Adam Ondra - interview with the most successfull climber

Adam Ondra is the best climber in the world. On his account are many wins in lead climbing and bouldering as well as rock climbing. He has three gold medals from World Championships and rewriting the history of climbing by breaking new records. He climbed the world's first 9c named Silence in Flatanger, Norway in 2017 and he is preparing for the next Olympic games in Tokyo, where sports climbing appears for the first time. Adam Ondra is aware of the importance of lifestyle for top performance beside the training. In this interview, Adam talks about his lifestyle habits.

Do you pay attention to a healthy lifestyle?

So surely, if you are training, you have to keep up with your lifestyle, it's definitely diet, whether it's regular lifestyle habits, a healthy sleep, and then everything makes the training more effective, better regeneration and better health. I think that's a lot of details that are underestimated in the training and it makes this whole picture and for the following season when I'm going to prepare for the World Cup I will put a lot of emphasis on it and finally I have the opportunity to do it because a few years ago I was still studying at university and to do everything I wished was almost impossible.

Do you have a morning routine?

I am interested in traditional Chinese medicine, so I take some special supplements from Chinese medicine, different mushrooms, so the first thing I do is to take these mushrooms and within 20 minutes I prepare a good breakfast and I have it as a routine, that I cut apples and fruit and I usually cook oatmeal and cook it from bigger flakes, so it takes longer, so it takes 20 minutes and definitely every morning I start with good quality black tea, mostly Puerh tea.

How does your diet look like, and have you heard about whole food plant based diet?

I did not hear about this, I think there are many nutritional directions and I think it is very individual what a person believes and what suits him. I have found, after many years of experimentation, what suits me and what does not suit me, on the basis of my feeling, I know that the diet of traditional Chinese medicine is the most suitable for me, based on my constitution, which actually removes some seemingly healthy foods. For my constitution a salad in winter is not so healthy because my constitution is rather cold and weak and just the digestion of that raw salad exhausts me, so I eat cooked vegetables, vegetable broths, some sources of protein rather plant protein sources, but I add fish, and a lot of dried fruits, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

How is your attitude towards alcohol?

I drink alcohol minimally. I do not think that alcohol is somewhat unhealthy in small amount, but even one glass of wine after the brutal training I absolve slows regeneration, so I avoid it, but on the contrary, even before the competition in the evening, one glass of red wine can relax and the night before competition helps to fall asleep, and a glass of red wine suits me.

Are you doing any other physical activity besides climbing?

I used to run more in the past, but today I find that when I have a rest day, I really spend it rather resting and relaxing, I do some type of exercises that come out of yoga, but they are more specific for climbing, all coming from cooperation with a physiotherapist.

Are you practicing some psychological exercises or meditation?

I do not practice meditation, but definitely some sort of psychological exercise, I call it visualization. Visualization even during those days when I do not climb, I visualize what I struggle with in climbing, what I am dealing with at the moment, and that's in bouldering for example, when there is a modern trend of coordinating jumps, so I try to play these jumps in my head with all kind of details, all kind of movement that the body makes and I hope it actually trains this way.

Are you trying to have a regular sleep?

Certainly sleep is important, I'm not saying that in everyday life of a professional climber it's always possible, today for example I'm sure to go to sleep somewhat later than necessary, but I have the rule that one night does not matter as much as when those nights are quite a bit more, I definitelly feel that.

When do you have the greatest motivation?

That's hard to say, I think I have motivation throughout all the year. So maybe the greatest motivation during the brutal training is just when I have a year-round break and, of course, after three weeks of not climbing I have a huge motivation.

How do you deal with stress?

Stress cannot be avoided, of course, when I go to a climbing competition for example. I try to not even think that I'm at a competition and trying to concentrate just five to ten minutes before competing, when I'm really nervous, I try to think about it, trying to visualize the last moment when I climbed well and imagine the moment when I just felt strong, light and stress-free, and the communication between my mind is such that when I was so good at the time then why would it be different today.

Would you like to improve something on your lifestyle?

I would like to always have time to sleep well. This is probably the most important thing, and of course, when traveling, it is not always possible to keep the right diet, so I always prefer to take my own car, where I have my own kitchen and instead of going to the gas station, I do not know for a baguette, I rather cook something and it takes usually the same amount of time.

Would you like to say something to other climbers or athletes?

Do what you enjoy.