dude! this is a fantastic video with fantastic tips. i've also been getting sick of people saying "if you wanna get better just climb more" for several months ive been searching for exactly the tips that you give here
I’m with you. Perfect practice makes perfect, not repeatedly doing the same mistakes … so climbing more although good advice in a simplistic fashion.. won’t make you better in of itself. Like everything, it requires a level of strategy
I started climbing at around 370 lbs. Its given me a unique sort of style. I have been climbing and training hard for 2 years and am at 225 lbs now and can climb v4/6 depending on who grades it hahaha a lot of things change when you are big but the biggest deal is you CANNOT cut feet even once or its a big ole plop on the ground. Im not good at climbing grade wise, but inhave developed some pretty wild body tension. Im also pretty dynamic now that im stronger, but occasionally ill stick a wild fingertips throw and keep the feet and people will get all psyched. Sometimes i cant get my feet to release hahahaha its rough inproving so slowly, but i just keep telling myself, by the time i weigh like 185, i will be ridiculous strong.
@marrcl7986 so im still climbing and training hard. I weigh 210lbs but don't have a lot of fat left. Turns out my gym had super soft grading hahaha so now I climb legit v6ish. I started climbing at my local crag and sent my first climb the other day. ( 5.8 trad) this is interesting to read because while I've only gained a grade or 2 this year, but my style is totally different. I'm very(too) dynamic now and cutloose and campus stuff i probably shouldn't hahaha.
I think that last tip about pulling in rather than down is a piece of gold! It really helps to keep the pressure on the feet. It’s all about finding the right body tension.
Generally brilliant case study! Interesting thing is - i followed almost the same routine (without knowing yours tough) being on the same plateau and as of now (after few months) not yet breached it but improved a LOT. I focused similarily on body tension on MB - just doing everything without cutloose, limited the amount of climbing, lockoffs and having dedicated short strength training session. The only difference is basically max hangs which i think - even if it helped you may not be the best choice. I dont like to have that hangs after session - but also before... is a little fatiguing and it is more about passive tension than real active work - so either i would move it away from climbing day - or/and as i did before the session but in sense of overcoming isometrics curls. Generally the framework you provided is very very good. Im not saying it will help everyone but it shows in a decent way what is really needed for that grade.
I love how you get real what what needs to get done if you want to break into V8. I see all these jokers saying you can attain V11 without being able to do pullups or hanging off of a small edge with just good technique, but you cant argue against empiric evidence. Just get stronger is the answer most people dont want to hear, but its always the answer.
Excellent video. What I didnt realise for MANY years is the things that take you from V0 to V4 are not the same things you need to go from V4 to V8. A lot more specific strength is needed for the latter, and you’ve done a great job explaining how to get it!!
Personally experience so many of the things mentioned in this video: 1. Used to climb 3-5 times a week, and only half crimped. Led to one to two years of persistent synovitis. Even when i took a long break it would flare up as soon as i started climbing again. 2. Going to higher intensity lower volume helped. I climb three times a week. I cut the sessions short at 1.5-2 hours and go do something else (lift, teach team members how to lead, etc). This helped tremendously. 2a. Some lifts have tremendous carryover to climbing. In particular, my climbing was strength limited in pulling power so low rep dumbell rows addressed a specific kind of low lock off really well. I felt the benefit only one month after starting lifting on MULTIPLE projects. I also bench, deadlift, and squat, but without much carryover yet. Just doing it to be balanced. I have a few injuries of the shoulder that necessitate balancing the shoulder joint. I just do legs to have hops for the comp problems hehe. 3. I started a warm up routine. I do finger extensor warm up with those rubber bands, just 10-20 reps every now and then. I jump rope, then do some shoulder warm ups on a cable machine. Then i climb up the grades in a sweater til all the joints and muscles feel awake and strong. It takes like 30 min - 60 min. Depends on when i ate and just how i feel that day. The extensor warm up appeared to help the finger swelling significantly. Other warm up stuff prolly helped top. I feel much more coordinated when i climb after a warm up at the very least.
Your tip about warming up to the moonboard specifically might have saved me a finger injury not too long ago! I’ve since learned that for myself (33 years old, started climbing at 29) I need 3 days between sessions where my fingers pull near their max. I can do lighter climbing in between but too much near max leads to higher injury potential. Great vid! Keep ‘em coming 💪
Funny how if you want to get better as soon as possible you might get injured and have wayy slower progress than someone who goes once a week. Goes to show that controlled and good sessions are better than many and random sessions
@@LucayDoggy yep I climbed too hard for my first 2 months - got up to v4 but raptured my left pec :) Still injured but seeing an orthopedic surgeon now. Next week I'll know how to finally recover and get back to climbing! But seriously I should have known not to climb 5+ days a week...
