and real-world applications of creatine, tackling common questions and misconceptions. Who benefits most? Does it improve power and endurance, or could it even hinder performance? How do diet and training style affect its effectiveness? And what about the infamous "flash pump"—is it a genuine concern or just gym bro nonsense?

Ollie even puts creatine to the test himself:
🗣 “Before this podcast, I was taking 5g of creatine every day… now I’m taking none. Here’s why.”

Key Takeaways:

• Power vs. Endurance: How creatine impacts different climbing styles.
• Recovery & Performance: Does it actually speed up recovery and help you send harder?
• Creatine & Weight Gain: Busting myths about ‘bulking up’ in climbing.
• Flash Pump Debate: Real concern or exaggerated worry?
• Diet & Absorption: Does your diet affect how well creatine works?

Join us for a science-backed discussion on whether creatine is a must-have for climbers or just extra weight in your pack.

👉 Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!

Edward Gibson-Smith's Data 👉  https://latticetraining.com/blog/creatine-podcast-supporting-visuals-by-dr-ed-gibson-smith/

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In this episode, Ollie Torr sits down with world-class climber Will Bosi, fresh off his impressive ascent of Excalibur (9b+). Will delves into the intricacies of his multi-year journey with the route, sharing insights into the beta refinements and the patience required to conquer one of the world's most challenging climbs. They discuss the significance of micro-beta adjustments, the balance between power and endurance, and the mental fortitude needed to tackle such formidable projects.

Beyond Excalibur, Will reflects on his broader climbing journey, including his transition from competition climbing to outdoor pursuits. He shares experiences from notable ascents such as La Capella (9b) and his first ascent of King Capella (9b+) in Siurana, Spain. The conversation also touches on his groundbreaking repeats of some of the world's hardest boulder problems, including Burden of Dreams (V17) and Return of the Sleepwalker (V17), highlighting his versatility and dedication across climbing disciplines.

Key Takeaways:

• Beta Breakthroughs: Discover how micro-adjustments in positioning and technique can unlock new levels of performance.
• Balancing Power & Endurance: Learn about the unique challenges presented by short, intense routes and how to train for them.
• Managing Conditions & Patience: Understand the importance of adapting to environmental factors and maintaining patience throughout long-term projects.
• Transitioning from Competition to Outdoor Climbing: Gain insights into Will's journey from the competition circuit to achieving remarkable feats on natural rock.
• Future Aspirations: Hear about Will's upcoming projects, including potential trips to Flatanger to explore routes like Silence (9c) and his ambitions within the UK climbing scene.

👉 Don't miss this in-depth conversation with one of the world's leading climbers. Tune in now to gain valuable insights into the mindset, training, and perseverance behind some of the most challenging ascents in climbing history. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In today's Lattice Podcast, host Maddy Cope sits down with Sarah Duvall to explore the critical need for improved postpartum care, protocols, support, and education for women. Together, they uncover the significant gaps in research and recovery protocols for postpartum women compared to other injuries.

Key Topics Include:

• Sarah’s Climbing Comeback: Sarah shares her personal journey of returning to climbing after pregnancy, highlighting the challenges she faced and valuable lessons learned.
• Core & Pelvic Floor Strength: Why prioritising core and pelvic floor strength is essential for postpartum recovery.
• Addressing Pubic Symphysis Pain: A discussion on common issues like pubic symphysis pain and the importance of addressing muscle imbalances before and during pregnancy.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Welcome to part 2 of this interview with the climbing legend Dave MacLeod. This week Lattice coach Maddy delved even deeper into Dave's climbing and training approach, by diving straight into chatting about his famous nutrition experiments and approaches to balancing a keto diet with his own training and climbing.
 
 We also hear more about Dave's personal standpoints on nutrition and the mental aspects related to dieting, particularly in the climbing world.
 
 As providers of nutrition services and information to the climbing community, we know all too well about the risks and the strong feelings that can be attached to dieting*, especially alongside high intensity training, so this is also covered in this interview.
 
Don't forget to catch up on Part 1, where Dave and Maddy discussed;

📌Dave's approach to training and climbing
📌How he applies his understanding of science to his practice
📌How the mental side of climbing evolved for him
📌His process on hard climbs and headpoints
📌The consideration of specificity in training for climbing goals
📌Stepping things up to 9a+ 🔥

*Please note that nutrition is highly individual and if you are struggling with disordered eating you should seek the help of a qualified professional.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

In the Lattice Training podcast today we have another guest from the arm lifting world whose long term track record of training, competing and record breaking accomplishments is rarely rivalled across the grip strength sports. It’s rare that we get to interview someone who’s really been focusing on something so specific to climbing performance - AKA grip strength - for over 20 yrs. 

