Last summer, Andy B convinced me to join a gym in Fort Collins called Emerfit, and I think it’s changing my life.  When you think of the gym, you probably think of treadmills, mirrors, and awkward old dudes in spandex maxing out on the bench press.  Emerfit is probably unlike any gym you’ve been to.

I spent a lot of my life immersed in sport specific weight and agility training, which progressively got more difficult and had a competitive element.   However, I found that this type of training was hard for me to find in a local “big gym.”

When I first sat down with Chris Brown at Emerfit, he explained to me the model of fitness they followed.  What is fitness?  How do you know if you’re fit, or if someone else is physically fit?  It’s something that humans have spent at least the last century trying to figure out, debating, researching, and citing medical journals and studies.  An easy way for me to understand the Emerfit model is this – you may have a guy who can bench 500 lbs, but would fall over dead running more than 400 meters.  You also may have a guy that places top ten in the Boston Marathon, but has to have help out of the

Workout of the Day

grocery store because he can’t lift his milk jugs into the minivan.  Emerfit is all about the pursuit of overall fitness.  It’s not about how you look. It’s not about how much weight you can lift, or how far or fast you can run.  It’s about you pushing the envelope of fitness for you. For me, I had done some short distance running, and a little trail running. I didn’t have any really specific goals in mind when I started, but I have fairly chronic disc issues in my lower back, and feared my body was slipping rapidly into the middle-age abyss.   I, like most people, had tried lots of programs, and gyms, but ultimately faded away once the new wore off.

So what do you do at Emerfit?

Each class is scheduled for an hour with a trainer assigned to lead the group and provide individual coaching. You start with some stretching, warm-up, and then move into some strength work. Each day you also do a “Workout of the Day” (WOD) for conditioning.  The WOD is a short, intense, competitive, timed workout that is designed to push the edge of your fitness limits.  Most of the class participates in the WOD, and results are posted on the board.  This adds a level of competitiveness and accountability that makes me push way harder than I would otherwise. There is a ton of thought and effort put into the programming of these workouts, by the certified training staff.  They also have some customized strength regiments, a climbing-specific program, nutritional coaching, and much more.

Craig D - Deadlift

In 8 months, I’ve seen significant improvements in my strength, speed, and endurance.  I feel better.  I’m accomplishing personal and professional goals, and my cholesterol and blood sugar have moved from high-risk to healthy levels.  I’m running my first trail half marathon on May 29^th (Wyoming Trail Marathon).   There are a number of reasons why the Emerfit model has worked for me, more on that in the next post.

For more info, go to www.emerfit.com

Jobe L

www.outsideallday.com

I’ve been a climber/dirtbag for 20 years now, and in those years, I have yet to train. I know what your thinking.

Man, he must either really like to climb and that’s his training, or he doesn’t care how he climbs just so he’s climbing. Both are accurate, I’ve never been the textbook dirtbag climber.

For instance, I actually have a job; I’ve been a photographer for 24 years and for most that would go against the dirtbag credo. Of course my job allows a great deal of flexibility on my part since I make my own schedule and live in a state where the climbing is as close as a five minute drive from my house. Oh yeah, I have a house too, and a family.

Weird…

All that to say I’ve never really seen the point in training, I climb a lot, and that’s always been what I do, it trains me for, well, climbing?! What else would I do? Enter my friend Andy.

One day, quite innocent enough, Andy mentioned his trainer was an old friend of mine. Now keep in mind, Andy works out at a CrossFit gym called Emergent Fitness, not a place I would frequent. I mean, don’t they pick up truck tires and drag them around behind themselves with chains?

No thanks.

I was sure he was mistaken; until he told me it was my old friend and climbing partner Brad.

Brad and I meet and we reconnect about the days climbing together in WY and CO. Before I know it, he casually mentions I should start training with him. Again, see tire sentence above, and I decline. But here is the thing about Brad, he is a really good climber, I mean like world class. And you don’t get that good at something without being really driven. He has this knack of being able to turn that drive on anything, including his one legged climbing friend. The next thing I know, I’m signing on to train with Brad two days a week, and I’m as shocked as the next guy.

