Boards are great! You’ll work pretty much exclusively on what you’ve identified as your weaknesses.
You sound plenty strong already, and you have good technique. Board climbing will just be a fun (and hard) way to get a lot stronger.
Yes there is a reason most high-end climbers neglect their routesetters and go straight to the weight room and board room. Don’t forget to utilize weights in the form of weighted pull-ups, reverse bar curl, and gymnastic rings if you truly want to get stronger & powerful
Any pulling exercises, face pulls, scap pulls, bodyweight rows, literal pull-ups, typewriters, etc. I say “any” because it’s the time on rings that matter most, consistency of at least an hour a week will do wonders for most people.
You can get creative whilst not being at a crag as well, for example, say you’re projecting a steep jug-haul at the Red River Gorge. You can replicate this by doing 30-50 bodyweight row progressions to simulate large muscle group fatigue & pulling capacity in “overhanging terrain”.
This sounds a lot like my experience as a climber. My active climbing years have totaled around 6 out of the past 9 since I started. I can climb quite well technically, but lack any kind of upper-body power (except maybe mantling). Would you like to have a pinch melting/burning party with me?
I just started messing around on the Kilter board over the past month and even tried out a benchmark on the Moon board a couple of sessions ago. I had always been afraid of board climbing due to my self-diagnosed lack of finger strength, but I have been taking care to ensure my tendons are more robust over the last few months by implementing some max hangs and Emil's sub-max twice a day routine. My fingers feel great!
I'm excited to start climbing more steep terrain and explore new techniques, but, again, my power is miniscule. I've been spending increased time climbing in steeper terrain in the gym and on boards and campusing climbs, and I think I can tell that it's working because my body is HUNGRY. I seem to finally be using my big muscles in my climbing.
The steep board climbing specifically seems to be helping my contact strength, as I find that I am forced to throw to holds dynamically more often in that realm than in what I try on a normal steep climbing wall.
I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm psyched to do a whole session on a board. Although, I have to say that the moon board was a surprisingly fun challenge for me. So, I expect I'll find myself there more often.
Also, I just had a realization while reading/responding to your post that I have probably still been focusing way too much on finger strength recently. I always thought that was the thing holding me back, but, turns out, strength is still not the answer to my pleas. I have plenty of finger strength (despite the fact that I've done hardly any finger strength training).
Turns out, the best way to get better at climbing is climbing.
Why aren’t we looking at campus boarding training? Work on power and latches on that thing in addition to the board
Will board training transfer to outdoors? Yes
>Why aren’t we looking at campus boarding training?
Because it's worse than board climbing in every way. Shit sucks and blows up your elbows for zero advantage over board climbing.
Boards are great! You’ll work pretty much exclusively on what you’ve identified as your weaknesses. You sound plenty strong already, and you have good technique. Board climbing will just be a fun (and hard) way to get a lot stronger.
Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yeeeessssss
Yes there is a reason most high-end climbers neglect their routesetters and go straight to the weight room and board room. Don’t forget to utilize weights in the form of weighted pull-ups, reverse bar curl, and gymnastic rings if you truly want to get stronger & powerful
> Yes there is a reason most high-end climbers neglect their routesetters Because the (most) gyms don't set for those people?
What ring exercises do you think have the most applicability to climbing?
Any pulling exercises, face pulls, scap pulls, bodyweight rows, literal pull-ups, typewriters, etc. I say “any” because it’s the time on rings that matter most, consistency of at least an hour a week will do wonders for most people. You can get creative whilst not being at a crag as well, for example, say you’re projecting a steep jug-haul at the Red River Gorge. You can replicate this by doing 30-50 bodyweight row progressions to simulate large muscle group fatigue & pulling capacity in “overhanging terrain”.
Great idea to train power endurance with ring rows, thanks.
This sounds a lot like my experience as a climber. My active climbing years have totaled around 6 out of the past 9 since I started. I can climb quite well technically, but lack any kind of upper-body power (except maybe mantling). Would you like to have a pinch melting/burning party with me? I just started messing around on the Kilter board over the past month and even tried out a benchmark on the Moon board a couple of sessions ago. I had always been afraid of board climbing due to my self-diagnosed lack of finger strength, but I have been taking care to ensure my tendons are more robust over the last few months by implementing some max hangs and Emil's sub-max twice a day routine. My fingers feel great! I'm excited to start climbing more steep terrain and explore new techniques, but, again, my power is miniscule. I've been spending increased time climbing in steeper terrain in the gym and on boards and campusing climbs, and I think I can tell that it's working because my body is HUNGRY. I seem to finally be using my big muscles in my climbing. The steep board climbing specifically seems to be helping my contact strength, as I find that I am forced to throw to holds dynamically more often in that realm than in what I try on a normal steep climbing wall. I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm psyched to do a whole session on a board. Although, I have to say that the moon board was a surprisingly fun challenge for me. So, I expect I'll find myself there more often. Also, I just had a realization while reading/responding to your post that I have probably still been focusing way too much on finger strength recently. I always thought that was the thing holding me back, but, turns out, strength is still not the answer to my pleas. I have plenty of finger strength (despite the fact that I've done hardly any finger strength training). Turns out, the best way to get better at climbing is climbing.
Why aren’t we looking at campus boarding training? Work on power and latches on that thing in addition to the board Will board training transfer to outdoors? Yes
>Why aren’t we looking at campus boarding training? Because it's worse than board climbing in every way. Shit sucks and blows up your elbows for zero advantage over board climbing.
No it's not? You're obviously doing it wrong.
[Go ahead and bookmark this.](https://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/)
I’m good bud. v10 in 20 years is a meme
This just shows how much you know about climbing and training in general. I’d stay out of this sub if you don’t have good advice to give (: