{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"#133 - CRUSHERS: Kevin Dahlstrom on His Life Reboot, Injury, TRT, and Climbing Hard Over Age 40","description":"What if some of your best climbing is still ahead of you\u2014even after age 40? My latest T4C Podcast guest, Kevin Dahlstrom, didn\u2019t climb his first 5.13 until age 50. Five years later, he was having the strongest season of his life and chasing 5.13c\u2014until a freak accident in Mexico caused a catastrophic triceps tendon tear and major surgery. In this episode, Kevin and I dig into his comeback, training and recovery after 40, and why aging climbers need to become increasingly intentional about sleep, nutrition, mobility, recovery, and targeted training. We also explore health monitoring, testosterone, peptides, and Kevin\u2019s audacious long-term goal of climbing 5.14. But this conversation is about much more than climbing grades. Kevin left a highly successful corporate career in his late 40s to reorganize his life around something even more valuable: time. His idea of becoming a \u201ctime billionaire\u201d sparks a fascinating discussion about aging, ambition, priorities, and how to stay strong, adventurous, and fully engaged with life for decades to come. Rundown 00:00 \u2013 Cold Open: Kevin\u2019s Midlife Reboot Kevin leaves a high-paying corporate career in Texas, moves his family to Colorado, climbs harder than ever\u2014and then faces a catastrophic arm injury. 01:10 \u2013 Episode Introduction Introducing Kevin Dahlstrom, the CRUSHERS series, and the episode\u2019s central themes: climbing after 50, health, longevity, injury recovery, and becoming a \u201ctime billionaire.\u201d 03:15 \u2013 Interview Begins: Kevin\u2019s Best Climbing Season at Age 55 Kevin describes reaching the best climbing fitness of his life, sending multiple 5.13bs, and falling from the final move of a 5.13c. 06:12 \u2013 The Freak Accident in Mexico A foothold breaks on a warm-up route, sending Kevin into a tufa and completely tearing his distal triceps tendon from the elbow. 10:05 \u2013 Surgery, Rehabilitation and Returning to Climbing Kevin explains the cadaver tendon graft used to reconstruct his arm and his carefully graded return from 5.6 toward harder climbing. 12:03 \u2013 Climbing His First 5.13 at Age 50 After two decades as a trad climber, Kevin sets an audacious goal of climbing ten 5.13s in one year\u2014and succeeds. 14:40 \u2013 Discovering Climbing and Becoming a Traveling Weekend Warrior Kevin recounts finding climbing in a Dallas grain-silo gym, leading his first trad route the following weekend, and eventually taking around 20 climbing trips per year. 16:36 \u2013 Walking Away From Corporate Success Despite reaching the C-suite of a multibillion-dollar company, Kevin realizes that professional and financial success have not made him happier. 21:00 \u2013 Running Toward an Irresistible Life Kevin explains why major life changes are often driven not by what we\u2019re escaping, but by something meaningful that we feel compelled to pursue. 23:15 \u2013 The \u201cTime Billionaire\u201d Concept A billion seconds equals roughly 30 years. Kevin explains why time\u2014not money\u2014is ultimately our most valuable and irreplaceable asset. 25:48 \u2013 Kevin\u2019s Training Approach After 50 Climbing outside three to five days per week, trying extremely hard, supplementing with hangboarding, and increasingly prioritizing mobility. 28:50 \u2013 Balancing Hard Projects With Pure Enjoyment Why projecting can be deeply satisfying\u2014but not every climbing day needs to become a redpoint battle. 31:05 \u2013 Identifying Kevin\u2019s Limiting Constraint At 6'3" and approximately 200 pounds, Kevin discusses strength-to-weight ratio, bouldering power, and why V7\u2013V8 movement is becoming his performance bottleneck. 32:31 \u2013 Targeted Training and System-Wall Climbing Eric recommends carefully progressed Kilter Board or Tension Board training to build maximum strength, power, and high-end bouldering ability. 35:00 \u2013 Why Masters Climbers Should Pick Their Battles Older climbers may benefit from selecting inspiring routes that fit their strengths rather than trying to master every possible climbing style. 41:17 \u2013 Can You Still Improve in Your 40s, 50s and 60s? Kevin and Eric challenge the belief that climbers are automatically past their prime at 40 and discuss why older athletes must \u201cturn the screws tighter\u201d on the details. 44:30 \u2013 Tracking Health and Performance Biomarkers Why longitudinal blood testing can provide a valuable dashboard for understanding changes in recovery, energy, hormones and overall health. 45:33 \u2013 Kevin\u2019s Experience With Testosterone Replacement Therapy Kevin discusses declining testosterone, related symptoms, medically supervised treatment, recovery benefits, and why TRT may be a wash for climbing performance. 