The first two weeks, and I’m fairly sure Brad is trying to break me in half. I can’t bend down to pick up my belay device should it fall, and my whole body feels like I have the bird flu. Both Andy and Brad just laugh.

My climbing goes from being pretty descent to being really bad, since most of the time I’m to tired to care about holding into the holds. Brad has me doing weights and something called Hit Strips, which are holds on a 45-degree wall, which you run weighted laps up and down.

As Brad says, “ you already have endurance, we want power, if you don’t have power, you won’t need to endure anything.” Well said, but all that means is IM getting an ass kicking. By the third week, I’m actually beginning to feel good. I’ve upped my weight in a few things, and the hit strips are getting better. I still haven’t seen a climbing change, but I’m hopeful. Now in week four, I head into the gym after a rest day, another strange and foreign concept for me. I mean what do you DO on a rest day???

After warming up, I send a project I failed on two weeks before, and after four hours of climbing, I’m not really that tired.

Hmmmm, where is that tire and chain?

Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com

Is this Craig on the Emerfit system board? Why yes it is. Craig is now officially training with Brad at Emerfit during his off season.

I’m glad to have him…

Andy B
outsideallday.com

Outsideallday.com contributor and all around good buddy Craig DeMartino has starred in a show that will never air. Breakthrough with Tony Robbins on NBC was a summer show that was unfortantely cut after it’s second episode. Craig’s episode was show number 4 and is available above.

Happy watching!

Andy B
outsideallday.com

As I drive across the windswept flats of southern Wyoming on my way to Salt Lake City, two things are nagging at my mind. The first is why is a no name one legged climber wasting time and money to go to the largest outdoor industry retail show? And the second, why if all I’m doing is sitting still, does my body hurt so much?!

The drive to the show fills my head with things I should be doing once I arrive. I am the guest of Evolv Climbing, they are the shoe company I work with as a climber and I am really excited to see what the booth looks like as well as the whole show. 7.5 hours later I roll into the city and find my way to the convention center. Once inside, I become lost amid the booths and displays. I must look lost, because once I find a friend Ian, he points me in the right direction with a laugh and kick in the butt.

The feeling around the floor of the mammoth center is awesome. Every company I ever heard of is there with the gear and clothing that makes me giddy with happiness.

As I’m hanging out in the booth a bit, getting my bearings, I bump into a guy by the name of Jeremy Collins, he is a very talented climber and illustrator who the year prior had illustrated a piece I did for Rock & Ice. I feel like we are old friends in that we both have a shared strong faith in our lives, as well as trying to balance the climbing and family life we both love. I end the first day late in the afternoon and head out to meet my friend who I will stay with, of course before I leave, I get lost again…I may need to do the bread crumb thing tomorrow.

The second day I meet with companies and work on product sponsorships. Being a photographer, I don’t look for money from companies, which for the most part makes the choice easier for them. I do however need gear to do the things I love, and selling yourself nonstop is tiring and a bit weird. It’s hard to feel like you deserve the things they want to give you, but I feel like together with the companies I like, I can do good then if I try to go it alone.

I also meet with my friend Fitz Cahall who is the creator of The Dirtbag Diaries and The Season. Both showcase his amazing story telling ability and for the up coming Season, he has asked me to be an athlete that he and his partner Brian will profile. Talk about being humbled, I am excited but in the same breath, scared that what I do is really just not that big a deal. Fitz senses my angst, since he begins to tell me that we will work together to make something we are proud of, which relaxes me almost as fast as he says it.

I head back to the booth and finally ask Chris Sharma for a photo, he is sponsored by the same shoe company, but is the best climber by far in the world right now. The cool thing about him is he is so darn humble and nice, the total package, and has been at the forefront of climbing for over 10 years now.

The last day is spent making deals, getting shut down by some and embraced by others. My new friends at Friksn Climbing apparel are super cool, and the team of Evolv just continues to blow me away with the love and support they throw my way.

