Beginner fingerboard: how hard should I push?

Hi

I did my first fingerboard session yesterday: 3 sets of 7 seconds on, 7 seconds off with 2 minutes between sets.

I did:

2 finger (index and middle fingers) on two knuckle holds (full body weight)
2 finger (ring and pinky fingers) on two knuckle holds (feet on wall taking unknown weight off: will change the setup to remove measurable weight)
3 finger on one knuckle hold (full body weight)

My question is mostly about the 3 finger hang on one knuckle hold. I found this to be really hard and that I was hanging on with everything I had to hold on, by second 7 I was about to come off on most sets.

I was a bit scared about injuring something on that hang since it required so much strength. So the question is: how all-in should you go on the hangs? Should it be difficult but not too-difficult? Or is it safe to push if you are able to hang on to it?

I did a full warm up before hanging, around 15 minutes of light traversing and then soft boulder problems. I climb 7a and been climbing for a year. I know some are going to say: don't focus on fingerboarding, you climbed for only a year, focus on technique. I half-agree with that, but I live in Margalef: a crag that is particularly tough on monos and two finger pockets, so, while I'm climbing as much as I can and keeping a focus on technique, building finger strength is definitely important.

Thanks for the help!

I'm no expert, but I have been HBing for a year or so, working up to more intense efforts slowly over that period of time. My opinion is that if you can complete a full 7 seconds on and then get most of the way through the second 7 on, you're probably ok. The chance of acute injury is considerably lower than if you were, say, failing 3 seconds into your first 5 second hang.

That being said, in my opinion, you should start out with something less intense for a while (months) until you get used to the whole deal. There are many opinions and essentially no evidence regarding the 'right' HB routine, in large part dependent on your weaknesses and goals, but I would (and did) err on the side of more/longer sets at first. Perhaps sets of 6 instead of 3. I still do full gas, short efforts only rarely.

Hopefully one of the many people here with more experience than me will respond.

Don't forget to warm up, and have fun!

Pablo,

are you attempting 7 on 7 off for 7 reps and three sets?

If so, this is similar to the Rock prodigy approach. What Mark and Mike recommend is that you should aim to fail on the last second of the last rep of the last set. That would be the "perfect" weight for baseline.

After that standard weightlifting principles seem to apply as promoted by titles like "Starting Strength" or "greyskull lp."

If you are able to hang for more than 15-20 seconds on the hold at a given weight it is likely that it is safe to train, BUT that doesn't mean that it is the appropriate weight for your goals.

If you have no basis for comparison a standard weightlifting protocol to figure out baseline would be appropriate (seeing the weight where bar speed eg. power drops) but we are dealing with isometric contraction here, not a full eccentric/concentric cycle. Thus, we are unable to determine that point.

My recommendation and what I implemented would be to remove weight to the point where you are able to complete all reps of the first set of a given hang to the point where it is easy but not child's play. The next set reduce (or add) the weight taken off by 2.5# or 5# based on how difficult the previous effort was.

If the weight is still too easy repeat the same procedure as above. If you fail before the 2nd to last rep of the last the weight is too heavey

Stop here. You can fine tune more next workout (it's a journey not a race). Use this procedure to establish your baseline. It should take at most 2 workouts to figure out.

From here use a similar procedure. If you succeed for a day at a given weight add 2.5-5# for the next workout. If you succeeded, but it was a balls out effort stay at the same weight. If you failed, try the weight again next workout. If you fail on the same weight 3 workouts in a row, take an extra rest day, reset to a lighter weight (probably from about 4 or 5 workout prior to the failing weight), and use this as your new baseline.

Happy hanging!

Edit: Tendon injuries happen at a very high intensity. The efforts perceived in this context should NOT feel like maximal efforts on each given rep (that is a single rep should not be a maximal effort), but a full set should feel quite strenuous.

Also, for those who think beginners should not train, I say why not? The most often stated argument is that climbing would be better training at a novice point in the game. I call bull on this argument as do the Anderson brothers.

rockclimberstrainingmanual.…

One will need to scale workouts to their personal limits, but there is no reason one should delay training. A submaximal load on a fingerboard in the method described above will not damage the precious tendons that everyone will be trying to protect you from. In order to do a full repeater workout I've found that I can max out on a particular weight for 20-30 seconds which is well into the safe range on a tendon. No one ruptures a tendon on a comfortable 30'' hang. It is on a tweaky grip that one would not be able to hang on for more than 5''. This is more likely to be encountered trying that rad project at the gym or crag than during calculated training.