Reddit mentions: The best health & body reference books

As far as improving your headgame goes, leading easy but long runouts is super helpful, as well as falling onto (well-placed) gear. Alpine multipitch is an admirable goal, but it is a far cry from what most people think of as trad climbing. You should be confident on long runouts, with potential no-fall zones. There are a lot of skills that are important for alpine climbing that often are not learned in a typical trad climbing mentor relationship, such as self-rescue, alpine route finding, and depending on your goals, snow climbing skills. There are several ways to learn these skills such as books or hiring a guide. Ultimately, your safety is much more dependent on yourself when alpine climbing. I say this not to scare you away from alpine climbing, as it has been responsible for some of the most amazing memories I have, but it has also been responsible for some of the scariest.

Some books that you might find beneficial:

Climbing Self-Rescue - Just what it says in the title.

Vertical Mind - I found this book useful for improving my head space.

Training for the New Alpinism - Probably the best book to help a climber transition into the backcountry.

[Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills] (https://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaineers/dp/1680510045/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=freedom+of+the+hills&qid=1562736585&s=gateway&sr=8-1) - This book is excellent, but probably isn't extremely helpful until you are climbing more serious alpine routes.

As far as advice, just get as much mileage on lead outdoors as you can, with 1-2 indoor bouldering sessions per week. If it doesn't impact your bouldering, you could add a couple strength sessions as well. If you want to get into alpine climbing, or even just multipitch climbing, practice your systems at the top of single pitch routes. Belay your partner from the top, practice building an anchor at the top off of the bolts, set up simple pulley systems. Just spending 15 minutes per session will help you get muscle memory down for when it really matters.

Edit: As you get into more alpine climbing, you should increase the strength training and cardio. Climbing efficiently after four hours walking with a pack full of gear and food is harder than it sounds. Increasing your physical strength will reduce the mental load a lot, allowing you to think more clearly and be more confident.

I see you haven't gotten much traction here, so I'll just share with you a little of my knowledge and experience. I was not an AST, but I know several extremely fit people who didn't make it. I can't give you a plan, but I'll share what I've heard. I was honor graduate of my boot camp company, meaning I had the best overall average in everything, including fitness tests (I think, they never said exactly how it was calculated, but I did very well in everything). I also have trained for rock climbing and mountaineering, so I have some basic knowledge of serious training regimes.

First what I know: boot camp is easy. If you do a modicum of training before hand you'll be just fine. I assume if you have aspirations to go AST, you consider yourself to be pretty fit to begin with. The PT requirements are all available online or from your recruiter. Make sure you can do all those with ease (of you come in moderately fit, they'll get you up to the minimum, but you're not shooting for the minimum given your aspirations). To go above and beyond, you'll be doing flutter kicks (with heavy boots), squats (not weighted except maybe a pack and rifle), crunches, push ups, swimming, and stationary bike. The first 4 you will do every day, any time the CCs want to. You'll also do a lot applied isometric exercises: holding your helmsman or canteen straight armed out in front of you, sitting while aiming your rifle unsupported (no elbows on knees) for seriously long times, upwards of half an hour (although I don't know exactly how long, but it felt like an eternity). I admire your dedication if you train for that type of thing beforehand, it would be exceedingly tedious.

AST: From what I understand, you basically have a full time job in the pool for the first 8 weeks of AST school. I'm not sure there is a practical way to adequately train for that, unless you have the time (6-8 hours a day), a pool/ocean, and people willing to wrestle you in the pool all day. But obviously get in the pool or ocean or lake as much as you can and completely exhaust yourself. Start slow, but keep building up intensity and duration. Take up full body training, cardio endurance, strength, power. You generally want to start a serious training cycle with a long base training in endurance--so swimming for hours, running, cycling, rowing, whatever. Then add strength--hit the weight room or however your strength train, focus on muscles you need in the water. Finally add power--high intensity interval training, hills. Keep training endurance throughout, but you can taper off a bit.

Whether or not any of that makes sense to you, go to a bookstore and look through the sports training section. Find training manuals for anything that you think might apply. I doubt there is a CG AST training manual, but there might be a Navy SEAL one or similar. Swimming would help. I learned a lot from this book about how the human body responds to training and how to craft a training plan. It's written for mountaineers, but a lot of the principles could be applied to anything. In case you're wondering, mountaineering is extremely physically taxing in ways similar to something like AST school: pushing your body to near physical limit--heavy pack marching up steep slopes with less air than usual--for 8-10-12 hours, then you wake up and do it again, and again, and again. Not saying you need to buy this book, but take a look at the table of contents to see how it's structured, I would recommend any book that has a similar structure or addresses the same types of concepts.

There's a lot to take in--that's why people write entire books on the stuff. Again, boot is easy, but if you want to go AST, you need to start training like an AST now. If you're not willing to put in that kind of dedication, I would guess your chances for success at AST school are pretty slim. Good luck and sorry for the essay, but I hope it's useful.

