[tobym]

Despite climbing for almost 6 years, I've always had an abysmal strength/weight ratio, and can't lock-off(sans feet), with one arm, at any angle, for toffee.
Those of you folk who do use the campus board, in training, is there a technique for getting off the bottom rung, or is it just not possible without some lock-off strength?
Cheers,
TM

[dave]

you don't need to be able to lock off to use a campus board, you just slap up it.

[Stubbs]

Yeah, pull on as if you were just doing a pull-up and as your chin gets towards the rung, start reaching up to the next one with whichever hand feels more comfortable. If you lack lock off strength the upwards momentum should give you plenty enough time to slap the next rung. Using a campus board should increase your lock off strength too.

[Jim]

Word, moving up the campus board is all about technique and speed (ie as Dave sez - slappin). However it will increase your lock off strength. If you want to get some lock off strength , the best way to do it is go to argos and get a chin up  bar for £6 and put it in the doorway in your house you go throught the most and put it in there.
To start pull up with both arms and then let go with one and try and descend as slowly and controled as possible. repeat with other arm. keep doing this until you can lock your arm at 90 degrees then see how long you can lock for. then move onto one-armers
(remember wrists up tho)

[dave]

word, if you wanna see how to use a campus board watch the real thing.

you can probably get away without the cotton lycra pyjama bottoms though.

[Yossarian]

i know this has been done to death, but what are peoples favoured campus board angles?  i'm in the process of drawing mine up, and thought that 17deg might be just right.  folks often say 15deg is not quite enough, but 20deg looks a little steep for shallow rungs.

[a dense loner]

strange as it may seem, campusing is quite techniquey. unless, of course, you can do one-armers quite easily. once you actually put any time in you soon get into it. can't really explain the technique but you will find it out quite quickly. stay on the big rungs for a while, to develop arm strength over finger strength. if you've got no life it's not as boring as some people say

[a dense loner]

ps. i would listen to nothing i've got to say n just wait for Ru to come online,  or buoux but he's been a bit quite lately

[erm, sam]

I you are not allready  close to doing a one arm lock off, then I think Jims suggestion of  the -controlled- one arm lowers is a very quick way to knacker yourself...
If you dont' have the required strength to control it, than you rapidly end up dropping onto the extended arm.
Even if you can control it, it is still super powerfull and quite tweaky on the elbow...
I think doing offset pullups or locks with one hand lower than the other eg on a finger boards or with a towel looped over a pullup bar can be a good mid stage. Or use less fingers on one hand to reduce the effort that arm can deliver..
One arm lowers have their place, but I don't think it is at the begining of a One Arm Lock Off trainging mission. (if you are weak with long arms. like me anyway)

[cofe]

i think campussing back down is bad knowledge as it fucks your elbows. lowering in general i reckon is whack. likewise on bachar ladders - climb down with feet on.

also - no thumbs. that would be cheating.

also also - dense is rarely right but i too reckon campussing is techniquey.

[tobym]

go to argos and get a chin up  bar for £6 and put it in the doorway in your house you go throught the most and put it in there.
To start pull up with both arms and then let go with one and try and descend as slowly and controled as possible. repeat with other arm. keep doing this until you can lock your arm at 90 degrees then see how long you can lock for. then move onto one-armers
(remember wrists up tho)

Got one and try that, but as soon s I let go with one hand, I drop like a sac'o'shit, shock-loading my other arm :evil:
"wrists up"?

[dave]

i woulnd't worry about traiing lockoffs for their own sake, it'll just come in time. you'd probably be better investing the time doing some weights, and deadhangs or stuff like that. you can get by without strong arms, you can't get by without strong fingers afterall.

[a dense loner]

sam is quite right in saying don't lower yourself on one arm. the good way is to have your other arm lower (on a hold or towel/sling). you can get by with weak fingers, depends what your aims are, but yep i don't really see any need for lock-off strength

[Simon S]

Another option is to start doing frenchies on a pull up bar. That is to pull up with both arms then lock at the top position for 5 secs, lower down then pull straight up to the top before lowering and locking the arms at 90  degrees for 5 secs then repeat locking at 120 degrees for 5 secs. That sequence is one cycle. Once you can knock off a couple of cycles you will probably be ready to progress to locking off with one arm.
As always its best not to try doing this to frequently at first as its quite intensive.
Good luck!

[ned]

You could just do normal 2 handed weighted pullups for a bit, or just climb on steeper walls with good holds and try to lock every move.

