TBP 009 :: Mark and Mike Anderson on Their Book, J-Star, and How Less Is More

I'm psyched to introduce this podcast with the Anderson brothers, Mark and Mike. We did a longer-than-usual interview this time, partly because there were two of them and mostly because they have a lot of advice to give. For the uninitiated, Mark and Mike are the Rock Prodigy guys, the authors of the new book The Rock Climber's Training Manual. They're the trainers who helped J-Star turn his training methods around in order to do "Biographie" (or "Realization", 5.15a), but they also have impressive climbing resumes themselves, despite having high-stress jobs and families.

Mike is an Aeronautical Engineer, aka robot developer. He's an officer in the US Air Force and he has 2 sons (5 and 8) with his wife and they live in Colorado. He's redpointed 5.14 sport and has done some very impressive 5.13s, including First Free Ascents of Touchstone Wall (5.13, IV), Space Shot (5.13 IV) and Thunderbird Wall (5.13 VI) in Zion, UT, and Arcturus (5.13, VI) on Yosemite’s Half Dome.

Mark (by the way, they're twins) supervises a team of computer engineers and has 2 kids with his wife, and they also live in Colorado. He's an “all-around” climber, having climbed on four continents, established numerous first ascents, freed El Cap, summited Denali, red-pointed 5.14c and on-sighted 5.13b.

Along with their book, they also partnered with Trango to make the Rock Prodigy Training Center, a hangboard they recommend. So they're kinda the shit when it comes to training.

What We Talked About

• How long it took Mark to get off his 5.10 plateau
• The thing Mike eats every day to stay lean and strong
• Both of their biggest accomplishment in climbing (they have the same one)
• The surprising number of hours they train every week
• How Mike trained for one of his hardest sends in Afghanistan
• Who should be campusing and fingerboarding and who should avoid it
• What to do when you've been falling at the same high point for 8 weeks
• Their passionate opinion on running for climbing
• LOTS more

Related Links

• Mark and Mike's website is www.rockclimberstrainingmanual.com
• Their recent posts about training J-Star (part 1 and part 2)
• Their book, The Rock Climber's Training Manual
• Their hangboard, the Rock Prodigy Training Center by Trango
• Jonathan Siegrist's interview with me about training with the Anderson brothers

Support The Podcast

• This podcast is made possible by the training programs on TrainingBeta here. Check 'em out if you need some help sending!
• If you'd like to sponsor the podcast, just email us at info@trainingbeta.com.

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Music

Intro and outro song: Yesterday by Build Buildings

Thanks for listening!