The medical world can be a bitch. When a patient doesn't improve (or doesn't have a clear path to recovery, or doesn't have a diagnosis), the relationship between the patient and the doctor can deteriorate into what seems like a lack of empathy and understanding.

But you have to keep fighting. I had a severe chronic pain problem for 3 years (still do actually, but it's been getting much better) and never had a diagnosis. I remember feeling down, not having the strength to continue. I made the decision that whenever the condition gets worse, or I get another failed test result, I was just going to fight even harder. Don't lose strength! Do the opposite. It's tough, I can't even guarantee full success from it, but it's both rational and in your best interest. Bounce back.

Trying different doctors is important, but what's most important is finding good doctors. It's good to have some friends in the medical world who can refer doctors to you or give you some medical advice. There are many good books on dealing with doctors and the medical world. I got this one from my local library – it was pretty good, definitely worth the read.

Keep going! This isn't your fault! Never give up! Talk to your doctors, be honest, demand treatment, get answers! The relief is worth it.

> I doubt that a psychedelic experience would spark or fuel interest in science for most - more likely the arts, if they used before deciding on their career or path of study.

I often hear psychonauts giving lip service to the sciences, but seldom see them follow through on their proclaimed interest. For me, trying lsd really did reinvigorate my interest in science, most specifically chemistry. The first thing I took away from the experience was how apparent it became that everything I ingest has an effect on the chemistry of my body and subsequently my physical and mental experiences, even if by 2nd or 3rd order effects. I picked up a copy of Linus Pauling's General Chemistry as a starting point, then read How to Live Longer and Feel Better and have since greatly improved the efficacy of my diet in supporting a robust mind and body. In retrospect, revelations that I've had regarding how to feel and live better seem like they should have been obvious... but at times before I had really given things reasonable thought I recall being quite overwhelmed and confused. I suppose one could say that the strength of the acid experience snapped me out of living in the world of ideas and renewed my awareness of the interdependence of my subjective "inner world" and my interaction with the objective "outer world".

This particular interview with Joe Rogan has been referenced below by /u/twintersx and I wanted to direct the question to you.

Obviously you said that low volume/high intensity training sessions have been beneficial to you, but in almost every other sport this isn't the case. Whether it be an endurance sport like cycling to short/high intensity bouts like wrestling or gymnastics (In both of these cases I agree that the "amount of time" as being short is relative, but albeit they are mostly anaerobic).

To summarize the interview (and perhaps butcher it) Firas Zahabi references training techniques used by the Russian Olympic Wrestling team where they do high volume low intensity workouts focused largely on technique. They then will increase intensity and decrease volume leading up to the competition. This seems to accomplish two things really well: it increases performance (apparently the Russian wrestling team is legendary), and decreases injury.

Another place that I've seen this type of training recommendation is within the book Training for the new alpinism where one of the authors describes his experience for improving his cycling performance through low volume/high intensity workouts. He ultimately realizes from personal experience that nothing can beat a firm solid "base" or "foundation" that includes a high amount of volume and low intensity, from which you can launch into more intense strength / power. Granted, in this book he is almost exclusively talking about endurance (both in the mountains and in cycling), but I can't help but feel an intuition that these folks are onto something...

From my own personal experience I largely have seen great gains in the short/high intensity sessions that you are describing. But despite all of my precautions / recovery / prehab I find myself getting injured and setting myself back from further gains.

I'd like to hear your thoughts!

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this so young. Even though I've been struggling with various mysterious symptoms for 3-4 years, including irregular periods, it didn't get really bad until last year, when I was 35 and the hot flashes started. My estrogen levels were tanked (low progesterone too), and my FSH was super high. Now, at 36, I've determined with the help of my functional medicine practitioner (ARNP, CNM) and a transvaginal ultrasound that I'm experiencing POF and early perimenopause. It totally sucks all around. For me, the worst part was the mood/energy stuff -- total lack of motivation, foggy brain, fatigue, anxiety, etc. And being chemically sensitive, I was very scared to consider HRT.

However, I have tried everything in the book on the natural side of remedies (acupuncture, supplements, diet, etc.), and while I'm sure they helped -- especially dietary changes like going gluten- and grain-free and reducing sugar (I already don't drink coffee or alcohol) -- I was still feeling like crap, and beginning to feel hopeless.

I spent the weeks between my diagnosis and my next appt. reading as much as I could. I got these three books: 1 2 3, and found the 1st to be the most helpful. I also watched a bunch of Menopause Taylor videos on YouTube as recommended by this sub. And I came to the conclusion that I owed it to my future self to give hormones a shot, so as to protect my bones, heart, and brain, even though I was totally freaked out that I'd have a bad reaction.

Luckily, my practitioner errs on the natural side of things as well, so she recommended bioidentical hormones rather than the stronger synthetic ones. I started using a bi-est cream and progesterone cream two weeks ago, and so far have had no bad side effects! I'm starting out at, like, 1/3 of the dose, lol. After a month I'll do more bloodwork to see if it's helping, and I imagine I'll up the dose. But, let me tell you -- I can feel the life coming back to me!! Within the first couple days I felt more energy, and my hot flashes have reduced dramatically. So perhaps you can do some research on bioidenticals and see if those might be a good fit for you.

