Hangboard Training 2 Times Per Day For 30 Days

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Hey everybody watching, I've made an update videon this topic where I asked a physio about how all this works: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqOknH-noJiIjq8 As well as a follow along video for anybody looking to try it themselves, with the new protocol presented in the video above: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXexi5efrcqokNk

[@maso8602]

thanks for the inspo :)

[@mauricegorissen1416]

Hi Emil, My searing question about the hangboard training is. Why does everbody train by only hanging? Isn't it way more effective for the tendons/muscles to grow by opening and closing the fingers/hands under tension/while hanging.

[@KeyesAnthony]

Been doing this now for a couple weeks… noticeable strength gains aside, this is the first time in probably 6 years that my middle finger pulleys stopped hurting. I could cry from happiness.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Mate that is great to hear! I’m happy for you

[@normanng3863]

yoooo I am about to try this, my middle finger A3 pulley been hurting for a year and it still has been gotten any better after a whole month off

[@henning_jasper]

@@normanng3863 I have problems with the exact same pulley on my middle finger too, nearly one year too now and rest has never helped. After the first climbing session it would hurt just as much as before. I'm confident that this program will truly help!

[@bryanbryan6108]

I’m a week in and about 20% longer on my max hangs and all joint pain has dissipated. Wtf?!

[@F_Yale]

Physiotherapy must not be underestimated.

[@megapandos]

An interesting technique. I decided to check it out, and trained on it for exactly a month. Twice a day, morning and evening for 10 minutes. I used 2, 3, 4 fingers, never one. I worked 60-80% of my normal strength. In most cases, I stood on the ground. I only made clean hangs on four fingers. For the purity of the experiment, I did not change anything in nutrition and climbing. Throughout the month, I felt like I was getting weaker and wasting my time. At the end of the month, I repeated the measurements I made at the beginning. Total, at the beginning, Hanging on 10 mm plank - 18.05 s. Hang on 20mm plank - 28.54 s. In the end of the month Hang on 10mm plank - 36.59 s. Hang on 20 mm plank - 56.43 s. That is, my results have improved by about two times. It's funny, but sometimes, contrary to subjective feelings, science works.

[@gamotousername]

It seems like you went for a higher intensity approach that would be closer to power endurance. Have you trained specifically on power endurance on small holds before?

[@Mindofliz]

ZAMMM!!! This gives me hope

[@megapandos]

@@gamotousername I have climbed small hold boulders in nature, but have never trained this ability in the gym. In this case, I just decided to check the conclusions of the article for myself.

[@StagnantMizu]

lol I cant only hang 3 seconds on 25mm at 100kg

[@fredperry3063]

Do you notice these improvements when climbing?

[@jonathanw6884]

Emil is slowly transitioning into that Jimmy Webb look. Soon we'll be seeing them V16 sends

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Hey folks I'm noticing a lot of curiosity from you all in the comment section, which is awesome! I'm currently setting some bangers with Nikken and wont be able to respond to everything for a while, and I doubt I can respond to everything tbh. If you see a comment you're curious about, upvote it and a few of the ones with the highest upvotes I'll make sure to post an answer to later today/tomorrow!

[@beinleif524]

Been struggling with finger injuries or fear of them for a while now and sort of hit a plateau. Your experiment is now my experiment as of 5 min ago:) My fingers feel nice and warm and the mild pump I get from gently loading the fingers individually feels very nice and different from what I'm used to! Thanks to you and your brother👊

[@charliefreed]

Would be great to know if you were doing other hangboarding at the same time

[@paultanner102]

Did you take callogen or geletin supplements before you did the protocol? It's mentioned in the paper you highlight and seems to be an important factor included in the study. Would be interesting to know if you did supplement or not.

[@usefulcoach]

@@paultanner102 I did a presentation on this a few years back kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6KTYquga5uVoK8

[@paultanner102]

@@usefulcoach haha I thought I'd heard your voice somewhere before, I Listen to the podcast, big fan.

[@flusck]

This is a fucking awesome video. Straight to the point, lots of information without artificially drawing it out over the 10min mark, no ads or sponsors. In today's times I can really appreciate these kinds of videos.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

