In Defense of Rungs

One spends enough time climbing and it eventually becomes clear that half the things climbers say are total bullshit.


I’ve heard all kinds of ludicrous statements come out of people’s mouths over the years.

“You only need chalk once you start using it.”

“Grigris aren’t a safe belay device.”

“Campusing is a dangerous training technique and if done more than once a week will lead to injury.”

The first two don’t even deserve a response. As far as campusing goes however, there IS a little truth to this statement. Many people DO hurt themselves while training on campus boards and fingerboards, but I insist that this is case of operator error rather than faulty technology. Rarely do people approach these training tools with any sort of plan. Most start yarding on holds in an attempt to imitate their buddy who’s been slowly ramping up his workouts over the past 2 decades and their combination of poor form and weak tendons leads to... POP!

Almost one year ago, still severely anemic from blood loss and nursing a chronic shoulder injury, I hopped slowly into the shed on a walker. Since that time I’ve systematically trained my arms/hands at least 3 times/week. Its been torture at times. The tedium of endless repetition, the stiff mornings, the inevitable plateaus along the way - training isn’t easy, and that's fine with me. But guess what’s happening? No. I haven’t ruptured any tendons or torn my shoulders to pieces. I’m getting stronger - far stronger than I’ve ever been.

So for those of you that recently lost the use of your legs, or those that have any interest in climbing harder sometime in the future. Here’s a short list of articles that should help you design a program that works.

My additional advice is not only to warm up VERY slowly (good explanation on the School Room website below), and stretch your fingers and shoulders AFTER each workout, but also train the shit out of your rotator cuff. I still end every workout with 2 sets of 2 different exercises (rotated daily from a group of 6) to complete failure.

Beastmaker
The masters of all things hangboard. The name says it all.

The School Room
Tips from one of the world's epicenters of climbing specific training.

Robot Climbing
Variations on the themes above

Increasing the Calibre
More variations on the same themes

Dungeon Training
Not much training here, but notice the Beastmaker board in the title image and the list on the right. Pretty funny.