I highly recommend finding a functional medicine person with experience in menopause. I've heard so many horror stories about doctors -- even GYNs -- who are dismissive towards menopause, so I count myself lucky to have found this help. Good luck, OP! Keep us posted!

It's important to realize how incredible some of the things that are being done in medicine that weren't possible even 100 years ago and thus it makes sense to be pricey, but here's a quick explanation.
First, I recommend every American reads the healthcare handbook which was written by two medical students recently at Washington University in St. Louis - it breaks the American Healthcare system down beautifully.

To give you a quicker read though: There are two large areas of why healthcare (medical bills) are expensive.

1. Those present in any system of healthcare:
   Equipment : The incredible equipment we have today takes lots of money and time to develop and drug development leads to patent laws and thus the healthcare provider must make back their money to pay for all of their expensive equipment and your drugs.
   Training In the U.S. to become a physician you need a bachelors degree followed by four years of medical school and a minimum of 3 year residency. four years of med school can run you well into a $250k, average indebtedness hovers above $100k and residencies are 85+ hour work weeks for below minimum wage.
   
   
2. Unique to the U.S. and why bills are super high?
   In the U.S. due to our mostly private healthcare system, large HMOs and Insurance companies play a game with hospitals. Because they can guarantee a large number of patients and must pay the bill, they negotiate with healthcare providers to actually only pay a fraction. The provider then raises it's rates and the cycle repeats. Those without insurance get screwed.
   tdlr: A small fraction of the U.S. is stuck actually footing those huge bills and large HMOs and Insurance companies pay them and although they're expensive they normally still make a profit because so many people are paying them premiums as a backup
   Overhead : The U.S. has a huge overhead cost in healthcare (due to how confusing and mixed up our billing is as a private industry).
   
   

Gooood, gooood, like the kink flow through you.

P.S.

For those questioning, interested in dabbling, or just wanna read into what the other side likes, here's some book recs:

The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism

The Loving Dominant

SM 101: A Realistic Introduction

Different Loving: A Complete Exploration of the World of Sexual Dominance and Submission

Being with guides doesn't lower your risk of edema, but it does make it more likely that you will make it down alive and survive it (assuming they have medical training, rescue experience, etc). The only way to reduce the risk of edema is to take the time to properly acclimatize and reduce the time spent at altitude. Guides can help you set up this program, but it is up to you to monitor your condition and recognize the signs of AMS early to avoid more serious conditions developing.
If you really want to do this you should pick up Steve House's book "Training for the New Alpinism" to structure the proper training program, https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X. This book has the overview of what you would need to know to properly train for your objective including discussion of acclimatization schedules and strategies for succeeding at altitude.
I'm sure people with less experience/forethought than you have summited Aconcagua with a guide company, but you have to decide whether this a reasonable objective for you. You may want to call around to reputable guiding companies and describe your experience/fitness level and see what they say. Your post doesn't give much detail as to what your fitness level/experience in the outdoors is.
The bottom line is that you shouldn't underestimate the altitude, Aconcagua is well above the altitude at which HACE/HAPE, hypothermia, strokes, etc all become serious risks that are difficult to minimize and can strike very quickly with deadly consequences. You will be ~2000 m above lost city at the summit. Make sure your guiding company has the proper medical training, medical supplies, and rescue experience to get you down safely if you suffer one of these conditions.
Here is some resources you may find useful:
http://www.alanarnette.com/climbing/guidequestions.php
http://www.alanarnette.com/7summits/aconcaguafaq.php
http://www.alanarnette.com/climbing/guides.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4JqV2xdcaQ

First things first, go out and buy a copy of Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.

That book will be a fantastic primer on all things mountaineering and alpinism, it's widely considered the bible of mountaineering and has been updated several times by top alpinists and guides. It should get you comfortable with climbing some less technical peaks near you. To find some peaks to climb and route information look at Summitpost.
And lastly for training for mountaineering buy a copy of Training for the new Alpinism. The book was written by Steve House, world renowned alpinist, and Scott Johnston, his training coach. The book only covers how to train your body to prepare for climbing and covers everything from diet, to mental training, to sports science.

Lastly, see if you can join your local mountaineering club and find a mentor.

Be safe. Have fun. Don't die.

You can probably find someone to go with but I'm not sure what it takes to be properly insured as a professional guide to protect against personal liability. You might have better luck going with a group through meetup or some other hiking club.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS754US754&q=meetup+cactus+to+clouds

There have been many groups going in the past.

There are lots of training guides for hiking/mountaineering

https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X

http://www.fitclimb.com/page/12-week-mountaineering-fitness

You can also look at stuff for Whitney and start training:

http://www.fitclimb.com/page/mt-whitney-conditioning

The best training is probably to go hike with a similiar pack weight as much as you can. Start getting out and doing treks with 5000-8000ft elevation gain. Socal has lots of local peaks you can do.