As I power back up the hill past Park City and enter back into the flats of Wyoming, the first answer seems to be clear for me know. I went to meet people and to see how I would fare in a market of elite companies and athletes. The second question only got cloudier, in fact just an hour into the drive, I was aching and asking the same question over and over…

Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com

The smell comes back to me like a something from my youth. It is something that excites and entrances all at once. It rolls up off my front tire as I make my way up the fire road and single track leading me deeper into the woods near my home. I haven’t had that smell in 6 weeks, and I’m finally back on my bike. The smell is a mix of pine and mountain air mixed with dirt, and it smells like healing and freedom. After breaking my foot 6 weeks ago, my outside time has been limited to say the least. For perspective, I spend a lot of time outside climbing and mtb biking, it is a very large part of who I am and what I do. When that’s taken away, I get a bit stir crazy. I, like most men in America, have a nice sleeper case of ADHD, I admit I may have it more then most, but it is something that fuels me for my outside endeavors and also is a great motivator when your trying to heal from say, oh, a broken foot. It allows me to find ways to be active, in this case, it helped me work out in a gym, and do hang board routines even though I looked like a train wreck most of the time.

After about three miles of climbing I reach the drop in and the first real technical sections of trail. As I ease the bike down the first few drops and pick up speed, I grab the brakes out of fear that I could hurt my foot again. This being the first day out, I really can’t be hurt again for multiple reasons. The biggie is Cyn would kill me, and then I’d be dead and not able to do anything, which is, a real no win situation.

But as the first few root drops go under and the foot feels good, even fine, I start to feel the excitement of single track again, and feel the gift of moving outside, I also feel the three words start to bubble up in my brain.

Let. Me Roll.

They are simple words and ones I know well. When I feel good on the bike or climbing, they bubble up and it lets click into a zone where the things IM doing feel effortless. But with a foot still very fragile and the steepest part ahead, I did the smart thing.

I let it roll.

And it was good, very good!

As I dropped down the hillside the trees became the familiar blur I am used to as you whip down towards the creek bottom. After the shallow crossing I hit into some more tight down hill roller single track, which carries me into a small technical section of root crossings, and dumps me at the beaver ponds and a bridge crossing. Here I stop and reflect for the first time since I started. I feel good, tired, but good, and the foot feels great.

I am so thankful to be moving again, and until something takes that from you, you really don’t have any idea how much you miss that simple gift of movement.

As I joined back into the fire road I come across a runner who stops me for directions. He makes the comment about how cool it was that I’m riding with a prosethic leg. I laugh and tell him about my last six weeks, that my metal leg is by far my good leg, and that today is my first day back outside. He is psyched and tells me he was thinking about losing an leg and how screwed he would have been until he saw me, again, I laugh and tell him how well we adapt and that the leg is a good machine and quickly adapts to change. Now that other one with the bones, that’s the one you gotta watch out for!

We part ways and I’m enveloped in the wonderful smell of the mountains as I head home, alone in my freedom.

Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com

I’ve been doing this climbing thing for going on 23 years. That’s a long time, and it really should be something I’ve got pretty well figured out by now, and in a lot of respects I do.

Except one.

Getting injured. Again, if you know anything about my past, I should have THAT figured out too. In 2002, I was accidentally dropped 100 feet onto talus, shattering my feet, back, neck and a long list of things that plague me to this day.

Three weeks ago, while bouldering with a new amputee, I popped off a rock about a foot above the ground. Of course I didn’t have a pad under me, I was after all, just sussing the opening moves on a problem I had done years before. But off I went to the very pointed rocks below my foot, which in a grand offering of thanks, broke upon impact on those rocks. I heard a branch break, only to find no branch…

Now three weeks later and very bored, I think I may be getting a grip that is somewhat helpful.

