pinches and the Trango Rock Prodigy Training Center

Hello, 

I am just starting hangboarding, as I have a hard time going to the gym more than twice a week, so not progressing much lately. At my gym I often onsight 11a, and redpoint 11d. I don't climb much outdoor unfortunately,  

Now I am a little frustrated that I can hardly hold the medium pinch through a set (10 sec hangs, 5 sec rest) with 30 pounds help. And I can hold the large pinch only a couple of seconds with -40 lb. Not even trying the small pinch at that point..... 

Note that I have fairly small hands and pinch is definitely not my strength.

What is your experience? 

thanks.

Fred.

They are one of the hardest grip, don't worry about numbers. Stick with it. 

When I started I was climbing in the 11's and had to use a 40# counterweight and I've heard similar things from other people. It's a hard grip, but stick with it and you'll get better.

So you're doing better on the medium than the wide pinch? You might be "cheating" by wrapping your fingers over the top.

Tim Lutz wrote:

Safety Point: Make sure the board is adjustable and bring it in tight for the pinches. Don't chicken wing

I suck at it as well. I initially started with -70/-60/-50 and got it down to -55/-45-/-35 on the big pinch using 7 sec on 3 sec off with a 7/6/5 rep per the Advanced Rock Prodigy protocol. If you're sucking at it and you're giving up then you're missing the point and not working your weaknessses. I've never been anywhere outside, or inside that doesn't have pinches in the mix in some form, or the other.

Try putting the pinches in front of your other finger training position sets. Get on the system board and work the hell out of pinches. Add additional pinch training excercises with pinch blocks which most gyms are starting to include in their training equipment, or just make them yourself.

Some people (like myself) are just naturally bad at pinches so I just spend more time working on them because Rifle cruxes tend to have plenty of different sized pinches. Places like the NRG and the RRG not so much, but they do exist. He'll even at Smith rock I'm often pinching the hell out of some crappy knob.

Thanks all. I'll get more weight and probably need a stronger pulley.

Yes about the medium pinch, I sort of guessed without admitting it I was cheating.

Not sure I understand how the board can be adjustable (re: the comment on the chicken wing). The pinches seem indeed too far apart. 

Fred. 

fred achard wrote:

Thanks all. I'll get more weight and probably need a stronger pulley.

Yes about the medium pinch, I sort of guessed without admitting it I was cheating.

Not sure I understand how the board can be adjustable (re: the comment on the chicken wing). The pinches seem indeed too far apart. 

Fred. 

There is an entire thread about setting this up to be adjusted both on this website and on The Rock Prodigy website. Some are much easier than others.

I think the rock prodigy forge was supposed to make cheating on the pinches more difficult. 

I take off a huge amount of weight for the Forge small pinch. (around 50 lbs)

The point is to get stronger, the amount of weight you're adding or subtracting isn't that important. I don't really understand it when you see someone post that they're not strong enough to use a particular grip, all that means is you need to take more weight off. 

fred achard wrote:

Not sure I understand how the board can be adjustable (re: the comment on the chicken wing). The pinches seem indeed too far apart.  

http://blog.trango.com/adjustable-mount-for-the-rptc/