Great video! Glad to see that this is working well for you. I would add that climbing more of the gym boulders and climbing outside can help you improve your technique and diversify your training. This is anecdotal, but to share some more from my experience - I started climbing I got to V9ish in about a year then plateaued for two years, then the next two years I began to see improvements again (now climbing about V11). In my first year I’d say the biggest factor in my improvement was climbing with and learning from climbers better than me - really breaking down what my mistakes/shortcomings were (like you did in this video with body tension) and coming up with actionable strategies for improving. My mindset was to climb as optimally as possible all the time. The biggest component of my training was limit bouldering - basically I did limit bouldering 5 days a week (way too much). I plateaued for two years mostly due to a PIP finger injury (same finger as you actually) where I was worried about climbing hard things (and in my gym, all the hard boulders had small holds). Climbing outdoors (where holds are generally friendlier in the double digit range) and training my weaknesses (shoulder stability, lockoff strength, core, which all can be improved on big holds) helped me finally overcome this barrier. However, during this same time I would get into injury cycles due to overtraining - the worst was when I moonboarded V10 twice a week, which resulted in a finger tweak lasting for months. Over the last couple of years, I’ve finally turned my attention to gaining strength through board climbing, climbing specific weight training, etc, since I’ve felt that strength rather than technique has become my main limiting factor (which wasn’t the case for years). The biggest factor in my recent improvement is learning how to listen to my body to avoid overtraining and to prioritize consistency over speed. Anyhow, back to the original point - climbing on the gym boulders (especially if there are climbs that are quite difficult with comfortable holds - very rare in some gyms and quite dependent on the setting) can really be big in improving your technique, application of strength, body awareness, visualization skills, and projecting strategies. Climbing outdoors is superb for learning new footwork techniques, route reading, and gaining confidence in movement. Moonboarding is great for body tension, finger strength, and tracking progress, but you won’t get as much transfer to flatter or steeper wall angles, there is always a significant risk of finger injury, and the foot techniques are more limited. So that’s why I would recommend diversifying your climbing - but if it’s working for you then just keep letting it work for you!
I'm not particularly experienced at hangboarding so grain of salt, but at 10:05 you appear to jump up into a hang that you can't hang for that long. The sudden loading of the fingers is pretty intense and defeats the purpose of hangboarding (safe, controlled loading of fingers). I think recommendations I've seen on UA-cam (pretty sure macleod but j don't remember), is that you should gradually load the fingers over the course of 1-3 seconds, by slowly lifting the feet off the ground. This produces a slow ramp to the maximum hanging force. On the other hand, pulling your legs up fast creates some small swinging and also produces a super fast ramp. The former creates small fluctuations in forces that could push you over the edge into a pulley injury, esp if you're good at trying hard (which you are lol), and the latter could push you paste your pulleys maximum force tolerance without you having time to realize. Also, if it feels like you're doibg such a heavy weight that your finger is slightly opening up from your starting grip into a more open grip, this is REALLY bad. Your flexor tendon can effectively "saw" your pulley open, because the tension is pulled tight against the pulley and is sliding through it. Also I've never seen 5s max hangs before, no opinion about this but i just usually see 8-10s. Curious why you chose 5s
Hang time is variable... Alex Puccio's training program describes Max Hangs holds as "Hang for 5 seconds maintaining good form", so I mainly go off of that. I think I also saw a vid by Geekclimber where Paul Robinson recommended around 5 seconds for max hangs. Some sources, like Shauna Cauxsey's Max Hang video says 10-12 sec but I prefer not to hang that long. Thanks for pointing out the jump. I do do a fast upwards lift of my feet at the beginning but the reason why might surprise you... It's not because I can't hold the hang. Throughout the 5 seconds hang, you can see my half crimp form remains unchanged. I actually lift my feet so fast because I sometimes do max hangs with bare feet and I dont want the weights to smash my feet if I unexpectantly fall or dryfire, which has never happened with weighted hangs but is still a fear. That's why my feet are always above the weights (i should probably put on some shoes haha). I do progressively load before my feet lift off, but YES, there is room to be more controlled (maybe pullup more and keep feet closer to ground). Your advise is great, and I should implement that. Appreciate your comment Derek :)
@@bossclimbs LOL that reason was very unexpected. I lift barefoot or with socks so i probably need more of that self preservation instinct 😂 had a couple close calls with >50lb dumbells already
@@bossclimbs I can recommend slowly going into the hang, with straight arms and shoulders engaged. Then just bend your knees to remove your fear of the weights.
Really good stuff! The tip about max hangs 70% through a session is honestly top-notch. Tendons will experience a lot more physiological bowstringing the farther you've been in a session. Being, your fingers will be at a prime physiological state to do some of the extreme max loads without suffering possible injuries. Great Tip!
Why not start a session with max Hangboarding instead though? After warm up obviously. You have much less injury risk, you can pull harder and it warms up your fingers for intense bouldering afterwards. Still definitely enough power left for a small Moonboard sess at max effort or a high volume sess.
This may be the best climbing video I have ever watched as I've just started using the moon board so it's so interesting to see what approach you take and how you train. Thanks for making it :)
Damn, this was such a good tips video. I'm looking forward to implementing some of these trainings into my routine! I'm stuck on V5 now but looking forward to breaking through!
