Post by jmiller on Aug 29, 2020 10:14:27 GMT -7
Hi Everyone,
I'm a new climber and even newer to training. I got the book with the hangboard back at the beginning of covid, and now I'm returning to the gym and trying to learn to use some of the implements I had previously neglected. I have not started a training cycle yet, as I'm trying to learn some of the exercises, and also do a little bit of a diagnostic after the long break from climbing regularly. In addition, one of my covid goals has been to lose weight, and I've dropped from 240 to 190 (bf% ~17). I'm hoping to get to around 175 and 12% body fat in the next 2 months. One of the first things I've noticed has been that the power in my back has dropped dramatically. Despite the weightloss, I can do fewer pullups than pre-covid. While my waistline shows I've lost quite a bit of fat, the way my shirts fit show I've lost a lot of muscle as well. I've thus been experimenting with the campus board.
I have easy access to two campus boards. The first has the standard metolius s-m-l rungs, as well as footholds underneath it to aid you if you're not strong enough. There are three levels of footholds, and the highest one seems to offer the least assistance. However, I find myself in this very unfortunate canyon where using even the least assistance from the feet makes campusing using the large rungs so easy as to be effortless, but I cannot even make the first move in the matching ladder once I remove my feet and truly campus. Specifically, I cannot get out of the "hole" at the bottom of the movement, and apply enough force on the lower hand to move myself up with enough speed to cleaning reach the next hold. However, something to note here is that on the medium rungs, I find myself needing more assistance to complete the beginner campus routine, and so I use the middle foothold. There are clearly gains to be made here, at least trying to get myself from the middle foothold to the the higher (less assistance) foot. However, even after doing my best to wear myself out on this board, using my feet for assistance means I feel little to no soreness in my back, but a nice dullness in my fingers and forearm.
The second campus board has a section with some gigantic jug rungs, about two full pads and a nice lip. On this I can do the matching ladders, regular ladders, and the 1-3-4 max ladder from the beginner campus routine. It's very difficult, and my back and lats feel sore through the next day and even a little into the second after this. I also struggle by the end to maintain good form in my arms and shoulders. This feels like exactly the right level of difficulty, but it doesn't seem to be working the contact strength in my fingers at all. It's all big muscles in the back.
So my question for the board is: does anyone have any advice for mixing and matching these two exercises towards being able to campus properly on the regular sized campus rungs? Does my description of my experience point to an obvious deficit somewhere?
I also have a more general question about periodized training (my apologies if this is addressed in the book somewhere): given that I've been hangboarding 2-3 times a week for months now because I had nothing else to do, my strength and power feel way out of balance. This feels like the strongest I've been in terms of finger strength I've ever been, and yet in came at the cost of feeling very weak in terms of power. Does it make sense to jump right in to the beginning of a training cycle now that I have access to a gym again, or should I try and balance things out a little before starting at base fitness?
Thanks! I've been reading a lot of old threads on this forum and I appreciate all of the insight it contains.
I'm a new climber and even newer to training. I got the book with the hangboard back at the beginning of covid, and now I'm returning to the gym and trying to learn to use some of the implements I had previously neglected. I have not started a training cycle yet, as I'm trying to learn some of the exercises, and also do a little bit of a diagnostic after the long break from climbing regularly. In addition, one of my covid goals has been to lose weight, and I've dropped from 240 to 190 (bf% ~17). I'm hoping to get to around 175 and 12% body fat in the next 2 months. One of the first things I've noticed has been that the power in my back has dropped dramatically. Despite the weightloss, I can do fewer pullups than pre-covid. While my waistline shows I've lost quite a bit of fat, the way my shirts fit show I've lost a lot of muscle as well. I've thus been experimenting with the campus board.
I have easy access to two campus boards. The first has the standard metolius s-m-l rungs, as well as footholds underneath it to aid you if you're not strong enough. There are three levels of footholds, and the highest one seems to offer the least assistance. However, I find myself in this very unfortunate canyon where using even the least assistance from the feet makes campusing using the large rungs so easy as to be effortless, but I cannot even make the first move in the matching ladder once I remove my feet and truly campus. Specifically, I cannot get out of the "hole" at the bottom of the movement, and apply enough force on the lower hand to move myself up with enough speed to cleaning reach the next hold. However, something to note here is that on the medium rungs, I find myself needing more assistance to complete the beginner campus routine, and so I use the middle foothold. There are clearly gains to be made here, at least trying to get myself from the middle foothold to the the higher (less assistance) foot. However, even after doing my best to wear myself out on this board, using my feet for assistance means I feel little to no soreness in my back, but a nice dullness in my fingers and forearm.
The second campus board has a section with some gigantic jug rungs, about two full pads and a nice lip. On this I can do the matching ladders, regular ladders, and the 1-3-4 max ladder from the beginner campus routine. It's very difficult, and my back and lats feel sore through the next day and even a little into the second after this. I also struggle by the end to maintain good form in my arms and shoulders. This feels like exactly the right level of difficulty, but it doesn't seem to be working the contact strength in my fingers at all. It's all big muscles in the back.
So my question for the board is: does anyone have any advice for mixing and matching these two exercises towards being able to campus properly on the regular sized campus rungs? Does my description of my experience point to an obvious deficit somewhere?
I also have a more general question about periodized training (my apologies if this is addressed in the book somewhere): given that I've been hangboarding 2-3 times a week for months now because I had nothing else to do, my strength and power feel way out of balance. This feels like the strongest I've been in terms of finger strength I've ever been, and yet in came at the cost of feeling very weak in terms of power. Does it make sense to jump right in to the beginning of a training cycle now that I have access to a gym again, or should I try and balance things out a little before starting at base fitness?
Thanks! I've been reading a lot of old threads on this forum and I appreciate all of the insight it contains.