New Year’s Training: Hangboard Week 4
The final week of our four week training regimine! Good work. Today we discuss possible next steps for hangboarding.
Week 4:
The Fingerboard:
Having entered our final week, it becomes important to pick a direction. As this is a general approach to hangboardng, it is that climber should consider their relative fitness post-hangboard and to be able to discern what a future in hangboarding might look like for them.
If nothing else, these last four weeks have prepared your fingers to handle a high amount of load. It is important now to consider the way in which you climb and that which you are training for. Pursuing one arm hangs is probably a good idea for the person whose project is built out of steep climbing on bigger edges.
With that said, if your fingers are becoming stronger with the protocol that we are using, then it might be best to continue this regime. If it is working, why change your exercise? With that said, hangboarding is strength building exercise. It is best to increase the resistance through weight before dropping down to a smaller hold.
4 sets of the openhand position
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
4 sets of the half-crimp position
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
4 sets of the three-finger open-hand position.
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
3 sets of one-arm hangs. Do not increase weight. This will be your training edge until you are able to complete 3 sets of 7 second hangs separated by 3 minutes of rest per hang on your right and left hands.
Form:
You should use a four-finger half-crimp grip with an engaged shoulder and the arm locked off at 120 degrees. Do not allow your arm to lock out strait. This puts strain on your connective tissues as opposed to your musculature.
Once you have achieved the above, you may move down to a smaller edge size. Do not feel rushed. This exercise targets the shoulder, bicep, and obviously the fingers. That means that there are at least three potential points of failure. It might take a few sessions before you are able to complete 3 sets of 7 seconds on both hands, even if you are using a jug.
If you are using a jug, and you still cannot hang from one arm for at least 2 seconds, skip this exercise. It is more important that you focus all of your shoulder stability on the two-arm dead hangs.
Physical Exercise:
Front Lever:
- 6 sets of 10 seconds
Push ups:
This is for the antagonist muscle training. It keeps your elbows safe.
- 100 elbows-back, military-style, push ups. Ideally 10 sets of 10, but if you cannot do this, then sets of 5 or even sets of 2 are perfectly okay. If you are completing sets of two, perhaps drop the number to 50 push ups instead of 100. This style of push up isolates the triceps.
Stretch:
It cannot be overstated how useful flexibility is. The more flexible you are, the less strength is required to move your feet up. To that effect, greater flexibility gives the climber a wider range of foothold options. As such there are a few areas that you should stretch specifically, and this is definitely a non-exhaustive list.
Hamstrings
- Hand to toe-hook matches
- Heel hooks
- Drop knees
Hip flexors
- High steps
- Drop knees
- Heel hooks
Middle splits
- Getting your hips into the wall.
- Middle splits are very useful. Flexible hip flexors are equally important.
You will retain the additional, non-finger-specific training on your other training days.
Schedule:
Day 1: Train
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Train
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Train
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Rest
On Days 3 and 5 this week you will move up from 3 sets per grip position to 4 sets per grip position. Day 5:
5 sets of the openhand position
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
5 sets of the half-crimp position
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
5 sets of the three-finger open-hand position
- 3 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 6 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
- 9 second hang: follow with 10 – 90 second rest
3 sets of one-arm hangs
- Right hand: Aim for 7 seconds with 3 min rest
- Left hand: Aim for 7 seconds with 3 min rest
Featured Image by Steve Bechtel
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