[douglas]

Strong fingers are the pure distillation of the sport of climbing. Without finger strength we'd just all be bad gymnasts.

And more recently I've been thinking that the reason I can't do the move is because I just can't squeeze or crimp hard enough and so therefore I need to get stronger fingers.

I know how to do this, getting strong is easy. But getting strong without getting injured is more difficult and this is what I'd like to do. So, what are your top tips that may help me become a better climber, without getting injured?

The beastmaker website recommends 'serious beastmakerification' to go from 8A to 8B+ in 3 years. How can I do this and what is 'serious beastmakerification'?

Thank you.

[Paul B]

[Johnny Brown]

So, what are your top tips that may help me become a better climber

I thought you wanted stronger fingers?

[Ru]

Either a) be lucky, or b) learn how to manage injuries.

Plus eat well, sleep well, don't have a stressful job/partner/pet etc etc.

[nodder]

'serious beastmakerification'

First rule of beastmakerification...

[Doylo]

'serious beastmakerification'

Rohypnol in a animal sanctuary

[mendis]

Hang from insanely bad holds for as long as you can using as little number fingers as you can. Easy.

[jwi]

Do climbs with bad and widely spaced holds

[ducko]

Campus board seems to work for me personally, also when your fingers don't feel right lay off and rest or go open hand some shizzle

[Nibile]

if he's afraid of golfer's elbow he'll better avoid campusing.
I'd say deadhangs and climbing on a moderately overhanging wall with small holds.
on the fingerboard I use monos and two fingers (front, middle and back2 as The Verb states), on the board I want to use holds that engage all four fingers, otherwise to me it's too dangerous, especially if you dyno to holds, because however you get them then you don't want to let go.

[Nibile]

oh and one last advice, I hope you don't find me (too much) presumptuous.
set your own targets and don't consider other ones' achievements:
going from 8a to 8b+ worked for them but could not transfer to everyone, and I am the living proof.
finally, about the Beastmakerification: to me it means counting your session's deadhanging times in double digit minutes; for weeks, for months, for years.

[Ruarl]

The best piece of advice I ever heard about avoiding injuries is to listen to your body. It's also the hardest to implement. Everyone has to learn their own internal messages for themselves. A training log can be handy here, if you can keep to it. And remember to record something of how you felt about your sessions as well as what you did, if you hope to uncover the subtle signals which tell you to train or not to train.

[douglas]

Thank you for the helpful replys, especially Ru, Nibile and Ruarl.

I keep a training diary and record what I do and how I feel but I very rarely find it helpful in prevent injuries. This would be difficult to test though. Nibile, what does 'count your session's deadhanging times in double digit minutes' mean? I don't quite understand that part..

[Nibile]

if I'm not going for max power I do 6 sets of 10 seconds hangs on various holds. so, each hold gets at least 1 minute of pure deadhanging time.
I generally do:
20°, big rung, 35°, 45° (less than 10 secons for each hang), slopey pockets, back two big, back two medium, index mono small (less than 10 secons for each hang), middle mono, middle two small, back three small rung, front three small rung. I do them in this sequence, otherwise doing 6 sets straight on the same hold skin becomes a bit of an issue to me. this way you also get longer rests between sets on the same hold so you can push more.
chosing many different holds and prehensions, so that you get more than 10 minutes of deadhanging time, to me is a good session.
it seems little but for me it's not. I climb a lot on my board right now, and it's intense, so on "easy" days I do this kind of fingerboarding session, to maintain a decent level.
if I want to push things I do one armed assisted (or not) dead hangs.
hope this helps.

[douglas]

if I'm not going for max power I do 6 sets of 10 seconds hangs on various holds. so, each hold gets at least 1 minute of pure deadhanging time.
I generally do:
20°, big rung, 35°, 45° (less than 10 secons for each hang), slopey pockets, back two big, back two medium, index mono small (less than 10 secons for each hang), middle mono, middle two small, back three small rung, front three small rung. I do them in this sequence, otherwise doing 6 sets straight on the same hold skin becomes a bit of an issue to me. this way you also get longer rests between sets on the same hold so you can push more.
chosing many different holds and prehensions, so that you get more than 10 minutes of deadhanging time, to me is a good session.
it seems little but for me it's not. I climb a lot on my board right now, and it's intense, so on "easy" days I do this kind of fingerboarding session, to maintain a decent level.
if I want to push things I do one armed assisted (or not) dead hangs.
hope this helps.