UPDATE: First off, thank you all a ton for the input. Lots of critique and lots of love, exactly what I like to see! Now it’s time for some further explanations and answers. Q: What did the rest of your training and climbing schedule look like during this period? Did you add or remove anything from your usual weekly training with the addition of this new protocol? A: I kept my training almost identical from December to January. No form of periodization and similar session-lengths. However, about 1 week after I started doing this my fingers started feeling a lot more durable, which consequently made me have climbing sessions where I pulled harder on small holds without my fingers opening up. I think a big part of the strength increase could’ve come from that. However, since there’s no good way to prove that that is why I got stronger, I left it out. Q: did you warm up before each session? A: Most of the sessions I did some very light finger warm ups, sometimes nothing at all. Warming up never hurts though. Since the intensity was so low it felt harmless, felt like the same risk as when carrying a heavy grocery bag honestly. Q: Two questions: How strongly did this increased finger strength affect your climbing ( do you think you can climb harder grades on crimps now )? and will you continue with this training after these 30 days (or at least do another 30 day block in a month or so)? A: This increase in my finger strength was incredibly noticeable in my climbing. My fingers have never felt this solid on small holds before. I’ll continue doing the program until I have a good argument against it (since it takes very little time and I sacrifice nothing for it) :-) Q: So in your benchmarking video 4 months ago you were able to hand the BM 20mm edge 1 handed for 7s. I was wondering what happened between then and the start of January and if your improvements could be more attributed to re-recuitment rather than actual improvements in strength? A: I would’ve included this, but my strength there is quite incomparable to my current state. I’d been bulking and trying to get really strong, I weighed like 4kg more than I do now. It had both upsides and downsides to it! (it was also shot ~ 6 months ago) The result I got in January better reflect how I most often perform on a hangboard. Re-recruitment could most definitely play a big part in it, but since I broke every record I’ve had before I’ll at least give some credit to the new program. Q: Did you do any other hangboard training during this period? A: I didn’t lift off the ground from a hangboard for a single second during this period (I did the 9c test before new years) Q: Did you take any collagen or gelatin supplements? A: The study states that this has a big impact on sinew health, but I was just curious about how the hangboard protocol would affect me so I made no dietary changes from december - february. Q:Do I understand it correctly that you did 10 sets in total, where each set was 1 minute in total, but consisted of only 10 seconds actual work and 50 seconds rest? That would be 1:40 minutes (100 seconds) of actual work and 8:20 minutes of rest. Which is much less than the 10 minute maximum advised in the paper. A: Good point! Potentially my gains would’ve been much greater if I did, for instance, 10sec on 10 sec off for 10 minutes. I was scared it could potentially be harmful and that it would be hard to find a good level of intensity, and therefore opted for a more careful method. I As mentioned, there’s a sample size of 1 in this video, so it would be arrogant of me to claim that this protocol is THE protocol people should try. Hopefully this can spark some interesting new experiments, and maybe in 5 years time we’ll have a perfect formula. To clarify, I hung for a total of 100 seconds in 10 minutes yes (with the exception of stretching my pinkies). Also, when it comes to the % of weight I take off when doing the weighted hangs: If you try the program, find your own limit and what works well for you. Ideally you should have a pulley system to see how much weight you take off, I just went with my gut feeling since I don’t have one. As somebody suggested I tried using a scale to see, and put in some approximations of how much weight I took off in the description. Why do I think this program is good? Basically it’s all about tendon health. If your tendons are good you can climb more which will get you stronger and better. This program is what I’m trying out in order to get my sinews, tendons and ligaments as solid as possible. Lastly, I did this two times per day including days when I climbed (except one or two maybe). You can consider a climbing session to be the same as a hangboard session, if you view it from a “molecular response”-perspective. The only big rule to try and follow is to give your fingers 6 hours rest between each session where you engage your fingers (hangboard, no-hangs or climbing sessions for instance), and then try and do as many as your schedule will allow. If it’s once per day, that’s all right. Three times? That’s probably great too! Rant over, I hope you enjoyed the vid and that I answered some of the many questions that would arise from this type of video!

[@leoingson]

TY! Maybe someone should put a quick description on how to adapt that to a lower level? I see people hyping, and wondering about 8mm edges + intensity percentages..

[@elfriederich]

Thanks!!

[@jeremywebb5507]

really appreciate the extra input man! your drive to give the best info and results possible is a gift to us all. look forward to more updates!

[@minib00mpola]

Emil, big Island assis is waiting for you!!

[@jonathanw6884]

Thanks alot for the update!

[@molomono9481]

Super low risk high reward training scheme, i can see this hugely assisting in injury rehabilitation as well. Amazing video.

[@tommatko7869]

This definitely worked for me. First off, been only climbing for 2 years and I’m 52 years of age. My baseline was a 9 second hang on a 15-20 mm on beastmaker 1000. Used a slightly different routine than Emil for the 30 days and got 23 seconds this morning. 156% increase and stronger on crimps when gym bouldering - thanks for the challenge Emil!

[@Sarah-rv4pv]

What was your routine if I may ask?

[@tommatko7869]

@@Sarah-rv4pv I still did the 10 minute sessions twice daily (unless I was climbing). One in the AM and one >6 hours later (all with low intensity assisted hangs). I started out on 4 finger pockets to warm up - 10 seconds on, 10 off and repeat up to 1 minute. Take 1 min rest and then begin again, using either the same or more difficult holds depending on how I felt. The hardest part is the discipline to make it happen consistently - but the results will happen.

[@MrJURGB]

i mean... with those kind of results you just can't expect me to not try this at home :D

[@timignatov7394]

I know right?! 10 mins twice a day... is that ALL?!?!

[@KennethThys]

@@timignatov7394 you started this?

[@timignatov7394]

@@KennethThys not yet, annoyingly having a bit of work done right on the doorframe where the hangboard was... as soons as its up next week (fingers crossed) ill start it

[@KennethThys]

@@timignatov7394 I started yesterday with more active hang time. I have a total active hangtime of 360 seconds. I'm curious on how this is going to work out :) good luck with that doorframe.

[@timignatov7394]

@@KennethThys 360? how are you splitting that? ... Thanks but i cracked after your comment haha. Went and hung the hangboard up somewhere else so ive officially started today

[@hasansarpucar]

Erik should try this. Love to see his results.

[@EricKarlsson]

@WungusBill haha, does feel like the two outcomes

[@zackherbert1949]

I started doing this program the day after this video was posted. At the time I was nearing the end of rehabbing an middle finger A2 pulley rupture (probably 2-2.5 months out) and modified my grip accordingly. I’ve gone from hanging ~10 seconds off a 24mm edge pre-injury/intra-recovery to now hanging for 10 seconds off of a 10mm edge with ease!!!