Eric Roussin, is from Canada and has a long history of competitive arm wrestling, having started as a teenager in 1996 and has been competing in Grip Sports for just over 10 yrs. He won the Canadian overall National Title 5yrs in a row and also a gold medal in the World Arm Lifting Championships on the Rolling Thunder and has the world record on Napalms Nightmare and 2 arm thick bar lift.  

Interestingly, Eric is a blend of competitor and historian so he’s got an incredible knowledge of what’s developed over time and an understanding of training and performance methodology, which at Lattice, we’re always interested to learn more about! 

Check out in the show notes at the bottom, some really useful links provided by Eric, who kindly provided us all with some signposting to learn more on this front. 

In today’s episode we covered:

1. What got Eric into arm wrestling originally and his formative years of training.
2. What he thinks about grip or hand strength in arm lifting and the repercussions for training methodology or approach. 
3. His thoughts on the differences between arm lifting and arm wrestling.
4. How he trains for grip lifting, rather than grip pulling or hanging.
5. Whether he does any cross-training.
6. How important he thinks strength in the entire kinetic chain is. Are there any common “weak” links he sees?
7. What does the grip sports community think of fingerboarding.
8. What are the King Kong Grip Challenges. 

David Horne - site: http://www.davidhorne-gripmaster.com/index.html

David Horne Basic training routine video: https://youtu.be/FGuVJAj96SE 

Grip Board (the world’s most popular grip strength related forum): www.gripboard.com (event King Kong details can be found in the Grip Contests section)

Popular facebook page for all things grip: https://www.facebook.com/groups/330749460395996 Eric’s websites: www.canadagripsport.com & www.thearmwrestlingarchives.com

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Settle down and get comfy because Dave MacLeod is in the house and you are going to want to hear this one! We were recently lucky enough to have Dave MacLeod come down to the Lattice Training HQ and dive into all things climbing and training!

In this podcast Dave and Lattice coach Maddy Cope sat down and had a good old chat! 

Tune in to find out more about;

📌Dave's approach to training and climbing

📌How he applies his understanding of science to his practice

📌How the mental side of climbing evolved for him

📌His process on hard climbs and headpoints 

📌The consideration of specificity in training for climbing goals 

📌Stepping things up to 9a+ 

This interview covers many things in between these topics, so be sure to tune in for so much more - plus we've also split into two parts, so keep an eye out next week for part 2.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Today we have a true legend of finger strength - the one and only Yves Gravelle. He has some of the strongest fingers in the world, pound for pound and has demonstrated this in both the climbing and arm lifting world, whilst also holding down a full time job and the added role of parenting on top of that. 

In terms of his climbing, Yves is an International comp athlete, having represented Canada for a number of years, he’s bouldered V15 and repeated and established multiple problems in the double digit range. For Arm Lifting, he is 3 x APL World Champ, the lightest person the lift the Thomas inch dumbbell and has a PB of 105kg on the Rolling Thunder.

If you’re someone who’s interested in the opinion, practices and methods of an athlete at the top 0.0001% of their game, when it comes to building strong fingers, then listen in hard!

In this episode we cover the following topics:

1. Yves's classic feats of strength.
2. His early climbing years.
3. The tools in the last 20 yrs that he's felt were most effective.
4. How often he trains grip strength. 
5. How he balances that with normal climbing.
6. What has been the role of arm lifting and when he got into it.
7. Are arm lifters doing anything different to climbers?
8. Hang vs lift tools for finger strength training.
9. How he 'transfers' his training strength across into climbing.
10. His balance of low intensity and high volume training.
11. How he trains with limited time and resources. 
12. His tips for climbers getting into their first season of arm lift training.

Yves' Sponsors: Bloc shop, Kailas, Tembo, Digit Climbing, Xcult USA, Coyote rock gym

His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/yvesgravelle/videos

His Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvesgravelle/?hl=en

I’m from Ottawa, Canada

Been climbing for 22 years. 

Ex Canadian National Bouldering team member. 7-8 time???