[tobym]

thanks for all the replies guys, I wasn't really after "how to lock-off" tips, though  

[Paz]

The middle bit is the hardest, I could do 1-4-6 (last time I tried over a year ago) because I can grab 6 before the hand holding 4 knows the other one has let go of 1 and I don't have raise my body up much.  Can't do 1-4-7 because I've got to pull, but I don't care - if it were just a problem outdoors, matching 4, would be perfectly acceptable.

[a dense loner]

stay on the big rungs for a while, to develop arm strength over finger strength

now that's a tip :wink: what i did was twice a wk 1-4-6, then 3 times a wk 1-4-7, then 3 times 1-5-7 for 2 wks, then 1-5-8 for 2 wks. then they put the price up at the wall. trick is to push down with the lower arm n twist n flip, while you're pulling with the upper arm. this sounds so cliche but try to stay on 1-4-6, let's say, n sort your technique out, it will help you ridiculously. i think i started to injure my elbows tho when doing doubles 2 up 1 down. haven't been on a campus board since. for me it felt better to do it after about quarter of an hr warming up, rather than try a few projects first.

[tobym]

stay on the big rungs for a while, to develop arm strength over finger strength

this sounds so cliche but try to stay on 1-4-6

I expect I'll be sticking with 1-2-2-3-3 for a while, untill I crack it :wink:

[T.H.]

Not really related to campusing, but I have to point out that doing any form of negative exercise is a highly recognised form of increasing strength.  It is more intense than your average concentric exercises admittedly and should only be performed as one phase of any periodised training plan.  But f*ck me it gets results.

[dave]

I thought negative exercise was what you did down the pub with a packet of scampi fries and a pint of moonshine. You're right, it really does get results.

[tobym]

Not really related to campusing, but I have to point out that doing any form of negative exercise is a highly recognised form of increasing strength.  It is more intense than your average concentric exercises admittedly and should only be performed as one phase of any periodised training plan.  But f*ck me it gets results.

I'm assuming you wouldn't advocate negative laddering(ie downclimbing), on the campus board, for someone who might have difficulty getting up it?

[T.H.]

Er.....no, I don't think that'd be a good idea.  It's all about progresion.  Anyway, if someone can't lock at all, they'll probably not be able to do negatives properly anyway.

[a dense loner]

used to do them for weights once a wk. trouble is you need a good trainin partner. mike mentzer was one strong mother

[account_inactive]

Not really related to campusing, but I have to point out that doing any form of negative exercise is a highly recognised form of increasing strength.  It is more intense than your average concentric exercises admittedly and should only be performed as one phase of any periodised training plan.  But f*ck me it gets results.

I'm assuming you wouldn't advocate negative laddering(ie downclimbing), on the campus board, for someone who might have difficulty getting up it?

To be honest this would be the best way to gain the strength needed.  Think about training a one arm pull up - its hard to train something that you can't start doing. Practice the negative element and then turn it into a positive

After a suitable warm up and light bouldering use large rungs on the board and lower slowly through the full range of motion to a lower rung.  Avoid dropping onto the lower arm and shocking your elbows.

The other exercise that helps - Start on uneven rungs e.g left on 3 right on 1. from hanging pull up until your chin is at hand level whilst pushing down with your other hand.  Keep pushing with the lower hand and see how far above your left hand you can get.  Once at the peak lower back down to the start position and repeat.  

This will develop a deeper locking position and improving your pressing skills for campusing!

[dave]

and lower slowly through the full range of motion to a lower rung. Avoid dropping onto the lower arm and shocking your elbows.

anyone who couldn't ladder up on the big rungs wouldn't even be able to touch this excersise though, unless they were some kinda slow static musclebound powerless freak.

[account_inactive]

The lowering portion happens when you have hands on uneven rungs.  A quick hand movement down to the lower rung is where the problems may occur!  The stronger you are the more time you can 'lock' before bringing the higher hand through.  

Who said that it was meant to be easy?

Anyway Dave I would have thought that you could do these in your sleep

[dave]

don't worry i can, but i still recon if someone is having trouble laddering up then trying to downclimb in control to gain the strength to be able to ladder up is still a bit of a no-brainer - bit like saying best training for curling 20kg is doing reverses with 60kg i.e. anyone who could downclimb in control on a campus board would already be able to piss laddering up. would have thought if you can't ladder up then even trying to downclimb in locking/slow control would either just not happen or fuck your elbows in the process. I remember when i was just about good enought to be able to get up a campus board laddering, downclimbing was a kinda just like falling downward but a bit slower. I'f i'd have been able to downclimb in slow control i'd have been doing 1-4-7s going up. and anyway, if someone can't ladder up how are they going to get up there in the first place in order to downclimb? :wink:

[account_inactive]

Maybe use a ladder

Its easier to lower a weight that lift it.  Take a dumb bell and rep it until you can't lift it anymore - get someone to lift the weight for you back to the start position- now try to lower back through the range of motion.  Hey presto you can still control the weight in the negative cycle.

