Feedback for my hybrid HB program

If you have a lot of time to read this, here is my "hybrid" HB workout that I've come up with. I have nearly zero experience with actual hangboarding. I'm looking for any input from the training forum regulars.

The plan, overview:

Starting with the "little and often" philosophy. The aim will be to do 2-3 HB workouts per week, in the evening, having climbed in the morning of the same day. The morning climbing session will always be limited to 2 hrs or less. It can be gym or outdoor climbing, but it must end before fatigue sets in. This will be difficult, as I can easily spend 4 hrs in a gym, or get thrashed outside. In general my plan is to gym climb Tue & Thur and outdoor climb Sat & Sun. MWF have no climbing or hanging. So I will HB Tue, Thurs, and Sunday, in the evenings, after having climbed in the AM, and it allows for a full rest day after each HB workout.

I'll do this for three weeks (up to 10 HB sessions) and then on the fourth week take a complete break from HB, and reduce volume of actual climbing (2 sessions that week). I am setting for myself a strict goal to follow this plan for at least 3 months, which to me seems like a bare minimum to notice any results (or lack thereof).

Actual workout:

---15 minutes gradual warm up.
Repeaters
---1 set per grip. 10" on, 5" off x 6 reps. 3 minutes rest between grips.
Last rep I want to start feeling some difficulty but be no where near failure.
>>> 4 grips: 4 finger half crimp (kind of a formal warm-up set), then, front 2, middle 2, mono. All on full-pad depth. The order of these last three "pocket combos" may change.
(18 minutes)
---Rest 5-10 minutes.
Max hangs
---1 set per grip. 10-12" on, 3 minutes off x 3 reps. 5 minutes rest between grips.
Last 3 seconds of hang should be failing.
>>> 2 grips: 4 finger half crimp on 3/4 pad edge, then, medium (~3 inch) pinch from hanging pinch blocks.
(30 minutes)
~80 minutes total time

Weight added/removed: For the pockets and max pinch, I will have to remove weight. For the half crimp max, I will add weight. I'm not too concerned with precise weight from workout to workout. Obviously, I want to see a long term upward trend in hang weight. If I notice that a grip starts to feel easy, I will add a little (< 5 lbs) weight in the following workout, and of course, record numbers in a journal.

I feel very weak and injury prone on pockets, hence the "low impact" pocket repeaters. But, I feel strong on any type of grip using all 4 fingers (sloper, half-crimp, full crimp, pinch) so I want to train max strength/recruitment using half-crimp and pinch grip. I can't really offer a good reason for doing the repeaters before the max hangs, just that to me, intuitively, I think it's better to do the max hangs last. I don't even want the repeaters to feel taxing, they can be more like a thorough warm-up. Finally, the actual volume of the workout is kept low enough that it can be done in the evenings, after having around 6-8 hrs to recover from morning session.

It's plain to see that I'm trying to add supplemental HB to my climbing routine without giving up climbing outside, only limit it by reducing session volume. I think this has been brought up on the forum before. I want to try doing it in a double day format.

Am I trying to cram too much into my program, hence watering down the potential benefits from each individual component? Maybe it is too complicated for a HB beginner? I like the Steve Bechtel plan from this thread because it is so simple, but I really want to get stronger on pockets while increasing max finger strength. I'll also add that I climb both boulders and routes and I feel like max finger strength has started to become a limiter for me relative to the grade I climb.

thats a long session. you should be train ing to near failure by the last 6-8 second hang over every set.

likeaturtle wrote:I have nearly zero experience with actual hangboarding.

So you don't know how boring it can get, compared with other kinds of training and climbing.
And you haven't had to manage your skin getting damaged.

Keep in mind that most of climbing performance is about moving with support from your fingers, not static hanging.

Also note that most hanging in real climbing is with hands at uneven horizontal levels.

Lots of people find they do much better in the long run if they move on to intense focus on some _different_ training exercise after a few weeks of hangboarding -- rather than plunging back into another round of skin-shredding.

Remember the wisdom of Adam Ondra, who said he never found hangboard training very effective.

It shouldn't hurt to use successive phases each with a different training focus to try out other approaches.

Ken

Seems overly complicated to me. Personally, I'd stick with just doing repeaters or just doing max hangs, mixing the two seems like it would make it so that neither is as effective. Personally I do repeaters because I'm a route climber and typically find my endurance to be the limiting factor. If I were a boulderer and my limiting factor was hanging onto a single small hold I would switch to max hangs.

Other issues:

I'd try to increase the weight every single session, you'd be amazed by how you can increase weight by 5 lbs each session even when you weren't even able to complete the last hang of the previous session.

I'd cut back to 2 hangboard sessions per week, and try to cut back the volume of climbing even further than what you are currently planning to allow time for both skin and muscle recovery.

Keep the number of total hangboard workouts as planned, but watch for a plateau, and if you hit one, just stop then instead of continuing on without making progress for the last couple of workouts.

Personally, I follow a periodized training plan, so I take off a lot more time between hangboarding sessions than just a week off. I do find it helpful to do at least one hangboard workout every couple of weeks to help maintain strength between hangboard cycles. You may want to look into a periodized program instead of the 3 months of hangboarding with a couple of one week breaks.

As long as you increase the weight between each session you absolutely will see results after a single hangboard cycle, you won't need to go through 3 cycles to notice the results, so don't worry so much about that.

Good luck and get strong!