Pickups?

[GazM]

I frequently read the term 'pickups' in people's Powerclub entries and am sure I recall reading someone recommending them as a low risk vaguely climbing-related excercise to do after recovering from covid (which I am).
Could anyone point me to something that explains what 'pickups' are? Is it really as simple as just picking up a weighted portable fingerboard? Any basic principles?

 

[oldfella]

Good question.
I refer to them as crimp curls. Basically lifting weight (Around 13kg) going from full open grip into half crimp or full crimp. I do mine using a repeater timer. Do it as initial warm up exercise.

 

[duncan]

I've used these quite a lot, for a couple reasons:

1. Most usefully for me, you can continue to load the fingers reasonably heavily when you've got a shoulder tweak. I can still pick up close to max. loads without aggravating my shoulder when it wouldn't tolerate hangs or bouldering.
They are not as specific as hanging, very much at the conditioning end of the spectrum, but a whole lot better than doing nothing.

2. Graded load for rehab.ing early stage finger or elbow injuries. You can also use a regular fingerboard and scales for this but pick-ups are useful at the start when you're using very light loads.

 

[Ross.Cooper]

I’ve used them instead of density hangs as density pickups. Easier to isolate the hand, more convenient than a pulley system to take off weight (to get to 20% of max load) and I can do it in my office between meetings. I generally do 40s holds

I’ve read that Crimp Curls are to be avoided as can be a bit of a sawing motion on the pulleys. No idea if that’s accurate but I’ve avoided as a result

 

[GazM]

Thanks for the replies. So in terms of the actual exercises people do, is there any agreed ideas on what is/isn't useful?
I can see there are various things you can do, from crimp curls in which it's just the fingers that move, to static holds in a range of positions (straight arm/bent/fully locked), to repeated lifting of the weights, all in the various grip configurations. Having played around this afternoon the static hangs with a fair bit of weight felt fairly useful in a specific climbing sense.

 

[Paul B]

It's covered in Beastmaking.

 

[GazM]

It's covered in Beastmaking.

Ah, cool. Good knowledge. Might have to have a gander.

 

[Bradders]

Thanks for the replies. So in terms of the actual exercises people do, is there any agreed ideas on what is/isn't useful?
I can see there are various things you can do, from crimp curls in which it's just the fingers that move, to static holds in a range of positions (straight arm/bent/fully locked), to repeated lifting of the weights, all in the various grip configurations. Having played around this afternoon the static hangs with a fair bit of weight felt fairly useful in a specific climbing sense.

In a nutshell, exactly the same things as you'd do on a fingerboard. Max, repeaters or density. Keep it simple.

To Duncan's two reasons I'd add splitting up the fingers into groupings you can't hang bodyweight with on a fingerboard, e.g. I'm currently doing regular sessions of pick ups with pinky and index mono and middle 2 in half crimp.

 

[oldfella]

Reviving this thread.
Currently rehabbing a A2 pulley strain. Now into week 3 as of yesterday.
I’ve been doing crimp lifts/farmer crimps 5 times a day for Last 12 days.
Now able to do density hangs.

But I am looking for info on how frequently I should do them. I was thinking of daily. Can’t climb due to knee operation.

Anyone got good knowledge/experience they can share?

Cheers