Emil protocol for tweaky fingers

So I'm not a big believer in the Emil protocol (ie twice a day low intensity hangs) but did try them for some tweaky feeling fingers.

After 3 weeks, I have to say that my fingers do feel better. Have not noticed any massive changes in strength, fwiw.

I plan to complete 4 weeks of the twice a day program, but was wondering if anybody else had tried this, and what you did long term?

Stop and wait till you have trouble before resuming the full protocol?

Dial back to once a day, or every other day?

Twenty minutes a day is more time than I really want to spend indefinitely.

TIA

Out curiosity, what does your routine look like?

I use à Tindeq, (tbh, the first thing it’s been good for)

7 seconds pull at 40% max on à 10 mm incut edge (just happened to have this size block - thanks Rui!)

Do both hands R then L, one after the other, within a one minute time frame, repeat x 10.

I actually think the protocol calls for 10 second hangs, but I’ve always done my max hangs for 7 seconds and when I was setting up the program, I must have just spaced it out. 

Mark E Dixonwrote:

So I'm not a big believer in the Emil protocol (ie twice a day low intensity hangs) but did try them for some tweaky feeling fingers.

After 3 weeks, I have to say that my fingers do feel better. Have not noticed any massive changes in strength, fwiw.

I plan to complete 4 weeks of the twice a day program, but was wondering if anybody else had tried this, and what you did long term?

Stop and wait till you have trouble before resuming the full protocol?

Dial back to once a day, or every other day?

Twenty minutes a day is more time than I really want to spend indefinitely.

TIA

I think Jason Kim tried this and posted something about his results.  

Mark E Dixonwrote:

I use à Tindeq, (tbh, the first thing it’s been good for)

7 seconds pull at 40% max on à 10 mm incut edge (just happened to have this size block - thanks Rui!)

Do both hands R then L, one after the other, within a one minute time frame, repeat x 10.

I actually think the protocol calls for 10 second hangs, but I’ve always done my max hangs for 7 seconds and when I was setting up the program, I must have just spaced it out. 

Cool…thanks!  Wife is having recent finger issues. I think we’ll try this. 

My husband and I both tried it, back when Emil's protocol first made rounds.
Me being a science nerd, I also did a Lattice-style assessment on 20 mm edge before and after a month of following Emil's protocol.

We don't exist in a training vacuum, so, as a background, my husband and I started doing this protocol from two very different stages:

-He had finger/wrist injury at the time, and had not been climbing much for several months before starting the protocol.
-I had just finished a Max-hang-based 8-week cycle, and was climbing regularly.

After doing the 2xday hangs for a month, my husband said that his fingers were feeling better, less-tweaky, and he "felt" stronger (but he had no formal measurement to back this up, just a feeling). I felt no different. My assessment showed that my fingers were a bit weaker than they were a month earlier. Which is not surprising. You would expect that you would gradually loose the strength gains from Max hangs, when you stop doing them.

I walked away from it feeling that it was a good rehab protocol, and maybe a better-than-doing-nothing protocol, but not a miracle panacea.

In the big picture, I FIRMLY believe that things need to be changed up and rotated/mixed up, no matter what "thing" you are talking about. The most amazing, perfectly-designed protocol/exercise will give you some gains --FOR A TIME-- but it will inevitably peter out with diminishing returns. That applies to hangboard, deadlifts, pullups, etc. if you do the same exercise for several months, you will start plateauing, and you need to step away/do another exercise that targets the same muscles in somewhat different ways/change up the protocol.

Mark E Dixonwrote:

I use à Tindeq, (tbh, the first thing it’s been good for)

7 seconds pull at 40% max on à 10 mm incut edge (just happened to have this size block - thanks Rui!)

Do both hands R then L, one after the other, within a one minute time frame, repeat x 10.

I actually think the protocol calls for 10 second hangs, but I’ve always done my max hangs for 7 seconds and when I was setting up the program, I must have just spaced it out. 

I found that 40% is too much if I'm doing it everyday, especially if I'm climbing too. I do 30% of my max and it feels more sustainable.

Rew Exowrote:

I found that 40% is too much if I'm doing it everyday, especially if I'm climbing too. I do 30% of my max and it feels more sustainable.

I just pull up onto my toes on the hangboard.  I really don't think the actual load matters all that much, more that it is well below your limit.  I don't do it religiously, but I do take collagen an hour beforehand and at age 64 I climb/boulder/board train three or four times per week and have had absolutely no finger issues for years.  I do it once per day on non-climbing days.  If I was injured then I would definitely do it twice per day, with collagen (or if you can't afford it, some protein food) an hour ahead of time.  I would not expect strength gains, but more gains in resilience. 

WF WF51wrote:

I think Jason Kim tried this and posted something about his results.  

I may have, or maybe not.. honestly can't remember.  Just turned 50 yesterday so I'll blame my memory on my age.

I followed the Emil routine pretty consistently for a few months and noticed that it helped with general tweakiness, until I blew a pulley.  In retrospect, I think I was hanging too much weight since I have a tendency to overdo things, and I suspect that my tissues suffered from accumulating stress over that time period. I was definitely hanging more weight than is recommended by the Emil protocol.  But who knows, my fingers have always been problematic.

After rehabbing that injury (using no-hangs among other things, ironically) my fingers have never felt better than they do now, and have never been stronger, and I attribute it to consistent training that I measure and progress cautiously/conservatively using the tindeq or weights, depending on the workout.  I can detail my workouts if anyone is interested, but it seems to be working and it's the longest stretch without an injury (knock on wood).