Very interesting and I have to say that I experienced similiar things. I platued for months, and now I regularly train core and try my best to put a lot of pressure on my foot when doing deadpoints and I improved quite a bit, which feels amazing. Body tension / Abs on the rings are highly underrated!
This is so great! I'm glad I stumbled on this video. I recently started climbing v5-v6s and now I was looking to get past that with a new train schedule.
Really cool video! Very well put together and really solid advice! Shows that climbing is not only finger strength but really a spectrum of things that need to come together.
Learning how to keep tension, and developing the needed musculature, stamina and flexibility to do so in various climbing settings has been a large source of improvement for me. I honestly am trash at rest, and could afford to be more consistent in my cross training, but by focusing on static climbing and good technique I was able to overcome the v5-v6 plateau I was on for a while. Now I clear nearly every 6 and ~60% of 7s in the gyms I frequent, where as before most 6's would shut me down and most 7s were out of the question.
Great video! I've been trying something similar that might be useful for folks that don't have a Moonboard at their gym... I call it "the number game." The basic idea is to climb every single climb in the gym of a certain grade (e.g., "every v4 in the gym") with optimal technique (as static as possible) and in a single session. It's kind of like your Monday / Moonboard volume days. I do this one or two times a week, and then try to do a "projecting" day one day a week as well. I've found that whatever grade I play "the number game" at ends up being about 2 grades below what I can flash and 3 grades below what I can project (e.g., right now I can successfully play "the number game" with the v4s at my gym, and I'm flashing some v6s and projecting / occasionally sending v7s). The benefit is that it's fun and challenge oriented, plus, the game evolves whenever the gym resets a section / wall. Of course, it's not a panacea, though. My finger strength remains a limiting factor on many v7s and all v8s, so to anybody who wants to play "the number game" as a training tool, I think I'd recommend adding (and I will myself add) the finger board workout you suggested! And if that proves inadequate to break through plateaus, I'd recommend (and I'll get back into) weighted pullups! Thank you again for documenting such a carefully thought out and thorough plan!
Lots of great tips on this video. I'm on a similar journey on climbing. The key to achieve V8 level is indeed body tension and rest in between workout. I'll follow your routine and see how it works out for me in couple months. I'll let you know the result.
Really insightful. I'm also a 3x/week climber. right now I do 1 gym day, 1 training day, and 1 moonboard day, but I really like the separation between volume/limit mb days. I will follow your schedule for a while and see how it goes.
Exactly what I needed now, currently overtrained fingers with tendosynovitis on two of my DIP joints, stuck on 6b/c level on moonboard with best 6c+ benchmark atm. Need to focus on cutting as little as possible (can't say ever bcs my hips sometimes don't allow me really high feet). And going back to little less climbing and more specific training. Great value content thanks for a video!
Good advice. Body tension is so important. Toe strength is also underrated. When I started climbing hard slab my moonboarding and overhang in general improved a lot. Being able to toe as hard as possible really helps connect the legs to the core and arms.
Hangboarding after climbing requires a great sense of self for how fatigued your fingers are. I would say most climbers are way way more likely to hurt themselves by overestimating their freshness. But you seem to know the state of your fingers really well.
This seems very easy to do, i will give it a try. Been getting injured constantly in the last 4 years if climbing and never improved. Would be cool to finally see some improvement :)
Strangely I’m a static climber because that’s the way we learned in the 90s. Now s ton of routes are dynamic and it’s so hard to do that. Especially as I’m a bit afraid to injure myself. But static is my favorite still.
Sup, I'm also another med student with a tight training schedule. Another very high yield exercise is the deadlift or romanian deadlift. Once you achieve 1.7x bw in the deadlift for a few reps, your posterior chain strength is rarely going to be an issue when climbing. I stopped deadlifting after hitting 2x bw PR, but i do Romanian deadlift once every week to maintain the posterior chain strength. P decent general strength exercise for climbers. One more circuit exercise that I really like because it is time efficient is the 4x4. 4 boulders in a row 4 times (rest between 3-5 min between sets). Really good for power endurance and some technique gains, because you learn how to move efficiently in order to finnish the sets without failing.
Really nice video! I feel like all the advice you give is pretty helpful, as well as your last tip on body tension and pulling horizontally. For this, I would recommend you to do rows, as they mimic the horizontal pulling quite well, and I personally found that my mid back is quite lacking when compared to the lats.
super well done video with tons of actionable advice! Really enjoyed this! Kudos on the major progress. Always cool to see the another SoCal Touchstone climber on the interwebs!
Lots of good info here. Definitely going to see if there is anything in here that I could maybe apply to my own training and improve some discipline. Also great work on doing Alex Megos's ring routine. Was wanting to train up to that as well.
I climb v6 and only have 3 sessions a week. But I guess that's also because I go relatively hard every session and I'm bad at taking breaks. In summer break when I climbed every other day and also did weighted pullups after every session, I overtrained and had to take a longer break. I guess you gotta find what works for you and listen to your body.