[@zackherbert1949]

I will say that over the past 1-1.5 months I’ve also done 2-3 extra sets to include either 3 finger crimps, minimal edge, or slopers. I also use the Tension Flash board for most hang sessions

[@taylorvice1610]

Im 2 days into training like this, went to the gym a day later and my fingers are already WAY STRONGER! Maybe its a mental thing, but this training is awesome! I love how you train by keeping your feet on the ground; as a hangboard newbie I thought you had to hang with feet off the ground. This was tough and also felt like I was going to injure myself. The training in this video seems to be way better to start and has already provided results.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Awesome to hear mate! Hope you keep feeling great and get good results. To this date I still do it regularly :-) I'm sure you know it, but just be careful so you don't overdo it and injure yourself when climbing!

[@karatewithelian9014]

Update?

[@taylorvice1610]

@@karatewithelian9014 it's been one of the 2 most beneficial training focus areas for me to climb stronger. I haven't followed it as intently as I should due to life stuff going on, but if your muscles in your arms/shoulders are strong for hard climbing, I feel like it still doesn't compare to finger strength, and this would be the technique to follow. It's much easier to stick with in my opinion then a full hanging board routine cause it isn't as brutal, produces results, and is not as injury prone as other hanging training.

[@karatewithelian9014]

@@taylorvice1610 cool! Were the results good? Also I dont have those boards so it's time to use the stairs😂

[@taylorvice1610]

@@karatewithelian9014 Results were almost instantly good. You know those holds in the gym or outside that you can get a pad or 2 of your finger on that sometimes you have to desperately throw for, and it seems impossible to stick it? This training will make those types of moves possible. Also cranking down on a crimp to pull up to the next hold, this training will help with that. You could probably make your own board of sorts (2x4 board or thinner), but the grit from a hangboard helps strengthen your finger pads as well.

[@bobrobe7121]

When the video came out I could hang for 4.8 seconds on a 20 mil edge, after 2 weeks I could hang for 15 seconds and now after 1 month I can hang 5 seconds on the 10 mil edge

[@SileDevil]

thats one handed right?

[@diablo88skate]

Already got into my finger trainging plan for the next 3 months, let's see. Thank you so MUCH

[@christophmatzke6681]

Hey mate, i m wondering if you went thru with the 3 month training and what your results where after ?

[@jonbonhoagie5202]

This is the most exciting video I've ever seen. Thanks man - congrats on the continued progress!

[@WillKillen]

Such a fan of you, Emil! I’m 3 days into this-no hangboard, just my doorframe so let’s see how it goes! Thanks for the inspiration.

[@VAN_production.mp4]

Any update?

[@WillKillen]

@@VAN_production.mp4 I lasted 3 weeks before slipping out of the habit. This reminded me--gonna get back on the horse now! In those 3 weeks, and since, I genuinely have seen huge improvement in all-round pulling strength. There's a doorframe in my house that I couldn't even hang for a millisecond from before, and I now can do 3/4 seconds!

[@lukasz-dg5rn]

Hey Emil, I don't know how people do it, but there is some "new" feature in youtube - you can split video's timeline and assign a title to each part of timeline. This way you won't need to put "video schedule" as a text in your videos. Trackmania player Riolu uses it already and it's really convenient.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Cheers mate, I added it now real quick, hope it works! Thanks for the input

[@oskargustafsson500]

@@EmilAbrahamsson Blev riktigt bra!

[@QuinnValetine]

@@EmilAbrahamsson love it

[@teaclimbing]

This seems like a good idea, but I'd imagine alot of the real strength gains come from having healthy fingers which feel good for a month. Being able to crimp hard with no tweaks for a month would help alot of peoples strength probably.

[@ericconnor3728]

I agree

[@leoingson]

It's active recovery - allowing for earlier healthy fingers. And 65% load are good for gains in isometrics.

[@derekxiaoEvanescentBliss]

Also seems like an extreme version of greasing the groove which is very well known in calisthenics. Just do submaximal sets throughout the day. My understanding of how that works is that it refines the neuro pathways. (i. E. Instead of getting more muscles, most gains come from a very efficient neuron firing pattern. So your body pulls "smarter" to pull harder with the same amount of muscle)

[@Mike-oz4cv]

The most important part in training is staying injury free. If this helps with that it’s already a huge improvement.

[@leoingson]

@@derekxiaoEvanescentBliss Was thinking similarly, it's something inbetween. Maybe it's enough volume for hypertrophy.

[@TheActiveLifeLived]

I'm on day 60ish, and dam, this definitely helps...progressing a lot...and this is only my 6th month of climbing as a 37 year old... Thank you! 💪

[@rossgoodlett4590]

Been doing a similar thing during lockdown and it definitely works! I use the beastmaker app (the 7a workout on the 1000 of which I’ve never even got past the first set) but I now use one foot on a 30mm foothold. Not only has my forearm endurance increased but every hold on the hangboard feels easier now. Prioritising volume over intensity is now the way forward for me, especially being quite injury prone!

[@jacoboblanco1555]

Would be cool to setup a google sheet or something for people to share the results!

[@syler219]

agreed!

[@maximebarber3780]

Great idea! A google form would help structure the data better and can be viewed as a google sheet also!

[@flynnbach8073]

Could probably get a lot of people involved. Would be really interesting to see

[@personlicherkalenderkalend8662]

I'm in!

[@Sebastian-qd8jq]

That would be so cool. We can also add additional information like max grade climbed outdoors so far, for how many years do you climb, etc...

[@jasperray6576]

Just the psych I need for lockdown - thanks again Emil!!

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Thanks homie!

[@crookedstraightpotterywood7379]

Just finished the program and am still in shock with the results. Would be happy to post results to a Google sheet. Really cool experiment.