I will never be “pain free” as long as I walk this planet. I don’t mean that in a weird way, just that I’ve figured out that in the line of sports I do for both fun and work, things break. All my friends who don’t climb ask me if that’s enough? Like I can turn this on and off like a light and move onto the next big thing in my life. If only it were that simple. Climbing is something that God has hardwired me for, its like breathing and eating and to not be doing it drives me crazy. I don’t think of the things it’s taken from me, my right leg, feeling in my legs, given a nerve disorder in my leg and hips, and chronic pain. I look to the things it gives me every time I tie in or boulder. The feeling of leaving the flat earth and moving up through small problems and escaping the regular, sometimes trivial world I am a part of. I cannot find anther pursuit that gets me to the plain of focus climbing does. I ski and mountain bike, both worthy pursuits, but on the best days they are fulfilling but never to the level that climbing gets me too. A week before I crunched my foot, I succeeded on a route in the canyon near my home, Cyn belayed me on the 90 foot pitch that worked its way up and thru a roof. I had worked it twice before and knew I could do it; it was a matter of trying hard and the balance of speed and footwork. Keep in mind, I said 23 years before, and I still love to find that path I need to go down in order to succeed on a route that’s hard for me, that thrill never gets old for me and I still obsess over routes like I did when I was six months into this life long journey of climbing I embarked on so long ago.

Regrets?

Sure, I have a few, but only that I have to spend time in a walking boot again and miss out on the climbing I could be doing. In truth, what it does to me is cements my bond back to climbing because I do the things normal people do to have fun. I go to the gym and lift weights, yuck, I ride a stationary bike, did you know you never move and there is no wind?!, and it makes me realize how blessed I am to have found climbing. I know for sure that had I not found it, I would have turned into a 250-pound couch potato who never really excelled at anything.

But that’s me.

So then yes, in some respects the price is high, but I will continue to gladly pay to play since the alternative is way to high a price.

Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com

I was watching an episode of The Season a few weeks back about a women climber who was a really strong boulderer. The lead in to her first segment was a beautiful panning shot of her climbing up a tall, proud boulder. The narrator, Fitz Cahall, one of the best outdoor story tellers of our time, was saying that if you boulder, its not a matter of IF you break something. But a matter of WHEN. Bouldering always results in a ground fall no matter what.

Last week, on Thursday, I met up with my friend Pablo who had recently lost his leg to amputation after a climbing accident. He had a new prosthetic and was having some trouble climbing and getting around uneven ground so we headed up the Horsetooth to work on both.

We walked in, and as we were poking around, I felt the holds on a problem I hadn’t done in years. I pulled into the start, which in the slanting gully we were in put me about 6 inches above the rocks that were the floor. As I moved down the gully wall feeling the holds, my prosethic popped of the lichen-covered wall and I dropped, 6 inches, to the rocks. I landed on a pair of rocks, or between them, and heard a branch snap. My toes all balled up, and a shot of pain ran through my foot. I turned around to see Pablo and the bush behind me that I broke the branch off.

Hmm, only Pablo, no bush.

My foot really started to hurt, and as I answered some of Pablo’s questions about how to fall better on his fake leg ( funny now) my foot grew in size. I took off my shoe and noticed the swelling in my toes. We were planning to move down the hill and boulder, but by that point I was having trouble standing, so I told Pablo I thought I broke my foot. “ No, are you sure?” He asked. “Ahh, yea, I’ve done enough of this to know when they are broken, I think I better leave.” The 300-yard walk to my truck was painful on the foot, I limped and the people who saw me must have thought that my missing leg was the problem, which in that instance was what was holding me up. Driving home I couldn’t believe that had just happened to me. I was barley off the ground, really just moving down the slope and here I was with what I knew to be a broken bone. I grabbed the kids at home, spoke to Cyn on the phone, and in her usual caring voice, she asked where I was going to have it x-rayed. The fact I didn’t argue kinda drove home the point of how it hurt, and off to the ER we went.

Three hours later and a walking cast as a new style booster, we were off to the pharmacy where Cyn works to fill a Vicoden script.

As the first day passed and I settled into the pain cycle I know all to well, the boredom set in due to the fact I was not allowed to do anything. Now I know what your thinking.