Really nice vid dude. Feel like I’ve been kinda on the same track as you for sources in training as well as how to train and what to train. But I really like the way u put together training and routine. As my gym gets a kilter board in just two days I might just use ur routine straight and try it for a few weeks. Keep it up! :)
Ayy we train at the same gym! Really solid video btw. I also saw big improvements when I started limiting my training to 3 days a week and started doing focused strength conditioning. I used to get injured a lot, but that along with antagonistic exercises like bench and wrist curls have seemed to fix stuff for me. The TRX leg exercise seems super useful and I'm gonna try that on my next session. Anyways, congrats on the v8!
Thoughtful analysis! I loved how well you identified the areas in your climbing that kept you in a plateau and targeted areas of improvement. Great idea on the moodboard beta videos. I don't think I've heard anyone talk about that. Being able to emulate world class climbers on your moon board is underrated. What better way to discover new patterns of movement and discover what is possible. Keep it up!
You're putting the ability to not cut loose down to the direction of pull. On the moonboard it's more about digging the toes in. So long as you're actually using your legs to dig into the holds, you'll be using them to assist your pull. And you generate more friction to keep your toes on .
Just stumbled on this video. Knew the second you said "this will be pretty high yield for training" I knew you were in med school hahaha. Great stuff man
Cool video. I like the perspective of someone who has not necessarily 'made it' in climbing but still has a rigorous approach. REALLY strong climbers just tend to think being strong amd climb a lot is all you need. But how do you get there? One remark on static vs dynamic load on the fingers. Actually in dynamic climbing you probably exert a lot more force on your fingers than static, however the time under tension is less. This is similar to your high volume + high intensity split. You need both to strengthen your muscle en tendon tissue. If your fingers are always only overloaded in small time periods you are more likely to get tweaky fingers and see less gains, especially because it becomes more difficult to incorporate volume when fitness is not on point. Anyway, that's my take. Congrats on the progression!
I've been seeing progress from focusing on similar aspects of my training, so seeing it laid out like this was awesome! Do you do any pre/rehab, like with a spiky ball, rice bucket, etc?
Hey man, amazing video and tips. I feel that I'm in a similar spot as you were in your V5 plateau, I'm super stoked to try your routine! Just to get a better idea, what were your max hang and weighted pull up max load when you started doing, i.e. when you were stuck at V5?
Just watched his second video on the subject: ua-cam.com/video/3ykdwUAZS0g/v-deo.html It looks like, on his Limit Moonboard days (Friday), its 2 to 3 Projects (20 min each) with 3 to 5 min rest between attempts What about the Moonboard High Volume days (Monday) ? 🤔
Very interesting video. However when you're talking about dynamic and static, I'd like to point out that maybe deadpointing is another valid technique? I think it will negate, at least a bit, the lock off and finger strength required too pull up and into the position. Using full static movement is very hard and going very dynamic causes you too easily cut loose. Just like you said, that's why I believe deadpointing is a very necessary skill to learn as well. Executing this might be harder than getting stronger though ;p
Hey Boss Le, amazing program and I will try to follow it, just wondering if you saw your strength gains transfer to other aspects of your climbing? gym boulders, outside boulders, sport, etc?
as soon as I heard the phrase "high yield" come out I knew you were a med student lol
dude! this is a fantastic video with fantastic tips. i've also been getting sick of people saying "if you wanna get better just climb more" for several months ive been searching for exactly the tips that you give here
Climbing more is key as well. Specifically climbing more with people that are better than you.
I’m with you. Perfect practice makes perfect, not repeatedly doing the same mistakes … so climbing more although good advice in a simplistic fashion.. won’t make you better in of itself. Like everything, it requires a level of strategy
@@RipYourRoll That is important, however most people who are stuck will benefit from climbing less and training instead, just like this guy did.
I started climbing at around 370 lbs. Its given me a unique sort of style. I have been climbing and training hard for 2 years and am at 225 lbs now and can climb v4/6 depending on who grades it hahaha a lot of things change when you are big but the biggest deal is you CANNOT cut feet even once or its a big ole plop on the ground. Im not good at climbing grade wise, but inhave developed some pretty wild body tension. Im also pretty dynamic now that im stronger, but occasionally ill stick a wild fingertips throw and keep the feet and people will get all psyched. Sometimes i cant get my feet to release hahahaha its rough inproving so slowly, but i just keep telling myself, by the time i weigh like 185, i will be ridiculous strong.
how you doing now?
1 year update???
@marrcl7986 so im still climbing and training hard. I weigh 210lbs but don't have a lot of fat left. Turns out my gym had super soft grading hahaha so now I climb legit v6ish. I started climbing at my local crag and sent my first climb the other day. ( 5.8 trad) this is interesting to read because while I've only gained a grade or 2 this year, but my style is totally different. I'm very(too) dynamic now and cutloose and campus stuff i probably shouldn't hahaha.
@ thanks for replying glad your journey is going so good !
I think that last tip about pulling in rather than down is a piece of gold! It really helps to keep the pressure on the feet. It’s all about finding the right body tension.
Agree with this. I believe Aidan Roberts has a video about something similar when climbing on minute crimps.