[@danmorin6103]

I'm 2 months in. I definitely didn't increase in strength the way you did. My hangboard results shows that compared to this winter I'm between 5-10% weaker (even 2 months into your proposed protocole). I did hangboard during those 2 months (not in max strength though (doing the 10-5 protocol of the Andersons), did quite a lot of ARC too. But my fingers DO feel really great right now! No injury in sight. No crunchy fingers of elbow problems. I'm using pulleys to have exactly 70% of my BW. Thanks for sharig anyway! I'll keep doing this protocole since I'm convinced it helps my fingers stay healthy!

[@ryanbadtke]

Your sample size increased by one. So I have been doing no hangs about twice a day for a month now. Here is the before and after for me. It works awesome! Before: 10mm, could not hang at all 14mm, could not hang at all 2 finger pockets, 3 seconds 25mm, 11 seconds After: 10mm, 3 seconds, 14mm, 7 seconds 2 finger pockets, 25 seconds (a 733% increase) 25mm, 22 seconds (100% increase)

[@rinkiebartels]

For anyone who's interested in squeezing some strength training in these 13 minute sessions: Warm-up (feels like it's enough for me) * 30 sec dead hang 4 finger deep pocket/jug * 30 sec wrist circles (switch sides after 15 sec) * 30 sec squat * 30 sec finger squeeze/extend (keep tension actively) * 30 sec jumping jacks * 30 sec rest Workout
: 10 second hang, 50 seconds for each exercise 1. Four finger half crimp on chosen edge 3x hang (70-80% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground) 10x pull-ups after hang 1 (jug or 4 finger pocket) 10x push ups (wide grip) after hang 2 10x hanging leg (of knee) raises after hang 3 2. Three finger-drag in deep pocket 3x hang (70-80% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground)
 10 sec rest 30 sec jump squats 10 sec rest 10x push up (close grip) after hang 2 6x body tucks after hang 3
 3. Middle two finger-pocket drag 1x hang (50-60% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground)
 10 sec rest 30 sec plank 10 sec rest 4. Front two finger-pocket drag 1x hang (50-60% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground)
 2x 3 offset pull ups (switch sides after every rep) 5. Middle two finger half crimp 1x hang (30-40% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground)
 10 sec rest 30 sec jumping lunges 10 sec rest 6. Front two finger-crimp 1x hang (30-40% effort of what it would take to lift from the ground)
 5x negative pull up (explosive up, 4 seconds down)

[@ZachlyS]

This motivated me more than all the climbing videos I've ever seen combined, honestly.

[@whelmking6497]

This is super inspiring. I haven't been training recently but have done a lot of hangboarding. For the last year or so I've just been climbing and doing calisthenics and stretching. I've been wanting to reboot some training and I am going to try this program for 30 days and will post my results in a reply to this comment, including baseline before and after. I'm an advanced but not expert climber (solid V6/5.12; max V8, 5.13-), 43 years old, climbing about 8 years.

[@whelmking6497]

Baselines taken today, all 4 finger fully open hand: On deep 4 finger (32mm on my BM 2000): +26kg = 22 seconds +35kg = 10 seconds +44kg = 4 seconds On shallow 4 finger (14 mm on my 2000): +16kg = 8 seconds +26kg = 1 second My weight doesn't vary much (65kg +/- a couple of kg).

[@JuliGabriel]

Hey Emil, thanks for that great routine. I'm still a beginner (1,5 years climbing), so I reduced it to one session per day for the last 30 days. My results are crazy, i did not expect that at all. My half crimp time on 15mm doubled and because of a soft injury a few months back I was not able to even hang 3 finger open. Today I did it without any pain for 20 seconds on a bigger edge. I did not climb before that 30 days because of local lockdown in Germany. So I was absolutly fresh at the beginning of the routine. I saw Hoopers video and I really respect his arguments but in my case it seems like I actually got stronger. I will have some days off now and start another 30 days. Thanks a lot for that great routine and all of your other videos. You're a great guy, like Erik and the others. Have a good time and stay healthy.

[@carriecooperdpt]

I climb v6. I've altered your program slightly to suit my needs. In this article and in Keith Baar's collection of work, he highlights collagen as an integral part to this. I take 15g 30 minutes prior as he recommends Also, I added a single arm quarter pull up for shoulder integrity. I'm also quite a bit weaker than you guys! So 40% of my body weight is adequate. I weigh 109kg. I've been doing this for two weeks. Mine is: 10on:20off half crimp 25mm x 4 35mm 1/2 crimp single arm quarter pull x 3 each side 10:20 Pinch blocks 4 sets 10:20 Total time= 7 minutes I tried a set of both front three and back three the first week and my forearms actually hurt so I took that out and replaced it with the pinch blocks. So far, I'm definitely climbing stronger and have 0 finger pain. I'm missing a few pulleys so that's a nice change.

[@yosinz]

watching this 9 months later I want part 2!

[@colinmackay8950]

Just finished 1 month of your hang board protocol. I have added 10kg to my max ½ crimp hang. I am quite new to crimping so mabye newbie gains. Anyway thanks for sharing your results it motivated me to do something during lockdown.

[@ExpiredFlame]

Emil i need to thank you for that workout routine! A few days after seeing your video I started to do it. Only with a few differences: 1. My smallest edge is a 16mm one. 2. I could not even hold myself on a 20mm edge so I just pulled as hard as I could without immediate risk of slipping. 3. I never did a real routine on a Hangboard before. I did not do it 2x every day but I tried to. It has not even been 30 days and I can really see a Difference already. I first noticed it when I almost kicked over the chair I'm always standing on when training. I did not slip off and I could pull the chair back into its position. So a few days ago after the workout I tried to hold on to the 20mm edge and to my surprise I could hold onto it for around 8 seconds. Totally blew my mind! So after another Minute of resting I tried the 16mm edge. And there I could hang for 3 seconds!! This was completely impossible before! This routine helped me a lot and I will continue to train that way. Maybe add some extra exercises as well. Thank you very much!

