The invitation. I invite you to turn off your device for a little while this week. To leave it at home when you leave the house. To step out of its rapturous glow, and out…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2024

Make Better Goals

Over the past few weeks, the topic of goals and motivation have been the mainstay of a lot of my conversations. These are topics that have been kicked around for about as long as humans…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

The biggest issue with the Titanic was that the collective belief held that it couldn’t sink. It was heralded as ‘An Unsinkable Ship’, and this narrative was so deeply believed that the attempts to evacuate…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

Bored and Lonely

The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 180 times a day, and to be honest, I am often worse. That works out to being about once every six minutes. For me, this starts within a…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

You Know They Have You

You know that they have you, when the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating an adventure or an activity, is what you should buy. Let me know if this sounds familiar: This morning…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

Disconnected: Part 2

This is technically the third article in a discussion I have been having about why we are busy, and how we fill our time. The first article is ‘Why So Busy‘, the second was “Disconnected:…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

Disconnected

There is a tactile sensation of disconnection that comes with a phone for me. This could be a singular experience, perhaps a story I carry with me is set aside when the phone gets turned…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

Why So Busy?

Being busy as a badge of honor is something we have collectively normalized. The claim that we are ‘too busy’ to do something is one of the most common refutations of almost anything that could…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2023

Permission to Care

This month we started a challenge at the gym. Initially it was just a way to get a number of other people involved in a project I wanted to work on. Yet, it has grown…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2022

DNF

A few weeks ago I DNFd in a race for the first time in my life. It was, for me, the best possible outcome. I sent the following to a friend afterwards: “It…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2020

Not enough time

The greatest failure that we as humans make, is believing that we have enough time.As days and weeks rush by, I find myself wanting to fight all the more to be caught up in every…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

November 9th, 2019

I am still alive because of luck. Not skill, not good decision making, not experience. Beautiful brilliant luck. Whenever the hubris starts to build and thoughts of my own capacity surface, I try to suffocate…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

November 1st, 2019

I would like to not need the risk of it. It would be nice if the harshness of extremes didn’t demand as much shadow and dark. Yet the harsh light of those high points demands…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2019

Reflections: Strength Training

How do I become more in my body while training?Strength fundamentals have little to do with actually lifting weight. There is a lot more to be said for knowing where your body is in space,…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2019

Reflections: Why do we climb?

Why do we climb? This is a question that is often examined only lightly, and the answers to it are perhaps inadequate to laying a ground work for the central question that I am continually…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2019

Reflections: Understanding Pain

Reflections: Understanding Pain Pain, /pān/, noun 1. physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury. “she’s in great pain” I spend much of my time working with people in pain. Injuries and illness are unprejudiced; making pain a…

Philosophy & Life · Archive · 2019

Reflections: What is the point?

article on how people seem to be training obsessively and are losing sight of having fun. Now I agree that sometimes it is good to just train for the emotional release, or for the honesty of…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Training: Horizontal Pulling

PLAY Which planes should you pull in?We neglect horizontal pulling. When new clients are introduced, when possible we start them with some form of a horizontal row on rings, and then as they get stronger…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Training: Zercher Deadlift

PLAY Prayers are all that get these up.So I am back on a hunt for a triple body weight dead lift. At around 175lbs I need to pull 525lbs off the floor, which will not…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Training: Hand Strength and Weighted Rope Climbs

Weighted Rope ClimbsIt seems a little over the top that I always talk about how much stuff hurts, and perhaps it is just that I am soft and weak… but climbing our particular ropes with…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Training: Fear

How do you train fear? I wrote this in 2011. It still is something I sit and ponder. How do we best tackle the world of training our heads, perhaps the item that most separates…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Bachar Training: Climbing Focused Training

The Carny: I am building a bachar ladder The British Spy: That’s old school training. The Carny: ExactlySo I built a Bachar ladder this weekend. It is one of the old school training items, which…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Building Active Shoulder Flexibility

Flexibility is an expression of strength in a full range of movement.I have recently been doing a lot of work looking at rebuilding and strengthening my shoulder girdle. It seems that people everywhere are dealing…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(p)Rehab: Stretching the Shoulder Girdle

Passive Stretching after Tissue ReleaeI commented a while ago on the notion that you need to do some passive stretching after doing soft tissue work on the musculature of the shoulder girdle. However I have…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Bachar Training: Static Strength and Lock Offs

Ladder Training: The BasicsAgain from the archives. June 26th, 2012. These ladders are rad. So about a week ago [Or two or three] I posted an article on my new toy. However due to some…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(P)Rehab: Foam Rolling and Point Release

Foam Rolling and Ball WorkThis one is from the archives. May 15th, 2012. Still relevant now. Soft tissue work at its most basic. This is a quick video that is going up to ensure that…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(P)Rehab: Forearms and hand pain

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published on July 13th, 2012. It and a number of other posts seemed worth salvaging from the archives, so here it is. PLAY…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

Vertical Jump Training

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published in May of 2012. It seemed worth saving given the results it got. Vert TrainingSo over a year ago now we built…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(P)Rehab: Basic Stretching

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published on May 15, 2012 @ 15:46. It and a number of other posts seemed worth salvaging from the archives, so here it…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(P)Rehab: Elbow Pain

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published on May 15, 2012. It and a number of other posts seemed worth salvaging from the archives, so here it is. Elbow…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2019

(p)Rehab: Shoulder Rehab 101

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published on May 10, 2010. It and a number of other posts seemed worth salvaging from the archives, so here it is. Shoulder…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2018

August 15th, 2018

It is an irony that impermanence makes us enjoy a simple thing all the more. I doubt that one could possibly find a way to stay in that cusp of uncertainty for a prolonged time,…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2018