Generally brilliant case study! Interesting thing is - i followed almost the same routine (without knowing yours tough) being on the same plateau and as of now (after few months) not yet breached it but improved a LOT. I focused similarily on body tension on MB - just doing everything without cutloose, limited the amount of climbing, lockoffs and having dedicated short strength training session. The only difference is basically max hangs which i think - even if it helped you may not be the best choice. I dont like to have that hangs after session - but also before... is a little fatiguing and it is more about passive tension than real active work - so either i would move it away from climbing day - or/and as i did before the session but in sense of overcoming isometrics curls. Generally the framework you provided is very very good. Im not saying it will help everyone but it shows in a decent way what is really needed for that grade.
I love how you get real what what needs to get done if you want to break into V8. I see all these jokers saying you can attain V11 without being able to do pullups or hanging off of a small edge with just good technique, but you cant argue against empiric evidence. Just get stronger is the answer most people dont want to hear, but its always the answer.
I think I've watched this video three times over the last 7 or 8 months. Incredibly helpful.
Pulling into the hold rather than up on it in order to keep tensions and feet is pure gold
Excellent video. What I didnt realise for MANY years is the things that take you from V0 to V4 are not the same things you need to go from V4 to V8. A lot more specific strength is needed for the latter, and you’ve done a great job explaining how to get it!!
Personally experience so many of the things mentioned in this video:
1. Used to climb 3-5 times a week, and only half crimped. Led to one to two years of persistent synovitis. Even when i took a long break it would flare up as soon as i started climbing again.
2. Going to higher intensity lower volume helped. I climb three times a week. I cut the sessions short at 1.5-2 hours and go do something else (lift, teach team members how to lead, etc). This helped tremendously.
2a. Some lifts have tremendous carryover to climbing. In particular, my climbing was strength limited in pulling power so low rep dumbell rows addressed a specific kind of low lock off really well. I felt the benefit only one month after starting lifting on MULTIPLE projects. I also bench, deadlift, and squat, but without much carryover yet. Just doing it to be balanced. I have a few injuries of the shoulder that necessitate balancing the shoulder joint. I just do legs to have hops for the comp problems hehe.
3. I started a warm up routine. I do finger extensor warm up with those rubber bands, just 10-20 reps every now and then. I jump rope, then do some shoulder warm ups on a cable machine. Then i climb up the grades in a sweater til all the joints and muscles feel awake and strong. It takes like 30 min - 60 min. Depends on when i ate and just how i feel that day. The extensor warm up appeared to help the finger swelling significantly. Other warm up stuff prolly helped top. I feel much more coordinated when i climb after a warm up at the very least.
Your tip about warming up to the moonboard specifically might have saved me a finger injury not too long ago! I’ve since learned that for myself (33 years old, started climbing at 29) I need 3 days between sessions where my fingers pull near their max. I can do lighter climbing in between but too much near max leads to higher injury potential. Great vid! Keep ‘em coming 💪
Funny how if you want to get better as soon as possible you might get injured and have wayy slower progress than someone who goes once a week. Goes to show that controlled and good sessions are better than many and random sessions
@@LucayDoggy yep I climbed too hard for my first 2 months - got up to v4 but raptured my left pec :) Still injured but seeing an orthopedic surgeon now. Next week I'll know how to finally recover and get back to climbing! But seriously I should have known not to climb 5+ days a week...
Great video! Glad to see that this is working well for you. I would add that climbing more of the gym boulders and climbing outside can help you improve your technique and diversify your training. This is anecdotal, but to share some more from my experience - I started climbing I got to V9ish in about a year then plateaued for two years, then the next two years I began to see improvements again (now climbing about V11). In my first year I’d say the biggest factor in my improvement was climbing with and learning from climbers better than me - really breaking down what my mistakes/shortcomings were (like you did in this video with body tension) and coming up with actionable strategies for improving. My mindset was to climb as optimally as possible all the time. The biggest component of my training was limit bouldering - basically I did limit bouldering 5 days a week (way too much). I plateaued for two years mostly due to a PIP finger injury (same finger as you actually) where I was worried about climbing hard things (and in my gym, all the hard boulders had small holds). Climbing outdoors (where holds are generally friendlier in the double digit range) and training my weaknesses (shoulder stability, lockoff strength, core, which all can be improved on big holds) helped me finally overcome this barrier. However, during this same time I would get into injury cycles due to overtraining - the worst was when I moonboarded V10 twice a week, which resulted in a finger tweak lasting for months. Over the last couple of years, I’ve finally turned my attention to gaining strength through board climbing, climbing specific weight training, etc, since I’ve felt that strength rather than technique has become my main limiting factor (which wasn’t the case for years). The biggest factor in my recent improvement is learning how to listen to my body to avoid overtraining and to prioritize consistency over speed.
