[shark]

Not the final answer on Emil’s results but an instructive dive into the research paper behind it

[remus]

Another youtuber tries out the routine



Result: could not reproduce Emil's results.

[CrimpyMcCrimpface]

Curious to know if anyone completed this routine and what were their impressions of it? Perceived or recorded? I agree with all the comments regarding how its a fairly minimal load to provide such strength gains. But since my current hangboarding is 0, I've decided to give it a go. Only 4 days in so far but my fingers do feel more supple - not surprising given previous efforts of nil. I've only been doing 1 session per day, only because of travelling, but I already feel that combined with other training it may be overdoing it.

[MischaHY]

My thoughts are that a protocol like this can be applied as a way to lead into more serious fingerboarding in the sense that it helps get everything ready - but I would agree that based on what we know from established sport science this kind of loading doesn't correlate with significant strength gains.

Moreover, I think that if you're the kind of person that can be structured and disciplined enough to fingerboard every single day, you'll certainly manage to do two or three quality sessions of max hangs or repeaters each week which combined with appropriate loading would have a significant effect on your strength levels.

Personally I'd lean towards a few sessions of long bodyweight hangs in the grip types you want to train for a couple of weeks and then start moving the dial towards more weight and less hang time as this is established as an exceedingly effective method of gaining finger strength.

A place where the multiple sessions per day kind of loading does definitely work is for injury rehab but that's another story and best left to the people who know what they are talking about.

Hope that's somewhat helpful.

[CrimpyMcCrimpface]

Thanks! I think that mirrors my own thinking mostly, that the routine could be used to as a lead-in to more intense fingerboarding.

Personally I'd lean towards a few sessions of long bodyweight hangs in the grip types you want to train for a couple of weeks and then start moving the dial towards more weight and less hang time as this is established as an exceedingly effective method of gaining finger strength.

This part in particular very useful thanks. I didn't know more weight and less hang time was more effective than the opposite. Quick google shows a blog post from Lattice with a similar position (#3)

[MischaHY]

Thanks! I think that mirrors my own thinking mostly, that the routine could be used to as a lead-in to more intense fingerboarding.

Personally I'd lean towards a few sessions of long bodyweight hangs in the grip types you want to train for a couple of weeks and then start moving the dial towards more weight and less hang time as this is established as an exceedingly effective method of gaining finger strength.

This part in particular very useful thanks. I didn't know more weight and less hang time was more effective than the opposite. Quick google shows a blog post from Lattice with a similar position (#3)

It makes sense when considered from the perspective that what we're trying to achieve in fingerboarding is to strengthen the grip position enough that it won't fail under the highest load we want to apply to it whilst climbing.

With this goal in mind high intensity hangs make the most sense as they will train the neuromuscular capacity to exert maximum force through a specific grip.

However it's worth pointing out that longer hangs or repeaters will likely have a better effect on forearm hypertrophy and short power endurance so the max hangs aren't the be-all-end-all, just a very useful tool in the box 

Personally assuming I have access to a bouldering wall I prefer to use fingerboards primarily for the max-strength element and do my power endurance on the wall as I feel this has more general transfer to rock, but the exception would be for when I know I need to improve specific power endurance in a certain grip type i.e. 2 finger pocket in which case repeaters or long hangs can make for faster gains in that niche area.

[User deactivated.]

However it's worth pointing out that longer hangs or repeaters will likely have a better effect on forearm hypertrophy and short power endurance so the max hangs aren't the be-all-end-all, just a very useful tool in the box 

How much importance do you tend to place on forearm hypertrophy for finger strength? There is plenty of research backing up the cross sectional area of a muscle having an impact on the force that muscle can produce, but finger strength seems different somehow (possibly because the tendon/neuro adaptions are more important?). Many finger strength wads have pretty unimpressive forearm musculature. On the flip side, I have pretty big forearms and strong wrists but unimpressive finger strength.

I don't doubt that repeaters work for strength gains but I wonder if it's more to do with volume than hypertrophy? I think of max hangs like a 1 rep max. If you were trying to get stronger in the bench press, heavy singles might work for a while, but a foundation of higher repetition sets will usually yield better results (e.g. 5x5 bench press program = 5 sets of 5 rep repeaters?).  Actually, this makes me wonder whether the ever successful 5/3/1 powerlifting program could be applied to finger strength e.g. 5 rep repeaters on week 1, 3 rep on week 2 and 1 rep (max hang) on week 3, then deload and start again with increased loads