Just read your other posts. I feel for ya.

I had a tough infection that my regular OBYGYN couldn't get rid of, so she recommended me to a specialist. This OBYGYN was a med school teacher in Boston and specialized in post-menopausal issues. She cleared up my infection and diagnosed my vulvodynia. After seeing her for 2 years, my vulvodynia was not gone (physical therapy helped the pain immensely, but I still had symptoms), so she sent me to Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, author of The V Book, which is the bible for vulvodynia. Her office is so awesome that some patients freaking fly into the Boston area to see her.

Vulvodynia is so poorly understood that no one even knows what causes it, but most of the treatments involve physical therapy, treatment of skin irritations, and relaxation techniques. Most doctors who treat vulvodynia know about the physical therapy portion, but many do not know how to treat the skin irritation. Dr. Stewart specializes in skin treatment.

I don't know where you are located, but I can recommend the following resources:

• The V Book - everyone and their mom in the V community raves about this thing
  
• V Matters, a New England-based support group that has a friendly list serv. The coordinator is very helpful and could hook you up with local resources
  
• Vaginismus.com - they have a handy workbook you can buy to track exercises, as well as an active message board for women and their partners
  
• NVA.org - National Vulvodynia Assoc, costs money, but if you can't find specialists in your area, this may be the way to go.
  
  Best of luck! Feel free to PM me if you have additional questions. This problem really really freaking sucks and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Have you heard of the book Training for the New Alpinism? Great book focused on alpinism/mountaineering/climbing training, applicable to lots of outdoors sports. Anyway, there's a whole section on mental fitness that I've read over several times, I'd recommend the book if you're interested in getting better in any aspect though.

There's tips like listening to music, meditation, nutrition/diet for your mental state, etc. And big sections on concentration, confidence, and how to develop the skills.

The greatest help is increasing your aerobic fitness. The more oxygen your body can process per breath and more volume your heart is trained to pump per contraction the lower your respiratory and heart rate will be.

When I have been doing regular aerobic work I can ski tour or climb above 10k without slowing down at all. When I haven't been running I turn into a huffing and puffing mess (like I did climbing at 10k last week).

The frequency of your aerobic work is more important, low intensity is fine. If you have a choice between running 20 minutes a day 3 days a week or for 2 hours once a week, take the former.

If you really want to get into there is a wealth of information here:
https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X

If the climb were tomorrow you could probably do it with a guide. You should definitely push yourself to be in shape but it sounds like you already have a reasonable fitness base.

Check out http://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X if you really want to get into climbing shape.

There isn't really a way for you to get used to altitude without having taller mountains nearby but you might be able to go a few days early and hike around the area to acclimate.

$15,000 sounds quite expensive. Some equipment will be provided with the guided trip and you can find most other equipment on sale or gently used.

Depending on how long you plan to stick around before/after, I would think you could do it for ~$5,000. Airfare + some cheap lodging & food + personal gear + guide fee.

Probably less if you are willing to camp instead of get a hotel, shop at a grocery store and cook on a camp stove instead of going to restaurants, be picky in your purchases and buy what you need not what is newest or fanciest, join some forums and try to find someone else in the program to bum a ride with or a local to do a few acclimatization hikes.

Hopefully someone else can think of mountains closer to home for you to train.

The focus isn't so much on the history of each particular drug, but rather humanity's interaction with them. Again, this book is best suited for those that are interested in a more academic view on hallucinogens. If you're looking purely for a brass tacks drug history book, I highly recommend A Brief History of Drugs as a good place to start.

Consider getting this book: Training for he New Alpinism House discusses training for mountaineering and climbing. He goes into detail about how different types of training affect your aerobic ability, etc. He also lays out how to structure your training plans. Some of it is geared towards climbing, but for the most part its been a great resource for training for hiking/backpacking. I highly recommend picking up a copy and a heart rate monitor.

For technical alpine rock you need to train both your climbing ability and your cardiovascular system. Getting to the trango towers and other high altitude rock destinations require stellar cardiovascular strength on top of being a strong rock climber. Pick up the book [Training for the New Alpinism](https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X), this is some of the most in depth information you can get on how to train specifically for alpine climbing. Also if you feel inclined check out the r/alpinism training club which is posted on this sub every monday, we talk about our routines, benchmarks, questions, and ideas for training. I find that the rock-specific training isn't talked about much in this book, so maybe look into some other books or apps (crimpd is a free training app with some interesting workouts) to improve your rock skills.

Don't bother, you'll get enough of it in med school haha.

As far as I know, one of the gold standards for anatomy is the Frank H Netter material. There's a nice Atlas of Human Anatomy (keep in mind an atlas usually doesn't have information about the functions of any anatomy, just the names), and study cards (even referenced here).

Gray's Anatomy is good (obviously), but really long. The student's version may be shorter/more manageable.

My undergrad class used Grant's Atlas of Anatomy/Grant's Dissector, and a Human Anatomy textbook. They were not bad as well. Anatomy material is always pretty dry.

