This month, I’m celebrating one year of working one-on-one with my coach, Karly Rager of Project Direct. Working with a climbing coach is something I dreamed of for years before I finally made it happen, and I’m excited to share why I hired a coach and what the past year has been like. Spoiler alert: hiring a climbing coach is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, I’m going to unpack some common questions I’ve gotten over the past year.

I didn’t need trad. I used to say that trad climbing really just seemed like a more expensive way to do the same thing as sport climbing. We’re all just trying to climb rocks, right?!

I lived in the Midwest and had everything I needed in sport climbing at the Red River Gorge. I loved the mental and physical challenge this place afforded me. I could throw myself around, fall into nothing but air, and occasionally, stick a few moves. The Red was a fantastic playground, but I was starting to wonder if climbing could take me farther.

After I spent a year on the road climbing in Yosemite, Indian Creek, and Joshua Tree, climbing in the gym again felt like a completely different sport—especially when it came to indoor bouldering. Though I theoretically knew that bouldering was an effective way to get stronger, I couldn’t quite get psyched on 16’ plastic walls.

A few weeks ago, I passed my exam and officially became an NSCA-certified personal trainer. The exam consisted of 155 questions covering four domains: client consultation/fitness assessment; program planning; techniques of exercise; and safety, emergency procedures and legal issues. The process of attaining this certification has equipped me with the tools I need to write training programs for people of diverse backgrounds & experience levels who want to pursue goals ranging from general health to specialized athletic performance. As a climber, the concepts I’ve learned have helped me attain a deeper understanding of how to structure training plans for targeted improvement towards climbing goals.

I can no longer tolerate time spent doing anything I can’t feel in my bones. Climbing has outlasted every job I’ve ever had. Something about the constant cycle of clearing an email inbox and bouncing around software platforms leaves me exhausted and unsatisfied. None of this feels real. These rules and systems are just things we made up.

Most climbers training to improve are busy people. Outside of climbing, we’re balancing jobs, relationships, eating well, sleeping well, and occasionally squeezing in time for what is probably an overdue load of laundry. Climbers who train are used to consistently and intentionally making time for gym sessions amidst everything else going on. Especially when our days feel full, it’s important to consider how physiological factors affect when we choose to train.