Loss

Loss I keep losing people to the mountains. This morning I skimmed a list of high profile climbers that we as a tribe lost in 2017. I had had the opportunity to meet about a…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2017

Eternity

Eternity There is perhaps some irony, that prior to my long hiatus from posting anything, the last thing I posted about was this very line. If you want to give a read to my last…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2016

Climbing Training

This post came out of the Irrational Fitness archives, having first been published on April 28th, 2012. I updated it and modified it a little, but on the whole I believe the statements still hold…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2016

Chasing Eternity

Two years ago I went out to try and ride a line I had been looking at for a few seasons. In the end, I ‘failed’ at getting my objective, but instead ended up riding…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2016

#puckerfactor

(As always, click on the image, sit with it for a while. It has a lot more value if you do that.) I am a firm believer in the rather idiomatic expression that you…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2016

Telling a better story.

I want to tell you a better story. More than just a single photo which is looked at then quickly forgotten. This is the problem today, we are deluged with noise. Images aren’t given the…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Reflections: Living with consequence

Yesterday was the first one of the back country days this season where I spent a lot of time in the no fall zone. I ended my riding last season with the 3/4 couloir, and…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Reflections: The Abyss

So a quick side note: this wasn’t written with any intended audience. However, some experiences fill me with an urge to write. This is the result. Some of my friends have offered me a mix…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2015

Getting in the first day of the season

So the summer snow hunt continues with the claim for the first riding day of the season on September 8th. Russel and I headed out to Mt. Hector to see if we could find any…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

My 14/15 Couloir Hit List

At the beginning of this last season I figured I needed a list of my ‘top’ couloirs in the area around YYC. A bunch of them I had ridden before, some were nothing more than…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Chephren Couloir: Jumping into a line

This was a rather amusing day. Check out the story over here if you want to see photos. Again, for those who want text and no photos… ““I know this is going to sound crazy”,…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2015

Authenticity

Full Ascension edition, published 2019-02-17. The earlier recovered version is preserved below.Failure is a part of training.Failure is a part of training. Not flailing attempts at mediocrity, but legitimate work that pushes a person to…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Smuts

I yell for him to keep going past me to the boulder lower down the slope. He shakes his head, as if surprised at hearing my voice, a quick glance towards me, and a strange…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Lassitude

For the record, I am not an adrenaline junky. That is often what people seem to assume this is about. If it was that easy, well then it would be an easy fix. For the…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2015

Fixing the Muscle-Up: Wrist Strength and Stronger Triceps

Full Ascension edition, published 2015-04-07. The earlier recovered version is preserved below.A muscle-up is a transition.Somehow a muscle-up went from being the way a gymnast got on top of the rings, to becoming an exercise…

Mountain Stories · Archive · 2015

Caldron Peak Couloir

So this past season I have been gunning to get in 200 days which has meant a lot fewer posts up here on Irrational Fitness. This of course means that cool things haven’t been happening.…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2014

The Edge of Existence

Disclaimer: I don’t want a debate on safety. If you don’t like reading about people pushing their limits, or if you want to have an argument about doing things that are safe, that is fine;…

Training & the Body · Archive · 2013

Sleep, Recovery, and Exceptional Performance

So our science around the miserable things that happen to our bodies without enough sleep is pretty good. I will proceed as I often do by not actually providing any real references to the material…

A life spent askingwhat matters.

I write, photograph, ride, fly, climb, train, and explore.

Should

More from me, occasionally.

Writing

Should

The archive

An Invitation to Madness

Make Better Goals

A Day on the Titanic

Bored and Lonely

You Know They Have You

Disconnected: Part 2

Disconnected

Why So Busy?

Permission to Care

DNF

Not enough time

November 9th, 2019

November 1st, 2019

Reflections: Strength Training

Reflections: Why do we climb?

Reflections: Understanding Pain

Reflections: What is the point?

Training: Horizontal Pulling

Training: Zercher Deadlift

Training: Hand Strength and Weighted Rope Climbs

Training: Fear

Bachar Training: Climbing Focused Training

Building Active Shoulder Flexibility

(p)Rehab: Stretching the Shoulder Girdle

Bachar Training: Static Strength and Lock Offs

(P)Rehab: Foam Rolling and Point Release

(P)Rehab: Forearms and hand pain

Vertical Jump Training

(P)Rehab: Basic Stretching

(P)Rehab: Elbow Pain

(p)Rehab: Shoulder Rehab 101

August 15th, 2018

Loss

Eternity

Climbing Training

Chasing Eternity

#puckerfactor

Telling a better story.

Reflections: Living with consequence

Reflections: The Abyss

Getting in the first day of the season

My 14/15 Couloir Hit List

Chephren Couloir: Jumping into a line

Authenticity

Smuts

Lassitude

Fixing the Muscle-Up: Wrist Strength and Stronger Triceps

Caldron Peak Couloir

The Edge of Existence

Sleep, Recovery, and Exceptional Performance

(p)Rehab: The Issue of Thumbs

One Arm Pull-up: Pre-reqs

Some Older Backcountry Training Regimes

Mixed Training: Pressing out of a lock off

Training: Perfecting the muscle-up

The Elusive One Arm Pull-up

Climbing Training: The Bachar Ladder

Motivation for Training

Eclectic Training

Pebble Wrestling: Bonsai Rocks

Morning Rowing Saved by Coffee

Training: Two Finger Front Lever

Training: Pinch Grip Strength

Training: Moving Off of Crimps

Training: Monos

Training: Tendon Training 2010

Training Weights

Loving Food…

Should

The Softness Trade

Forgetting Words

Make it Hard

Your Body Is Trying to Save Your Life (By Making You Fat)

A life spent asking
what matters.