Anyhow, back to the original point - climbing on the gym boulders (especially if there are climbs that are quite difficult with comfortable holds - very rare in some gyms and quite dependent on the setting) can really be big in improving your technique, application of strength, body awareness, visualization skills, and projecting strategies. Climbing outdoors is superb for learning new footwork techniques, route reading, and gaining confidence in movement. Moonboarding is great for body tension, finger strength, and tracking progress, but you won’t get as much transfer to flatter or steeper wall angles, there is always a significant risk of finger injury, and the foot techniques are more limited. So that’s why I would recommend diversifying your climbing - but if it’s working for you then just keep letting it work for you!
Currently living in the v5 plateau. Gonna try this for the rest of the semester and hopefully I remember to reply to this comment in some months time
(other account) update: sent first v6 a week ago
I'm not particularly experienced at hangboarding so grain of salt, but at 10:05 you appear to jump up into a hang that you can't hang for that long. The sudden loading of the fingers is pretty intense and defeats the purpose of hangboarding (safe, controlled loading of fingers). I think recommendations I've seen on UA-cam (pretty sure macleod but j don't remember), is that you should gradually load the fingers over the course of 1-3 seconds, by slowly lifting the feet off the ground. This produces a slow ramp to the maximum hanging force. On the other hand, pulling your legs up fast creates some small swinging and also produces a super fast ramp. The former creates small fluctuations in forces that could push you over the edge into a pulley injury, esp if you're good at trying hard (which you are lol), and the latter could push you paste your pulleys maximum force tolerance without you having time to realize.
Also, if it feels like you're doibg such a heavy weight that your finger is slightly opening up from your starting grip into a more open grip, this is REALLY bad. Your flexor tendon can effectively "saw" your pulley open, because the tension is pulled tight against the pulley and is sliding through it.
Also I've never seen 5s max hangs before, no opinion about this but i just usually see 8-10s. Curious why you chose 5s
Hang time is variable... Alex Puccio's training program describes Max Hangs holds as "Hang for 5 seconds maintaining good form", so I mainly go off of that. I think I also saw a vid by Geekclimber where Paul Robinson recommended around 5 seconds for max hangs. Some sources, like Shauna Cauxsey's Max Hang video says 10-12 sec but I prefer not to hang that long.
Thanks for pointing out the jump. I do do a fast upwards lift of my feet at the beginning but the reason why might surprise you... It's not because I can't hold the hang. Throughout the 5 seconds hang, you can see my half crimp form remains unchanged. I actually lift my feet so fast because I sometimes do max hangs with bare feet and I dont want the weights to smash my feet if I unexpectantly fall or dryfire, which has never happened with weighted hangs but is still a fear. That's why my feet are always above the weights (i should probably put on some shoes haha). I do progressively load before my feet lift off, but YES, there is room to be more controlled (maybe pullup more and keep feet closer to ground). Your advise is great, and I should implement that. Appreciate your comment Derek :)
@@bossclimbs LOL that reason was very unexpected. I lift barefoot or with socks so i probably need more of that self preservation instinct 😂 had a couple close calls with >50lb dumbells already
@@bossclimbs I can recommend slowly going into the hang, with straight arms and shoulders engaged. Then just bend your knees to remove your fear of the weights.
Really good stuff! The tip about max hangs 70% through a session is honestly top-notch. Tendons will experience a lot more physiological bowstringing the farther you've been in a session. Being, your fingers will be at a prime physiological state to do some of the extreme max loads without suffering possible injuries. Great Tip!
Why not start a session with max Hangboarding instead though? After warm up obviously. You have much less injury risk, you can pull harder and it warms up your fingers for intense bouldering afterwards. Still definitely enough power left for a small Moonboard sess at max effort or a high volume sess.
one of the most helpful videos on climbing i have ever seen
This may be the best climbing video I have ever watched as I've just started using the moon board so it's so interesting to see what approach you take and how you train. Thanks for making it :)
thanks for the video bro. I thought this was a 1.5x sped up video LOL you are an efficient dude
Damn, this was such a good tips video. I'm looking forward to implementing some of these trainings into my routine! I'm stuck on V5 now but looking forward to breaking through!
Very interesting and I have to say that I experienced similiar things. I platued for months, and now I regularly train core and try my best to put a lot of pressure on my foot when doing deadpoints and I improved quite a bit, which feels amazing. Body tension / Abs on the rings are highly underrated!
Crazy good, very informative. I can't wait to start implementing, gonna tear up a V8 in 4 months :D
This is so great! I'm glad I stumbled on this video. I recently started climbing v5-v6s and now I was looking to get past that with a new train schedule.
Really cool video! Very well put together and really solid advice! Shows that climbing is not only finger strength but really a spectrum of things that need to come together.
Learning how to keep tension, and developing the needed musculature, stamina and flexibility to do so in various climbing settings has been a large source of improvement for me. I honestly am trash at rest, and could afford to be more consistent in my cross training, but by focusing on static climbing and good technique I was able to overcome the v5-v6 plateau I was on for a while. Now I clear nearly every 6 and ~60% of 7s in the gyms I frequent, where as before most 6's would shut me down and most 7s were out of the question.