If you can, maybe see what your school uses? That way you won't start reading and then have to switch to a different book (though I suppose extra reading is never a bad thing).

And congrats again on getting into med school!

Quick Study anatomy pamphlets. They’re laminated and I have each one in the series. There’s one for every system, a few large ones that cover everything (much less in detail than the specific ones), skeletal system, vascular system, etc. including endocrine. They’re only like $4 each! I love them and I keep them in my binder. I got mine on amazon!

Here’s the link!
Endocrine System (Quick Study Academic) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423215001/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_t0BBDbX3J4H3P

This ones $7 since it’s one of the big, detailed ones. I highly recommend these! I bought all of mine together at once for like $40, but it’s also def fine to only buy the ones you need and you need them.



EDIT: this is the anatomy pamphlet. This isn’t as in depth as the system specific ones, but if you’re only getting one this is the one to get. There’s also a quiz one that’s pretty cool! I’ll link it if I can find it

Anatomy 2 (Quick Study Academic) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572228563/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_l2BBDbYQZ9Y70

Here’s the quizzer!

Anatomy (Quick Study: Anatomy) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572227575/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_U3BBDbHRFBRGK

Fierce_Fox is right. FM manuals such as FM-217-76 Survival.....may be somewhat outdated but the information is reliable.
As a Medic/EMT my prepping focuses on my skill set with everything else falling close in line. I have a lot of information in digital format; both on USB and a small external drive. I have a small tablet that is in my BoB for reading documents and such.
At a minimum, here are my suggestions:
FM 21-76 Survival - Department of the Army
https://archive.org/details/military-manuals
SAS Survival Guide - https://www.amazon.com/SAS-Survival-Guide-Collins-Gem/dp/0061992860/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483496552&sr=8-1&keywords=sas+survival+guide
The Pocket Prepper's Guide - Bernie Car
https://www.amazon.com/Preppers-Pocket-Guide-Things-Disaster/dp/1569759294/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483496827&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=The+Pocket+Prepper%27s+Guide+-+Bernie+Car
The Complete Disaster Home Preparation Guide - Robert Roskind
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Disaster-Home-Preparation-Guide/dp/0130859001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483496881&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Complete+Disaster+Home+Preparation+Guide+-+Robert+Roskind
How To Survive the End of the World As We Know It-James Wesley,Rawles
https://www.amazon.com/How-Survive-End-World-Know/dp/0452295831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483496952&sr=8-1&keywords=How+To+Survive+the+End+of+the+World+As+We+Know+It-James+Wesley%2CRawles
Bug Out - Scott B. Williams
https://www.amazon.com/Bug-Out-Complete-Escaping-Catastrophic/dp/156975781X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483496991&sr=8-1&keywords=Bug+Out+-+Scott+B.+Williams
When There Is No Doctor - Gerard S. Doyle, MD -
https://www.amazon.com/When-There-Doctor-Challenging-Self-reliance/dp/1934170119/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483497054&sr=8-2&keywords=When+There+Is+No+Doctor
The Ultimate Survival Medicine Guide - Joseph Alton, MD & Amy Alton, ARNP - https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Survival-Medicine-Guide-Preparedness/dp/1629147702/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483497109&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=The+Ultimate+Survival+Medicine+Guide+-+Joseph+Alton%2C+MD+%26+Amy+Alton%2C+ARNP
Last, but not least, The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Complete-Protection/dp/1400049628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483497158&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Zombie+Survival+Guide+-+Max+Brooks
The last one is more humor but it does have many great points and ideas.
A library that covered everything would be very heavy and take up a bit of space. For the minimum, at least 1-2 books on everything one will need to survive will still be a lot. These books should be read, reread, and read again. We can't memorize everything, but having this to go back on when needed is a great addition. There's tons of information online and downloadable for free.
Depending on one's skill set, then they may not need as much. Teach others in a group is a must. Can't have one person be the ONLY one who can do 'this' skill. IMO, research should always be the first step. So much information out there and it's free.

I'm a guy so my advice only goes so far. I'll point to other women however.https://hikinglady.com/hiking/how-ladies-go-to-the-bathroom-when-hiking/

https://thetrek.co/pee-rag/

Skurka brought in a couple ladies to give a very blunt discussion of female bathroom and hygine. Worth reading (anything Skurka posts is worth at least considering, he's a world class backpacker)https://andrewskurka.com/2013/female-hygiene-guide-tips/

​

This one is a little loosey goosey on the "leave no trace" aspects of hygeine but it has some good ideashttps://www.theadventurejunkies.com/female-hygiene-guide-for-hiking-and-camping/

​

I have this book "How to Shit in the Woods" and it's both funny and illuminating and has specifics for women.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-3rd-Environmentally/dp/1580083633

​

I saw this book referenced several times so I'll list it here.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Doctors-Complete-Vulvovaginal-Health/dp/0553381148/

​

Good luck and have fun. Yosemite is *gorgeous* and the late thaw this year means water and green later into the summer than normal.

My advice is that most of us are climbing to live, not living to climb.