Don't knock controlled falling

[dave]

point taken, but lifting a weight if different though, cos you're aiming to do that by just muscular contraction (say with a bicep curl), but with campusing you're using momentum, power, slap. etc. thats wny you don't have to be able to lockoff openhanded with one hand to be able to ladder up a CB.

[account_inactive]

Muscles only ever contact or relax.  What is different between the 2 exercises is the speed of recruitment and possible the number of fibres recruited of the muscles.

To try and better your laddering you can either move your lower hand up a rung until you hit your target or keep your hands in the same position and try to hit higher rung each attempt.  I also use negatives once I have acheived both of these goals before trying to complete the intended exercise.  You are right in saying that it can fuck up you bo's if you are not careful.

Although toby didn't want lock-off techniques the 2 exercises are linked by similar muscle, hence why one will help the other

[andy_e]

i'm rubbish at one-arm strength but i love campussing on my stairs (supersteep carpetty goodness) and can do any amount of up and down one arm deadhangs and static reaches and i can't lock off one armedly.

[saltbeef]

campusing on stairs... does that mean jumping two at a time?

[andy_e]

nah dude the back of them, it's really steep, my house is a dormer bungalow so the steps arem't proper, they're just like a ladder (sort of) with the back exposed. beeeeef!

[dave]

my parents crib has got them kinda open-back stairs. I found carpet campussing was OK, the biggest problem was landing on the piano.

[andy_e]

lol, i have a fish tank to contend with, and sometimes an ironing board.

[a dense loner]

and static reaches and i can't lock off one armedly.

how can you do a static reach without locking off???

[Duma]

armedly - is that a mixture of ars? :wink:

[Stubbs]

So had a bit of a campus training sesh last night, and went through my usual routine of starting off with 1,2,3,4 etc. up and down, then 1,3,5 etc, then going for my maximum (1,4,6 at the mo).  Did a few rounds of those touch things after that (as suggested in Gresh's article), but after those i was kinda stuck on what else to do.  

So what other exercises do you go through? Does anyone really do the two hand dynoing thing a la Ben and Jerry in One Summer? looks like a sure fire path to injury!

Other campus exercises please!

[dave]

a two-handed dropdown initially is more a mental and timing/knack thing, chances areself to do it. once you've done one its much easier to do it again.

I wouldn't have thought that this kinda thing done right is very bad for injury, assuming you're well warmed up and not dropping onto locked straight arms. you'd probably find that if two-handed dropdowns would injure you then that injury-potential would have already been exposed with normal campussing.

of course proper plyometrics i think is about dropping to a rung then going back up again as fast as possible. someone with a sports science background will be able to give details on this.

be interested to know if any nonheros do the one-handed flick up like jezzer does on realthing. or the double handed sequence "that was a person best" etc etc.

[a dense loner]

i did the "personal best" last year, quite liked them at the time. a fair bit of it is mental, as mental as can be 2 foot off the floor :roll:  however very soon i found out that i could not campus anymore cos of pain in elbows. only just started to campus again after about 12 mths n won't be doin any more "personal bests". of course the injury may be entirely unrelated...

in reply to any more exercises, i think less is best. the problem is boredom, it really is that simple, oh and of course access to a campus board

[Stubbs]

Less different exercises, or less campussing?

Haven't watched Real Thing - he does a one handed dyno on a campus board?

[dave]

yeah he hangs bottom rung (large) with one hand then pops up for the next rung wid same hand. wearing blue lycra.

[Stubbs]

[a dense loner]

sorry stubbs, less different exercises more campusing. i was led to believe that campusing once or twice a wk was enough, until i spoke to buoux :shock:

[saltbeef]

what did buoux say? 5days on 1 day off. i went to the foundry, haven't campused for months, it showed. but, to counter the boredom i took some revision notes and that proved it was less boring to watch people flail on 6bs...

[a dense loner]

i'm sure he'll write about it in his upcoming article on the moon site

[Jonboy]

I find the metolius rock rings work well for building both arm and finger power.   You can make it as hard as you want what with the 3 different depths of the holds...(just doing pull-ups or holding yourself up for as long as possible on the small holds..or do a combination of both)... and you dont have to have them fixed permantly to anything, just find somewhere to hang them and leave them there or take them down.
Look on www.rockandrun.com, then climbing then training aids.
Might help...