I am awakened at 4:30 am by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque, followed by rooster crowing from the chicken farm next to the hotel. The Lutherans fire up their tribute to the divine at 9 am in some of the loudest and most enthusiastic church singing I have ever heard. Breakfast consists of dense, chocolate-brown Tanzanian coffee and eggs that taste like, well, chicken. Nothing like a week of eating organic!

Moshi is a working city lined with street-side fruit and clothing vendors. The men wear collared shirts and pants even in this heat and women wear brightly colored dresses, carrying children in slings and huge baskets of fruit and other items on their heads. There are no starving children in the streets and everyone seems to be chatting or texting on cell phones. Advertisements for Tanzania’s four cell phone companies and Coca Cola dominate the downtown area. Dusty 20 year old VW minibuses packed to the rafters chug down rutted streets. Our $60/night hotel is an oasis of tropical greenery with open air public areas and uniformed staff. I look through the gate of the hotel and am shocked to see a man with shriveled legs propel himself down the street using his arms while seated on a wooden dolly.

One of the things that we heard over and over again on Kilimanjaro was the porters and guides saying “Pole Pole” (pronounced pole-ay pole-ay). The translation is “GO SLOWLY.” Not only was this applicable on the mountain, but in the rest of the Tanzanians lives. Of course on the mountain going slowly was key to acclimatizing as we rapidly gained altitude. However we quickly noticed that Tanzanians have a special gift to be able to live life “Pole Pole.” They recognize that life is too important to have each moment lost in the hustle and bustle. Rather, they take time to enjoy life, enjoy family, enjoy friends, and don’t occupy themselves with worry and stress. For example, we expected that every morning we would be getting up at 5:00am and quickly hitting the trail. But no…they wanted us to sleep until 7, then brought us hot water to wash our faces, made us tea and breakfast, and we hit the trail at 8:30am.

Of course, the reason our county is so progressive, and the reason that we have wealth etc. is because we have mastered the art of multi tasking, working non stop etc. I’m not advocating that we stop working hard by any means. That’s what makes our lives comfortable here. And it is also simply a cultural difference. But I am advocating that we all take time to see how much we miss out on life if we are not slowing down and stopping to enjoy life, family, friends, and leisure time as well.

We have returned from Mount Kilimanjaro! Leading up to the trip, we knew that it would be a life changing experience for all of us. Little did we know how dramatically true that would be. From the friendships built, to the personal struggles overcome, we all walked down the mountain changed people. In the days that follow, I will be posting trip reports from all of 4 of us, photos, and amazing stories about the people and culture of Tanzania. It was a true honor to be part of this trip, and I can’t wait to relive it through the blog and photos! It is great to be home. Every one else got home a decent time…I had many flight cancellations and it took me 70 hours to get home!

When I’m not out actually climbing, I spend a lot of time training for climbing, and talking to others about training for climbing. I love helping others excel in this amazing sport. One thing that I often run into is that sometimes people don’t understand that training needs to be specific to the climbing discipline that you wish to excel at. For example, if you are a boulderer, you don’t need to train in stamina, but rather focus on maximum strength and power. Sport climbers need to focus on maximum strength and power, and also some anaerobic endurance, to help them avoid that flash-pump common to short powerful routes. Trad climbers need to focus on all 3 areas, stamina being the most important. Without a solid foundation of stamina, long multi pitch routes will result in fatigue and possibly failure. So take a moment to consider how you train for climbing performance? Are you being specific to your goals?

In partnership with local LifeSuccess Coach Leslie Flowers, Ascent Adventure Consultants is presenting the LifeVenture Weekend Retreat in Cary NC January 22-23 2010.

The weekend LifeVenture retreat begins on a Friday night, lasting until Saturday evening, and combines Leslie’s excellent LifeSuccess teachings, (http://www.lifesuccessleslie.com) with experiential training and application by Ascent Adventure Consultants’ (http://www.ascentadventure.com) professional team building and training facilitators, to help participants learn and apply the principles being taught. The event will be held at Homewood Suites in Cary NC, where participants will spend the night Friday evening, and  then spend all day Saturday in the program. This is a unique event and the first of it’s kind in the USA. Leslie Flowers is an international motivational and inspirational speaker, teacher and coach and was tapped by former LifeSuccess Consulting President Paul Martinelli as an emerging leader in the personal and leadership development industry. Brandon Hensinger of Ascent Adventure Consultants works with groups of business people and professionals across the country to help them develop their leadership, management, and communication skills through experiential team building and training.

Leslie’s passion and teaching focuses on helping people to understand the human performance gap — why we don’t do what we already know to do — how limiting beliefs stand in the way of our success, and what is required to narrow that gap in short order. Her teaching also focuses on connecting people with their infinite potential and purpose. The principles and practices learned through her teaching sessions will be the focus of the experiential training aspects of the program, conducted by Brandon Hensinger. Brandon’s passion is helping people learn through experience and be empowered to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, leading to better leadership, performance, and overall success in life. Brandon’s activities are conducted based upon the fact that people learn better by doing something that reinforces what they have heard taught.