A smart man would listen to the doc, not weight bare, and do the time. I, am not that man.

I had to do something, and after meeting with the orthopedic doc yesterday, I was already figuring a way around this little roadblock. I was told that the break was clean and in a great spot, that by wearing a full boot for three weeks, the bone would set up nicely, and that I could apply a small amount of weight when I walked, but never out of the boot. I had already climbed again, Saturday we went to the gym in Colorado Springs. Mayah had a skate comp there and we had gone for the weekend to climb and watch her skate. I wanted to see if I could climb like this, and all in all, it went o.k. But now, I had a little loophole to play with.

No, I wouldn’t weight bare, it hurts to much, and I WANT to heal as fast as I can. But, ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you, I don’t sit still well.

It makes my whole body hurt, so back to climbing I go. Just like a man in an abusive marriage, she only breaks my bones because she loves me, I worked out a climbing system with my knee and prosthetic to get me back up into the vertical world. I made a kneepad with some sticky rubber so that I can use my fake leg as normal, bit use my knee on the broken side as a foot.

TaDa! I’m a climber again!

Now I have to go for three weeks like this until they shoot x-ray’s again to steer me the rest of the way down the road.

I also know that it’s not the best thing to do as an injured man, but I figure with as much broken and shattered in me, the fused and plated pieces, what’s one more broken bone. I look at it as another chance to work on my PT skills.

Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com

As a parent I struggle with what I should and shouldn’t let my kids do.

In the past, I tried to look at each incident as it happened. For example, can they ski that line safely or am I asking for trouble by letting them? Can they climb that route without falling and swinging into a wall or dihedral and getting hurt?

First and foremost my wife and I are climbers. We’ve been at it for a long time and I like to think I have a pretty good handle on it. Even after an accident claimed a lot of my body, a climbing accident I might add, I still feel like it’s a good pursuit and one that really fills a void in my life.

Last season though was a tough one to figure out and a tougher one to look forward from. Several, and by that I mean three, climbing friends died in China. I didn’t know them well, and I felt really off when it all happened. They all had a lot of experience like me, yet, when the time came, they were gone.

Towards the end of summer, I got a call in a hotel room that I never thought I would get. My close friend Craig was killed while climbing in the northwest. Craig was one of the first people I met and climbed with when I moved to CO 16 years ago. He was a kind and gentle guy who could climb almost anything. He taught me a lot and was a great friend. Recently, he had a new girl in his life, his daughter Guila, who he and his wife adored. Craig was a guide and made his living being safe, in fact when he died, he was training for a safety test he needed to take to keep some of his guiding credentials up to date. Again, when its time, you get pimp slapped pretty hard and there is nothing you can do about it.

It’s with these thoughts I trudge into the mountains again on Saturday. My wife and kids are ahead of me, and all the parental stuff rolls around my head like a storm front. The pain in my leg and back are all to real reminders of what can go wrong in my life, and they also remind me that I have no control of this life. Its that thought that allows me to hand my 11 year old the sharp end of the rope at the base of our first climb. The sharp end refers to the fact she will be leading up this climb first, so if she falls, she will FALL to her last bolt. The bolts are spaced at about 10 to 15 foot intervals making the falls roughly double that if she were to fall at the blots. She is nervous, and I am more so. I tell her she can do this, and that she has all the skills to hike right up this thing. With that, she casts off into a sea of granite rising above her like a wave frozen in time.

Once she makes the first clip, I feel better. This means she shouldn’t hit the ground if she were to fall, but she is still a long way from the top. She climbs quietly. Her focus is sharp and she cruises bolt to bolt with little or no hesitation. Its over in less than 10 minutes. She clips the anchors and lowers back to the ground where her mom and I high five her. I have a weird mix of fear, joy, and pride that swims inside me as I look at her untying. Could she have gotten hurt?

Yes.

Would I do it again?

Yes, in a heartbeat.

