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Rock Rings?

Original Post
Danny M. · · St. Louis, MO · Joined Nov 2015 · Points: 0

Hey guys,

I've been climbing for roughly half a year, bouldering mostly, and I've found myself hitting a bit of a plateau. Would rock rings help build some strength? I ask because I've been told that a hangboard is the devil and it will leave me a broken, battered man.

Thanks!

jacob m s · · Provo, Utah · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 135

I have a pair of rock rings with large atomic bombs, and atomic pipe holds. Its really helped me up my climbing game. But yes you need to be careful in planning your training otherwise you can injure yourself. Your tendons lag behind muscle development by a couple of weeks.

Because of that lag if you continually push for strength gains you will at some point have totally outpaced the strength gains of your ligaments and tendons. At this point you will probably injure yourself crimping to hard on some boulder problem.

My advice is go ahead and get some. Make a plan that gives you a couple of weeks to build strength. Then level off for longer period for your tendons and ligaments to catch up, then you can do a strength gain phase again. I'm sure there are some other people that can point you to a good book on building a hang boarding plan.

NickMartel · · Tucson, Arizona · Joined Aug 2011 · Points: 1,332
jacob m s wrote: But yes you need to be careful in planning your training otherwise you can injure yourself. Your tendons lag behind muscle development by a couple of weeks.
IMHO the lag between tendons and muscles is measured in years, or months at the very least.
jacob m s · · Provo, Utah · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 135

So I couldn't find the original research that I read earlier this year, but it pegged the lag at around 6 to 8 weeks if I remember right. But hunting through research articles for over an hour today I found this one.

13.1% tensile strength increase was seen in the Achilles tendon of rabbits over 40 weeks. The experimental group was trained on a treadmill 3 times a day 5 days a week, and the control was just left in the cage.

In general the recover period of an injured tendon is considered to be 10 weeks from the repair or injury.

Different tendons have different compositions and structures and are going to take longer to become strong and heal, but its not years, months maybe. Weeks yes.

Either way take the training slow so your fingers can keep up. Also if you don't want to take the jump to hang boarding yet, just doing pull ups, push ups and running can really up your climbing game.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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