3 x arm lifting World Champion (APL federation)

8C boulder

Multiple World records and class world records order  in the sport of Armlifting. 

Feats Highlight 

- lightest person the lift the Thomas inch dumbbell

- 6mm one arm pull-up and deadhang

- lattice test edge + 32kg

- 105kg on the rolling thunder

- 1-5-9 with construction gloves 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Tom Randall is back with another solo podcast session, following on from the recent "Common Mistake in Endurance Training" that was very popular. Like the previous format, he explores the big issues that climbers will typically have when training or preparing their power endurance.

In part 1, he breaks down the critical factor of 'specificity' and why you need to address it on the three fronts of technical, psychological and physical preparation. Ignoring, or wrongly addressing almost any of these elements will significantly impact both the effect of your training and the performance outcomes. Get them right though, as you're talking about huge steps towards success!

Technical:

1. Rock types and associated movement patterns.
2. Specific move types and efficiency within them.
3. Learning how to climb fast AND slow at your project/goal grade

Psychological:

1. Accessing your 'try hard' zone with correct focus and frequency
2. Learning to relax to the demands of the goal and not 'wasting' energy.
3. Training to rest appropriate for your project.
4. Chalking up ratios
5. Terrain recognition and environmental stress/familiarity
6. Fears of heights, exposure and falling

Physical:

1. Pacing for contraction and relaxation ratios.
2. Hold size and types relative to muscle activation and soft tissue demands.
3. Specificity of project demands on ancillary muscle groups such as core, back and legs.
4. Skin and pain conditioning
5. Respecting the specificity of volume, intensity and 'section' interval frequency when training

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

Today’s guest is one of the best climbers in the world right now. He’s redpointed 3 9b+’s and 7 9b’s, and won multiple IFSC world cups. Yes, it is the one and only Stefano Ghisolfi! The journey that this athlete has taken in the sport is a remarkable one, not simply because his incredible grades, but because he has so many relatable actions that many of us can also deploy in our own climbing pathway. Sure, we may not all reach 9b+ or Olympic selections in our life, but at our own personal level there are strategies that pay off ... big time. 

Those key strategies discussed come down to:

1. Playing to your strengths and understanding how you can work on your long term (changeable) weaknesses.
2. Building a solid grade pyramid of performance, experience and skill. 
3. Appropriate methods for making a change in performance metrics. What strategies actually work for the thing you're trying to alter. 
4. Working on your fear and mindset in a performance setting.

Around these topics, we discussed - amongst other things:

1. His first competition at 14 and how only 3 years later he’d got a podium and also competed in the Senior world champs and placed 10th in combined. 
2. What his early journey in climbing looked like. How quickly did he go through the grades?
3. His first 9b Lapsus. 
4. His views on repeating some of the world’s hardest routes like Change, Bibliographie, Perfecto Mundo. How important is this process/goal?
5. His repeat of Bibliography and proposed 9b+ grade vs 9c.  
6. How much bouldering does he do compared to sport climbing? Does it change at different times of the year?
7. How does he fit in fingerboard work and other forms of more 'basic' S&C?
8. His fear of heights, falling and exposure. 
9. How does he identify what he wants to work on each season?

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

This episode's guest is professional climber and competition athlete Staša Gejo, who's track record is rarely matched. She has stood in every single position - gold, silver and bronze - across a variety of competitions from World Games, World Champs, European Champs and World Cups, climbed V13 and puts out consistent content on her social channels and YouTube channel which shares her thoughts and journey in climbing. 

Her top level track record extends way back from 2015 where as a junior competitor she won the World Junior Champs in bouldering and combined, so there is a big depth of experience and expertise here. What’s so cool about Staša is that not only is she operating at the top end, she's also really good at communicating her thoughts about her journey in the sport. The ups and downs and also what works well when it comes to performance - especially around some recent dialogue on the topic of weight.

We talked about:

1. Her experiences with weight control and early journey as a comp athlete.
2. The repercussions of a calorie controlled diet at 1200/day. 
3. How does her healthy weight management look these days.
4. What does her indoor vs outdoor training and performance habit look like.
5. Her thoughts on mixing forms and disciplines for performance and training. 
6. What does her specific finger strength work look like.
7. How much strength work she finds optimal per week. 

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.

The Lattice jingle is brought to you by Devin Dabney, music producer of the outdoor industry who also hosts the American Climbing Project.