Our Always Be Training competition has been run and won.

And the winner is Aaron Lowndes who re-imagined his bedroom so that he will have to chalk up to get dressed in the morning. That’s the kind of dedication to the ABT ethos that will be sure to turn a man into a monster. Well done Aaron.

The added bonus for him is that after rifling through his drawers and finding the perfect training outfit, Aaron will be nicely warmed up for another personally tailored training session courtesy of VL‘s training guru Duncan Brown (who you can find at Athlete by Choice) on his Metolius contact hangboard, lovingly donated by Steve of Climbing Anchors.

The judges also wanted to make special mention of Giles Helbig who turned clothes pegs into protection and converted hanging the washing out into getting her strong on. The Hills Hoist will now take its place beside the campus board in the pantheon of training tools.

Thanks to everyone who entered, whether you were obsessed by using each and every moment to get stronger; or caught in a mental feedback loop that evaluates everything as climbable; or a parent obsessed with pushing your children harder and harder. The entries we received were excellent, varied and appreciated.

Most of all thanks to everyone who proved the profound wisdom in our Always Be Climbing mantra; You can always be fitter. You can always be stronger.