Steve Bechtel and Charlie Manganiello of ClimbStrong both advocate cutting down on cardio to truly hit your climbing peak, both of them ski and run, and have put plenty of thought into progressing while being a multi-sport athlete.

It also depends on your current goals. Trying to cut weight? eating right and engaging in some mild cardio can help. Trying to climb long trad routes and be a mountaineer? Buddy there's a whole massive debate about how to become the most insane cardio machine possible.

You should do the thing you feel is most rewarding. I tend to cycle in and out of climbing-heavy and running-heavy periods of my life because they both make me happy. Am I the strongest at either that I could be? Definitely not.

reddit constantly makes light of animal rights, which really is one of the most important issues of our time.

It is wrong to torture/imprison/experiment-on animals for the same reasons it is wrong in humans.

"But apes aren't people." - It depends on who you ask. Some think apes are people, see The Great Ape Project. And why are people especially entitled to humane treatment? It is because we recognize that we wouldn't want the same thing done to us. Many white people did not consider black people equally human, and used this as a justification for their mistreatment. Now we recognize that we shouldn't have done that. We do the same thing with animals today.

"No, I mean apes are part of the human species." - Species is just a term of connivence that usually describes animals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. We have to ask why we shouldn't torture humans, and then we will see that those same reasons apply to apes as well.

"But apes aren't as smart as people." - Nowadays we don't say that medical experiments should be performed on retarded humans, since they are not as smart. It is their capacity to suffer that we consider, not their intelligence, when we decide not to perform medical experiments on humans. In terms of capacity for suffering, there is no reason to think that apes and humans are not equal.

"We can gain important medical knowledge from these experiments." - Nazi experiments on humans helped advance our medical understanding, but most people still think they were wrong. Again, consider if it would be worth it to experiment on retarded humans without their consent, since we could learn important things. Furthermore, the value of the information that actually comes from these experiments in dubious. Consider that the vast majority of improvements in life expectancy come from public health measures (sewers, clean water, vaccinations, etc.). As far as medically important drugs, nearly all are discovered serendipitously, rather than in directed research. See this book.

These arguments apply equally well to many animals, certainly the common food animals, pigs, cows, etc. Don't torture them! If you want to eat animals (since they are delicious, and provide many useful products), just find ones which were treated kindly while alive, it's not that hard. Unfortunately, nearly all the meat, milk, leather we have comes from tortured animals. reddit hates vegans. but most vegans are simply doing their best not to torture living things.

reddit is an ass when it comes to animal rights. reddit would have whipped their black slaves in early 1800s America, and they would have sent their jewish neighbors to concentration camps in 1940s Germany. In both cases, groups were thought of as sub-human, and therefore they could be mistreated. Today we do the exact same thing to animals. Being human is irrelevant!

Tl;dr: When thinking about animal rights, consider the animal to be a retarded human child, and then proceed with the ethical decision.

I would sincerely suggest reading one of the Steve House books, either the OG Alpinism one, or the one that just came out. I'd be curious to know if r/Ih8usernam3s is a sports scientist, a coach, or currently an athlete (care to enlighten us?). There's no shortcuts to gaining the fitness you need for alpine missions.

If you want to get fast, you want to get efficient: lots of workouts below your aerobic threshold. My resting HR can be in the low 40's - it certainly didn't get there by doing, "Interval Training", whatever that's supposed to be (seems a nebular term).

You should check out the book [Training for the New Alpinism] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/193834023X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480908250&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=training+for+the+new+alpinism&dpPl=1&dpID=51d00CQd0eL&ref=plSrch) by Big-Time mountain-climber Steve House and his coach. It's the stardard text for uphill athleticism.

THe short answer is a steady diet of a high volume of easy aerobic endurance training. Think running and hiking. Trail running is the best. I think they call it fell running down your way.

And the good news is you have enough time to get in great shape for your competition.

I know school is just around the corner but, if you can, This book is great. Also, I've been reading Costanzo's physiology and it's pretty great as well.

A couple of med students wrote a great book. It is a pretty easy read and makes healthcare delivery understandable. I think everyone should have to read it. Not just healthcare workers, everyone.

Anyway, it's pretty cheap [check it out] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0615650937/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/187-3851700-0854829)

I wish you the best of luck. As other people have stated - diving and swimming are two things. I am super afraid of swimming in the ocean. Diving is okay. Actually diving is great.

​

However: IF you come to the conclusion you cannot do it - don't force yourself to dive. Quite a lot of people can't dive for various reasons. There doesn't even need to be a trauma involved, so if you can't do it, chances are you just can't. There's a good chance it doesn't have to do anything with your thalassophobia, so it doesn't own or define you.

​

Book tip: Monika Rahimi is a German dive instructor and author. In her German books she writes a great and insightful deal about the fears and anxiety surrounding diving. I don't know her English stuff, but if it is half as good as her German stuff this is a great book to understand fear and anxiety connceted to water.