[@macd5953]

Urgh.. I got an uncomfortable chill down my spine, when I saw the Calculus book in the intro.. Great video! I'm looking forward to seeing more people trying this, and the long term results.

[@chancesakovich3511]

Dude. That is so nuts. Hang boarding has got to be the highest return for effort training ever invented. You improved astronomically, in only a month. Wow

[@Miki-xh6fb]

I do this for almost 2 months 5/7 days a week, my open hand strength becomes much stronger, i was pretty strong in full crinps +thumb overlay before, but not that strong in open hand crimps, that changed!!! Thanks for making this video!!!!

[@ffull]

Wow, that results are crazy. I really want to learn to train better, especially my finger strength. And I hopped that you will publish more about your training. So after the last videos I have to say that your channel has become my favourite. Thank you so much for your time and effort! :-)

[@jono6157]

started doing this on my doorframe and fingers are feeling great! thanks man! My housemates think im crazy, but the results are there

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Cheers mate, I’m excited to hear that!

[@raulsuarez5421]

I'm about to start this program, it makes a lot of sense. I would add, for those who can't hang board, just climb. Your fingers and body are not strong enough yet. Let it work by it self for two years. For those complaining about the injury part, comparing to total hangs this can never give you an injury ( once again, you are supposed to climb for two years before starting finger training). And the most important thing, make sure you are having fun, trying things that are not in your level is not fun, it is stupid and there's no point on being a lunk: we are climbers, not body builders. Thanks for the video, let's see the results in one month.

[@jacoboblanco1555]

I would love to see more climbing focused research like you see in powerlifting and bodybuilding with folks like Mike Israetal, Brad Schoenfeld, Eric Helms, et al....

[@leoingson]

There is some, but climbing is a complex sport - strength etc is only a (necessary) fraction for success, eg movement skills, and the mental aspect. Check out Bobat's 9c test - JP has fb 8c+ strength and does a 6c route outdoors.

[@laptop-alpinisten8349]

I did a similar regimen for rehab during 3 monthe. Didnt climb at all during this time. Performed better when I got back. It works!

[@bb1039]

I think this show again how you benefit from lower stress over time, adds up its so nice for beginners to see that you dont have to hang with full weight to get results

[@ondrejbalaz]

I started to hang (with my feet on the ground) on the smallest edge I have on my ocun fingerboard, which I was not able to hold before for more than a few seconds. After about three weeks practising very irregularly this kind of hangs, for no more than 10" a day I started seeing significant gains. I started working my moonboard 2016 about two months ago and had to spend a lot of time to top a single benchmark problem. After these three weeks I gave it a good session, where I flashed 5 problems and sent projects, I gave so many tries before. So for me. Yes

[@Hoehihoh]

It's really amazing to me that this worked so well, that's so exciting! I would have assumed the in vitro model translating rather poorly to real people's training but apparently the results are super significant. I love that Felix decided to give this a try and that it's paid off for both of you. Also, tendons are different from ligaments in some ways but considering the pulleys in the fingers are ligaments too, much of the pain resulting from finger strength training I would say can be classified as ligament pain. Plus it seems likely the in vitro results obtained in the study could be reproduced with in vitro tendon models. This is really cool to see and I might just give it a try to be part of your sample group :)

[@ripapa6355]

Yeah, everyone's trying this at home. I'm starting today.

[@TonicNova]

Holy crap those results! Did you guys just revolutionize finger training and how we train for climbing? I'm honestly shocked.

[@asonei3531]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! Two questions: How strongly did this increased finger strength affect your climbing ( do you think you can climb harder grades on crimps now )? and will you continue with this training after these 30 days (or at least do another 30 day block in a month or so)?

[@frelli177]

* commenting to subscribe to question *

[@flynnbach8073]

@@frelli177 *me too*

[@moppelfrosch5727]

@@frelli177 same

[@xSwitchB1ade]

@@frelli177 yeah I'll follow suit

[@generalkdi]

same same

[@sailinggaia3582]

For those looking for the article, the one in the description only references the main article on optimizing the ligament stretch. here is the link www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3267962/ TLDR: Optimized protocol 0.5HZ loading for 10 minutes. That means load 0.5 seconds followed by rest 0.5 seconds for 10 minutes. The amount of load (weight) is hard to translate but the graphs favor a lighter load vs heavier (remember you are training your tendons and not your muscles).

[@aukeboskma]

Did a max hangs test session on sunday and tried your program today. I'm excited to see where it gets me! I will let you know in the comments. On the 20 mm Beastmaker 1000 edge 7 sec hang. Results:BW 80 [kg] Added 36,5 [kg] Total 116,5 [kg] % 146 BW

[@theRCflyier]

Against your advice, I did try this at home. I modified the schedule so it suits my level but basically relies heavily on the 'no hang' principle but with longer times on the hold (30sec on and 15sec off) which then require more weight remaining on the feet. I feel is a good start for lower end climbers in order to avoid going too hard on the board bust still allows strength gains. My Fingers feel super comfortable and reliable when climbing now. Now attacking 6c problems💪

[@Perrseus]

Wow I've read this article before but I always thought of using it as a way to heal injuries, not to gain strength... this is crazy. I gotta try it!

