EP 293: Joel Unema — Unlocking V14 Finger Strength, the Key to Long Roof Boulders, and a Better Way to Train Power Endurance

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Steven Dimmitt

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4.2 • 576 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2026

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joel Unema is a high-performance rock climber and coach for Climb Strong, and has climbed V14 and 5.14b. We talked about how Tyler Nelson helped him unlock V14 finger strength, how Steve Bechtel helped him send a 20+ move roof boulder, how to optimize your power endurance for a sport climbing trip, and much more. Buckle up for a good old-fashioned training chat.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends, and welcome to the Nugget Climbing Podcast.
0:04.1	I've got a good old-fashioned training chat for you today.
0:07.4	This was a great one.
0:08.9	My guest is Joel Unima.
0:11.1	Joel is a high-level all-around climber.
0:13.2	He's climbed V-14 and 514B, and he's a good trad climber as well.
0:18.5	Joel is also a performance climbing coach with Climstrong,
0:22.1	and we got into some untapped territory today and covered some topics that I have never
0:27.5	covered before on the podcast. Joel had a breakthrough season in 2022, and there were two keys to
0:35.9	that, and we talked about both in great detail in this episode.
0:40.5	He worked with Tyler Nelson on his finger strength and tried a new approach with wall crawls
0:45.6	and added about 30 pounds to his PR for each hand in just a couple of months, which is incredible.
0:52.7	And he also worked with Steve Bechtel to improve his body tension and his ability to breathe
0:58.1	better while climbing on long roof boulders.
1:01.5	He had a V14 roof project that was more than 20 moves long, and they came up with some
1:07.2	really clever training ideas that helped him succeed on that project.
1:11.8	So if you are someone who struggles with long boulders or short, powerful routes, there are some
1:16.9	golden nuggets for you in this episode. We also talked about how to train in the gym for a sport
1:24.2	climbing trip. And he had some really good insights on power endurance training training he shared some of the most common mistakes that climbers make as well as one simple change that will make your training much more effective and make a huge difference on the rock when it comes to power endurance so a lot of great stuff in this one. I really enjoyed talking to Joel. Please enjoy Joel
1:46.9	Unima. You're in Waco?
2:02.1	Yeah, I'm in Waco.
2:03.0	It's a rain day.
	...

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