Okay, that makes good sense. Thanks!

[r-man]

10 sec is quite a long time for hangs - you said this is not for maximal power though?

Be interested to know how long other people hang for. Is there any science to support hang times?

I usually aim for sets of 6 reps: 6 sec hangs with 4 sec rests on any given hold combination - if the last two reps are desperate I feel like it's a good level of intensity.

[clm]

Try improving your footwork.

[douglas]

Try improving your footwork.

I've been trying that since I began climbing.

[moose]

All sounds like too much hard work to me.  My plan is to invoke the SCIENCE of homeopathy: I'm going to achieve morphic resonance with Jonh Gaskins by shaving some hairs off.   Let the crushin' begin...

[webbo]

10 sec is quite a long time for hangs - you said this is not for maximal power though?

Be interested to know how long other people hang for. Is there any science to support hang times?

I usually aim for sets of 6 reps: 6 sec hangs with 4 sec rests on any given hold combination - if the last two reps are desperate I feel like it's a good level of intensity.

Is'nt that doing repeaters rather than max hangs. From the moon site (Rich Simpson) and Steve Mac they reckon 6 secs followed by 1 min rest for max hangs.
I tend to do 3 sets of 6 secs with one rest between each on various holds the increase one rep to 8 secs then 2 then 3. when I can do 3 at secs add some weight.
However I'm not very good at sustaining this for long and generally only tend to it when I can't climb.

[Seb]

All sounds like too much hard work to me.  My plan is to invoke the SCIENCE of homeopathy: I'm going to achieve morphic resonance with Jonh Gaskins by shaving some hairs off.   Let the crushin' begin...

Doesnt work, ive got no hair and im still shit.

[douglas]

Okay so I've been thinking a bit about training today and I've come up with a supplemental fingerboard session to target a certain grip type that I think I'm weak at. I plan to do this for a 4 week block when I ramp up the training in the new year. Subsequent 4 week blocks will target another perceived grip weakness.

1 - 2 sessions a week. With other climbing.

One arm assisted hangs.
Right hand: 7s on, 3s rest, 7s on, 3s rest, 7s on, 3s rest.
Left hand: same
2 minutes rest.
6 - 8 sets.

For 6 sets this would give 2.06 mins total hang time on each arm for a workout that is 15 minutes. Not including warming up.

This is a mix between repeaters (which I think are an anaerobic endurance exercise) and max hangs (recruitment). Am I right in thinking that this should lie in the strength / hypertrophy regime? And result in bigger and stronger forearms?

Cheers!

[mark s]

fingers as strong as these?

[SA Chris]

I'd like a look as strong as that.

[haz]

Okay so I've been thinking a bit about training today and I've come up with a supplemental fingerboard session to target a certain grip type that I think I'm weak at. I plan to do this for a 4 week block when I ramp up the training in the new year. Subsequent 4 week blocks will target another perceived grip weakness.

1 - 2 sessions a week. With other climbing.

One arm assisted hangs.
Right hand: 7s on, 3s rest, 7s on, 3s rest, 7s on, 3s rest.
Left hand: same
2 minutes rest.
6 - 8 sets.

For 6 sets this would give 2.06 mins total hang time on each arm for a workout that is 15 minutes. Not including warming up.

This is a mix between repeaters (which I think are an anaerobic endurance exercise) and max hangs (recruitment). Am I right in thinking that this should lie in the strength / hypertrophy regime? And result in bigger and stronger forearms?

Cheers!

How is assisted hangs getting on? I find this method a little aukward as I don't really know how much weight I'm taking off, and find the hanging position a bit squew whiff. I accept that it could take a bit of getting used to.
I've been experimenting with using a rucksack with varying amount of weights, to train max grip strength for both arms at once. Plan to progressivly increase weight. Does anyone have an opinion on this?