Epic video - exactly the direction I needed. Thanks a million bud. Subscribed
Great video! I've been trying something similar that might be useful for folks that don't have a Moonboard at their gym... I call it "the number game." The basic idea is to climb every single climb in the gym of a certain grade (e.g., "every v4 in the gym") with optimal technique (as static as possible) and in a single session. It's kind of like your Monday / Moonboard volume days. I do this one or two times a week, and then try to do a "projecting" day one day a week as well. I've found that whatever grade I play "the number game" at ends up being about 2 grades below what I can flash and 3 grades below what I can project (e.g., right now I can successfully play "the number game" with the v4s at my gym, and I'm flashing some v6s and projecting / occasionally sending v7s). The benefit is that it's fun and challenge oriented, plus, the game evolves whenever the gym resets a section / wall. Of course, it's not a panacea, though. My finger strength remains a limiting factor on many v7s and all v8s, so to anybody who wants to play "the number game" as a training tool, I think I'd recommend adding (and I will myself add) the finger board workout you suggested! And if that proves inadequate to break through plateaus, I'd recommend (and I'll get back into) weighted pullups! Thank you again for documenting such a carefully thought out and thorough plan!
Great video, salute from HOLLAND.
16:15 underrated advice 🙏
Lots of great tips on this video. I'm on a similar journey on climbing. The key to achieve V8 level is indeed body tension and rest in between workout. I'll follow your routine and see how it works out for me in couple months. I'll let you know the result.
Really insightful. I'm also a 3x/week climber. right now I do 1 gym day, 1 training day, and 1 moonboard day, but I really like the separation between volume/limit mb days. I will follow your schedule for a while and see how it goes.
Exactly what I needed now, currently overtrained fingers with tendosynovitis on two of my DIP joints, stuck on 6b/c level on moonboard with best 6c+ benchmark atm. Need to focus on cutting as little as possible (can't say ever bcs my hips sometimes don't allow me really high feet). And going back to little less climbing and more specific training. Great value content thanks for a video!
Awesome tutorial. We have started using some of your ideas in our training classes. Thanks!
Good tip with pulling out instead of up, thanks!
Good advice. Body tension is so important. Toe strength is also underrated. When I started climbing hard slab my moonboarding and overhang in general improved a lot. Being able to toe as hard as possible really helps connect the legs to the core and arms.
Also, Andy Liu is the man, and congrats on V8. That's huge.
Getting deep tension into your feet is the most effective way to get better, but damn is it hard when you start. Thanks for the video!!
Nice vid. Well presented and humble too. Definitely motivating enough to try change my approach to climbing.
Great tips! Thanks and well done 👍🏽
Hangboarding after climbing requires a great sense of self for how fatigued your fingers are. I would say most climbers are way way more likely to hurt themselves by overestimating their freshness. But you seem to know the state of your fingers really well.
Same music as mellow's with jimmy webb on lucid dreaming
It's nice to see someone really passionnate !
This video is SOLID. Thanks man.
Mind blowing video, super detailed and motivating because of its organisation. Thanks a lot mate
best training advice i've heard lately! thanks homie
VERY comprehensive video Boss! Thank you for this!!
duuude thanks a lot! I'm on that stage right now plateauing on v5 Moon Board 2016! Cant wait to try your advice once I get my finger joints healed ^_^
Awesome video man!! Thanks for the great tips!!
This seems very easy to do, i will give it a try. Been getting injured constantly in the last 4 years if climbing and never improved. Would be cool to finally see some improvement :)
Strangely I’m a static climber because that’s the way we learned in the 90s. Now s ton of routes are dynamic and it’s so hard to do that. Especially as I’m a bit afraid to injure myself. But static is my favorite still.
Such a helpful video - thank you!
just earned a new sub. great work. keep it going!
This rocks.
I know a lot of people don't like the 2017 setup, but I kind of do...
Excited to see another Boss Le vid!
It definitely grows on you. Now I prefer it over the 2016 setup 🤭.
most fruitful tips i’ve ever seen!
This is really helpful.
Absolutely best advice video ever
Such a good video, thanks!
Great video. Loads of food for thought.
Wow! Awesome video, great info - thank you!!!
sick video! cliffs of id is also such a dope gym
Yoo just came across this vid from my recommended. Love to see this vid and your channel doing well! Respect the grind
solid tips man!!! gonna work on the 3 tips!!
Sup, I'm also another med student with a tight training schedule.
Another very high yield exercise is the deadlift or romanian deadlift. Once you achieve 1.7x bw in the deadlift for a few reps, your posterior chain strength is rarely going to be an issue when climbing. I stopped deadlifting after hitting 2x bw PR, but i do Romanian deadlift once every week to maintain the posterior chain strength. P decent general strength exercise for climbers.
One more circuit exercise that I really like because it is time efficient is the 4x4. 4 boulders in a row 4 times (rest between 3-5 min between sets). Really good for power endurance and some technique gains, because you learn how to move efficiently in order to finnish the sets without failing.
Am loving the videos, congrats on V8 and I hope medical school is going fine for you, climb hard brother!
fantastic video
Really nice video! I feel like all the advice you give is pretty helpful, as well as your last tip on body tension and pulling horizontally. For this, I would recommend you to do rows, as they mimic the horizontal pulling quite well, and I personally found that my mid back is quite lacking when compared to the lats.
super well done video with tons of actionable advice! Really enjoyed this! Kudos on the major progress. Always cool to see the another SoCal Touchstone climber on the interwebs!