[@Tirreg88]

I have to compliment you on the fact that you and your brother both mentioned the sample size and that scientifically it is to low to proof anything. more youtuber, influencer etc. should do that and not force a new teaching model just because they believe in it!

[@yesoer6635]

I'm definitely going to try this for numerous reasons but I also want to say that even if it doesn't do anything at all for me it's just crazy to see you getting such great results and for your sake I'm glad you thought it was worth a try Congrats dude !

[@alexgbush]

Amazing results! Interested to hear what the rest of your training looked like during the month and how you fitted the hangboarding in around it. Thanks!!

[@milenkovic_igor]

I am also interested how did you structured your regular HB training around this.

[@ashpowell9451]

This is amazing, I'm going to start today and see how I go. No risk compared to what I'm already doing, everything to gain.

[@jayma19]

Hey Guys, Thank you for this interesting video. I had decided to try this approach, ie: twice 10 mn per day. To me specific, I did Four finger crimp - 3 sets, Three finger-drag in deep pocket - 3 sets, Middle two finger-pocket - one set, Middle two finger-crimp - one set and that is it, all of this at around 70%. Yes, I left out the Front two finger-crimp. I did all this twice/day for about 2.5 weeks. I did not measure my baseline finger strength at the start and what I can tell is that I do think that my finger strength improved over time. On the negative side, I pulled a few fibers of my left Trapezius. My left shoulder & neck were very tight and painful for several days until I stopped the inflammation with ibuprofen. I had to stop the experiment at least for now. I am thinking that I may have put too much weight on my fingers, hence the importance of letting some of the body weight being carried by the feet.

[@a7mdbest15]

actually awesome, this shows how human body has an incredible possibility to evolve.

[@s.z1482]

UPDATE: I'm one month in and the results are incredible. So far I was only able to test myself in two Lead Climbing sessions outdoors. I did not touch a hold in 3 months but instantly climbed a higher grade than ever before. Fingers felt so solid and endurance in my forearms was unexpectedly high. I think that is due to the "repeats" I added to the program. I can't wait to see how this applies to my bouldering game. Thanks so much for this inspiration.

[@jacobharmer5227]

I did a variation of this training and in 6-weeks I went from being able to full crimp the Beast Maker 2000 15mm edges going from 1 up to 9 seconds. I did a core exercise then half load hang boarding then repeat with different core exercises and hangs for about 20 minutes. I did this roughly 3-5 per week as well as climbing outdoors roughly x3 per week with the occasional bouldering session. Mainly my fingers felt healthier and became recruited much faster when climbing outdoors. Hanging full weight from the monos always felt ridiculous and to start with, even half load hanging on the small mono's felt uncomfortable but after 6-weeks I could almost fully load the deeper mono hold.

[@kvasko2]

Such a helpful video. Informative and some fun moments (I saw that zoom-in on the beaver/squirrel with blue sunglasses). You even provided exercises that we can all easily do at home to strengthen our fingers while we may not be able to climb. Many thanks to Felix and you!

[@Jun7297]

Love this style of video! As i'm from a science background i'm loving the actual reference to an actual journal article to optimize training. I might try this myself!! Increase the sample size haha

[@atreju2155]

In one of Eric horsts videos, he also says, that he hang on big jugs for a couple of seconds and then 1 min rest, to prevent his fingers from injuries. Sounds pretty logic the theory from your brother. I will give it a try.

[@DannyDson]

The one armed hang is not quite comparable. In the beginning you let your second hand loose, at the end of the training you pressed your off-hand on the board. This doesn't sound like much, but it makes a huge difference.

[@skateonsnow21]

so uh the guy that wrote that article was my professor. He teaches at UC Davis. I had him for performance and physiology class. He was really good, and I learned a ton about tendons/ injury prevention that i can honestly say has helped me prevent/ treat tendon injuries in general.

[@skateonsnow21]

Also It would be really cool if you gather a ton of data if this ends up working (I will try it too!) and then ask him to be in one of your videos lol I believe he also did research on collagen as well. He said only 10g collagen 30-1hr before a workout.

[@magic8ball3mt]

Dave Macleod says he increased multiple grades in several disciplines after a half year of hangboarding 6 times a week. A frequency that's way higher than most traditional schedules. Thanks for making this video. I climb at a much more moderate grade (V7s outside) and have actually been experimenting with a more frequent no-hang protocol myself. I'd really be curious on how an intermediate boulderer responds to this high of a frequency!

[@baleka5826]

You are spreading hope amongst us believers. Thx! :)

[@sebastiancase4173]

I really like the cinematography of some of your climbing/training shots

[@MovementForBJJ]

This is really interesting. Do you think some of the gains could be from an active de-load? I.e. the super compensation from all the hard hangboard training done prior to this program. Nice video...Sam✌️

[@petermuller6330]

Good question!

[@АндрейСарнавский-у9т]

if you have 1 year heavy training and then do 1 month light or no training at all results will be much bigger then before. Because when we climb or do other activities we constantly in non recovered state.

[@Justin0048]

@@АндрейСарнавский-у9т He mentioned in one of the comments that he didn't change any of his other training and he believes he may have been pulling/training even harder during this time. He only added this routine twice per day.