I'd actually recommend that to everyone. Even those you are completely fine.

https://www.amazon.com/52-Week-Baseball-Training-Eugene-Coleman/dp/0736003223

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Conditioning-Baseball-Steve-Tamborra/dp/0736062432

I recommend both of these. They are very good, very well laid out, especially the first one. Outside the conditioning aspect, to improve your game, you need to play. Hopefully your on a summer team to get reps in. Otherwise find a buddy trying out like you and start getting together. Hit in the cage, do some blocking, work on the pop time. Make your own schedule focusing most on your weak points.

Get this book: The V Book: A Doctor's Guide to Complete Vulvovaginal Health. Our local public library has it, or you can buy it used for three or four dollars.

Your lube might not be helping, if you're sensitive to an ingredient in it, but it's very important to use lube. Look for a brand of lube specifically recommended for people with sensitivities. Probably not the issue, but it's easy enough to try.

Ask your doctor to recommend another doctor who specializes in vulvodynia.

2 weeks is way too long - I had that experience once and it was awful (but I was able to resolve it without a trip to the doctor thankfully). Miralax was the only thing that worked for me at that point. Do not develop a dependence on it, it fucked up my stomach after I took it regularly for 2 years, but it really does work better than anything else in the short term. I'm at the point where I will take a laxative if it has been more than 2 days without a BM. This is what I use at the moment for a gentle laxative to take during dinner if I've been backed up:

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Schulzes-Intestinal-Laxative-Capsules/dp/B000X1U6EQ

But for now you need the big guns, take miralax, and glycerin suppositories (to help it not tear up your rear end on the way out). If that doesn't give you a BM in 2 days, or if you get any acute pain or vomiting - see a doctor.

Also for headaches and stomach pain, taking cannabis has been a lifesaver for me (perhaps literally).

Edit: for the future when you have time and money to devote to finding a more long-term fix for your gut health issues, I can't recommend this book highly enough:

https://www.amazon.com/Fix-Your-Gut-Definitive-Digestive/dp/1974682021

You will have to make a serious commitment to completely alter your diet though, and spend hundreds of dollars trying out diets and supplements until you find a combination that works for you.

If you're new, work on technique as opposed to fitness (yeah, fitness helps, but technique is more important initially).


Check this book out.


If you want to get into some next-level stuff, pick up Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House. It's alpinism-focused, but has good workouts. Or perhaps Conditioning for Climbers

r/climbing is mostly rock climbing oriented, you might be better off on r/mountaineering or r/alpinism.

Training for the New Alpinism and its authors' website.

In general, as others have said: get mileage in, ideally uphill carrying a pack. And get used to moving and camping on snow.

Edit to add: a good & popular tip for uphill mileage carrying a pack is to carry rocks or water that you can dump at the top to save your knees on the way down. Might be especially relevant if you're just starting out and overweight.

Better fitness and movement patterns. Walking 20 miles a day for 6 months while putting all your weight on your passive body structures will fuck you up, yo. I suggest reading Becoming a Supple Leopard for general movement patterns, and then Training for the New Alpinism to understand how to get in shape (though from the sounds of it, you probably won't have time for the latter).

If you are looking for gear knowledge, I'd suggest first laying out your gear on GearGrams or LighterPack. Asking "what do you wish you had" doesn't give us much useful to go on, since it doesn't tell us what you are bringing already; and as MadMaxHeadroom said, what you don't bring is just as important as what you do. Using one of these websites to list your gear will give you a useful way to tabulate weight, and will make your gear list easier to share and easier to read.

Once you've done that, I'd suggest posting to one or a few of the long distance hiking subs. I can't find one specifically for the CT, but here are a few, in descending order of activity:

• /r/AppalachianTrail
  
• /r/PacificCrestTrail
  
• /r/ColoradoHikers
  
• /r/CDT
  
• /r/LongDistanceHiking
  

Not exactly answering your question, but I'm going to highly recommend Training For the New Alpinism, which can help you formulate an effective workout plan for your trip.

Anecdotally, I've lifted and climbed on the same day because alternate days would never allow recovery. Usually I'd lift weak and (try to) climb hard. Mountaineering prioritizes functional fitness over "glamour."

I tend to listen to my doctor, take the pills and firmly believe she has my best interest as heart. (after all she's my sister in law)

When I ask her about the effectiveness of vaccines she cites the usual studies and I agree - vaccines do indeed work.

When I ask her what the dangers are (particularly for a new vaccine) she will say there are none because the studies are simply not there.Fine.

For older vaccines like whole cell pertussis vaccine (DTPw) caused Frank encephalopathy, which is brain damage in a small number of children. Previous research from Guinnea-Bissau demonstrated that a single dose of pertussis vaccine in DTP shots doubled the mortality rate in infants and more than quadrupled the mortality rate after the second and third DTP doses. so I asked her once again "does this not bother you?" The answer I got back was well we stopped using that in 1996"

great!

but it took 11 years after it was well known to cause issues before it was replaced with acellular version that was more safe..

While it's unfortunate for the kids involved (and doctors too) what happens in this situation is that parents (who are the gatekeepers of vaccines to children) will see this and put up a brick wall against anything because of the lack of trust.

