Hangboard Training Program – Jędrzej
I’ve been climbing since 2005, and since the beginning, my ambition was to send hard sport routes. However, my training focus revolved around bouldering and building strength, because I thought that if I got stronger, my endurance would also improve, a tip I read in one of the articles by Eric Hörst [1][2].
However, despite getting stronger and progressing significantly on the Moonboard, I couldn’t understand why I would very quickly get pumped when lead climbing. It was only later, after reading a paper by Lattice Training, that I discovered that the correlation between finger strength and endurance is very weak [3]. It is certainly valid for continuous hangs endurance, but not necessarily for intermittent hangs endurance, which is the key to sending difficult routes.
For these reasons, I designed my personal Training Program to put an equal emphasis on strength and endurance development. I started in July 2019 with and 8-month cycle of Steve Bechtel’s Ladders, which constituted the main part of my training sessions and helped me increase my finger strength significantly [4][5]. The second part of my sessions was a short 10 – 20-minute set of Endurance Repeaters [6]. The program proved very effective, and I managed to increase my finger strength and endurance significantly, as shown in Table 1 below. You can read the details of that part of my training program in [7].
Starting from April 2020, I began to focus on endurance development, by increasing the duration of the Endurance Repeaters exercise to 45 minutes. This change let me improve my endurance further, but I noticed that my finger strength began to decay. I want to become a better lead climber, but also to keep improving my bouldering, so now I’m trying to fine-tune the program to regain the finger strength level from March 2020, while efficiently developing my endurance. On this page, you will find the details of my progress, as I follow the Experimental Hangboard Training program of my design.
Table 1: Hangboard Training Program progress. Cycles 1 – 5.
| Beginning (07.2019) | After Cycle 1 (09.2019) | After Cycle 3 (02.2020) | After Cycle 4 (06.2020) | After Cycle 5 (08.2020) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Completed cycle | Mixed | Strength /Endurance | Strength /Endurance | Strengh-Endurance /Endurance | Strength /Endurance |
| MVC-7 (20 mm) [kg] | 108 | 111 | 114 | 106 | 108 |
| Body weight [kg] | 65 | 66 | 62 | 64 | 64 |
| MVC-7 (20 mm) [%BW] | 166% | 168% | 184% | 166% | 169% |
| CF [%MVC-7] | 29% | 33% | 34% | 39% | 41% |
| CF [%BW] | 49% | 55% | 62% | 64% | 69% |
| CF [kg] | 32 | 36 | 39 | 41 | 44 |
| Score | 1136 | 1193 | 1320 | 1316 | 1373 |
| Bouldering level prediction | V7 (7A+) | V8 (7B) | V9 (7C) | V9 (7C) | V8 (7B+) |
| Current bouldering level | V6 (7A) (MB) | V6 (7A) (MB) | V8 (7B) (MB) | V7 (7A+) (MB) | V7 (7A+) (MB) |
| Lead level prediction | 7c+ | 7c+ | 8a+ | 8a+ | 8a+ |
| Current lead level | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Table 2: Hangboard Training Program progress. Cycles 6 – 8.
| After Cycle 6 (09.2020) | After Cycle 7 (11.2020) | After Cycle 8 (01.2021) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completed cycle | Strength /Endurance | Strength /Endurance | Strength /Endurance |
| MVC-7 (20 mm) [kg] | 111 | 111 | 114 |
| Body weight [kg] | 64 | 64.5 | 64.5 |
| MVC-7 (20 mm) [%BW] | 173% | 172% | 177% |
| CF [%MVC-7] | 39% | 41% | 43% |
| CF [%BW] | 67% | 70% | 75% |
| CF [kg] | 43 | 45 | 49 |
| Score | 1377 | 1390 | 1529 |
| Bouldering level prediction | V8 (7B+) | V8 (7B+) | V9 (7C) |
| Current bouldering level | V7(7A+) (MB) | ? | ? |
| Lead level prediction | 8a+ | 8a+ | 8b+ |
| Current lead level | ? | ? | ? |
Figure 1: Jędrzej’s general progress in terms of MVC-7 and Critical Force, expressed as absolute loads in kg.
Figure 2: Critical Force as percentage of MVC-7 – progress plots.
Figure 3: Critical Force as percentage of bodyweight – progress plots.
References
- E. Hörst, Training4Climbing, 5 Reasons Why Stronger Fingers Matter!, June 10, 2016. (link)↩
- D. Mirsky, Evening Sends – CATCH A HANGBOARD BUZZ, Oct. 15, 2014. (link)↩
- Giles, D., Chidley, J.B., Taylor, N., Torr, O., Hadley, J., Randall, T., Fryer, S., 2019. The Determination of Finger-Flexor Critical Force in Rock Climbers. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 1–8. (link)↩
- S. Bechtel, Training: Hangboard Ladders for Finger Strength, Climbing.com, Aug. 10. 2016. (link)↩
- J. Banaszczyk, StrengthClimbing – Steve Bechtel’s 3-6-9 Ladders hangboard finger strength training, May 18, 2019. (link)↩
- J. Banaszczyk, StrengthClimbing – Endurance Repeaters, May 2, 2019. (link)↩
- J. Banaszczyk, StrengthClimbing – 8-Month Hangboard Finger Strength Training Program Results, Mar. 31, 2020. (link)↩