[@manudubbing7278]

hello, so... i am no climbing expert whatsoever, i am actually a very beginner climber, (just done my first 5c not to long ago) i do climb sporadically on rock from times to times, and i always wanted to improve my climbing and finger strenght, so if you all allow me i wanted to share my results after training with this metod for 1 whole month, note 1) i trained every day but just 1 times a day, not 2. note 2) i maybe skipped 2 or 3 days of training in total in this month i take notes every day and at the beginning of training i took notice of how many second i was able to hang compared to the end of the month and theese are the results: -15mm pocket incresed from 7 seconds of maximum hang for me to 30 seconds hang -10mm pocket incresed form 0 seconds to 3.5 seconds -45 mm pocket 1 hand dx hand from 2.5 seconds to 5 seconds -45 mm pocket 1 hand sx hand from 0 seconds to 1.5 seconds Keep in mind i trained this way only 30 days and it took me 10 to 15 minute of training per day, without stress, without to much sweat but most importantly i feelt my finger strong and sturd the whole mont, and they never felt this strong. in my opinion this is a very, very nice training routine that i will keep doing to furthermore improve my strength. thanks and all the best!!!! :D

[@Levi_Allen]

Starting today! will see how it goes

[@verticaljunkie3127]

We have to be VERY careful with this causality! You are doing a submaximal SHORT DURATION tendon stimulus repetitively - which is shown to increase tendon STIFFNESS (yes alongside some collagen synthesis from using the knowledge of refractory periods of the tenocytes) - so of course you are getting a huge strength application improvement from your flexors - at the risk of INCREASED injury. If you did the SAME program with 40seconds submaximal hang you would be improving tendon health and you would likely find your strength did not improve - as you reduce tendon stiffness and improve tendon health through mitigating stress shielding if you have injuries. Please understand the physiology as a complete picture. I'm not saying this wont help people improve performance phases - but to do it as their standard protocol will likely lead them to catastrophic connective tissue failure eventually.

[@bouldersuechtig]

Do you have some reference, it sounds interesting?

[@Rmikeyhow]

Bump

[@bouldersuechtig]

@@verticaljunkie3127 thank you, I will watch this!

[@verticaljunkie3127]

@@bouldersuechtig Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. As time goes on we should have some more great info up there for climbers, also have some other climbing PTs and researchers lined up for some in depth talks around some of these subjects :) Stay tuned!

[@johnkane2026]

@@verticaljunkie3127 watching and outstanding video thus far! Are you aware of a ‘happy medium’ regimen between the two scenarios above- where you can capture optimal balance of performances gains and health?

[@MiddleAgedBoulderGuy]

Well I just started this today since gyms are still in lockdown here and tomorrow being a new month seemed like the perfect timing. Will be interesting to see how my fingers feel end of may.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Great to hear! Hope it works well for you :-)

[@theodorthiele]

That's a programme I think I can actually commit to! Getting out weights, needing to warm up, being in doubt about whether you have enough weights at home, and then worrying about the pain is just a lot more dedication than simply stepping over to the board twice a day. I have a BM 1000, but I'm also nowhere near as strong as you, so I guess I'll be okay with the 18~mm crimp for now ;)

[@Pownerto]

This looks very promising! I am impressed and going to try this routine for the next 30 days and then update with the results! :) This has potential to be made into a real study and possible change the approach to finger training in climbing :o

[@syler219]

Really great video Sire. Especially liked the way you used sound in the beginning.

[@maxstafford5898]

I have been doing this after 2 A2 pulley sprains. This loading of the tendon 2 times a day has been really beneficial for me my fingers feel much stronger and less painful. Furthermore my finger strength in general seems to of increased noticeably just in 2 weeks.

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

That's awesome to hear!! Keep me posted on the progress :)

[@ajohnson9605]

Okay so I've done this once a day for 6 weeks. I'm a 190# 5.9-5.10 trad climber and didn't want to overdo it as I've had some joint pain in both index fingers. I wanted this to keep me consistently hangboarding without overdoing it. I used 4 finger open, 3 finger drag, sloper for 3x10 sec c 50sec rest 3 finger crimp and two finger pocket 2x10 sec 50 sec rest Mono index and middle x10 sec 50sec rest Did this every before every gym session and before every workout (home gym). Only missed three days where I went outdoors to multipitch. Didn't time initial personal bests, just wanted my fingers to stop hurting. I achieved that, no finger pain after week two. Feel like I grab holds with better force, form and dont Overstress my index finger by not loading my middle and ring sufficiently. I did my first actual day of hanging yesterday same hold and rest scheme except monos, did them as no hangs still. Literally easy, no issues, no pump, no lack of endurance with the reps and I still had a 5.11 filled day on lead in the gym then some v5 and v6 boulders after. I know that the three finger crimp for 2x10sec was the best I've ever done and the two finger pockets were also the best I've done w those. Overall I'm really happy with this style of training. Gonna bump up time per no-hang and run this again for 4 weeks once a day, then maybe do the original twice a day.

[@lukaszgrub9367]

You should make a poll with questions or something a like so everyone who does this can follow up and tell their experience so we can get a bigger sample size to see pros & cons etc!

[@beautyofsylence]

I get frequent pulley/lumbral strains so this looks amazing. I'll give it a shot and report back in 30 days!

[@alpinejonny]

I saw massive improvements doing 3 months of max hangs 5x per week but ended up at too much intensity... But your results are insane. I'm going to switch from what I've been doing and give this a shot.

[@aidanloeser4890]

Well this is the best hangboard vid I've seen yet. I love no hangs and always got funny looks at the gym (alas, no gym now...). Great editing and storytelling. Regardless of the specifics of the program and whether it works for others, it's useful and inspiring to see you and Felix doing pretty safe experiments on your bodies to build strength and prevent injury. As always, I loved the snowy woods debrief.

[@RimshotKiller]

Straight to my playlist with hangboarding videos by Lattice and Dave McLoid :)

[@boulderfighters2590]

Very interesting experiment! And astonishing results. I wish I still had my hangboard with me so that I could try it out myself.

