In reply to planetFear:
Interesting article. To have sample workouts for a broad range of abilities should help anyone getting started with fingerboard training. A couple of points:
- No article on fingerboard training I've ever read anywhere tells you how to warm up on a fingerboard. How on earth do you warm up on a fingerboard? (without a climbing wall.)
- I'm going to be a little ambiguous, and say I disagree with the statement that "finger strength is always the limiting factor", but I agree that "Your fingers can never be too strong."
- I don't think the author gives enough time to the potential for injury that goes hand in hand with fingerboard training. Of course, there is a *reduction* to the risk of injury, as you gets used to using your fingers in the strenuous positions that fingerboarding requires. And by isolating the fingers, you can learn to balance the load between your fingers, so as not to overlaod one.
But at the same time, gaining too much strength too quickly through fingerboard training can increase the risk of injury to the supporting structures in the fingers. (The same applies to weight training for that matter. Not so fashionable for finger strength training now, though.) Remember that whilst you can increase strength quite rapidly with fingerboarding, the supporting tendons and ligaments in the fingers will take much longer to adapt. It's important to listen to your body throughout all the exercises described, and back it off or stop if you think you have injured yourself.
(long point, sorry)
- You don't actually need an expensive fingerboard for all this. Just screw a bit of wood above a doorframe. If you're new to fingerboarding, make it a big bit of wood, say 2 knuckles thick. With this, you can do all the exercises except the slopers. Slopers can be added with some mild carpentry.
Happy training!