Why? Because in life, I figure we really don’t have any control, that the things that are going to happen, either good or bad, are going to happen. And if I can give them some skills to cope with life and stress in the form of climbing, well, that’s a good thing.

The day passes fast and before I know it we are walking out to the car. They both have climbed today, and well. Will didn’t want to lead yet, and that’s o.k., I think he will be ready next year. Mayah felt great, she climbed a few more routes on top rope, and then read a book in the sun.

Now all I have to worry about is the boys she’ll meet in school. And I Know I’ll struggle with that way more then her climbing.

Craig Demartino
outsideallday.com

My buddy Craig Demartino competed last weekend in the American Bouldering Series National Championships in Alexandria, VA. He won his division and brought the heat to his competition. He’s the man!

Click here to read the rest of the story over at Mountain Murmur….

5 reasons why I think bouldering is insane:
1. It’s the most dangerous sport I know of.
2. Why would anyone choose to potentially fall 20 feet onto a 3 inch foam mat and risk missing the mat?
3. I’m too fat to climb rocks.
4. I have sissy computer hands not manly cut up rock grabbing hands.
5. Ropes were designed to help people be safe. Not using them makes you unsafe.

Andy B
outsidedallday.com

Flight School
By Craig DeMartino
November 30th, 2009

“Just point ‘em.”

“What?!”

That was how the day was shaping up. I was standing on top of a 35-foot SnowFlex ramp in Copper Mountain’s new indoor jumping facility called Woodward. The young guy who just gave me the instructions, which I was really having trouble doing, had just walked me and my kids through an hour-and-a-half lesson on how to fall and jump into a foam pit. The part he left out was the part about this ramp. Now don’t get me wrong, I was all about doing these jumps, but I guess I thought we would kind of step our way up to it, not start there as our first jump.

Click here to read the rest of the story and to see more pictures.

Andy B
outsideallday.com

Extreme Colorado climber faces up to adversity
By Anica Wong
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/29/2009

Craig DeMartino remembers unhooking his climbing clip and pushing off the cliff wall. He and a buddy had been rock climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park on that summer afternoon in 2002. When DeMartino pushed off, he soon realized he wasn’t attached to anything, the result of a miscommunication with his climbing partner. He fell an estimated 80 feet backward before hitting a dead tree 20 feet above ground. The impact tipped DeMartino, causing him to fall toward the ground like an arrow.

Click here to read the read the rest of the article.

Craig is my mountain biking buddy at work. He thinks he’s super funny, I think he’s pretty funny.

Andy B
outsideallday.com

My buddy Craig DeMartino is a professional rock climber and super stud mountain biker. Craig and I try to ride after work on our local trails when he’s not jet setting around the country winning climbing events. Because he’s so rad at climbing rocks Cloudveil made him an athlete ambassador. They ask their ambassador’s to blog for them, below is his most recent post, titled Gumbo Ride: Sometimes you’re the bug… It’s about riding on our local trails in Loveland and Fort Collins, CO. If you’ve ever ridden your mountain bike in the rain you know about the “gmubo” and will appreciate his story.

When I was a kid, I loved to play in the mud and rain. Living here in CO I get the chance to plat a lot in the crazy weather that comes through here on a regular basis. Today was no exception. It’s been raining here on and off most of the summer. We are not known for our rain here, so it takes a lot of getting used to. Its messed up my outside climbing, but has made for some fun mountain bike rides. As the rain came down and I suited up to ride, it looked as if it would clear by the time I was on top of the hogbacks behind my house.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

A little bit about Craig:

Craig DeMartino
I’ve been a climber most of my life, but in 2002 while climbing with a friend in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was dropped 100 feet due to a miscommunication. The fall resulted in the loss of my right leg, a fused back and numerous other life long injuries. After about two years of rehab, I was back to climbing at about the same levels of pre-accident, and in 2005 became the first amputee to climb El Capitan in under 24 hours. I love to ski and mountain bike with my family when I’m not scaling rocks.

Hopefully Craig won’t be to big time and will actually ride with me this week,

Andy B
outsideallday.com