[Schnell]

Hi, looking for a bit of advice on finger strength training. Over the last year I've done a lot of max hangs on small edges, the BM #10s and have made good gains. However the gains have decreased and even reversed recently and I'm looking to find another exercise cycle to kickstart improvement again.

The obvious one would be Lopez-esque large edges with lots of weight but I don't get on with this style of hangs at all because I just find myself fighting to stay in a half crimp when actually I'd much prefer to be open handing on the big edges.I toyed with the idea of doing some repeaters. It was suggested somewhere on here recently they might be more hypertrophy that recruitment and therefore good.

For background I boulder roughly 7A/7A+ these days. I've got access to pretty good training facilities and at the moment I'm looking to train pure bouldering strength rather than endurance or PE. The above is all about max crimp strength because that's a weakness relative to sloper strength or open handing.  Any comments, suggestions?

[abarro81]

I just find myself fighting to stay in a half crimp when actually I'd much prefer to be open handing on the big edges.

That's exactly the point of forcing a half crimp, especially given this:

The above is all about max crimp strength because that's a weakness relative to sloper strength or open handing.

[Stubbs]

Sounds like a few sets of half crimp repeaters on the the small slots and front 3 back 3 half crimped on the big slots should sort you out!

As Barrows sort of noted form is key, stop when you can't keep form.

[T_B]

Or you could switch to assisted 1-arm hangs a la Chris Webb Parsons...

[Schnell]

I just find myself fighting to stay in a half crimp when actually I'd much prefer to be open handing on the big edges.

That's exactly the point of forcing a half crimp, especially given this:

The above is all about max crimp strength because that's a weakness relative to sloper strength or open handing.

Interesting, I hadn't thought of it in that way. In the past I'd always feel I haven't done a proper session if it's form failure rather than falling off failure that's finishing me off, vanity I suppose. My relative strength on big crimps isn't great either so this might be both directly and indirectly useful. I will try some big edge hangs and maybe mix in back and front 3 crimping a la Stubbs. Thanks guys.

[Monolith]

The Beastmaker is a wonderful tool for life here but don't be afraid to add some smaller crimps/pinches etc to your fingerboard backing board. I like to do multiple variations of back two on one hold, front pad drag on another hold etc etc. The combinations are endless and adding a simple pulley system (suspended from the bar, top of door frame or wherever) allows you to add ever new dimensions to these combinations. Good luck.