Nice video dude!
Some nice insights here.
Dude great vid 👍
Lots of good info here. Definitely going to see if there is anything in here that I could maybe apply to my own training and improve some discipline. Also great work on doing Alex Megos's ring routine. Was wanting to train up to that as well.
Great vid! Thanks
Gold!
Thanks for this
Awesome stuff!!!
I climb v6 and only have 3 sessions a week. But I guess that's also because I go relatively hard every session and I'm bad at taking breaks. In summer break when I climbed every other day and also did weighted pullups after every session, I overtrained and had to take a longer break. I guess you gotta find what works for you and listen to your body.
Super Helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats on the V8! also i have been wanting to try a moon board, a bouldering gym near me has one! Great video, i needed this :)
Amazing, thank you
this is a very very good video
Really nice vid dude. Feel like I’ve been kinda on the same track as you for sources in training as well as how to train and what to train. But I really like the way u put together training and routine. As my gym gets a kilter board in just two days I might just use ur routine straight and try it for a few weeks.
Keep it up! :)
Superb!
Ayy we train at the same gym! Really solid video btw. I also saw big improvements when I started limiting my training to 3 days a week and started doing focused strength conditioning. I used to get injured a lot, but that along with antagonistic exercises like bench and wrist curls have seemed to fix stuff for me. The TRX leg exercise seems super useful and I'm gonna try that on my next session. Anyways, congrats on the v8!
Yo! You climb at my gym!! Great vid
Thanks!
Solid training tips 👍🏼👍🏼
Thoughtful analysis! I loved how well you identified the areas in your climbing that kept you in a plateau and targeted areas of improvement. Great idea on the moodboard beta videos. I don't think I've heard anyone talk about that. Being able to emulate world class climbers on your moon board is underrated. What better way to discover new patterns of movement and discover what is possible. Keep it up!
SHINZOU WO SASAGEYO ❤️🔥
hey man thanks for the info, you've really made me #yoked
You're putting the ability to not cut loose down to the direction of pull. On the moonboard it's more about digging the toes in. So long as you're actually using your legs to dig into the holds, you'll be using them to assist your pull. And you generate more friction to keep your toes on .
Just stumbled on this video. Knew the second you said "this will be pretty high yield for training" I knew you were in med school hahaha. Great stuff man
I had the exact same thought haha. All cut from the same cloth.
ha i did pretty much the same thing to do my first v8(outdoors), trained on a board, small feet, no cutting
Cool video. I like the perspective of someone who has not necessarily 'made it' in climbing but still has a rigorous approach. REALLY strong climbers just tend to think being strong amd climb a lot is all you need. But how do you get there?
One remark on static vs dynamic load on the fingers. Actually in dynamic climbing you probably exert a lot more force on your fingers than static, however the time under tension is less. This is similar to your high volume + high intensity split. You need both to strengthen your muscle en tendon tissue. If your fingers are always only overloaded in small time periods you are more likely to get tweaky fingers and see less gains, especially because it becomes more difficult to incorporate volume when fitness is not on point.
Anyway, that's my take. Congrats on the progression!
Hey look it's my home gym 👌
I've been seeing progress from focusing on similar aspects of my training, so seeing it laid out like this was awesome!
Do you do any pre/rehab, like with a spiky ball, rice bucket, etc?
Hey man, amazing video and tips. I feel that I'm in a similar spot as you were in your V5 plateau, I'm super stoked to try your routine! Just to get a better idea, what were your max hang and weighted pull up max load when you started doing, i.e. when you were stuck at V5?
I dont know If I missed it. But does he say how long were his moonboard sessions?
Thx for the video !
Just watched his second video on the subject: ua-cam.com/video/3ykdwUAZS0g/v-deo.html
It looks like, on his Limit Moonboard days (Friday), its 2 to 3 Projects (20 min each) with 3 to 5 min rest between attempts
What about the Moonboard High Volume days (Monday) ? 🤔
Very interesting video. However when you're talking about dynamic and static, I'd like to point out that maybe deadpointing is another valid technique? I think it will negate, at least a bit, the lock off and finger strength required too pull up and into the position. Using full static movement is very hard and going very dynamic causes you too easily cut loose. Just like you said, that's why I believe deadpointing is a very necessary skill to learn as well. Executing this might be harder than getting stronger though ;p
Love this man. So inspiring. How long do you rest between max hangs and how long do you rest between pull up sets???
Great vid. Where are you at now? that was also my first v8 on the 2017. Just breaking into the V9s on the 2016 homeboard now :D
S/o lucid dreaming and Jimmy Webb ❤️
Excellent advice.
Hey Boss Le, amazing program and I will try to follow it, just wondering if you saw your strength gains transfer to other aspects of your climbing? gym boulders, outside boulders, sport, etc?
Yes! To all the aspects you listed.