[@TheSkepticSkwerl]

Something to note for other people. This was 1 month. Most people increase rapidly the first month. Then slow down way too much after that. Even though you continue to grow. Growth is maximum speed the first few weeks or couple months.

[@vincentgaspoz4508]

Really good video ! And I really value the fact that this training is built on hard science. Keep up the good work :)

[@fk6041]

Those training results are pretty crazy, but have you noticed a difference when it comes to actually climbing on crimps?

[@dhanysoegieharto6982]

been doing couple weeks before saw this video. I did wall pulls (calisthenics' routine) @ 25-30 pulls per set, rest 30 secs after each sets and repeat 3 sets.. I did twice a day too, and I feel comfortable to holding small crimps now

[@richarddoan9172]

To be clear, the article is about ligaments, and has nothing to do with muscles. The program suggested in the article is for strengthening ligament tissue and potentially rehabbing ligament injury, not improving muscular strength or endurance. If the program happens to improve those, it would be a byproduct entirely unexamined in the studies. For those interested in the ligament aspect of the program, the article also suggests supplementing with collagen and vitamin C for the strengthening of ligaments. I'm guessing Emil didn't do that because it's not vegan. But again, no reason to think that would improve muscular strength or endurance based on these studies. Btw, I recently read Baar's articles because I'm trying to rehab a tendon injury. Eric Horst talks about the program for strengthening tendons for climbers in a video and blog. He's also selling a collagen supplement. If you're interested in the supplement, it's cheaper to get plain old collagen and eat a chewable vitamin C than get his "Supercharged" collagen.

[@librapower7810]

Fascinating video, would be great to see when you fit these 2 hangboard routines, either side of a climbing session for example 8am first hangboard , 2pm to 4pm climbing session and 10pm second hangboard session. Climbing at 2pm allows 6 hours either side. Might be difficult to get those 6 hours either side for me personally, so I might omit one hangboard session on climbing days

[@slendersends]

This was insightful and incredibly tempting to try. Thanks for doing this video!

[@Alan89-u2r]

The less i train more improvements I see is what I realize these past 2 months... and I was not overtraining before.

[@jackbeatty6810]

This seems like and amazing protocol. I really got a kick out of watching you do your second test and when you are laughing at how ridiculous the results are. Keep the vids coming.

[@joelongbottom1749]

What did the rest of your training and climbing schedule looking like during this period? Did you add or remove anything from your usual weekly training with the addition of this new protocol? Thanks

[@LukeRockCimber]

This is my number one question, aside from waiting 6+ hours what did his sessions and weekly schedule look like?

[@EmilAbrahamsson]

Reply is in the pinned comment!

[@KennethThys]

@@LukeRockCimber he is waiting 6 hours between each session right? I mean morning 10 minutes session, wait 6 hours, climbing training, wait 6 hours and then evening 10 minute session. I don’t find a clear answer to this. Or did I just miss something?

[@TesterAnimal1]

Very interesting protocol. Very short, but very frequent. I’ll give this a shot after my current cycle which is repeaters on various BM2000 holds through the BM app.

[@DenisTheGreat22]

Don't try this at home?? Where else am I going to try it? I'm definitely trying this at home as soon as I come home today.. Great video guys

[@flealr92]

So i've been doing this protocol and trying to understand it better through comparison and there's a couple things I'd like to note, ESPECIALLY FOR BEGINNERS. This is to be compared with the Lattice Crimpd app standard 20mm 7 sec hangboard protocols. At first Emil hangs from the 14mm edge for 3 seconds at 160% BW, I believe this might be comparable to a 7 sec hang on the 20mm at maybe 140% to 160% BW. Take this into account to compare the effort he suggests to lift of the ground during the excercise. His 70% effort to lift is not the same as his 70% max, its more like 50% max. His 50% lift off is about 30% max BW. His 30% lift off is about 15% max BW. This is important because a beginner which might score 100 or 110% BW on a Lattice standard test, will be overstressing his fingers when trying to lift of at 70% (due to reduced strength compared to Emil), he should operate at similar max percentage of BW, which might be 50%, 30% and 15% respectively. In the Lattice Crimpd app there's a repeater excercise @ 30% in the Regeneration section, I do believe the No Hang protocol and this 30% repeaters are very similar in theory.

[@andreashaeubl478]

Hi Emil, first of all thank you for that interesting video and the research you and your brother made. And pretty cool that you had such a big improvement with that. Honestly, I was really skeptical since your video was uploaded, cause max strength gains with low low intensity training made no sense for me. Nevertheless, I tried it out, cause I was plateauing on the middle beastmaker edge, one handed, in half crimp, with -3kg for quite a while. I guess similar to you at that time. I was really accurate with the 70%BW by using the tindeq and made the training twice a day for 30days . On climbing days I used this training as warm up. And now to my conclusion. After a while my tendons felt stiffer and the force translation felt more direct to my body. Also warming up was better, cause my tendons felt always ready. But in the end the goal was to increase strength and this was unfortunately a big disappointment. My numbers on the isometric lift went done from 63kg (my Bodyweight) to 55kg and the one handed hang on the middle beastmaker edge was comparable bad. So, in my opinion this training is perfect as rehab but is not ideal for strength training or gains. At Emil: Do you have any clue why it went in the wrong direction in my case. I am wondering if any boulderer which are climbing in the 8a-8a+ range made similar experiences. Best regards, Andi

[@justadhguy9287]

thats so insane. i injured my middle finger tendon and now im super weak but im going to try your program...seems pretty cool

[@SillianOW]

What a well made video. Good stuff 🦦🦦