[Three Nine]

Hi all. I have started a fingerboarding routine. What is the best posture to adopt with the rest of your body. I had been using arms just slightly bent as if right at the start of a pull up. This makes my shoulders pretty sore the day after! What should I be 'doing' with my shoulders? ie. at the moment I am using them lots to keep position. or is it better to hang on the joints and not do anything with the shoulders?

[dave]

as far as I know hanging on the joints (elbow, shoulder) passivley is bad - gave a lot of people injuries in the 80s (that and deadhanging for stamina....). I always do this like you with arms bent, but have never had aches as a result.

[a dense loner]

thats how i deadhang as well, you're prob getting acheing shoulders since the exercise is new. persevere

[Rice Boy]

Try and keep your shoulders down as far as possible as this will ensure that you use core strength over holding it in your shoulders. In the short term this is hard to adopt as you probably will only be able to do half as many pull ups but will develop core strength albeit over a longer period of time. It's also better for your overall day to day posture which is far more important.

I haven't trained (school of Sharma) for a while but the last time I tried this, having previously done pull ups using mainly my shoulders, my stomach felt it more than anything.

[GCW]

thats how i deadhang as well, you're prob getting acheing shoulders since the exercise is new. persevere

I agree with Dense and RiceBoy on this.  The tendency is to let your shoulders drift up towards your ears.  Avoid this and pull them back down as with a decent pull up.  Also, keep 5-10 degrees of bend in your elbows, passive hangs and joints don't go well together.
I try to push my elbows back into a more climbing position rather than allowing them to drift in front of me like you often do for pull ups on a bar.  I know not if this is SCIENCE but it works for me.

Oh, and warm up very well before you start a session and take appropriate rests during the routine.

[a dense loner]

i wouldn't bother with pull-ups while training fingers. you won't get the most out of the exercise

[GCW]

Sorry, bit ambiguous on that last post.  Dense is again correct, keep deadhangs as hangs, not pulls.  I was trying to say I avoid hanging with my elbows pointing forewards, I try to stay more open.  And I don't do pull up dead hangs.  Hope that clears it up.
Look at the Buoux 8b+ article on Moon, as well as a suggested Routine.  I like it anyway.

[dave]

to be honest that routine seems pretty wack and not very well thought out. I tried it and it struck me that if you're strong enough to get anywhere near doing the 1-arm hangs then all the 2-arm work is trivially easy.  Likewise if the 2-arm work is taxing you then you're not going to be able to get anywhere near doing the 1-arm stuff unless you're using so much assistance (low jug, pulley etc) to render it a worthless excersise. you can get some worth out of it by customising the routine to your needs, but when i did that i realised i might as well have just started from scratch myself.

[GCW]

True, but it's better than the Metolius ones (in my opinion).
I think the idea of separating finger and arm training works better than a mish mash of both.
Works for some and not others, I guess.

[galpinos]

  Likewise if the 2-arm work is taxing you then you're not going to be able to get anywhere near doing the 1-arm stuff unless you're using so much assistance (low jug, pulley etc) to render it a worthless excersise.

How much assistance is too much? I've genreally got 15-20kg on the pulley depending on hold. Is this too much to be a worth while exercise?

I've been fiollowing this routine (sporadically), where the easier 2 arm stuff gets me ready for the harder 2 arm (2 finger)/1 arm stuff. (I only do hangs, not lock-offs or pull ups)

[Paul B]

to be honest that routine seems pretty wack and not very well thought out. I tried it and it struck me that if you're strong enough to get anywhere near doing the 1-arm hangs then all the 2-arm work is trivially easy.  Likewise if the 2-arm work is taxing you then you're not going to be able to get anywhere near doing the 1-arm stuff unless you're using so much assistance (low jug, pulley etc) to render it a worthless excersise. you can get some worth out of it by customising the routine to your needs, but when i did that i realised i might as well have just started from scratch myself.

Hmmm I disagree, the two arm stuff will allow your fingers to warm up a bit better before doing the really savage one arm hangs wont they? I know the routine suggests a full warm up, but where does your warm up end because after mine I definately wouldn't go straight to one arm hanging, things would go snap crackle and pop...

How much assistance is too much? I've genreally got 15-20kg on the pulley depending on hold. Is this too much to be a worth while exercise?

I've been fiollowing this routine (sporadically), where the easier 2 arm stuff gets me ready for the harder 2 arm (2 finger)/1 arm stuff. (I only do hangs, not lock-offs or pull ups)

I reckon that assistance should be looked upon in terms of bodyweight (%), its irrelevant any other way and hard to compare person to person. I'd also say for any given excercise if you need anymore than 15% assistance then you could be doing other (more worthwile) things, but thats just my opinion. I'll also add that using a bunjee or a "pinky" is just plain daft.

[account_inactive]

You should activate the shoulders like this



not this



It's not necessary to use bent arms, but this will guarantee that your shoulders are activated.

The metolius stuff is kinda endurance based and not that useful IMHO.  The Moon one is OK with a few tweaks but for something more simply try this

http://www.davemacleod.com/articles/roughtrainingguidepage4.html

[GCW]

Thanks Dylan, that's what I was trying to say but in pictures!!
Looks some good MacLeod stuff.   

[webbo]

i've been doing the boux 8c routine for a few weeks.intially just once a week fitting it in a round climbing.but since fucking my bicep i've done it a few more times.i generally warm up by various swiss ball exs,then do 3 sets of 2 handed with no weight.i then do all the 2 handed stuff with about 30lbs added weight.on the single handed stuff i tend to touch/ pinch the door frame when hanging from my none fucked arm.with my bad arm i usually use 1 finger of my other hand for assistance.
i tried using bits of theraband for assistance but i found it awkward to get it set up right,given where my board is and also that my board is an old bendcrete moon reject.