52:23 \u2013 Optimize the Fundamentals First Sleep, nutrition, resistance training, body composition and lifestyle should be addressed before considering hormone therapy or more advanced interventions. 53:40 \u2013 Peptides and the Longevity \u201cWild West\u201d Kevin and Eric discuss the potential\u2014and considerable risks\u2014of peptides, including Kevin\u2019s medically supervised postoperative use of BPC-157. 56:08 \u2013 Kevin\u2019s Goal of Climbing 5.14 Kevin considers possible projects, including Cheating Reality in the Flatirons, and explains why the route must fit both his strengths and his deeper inspiration. 58:48 \u2013 Writing, Personal Development and @Camp4 Kevin discusses his daily writing practice, his X\/Twitter presence, and sharing lessons about climbing, work, happiness and building a meaningful life. 61:30 \u2013 Eric\u2019s Key Takeaways for Masters Climbers A concise recap covering continued improvement, smarter training, recovery, mobility, health monitoring, injury resilience and the true value of time. Key Takeaways 1. Stop assuming that age automatically means decline. Your ultimate physiological ceiling will eventually fall, but many climbers have never approached that ceiling. Better training, tactics, movement, nutrition, recovery, and consistency can outweigh some age-related losses for many years. 2. You can still set personal bests in your 40s, 50s, and 60s. Kevin didn't climb 5.13 until age 50. Five years later, he was having his best climbing season ever. 3. The older you get, the more the details matter. Sleep, nutrition, mobility, recovery, training quality, and smart decision-making become increasingly important. (Read more on this topic >>) 4. Train the constraint\u2014not simply your favorite strength. Kevin's endurance, tactics, and resting ability are already strong. Higher-end bouldering power is increasingly the bottleneck. Breaking a plateau requires identifying and targeting that constraint. 5. Don't confuse more training with better training. Masters athletes have less margin for unnecessary fatigue. High-quality work followed by sufficient recovery often beats simply accumulating volume. 6. Preserve mobility and strength before you desperately need them. Kevin wishes he had prioritized mobility earlier. Maintaining usable range of motion and joint function is an investment in your future climbing. 7. Pick your battles. You don't need to prove that you can climb every style. Choose routes and destinations that inspire you and give you a realistic opportunity to express your strengths. 8. Keep some climbing purely fun. Projects provide purpose and challenge, but not every day needs to be a redpoint battle. 9. Injuries are chapters\u2014not necessarily endings. Kevin\u2019s catastrophic triceps tear removed climbing from his life temporarily, but his goal isn't simply returning to climbing. It's returning stronger and continuing for decades. 10. Track your health\u2014not just your climbing grades. As you get older, your health and athletic performance become increasingly intertwined. Appropriate medical evaluation and longitudinal health data may provide useful context for changes in recovery, energy, and performance. 11. Be cautious with longevity \u201chacks.\u201d New therapies may eventually prove valuable, but promising anecdotes aren't the same thing as high-quality human evidence. 12. Remember what you're ultimately optimizing for. Money matters. Achievement matters. Climbing grades matter. But they aren't the only scorecard -- Kevin's central message may be the most important one in this entire conversation: Time is the truly scarce asset. The goal is to intentionally turn that time into experiences, relationships, achievement, adventure\u2014and ultimately, meaning. \ud83d\udc49 Follow Kevin on X\/Twitter: @Camp4, where he writes about climbing, health, personal development, work, money, happiness, and building a more intentional life. His newsletter is also available through the link on his X profile. Please leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share this episode with a climbing partner or friend! Podcast Sponsors  Thank you to La Sportiva, PhysiVantage Nutrition, DMM Climbing, Blue Water Ropes! Save 10% off a new BlueWater Rope with checkout code: ERIC_CLINIC Save on  La Sportiva shoes here >> Save 15% off full-priced PhysiVantage Nutrition with code: PODCAST15 (North America only) European climbers, please get your PhysiVantage from the   EPIC-TV Shop or Oliunid.com. Mexican climbers visit PhysiVantage.mx Connect with Eric H\u00f6rst \ud83d\udcec Training for Climbing Newsletter Get monthly training insights delivered to your inbox. Visit TrainingForClimbing.com to subscribe. \ud83d\udcf1 Follow Eric Instagram: @eric_horst | @training4climbing YouTube: Training For Climbing Twitter: @Train4Climbing Facebook: Training For Climbing Music by Misty Murphy Copyright 2026 Eric H\u00f6rst | Horst Training, LLC.   ","author_name":"Eric H\u00f6rst's Training For Climbing Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/www.trainingforclimbing.com","html":"