Leslie Flowers is based in Cary NC and is a dynamic LifeSuccess Coach (www.lifesuccessleslie.com), conducting seminars and speaking across the country, and helping others reach their full potential.

Ascent Adventure Consultants (www.ascentadventure.com) is a professional team building company, as well as a rock climbing guide service headquartered in Apex NC. They conduct trips and programs across the country.

For More Information, contact Brandon Hensinger at bhensinger@ascentadventure.com, or by calling 919-345-1087.

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I’ve spent a decent amount of time writing about training for climbing. However, it always involves giving new ways of training in the climbing gym and/or at the cliff. Well, what if you don’t have a climbing gym near you, and/or you don’t have a cliff nearby? I thought it would be helpful to give you all some advice on how to train for climbing in a typical fitness gym. Below you will find ways to use weights to train for stamina, power/strength, and anaerobic endurance. Of course, climbing is always the best training, but weight training when climbing isn’t possible is of utmost importance (this is in addition to antagonist push muscle training that every climber should be doing 2 times per week).

For all of these exercises, use climbing specific exercises (pull muscles and core muscles), as well as antagonist exercises (Push muscles).

Stamina Training

Stamina is what you need to climb long routes without getting overly fatigued. This differs from anaerobic endurance. Stamina revolves around your overall endurance to continue climbing, including aerobically and muscularly. Anaerobic Endurance means training your body to rid your muscles of lactic acid, which is particularly helpful on hard routes/problems.

To increase your stamina using a typical fitness gym, you should use weights for all your exercise that allow you to do 3 sets of 12 reps each, with a 1 minute break between sets.

Power/Strength Training

To increase your power and strength training, it is important that you use weights that allow you to do 3 sets of 6 reps max. YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE WEIGHTS THAT ARE ANY HEAVIER, or else you will bulk up and this will not help your climbing.

Anaerobic Endurance

To increase your anaerobic endurance, use weights that allow you to do 3 sets of 10 reps. In between sets, only take a 15 second rest.

Short and sweet! I hope it helps some of you out!

Recently I began learning more about nutrition and the essential role it plays not only in general health but in physical fitness as well. Fortunately, I have for a long time been a fan of eating healthy, such as eating organic foods, eating a ton of vegetables and fruits every day, etc. But as I learned more, I realized that I needed to learn what my body needs in order to stay fit, and most importantly in order to be a strong climber. When coupled with a solid training program, eating properly can help you make significant performance gains.

First, it is important to eat the proper balance of carbs, fats, and protein. Here’s a quick formula to help you figure it out! This is based on Eric Horsts description from Training For Climbing.

Determine Your Caloric Need:

Multiply your weight by the following number, based on your metabolism:

• Low metabolism - multiply by 12
• Medium metabolism - multiply by 15
• High metabolism - multiply by 18

Now add 150 calories for each activity of low intensity exercise you do each day ( such as walking, etc). Then add 600 calories per each hour of high intensity exercise (running, climbing, etc). Let’s say you do 30 minutes of walking and 45 minutes of running. That would be 75 calories for low intensity and 450 calories for high intensity.

Determine Your Carb, Fat, and Protein Requirements

Specifically for a climber, here is the breakdown of your needs, based on your caloric needs.

Carbs

65% of your calories should come from carbs. There are 4 calories in 1 carb.

Protein

15% of your calories should come from Protein. There are 4 calories in 1 gram of protein.

Fats

20% of your calories should come from Fat. There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat.

So by making these calculations, and beginning to monitor what you eat, you will notice significant gains in your climbing ability, as long as you are training alongside of having a strict nutritional program!

More to follow soon!

I have been spending time thinking lately about the importance of rest; rest from physical training for climbing, and rest from the hectic pace of life. By doing some research, and through personal experience, I’ve learned that the body does not get stronger, or build endurance during exercise. It is during rest and sleep after exercise that the body goes into “super-recovery” mode and begins to build muscle and build endurance, both aerobic and anaerobic.

So a person who climbs 4 days a week and trains 3 days a week, will not become as strong as a person who maybe climbs 3 days a week, trains 2, and takes 2 days off. In the same way, it is important that climbers train antagonist muscles; muscles that aren’t used for climbing. This creates muscular balance and prevents injury. For example, climbing involves a lot of pull-muscle use. Doing shoulder presses as antagonist training is important to create that balance. So the principle stands that in climbing and training for climbing, it is imperative that one rests and takes recovery days, or else they will hit a plateau, lose interest, and/or be injured.

It’s amazing how this translates into real life. I’ve been reflecting on how I work non stop. I’m always on top of my emails since I get my emails on my phone, every free moment I have I get out my computer to start working on some project….the list just goes on and on. I realize that if I don’t take time to rest and if I don’t take time to train my mental antagonist muscles, I will hit a plateau and lose interest, just like I would by not resting from climbing training! So I’ve made a commitment that one day a week, Sundays, I’m not going to work. I’ll do things I enjoy, I’ll sleep a few extra hours, I’ll spend time with my family, etc. This will ultimately benefit me and I look forward to seeing the changes it brings about.