UKC

Hi.

I've screwed in an eyelet to a block of wood and cut and sanded the sides of the block in sloping faces, to work on my pinch grip at home.

I have small kettle bells that I can hang from it.

Should I grip the block with a straight hanging arm or bent at an angle? Would bending it working the forearms muscles better?

Ta

PS. Is it better to hold until fail (rest then repeat) or for timed intervals?

In reply to Flinticus:
I'd say, straight hanging arm and timed intervals.
I'd have thought any workouts should be similar to, or part of, a fingerboard routine so duration of rep and rest time would depend on what you are trying to train. Could be repeaters (say 7sec on, 3sec rest x7) for PE or Max load (say 10sec on, 2min rest x6) for strength.

In reply to JLS:

Second John. Moon has some good video on max weight hangs. Find Max weight you can hold for 12secs, use that for the 10sec / 2min rest sections. The video has good advise on warm up (%of max increases) too.

Stating obvious- Finding your max weight should be a session in itself...

In reply to mal_meech:

You got a link to that video?

In reply to Flinticus:

I'd guess this is what Mal is referring to...

youtube.com/watch?v=eKwkKaKluuk&

In reply to Flinticus:

Straight arm with good posture and engaged shoulder, like you're carrying a heavy bag of shopping.

Either max hangs or repeaters as per usual fingerboarding protocols, the pump from repeaters on pinches can be quite impressive!

In reply to JLS:

Yep

In reply to Flinticus:

Also, try to make sure you keep the bit of wood vertical so that you really are *pinching* it. If you tilt your wrist a bit you can turn it into a sloper with some thumb assist, which of course is not to the point for training purposes.

In reply to Flinticus:

Eric Horsts website has an article on this, .... careful though, it's easy to tweak your lityle finger!

In reply to Flinticus:

Call me old fashioned but I prefer to train that sort of thing by incorporating the hold type into problems on my woody with the idea that I utilise the hold in a range of motion where the geometry of the arm position changes, replicating climbing better. As strength on the hold improves I can then stay on it for longer if necessary or at a whim.

In reply to DDDD:

A block of wood and a kettlebell takes up a little less space than a woody!

In reply to JLS: and Mal

Thanks

In reply to AlanLittle:

Can I train for slopers using a similar set up, with a wider, rounded bit of wood (section of trunk)?

In reply to Flinticus:

Dunno, never tried. General consensus on fingerboarding for slopers though seems to be that it doesn't really work, too friction/conditions dependent.

In reply to Flinticus:

Na, sounds like that's either going to just be a wide pinch or a complete nightmare to get a setup that works with all five digits to one side, sloper style.

In reply to Flinticus:

Shoulders and elbows engaged, load statically and away you go. Maybe spin it so you're working that pinch at different angles though.