No doubt the vaccines worked but to the sacrifice of thousands of children and children's lives open the debate up and introduce conspiracy theories in the absence of facts around their usage.

Big pharma will always push a new vaccine as safe regardless of the actual safety. I't all about the marketing (which if you read this article it will become clear that doctors are being used as sales people for the vaccine manufacturers)

Source: I used to work for a big pharma in the UK

I went to a local bookstore and checked out several books. There was one that was huge and counted down the days! A bit expensive and probably overkill. I didn't pick that one, but wanted to a little. :) Didn't like the "What to Expect..." one, mainly because of the mass market format and also because the author doesn't seem to have any credentials. Instead, I went for "I'm Pregnant". So far I like it! Very non-judgmental and rational.

A class is a really good idea. I also carry this book in my first aid bag because it is a very well laid out quick guide to refresh my memory if I forget something. It is compact and waterproof. Well worth the $25 because even if you take the class it may be month or years before you use that knowledge and its easy to forget a few thing.s

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My favorite book is the first Harry Potter book.

This is $4 for a used copy, with shipping. The best copy is from hippo_books.

I found the concept in this book...

https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532982144&sr=8-1&keywords=training+for+alpinism&dpID=51U9Fi6TgwL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

I'm sure other fitness books advocate it as well. But in the book above he calls for a 8 wk transition period even if your active. A 16-20 base period. Then a period of time specific to whatever your goals is.

I quite enjoyed A Brief History of Drugs. It is not the deepest reads but is quite interesting look at drugs throughout history. Another book from a historical perspective but dealing with beverages is A History of the World in 6 Glasses it looks at 6 specific beverages (beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and Coke) and how they shaped history. This isn't specific to drugs, though all 6 beverages contain drugs so I think it counts.

I agree with this list of Top 10 Documentaries on Mountaineering. Not exactly on point for what you wanted. Not sure it really exists at this point.

​

I really liked Meru. If you don't mind reading here are a few books that got me into it:

​

Into Thin Air.

No Shortcuts to the Top.

The Climb.

​

Training Books:

​

Training for New Alpinism

Climbing: Training for Peak Performance.

> I don’t have access to weights but I have a very steep hill right next to me.

Just put some water bottles in a backpack, 20% of your bodyweight or so, and do some power hikes on the steep hill..

The most boring but a bit more efficient method is to find a box/step that's at 75% of your tibia height and do lots of reps with the loaded backpack on it..( the equivalent of 300m of ascent) put both feet on top.

Edit : last part taken from https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X

highly recommended

That's enough time for an actual training cycle if you want to go overboard and get in great shape.

Check out Training for the New Alpinism for the most recent outline of modern approach and method.

Training for the New Alpinism is the definitive guide to fitness for mountaineering and hiking.

It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for. It has a few sample programs, but it's more about how to create the right program for your goals. ...and there's also a training log that goes along with it too.

I rock climb 3x a week which will fill in quite a few holes left void when it comes to core, upper body strength and flexibility. Plus, I live in an area which has more moderate, low angle, slabby rock climbs than one can even image, so many runs involve scrambling for 1000's of feet. To supplement even further, I do many of the exercises for your core highlighted in Steve House's Training for the New Alpinism.

Maybe one tip is to realize and understand that you have to train yourself to use your core, so it's a good idea to remember to keep your core tight, while running so that becomes somewhat of an automatic thing, or it's just not going to help you out as much. This is a little easier maybe trail running, as one technique for technical downhills is to keep a tight core, rather than letting your upper body slouch.

According to Training for the New Alpinism the majority of your training should actually be in Zone 1 or, more generally, at a level of effort where you can breathe exclusively through your nose. Lots of great information from the authors here: http://www.uphillathlete.com

It's a pretty well respected book. The guys who wrote it are alpine climbers, pro athletes, and coaches who have coached olympians.

http://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete-ebook/dp/B00ILZ8S0K/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

And sorry but most of this is not rocket science, it's not hard to grasp the mechanisms and get a grasp of how it all works.

If you want a good resource that provides more info than you will be able to digest, pick up a copy of Training for the New Alpinisim

Drink alot of water, and be in very good aerobic shape. Read the book Training for the new Alpinism. https://www.amazon.com/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X

Also just in general check out Training for the New Alpinism. It has a really good personal workout journal companion too.

It sounds like you would benefit from Training for the New Alpinism. I haven't read it yet, but it seems to be very highly regarded, and of course the authors' credentials are beyond impeccable.

https://www.amazon.com/Before-Your-Time-Menopause-Survival/dp/1439108455

And get this book, http://www.amazon.ca/Training-New-Alpinism-Climber-Athlete/dp/193834023X and there is your entire FAQ

Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House and Scott Johnston

Buy this and learn how muscles work. Your drawing shows potential but you seem to have no idea how the human body moves.

http://www.amazon.com/Grays-Anatomy-Students-STUDENT-CONSULT/dp/0443069522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344464833&sr=8-1&keywords=gray%27s+anatomy