UKC

Having just watched Neil Gresham's vid on lockdown fingerboarding I'm thinking that my warmup routine of opening the garage door and doing 5 pull-ups on my fingerboard before going straight into bodyweight hangs (I can't hang yet with any extra weight) is probably sub-optimal, especially since I'm no spring chicken (55). The hangboard is mounted to a beam so I could rig a pulley system but that involves bringing weights into the garage and putting on a harness which all adds to the faff and the chance that I won't do anything. So these rubber bands to take some weight off that you can just leave attached all the time and just step into when needed looked ideal. But how much for a length of elastic @~@&***! So before I spend a ridiculous amount of dosh for a big elastic band what sort of strength bands are people using and any recommended suppliers? Is it a case of you get what you pay for? 

I had the same dilemma in fact I went as far as rigging a pulley, making weight up in a rucksack but then realised it pulled me off to one side a bit, and then the strap on my bag broke and then I realised I needed a pulley as there was too much friction on the rope... Like you say, a massive faff.

I bought a set of "Milky Way Pull Up Assistance Resistance Bands" from Amazon (£30).  I hang that over the top of the beatmaker, behind the jug handles, then drop a long, wide sling over the bottom of the band and step in that.

Works perfectly and the bands are plenty strong.  Sure it's not as good or as precise as a really good pulley setup, but it works fine for someone at my level. 

Don't do it. Go for the weights and pulley. It really isn't that faffy. I reckon bands are too imprecise and vague.

20 alternating sets 5 of pull-ups and 5 press-ups on the minute (i.e. 20min) works for me as a warm-up. There's bound to be some benefit to regularly knocking out 50 pull-ups like that and the antagonistic press-up work, I'm sure must be of benefit too.

Try old inner tubes.

irst ones I found are only a tenner... I've used a strong one before to help with pull-ups, strap it around the bar and put my knees through it but it is a bit ... "bouncy" and imprecise as someone else said.

edit: I take the link back they were tiny you ain't gonna get them from a bar to your knees ! haha sorry. The other comment still stands though

Resistance Bands | TRX & Gym Bands | Decathlon

I've never used them so can't advise on that aspect but have you looked on Wiggle? They have them for about £12 which doesn't seem too bad to me. 

If a cheap one snaps under repeated use it will give you a thwack that will leave you with post traumatic stress disorder.  Theraband are excellent and not the cheapest. 

Agree with JLS. Rig a pulley. Easily and cheaply done. Much more precise so can measure progress properly.  E.g if need 10kg counterbalance on a given hold if later reduce to 9kg then you are stronger. Hard to see small improvements with resistance bands. 

I've gone with two pulleys shoulder width apart, so even if you are as weak as me, there is never too much weight on one pulley. I went for foot loops to step into so don't have to worry about putting on a belt or harness. I managed to get some cheap second hand weights and it's not like they are going to wear out.

For warming up I just pull on the fingerboard with my feet on the floor. And build up to bodyweight.

Exactly or a lot worse .

Quite easy to lose an eye.

Elastic heavy duty thingy tensioned to Max in front of face , what could possibly go wrong?

Lucky! I was looking everywhere for weights in the first lockdown but couldn't find anything.  Online all I could find was he very cheap water filled ones, or hugely expensive nice ones.

If I could have found a decent set of plate weights at the right price I'd probably have fixed my pulley and stuck with that, as it'd definitely more precise and more measurable but the bands have been a useful low tech alternative.

The bounciness is a negative thing however, but you can counteract it by doing the the pull up (and lower back down) in a very slow, and controlled manner.  Makes them harder too!

Yes.  Can't deny was shitting myself a bit the first time I weighted it fully!

I hadn't thought of using the assist as part of the actual training, only for making things easier during the warm-up - so no need to quantify that accurately really. I could see the pully would work well for what you describe though. If I can hang body weight now I was thinking more that as I progress I'd be hopefully looking to add weight rather than take it away, but I hadn't considered assisted hangs with less fingers/smaller rungs. Guess we're moving more to a 'how to train on a hangboard' type thread which has probably been done to death recently.

Perfect UKC thread timing. I was just about to order Theraband. I would probably prefer your idea. Could you post a photo as to how you’ve rigged it. 

If I do go with Theraband, I would definitely get the real thing, you could give yourself a a nasty unpredictable injury with the cheap copies. 

I didn't think of foot loops with a pulley! How are the practicalities of getting enough weights loaded onto one end, then holding it down whilst you climb onto the fingerboard and get your foot into the stirrup? The bands just sounded easier in this regard - the loop is just hanging there at eg knee or groin height and you step into it and reach for the board

For assisted pullups and that sort of thing a bunch of old bike inner tubes make good cheap substitutes - cut the valves off and you're away. double up, tie knots in etc to adjust.

A pulley and weights works better though for some things - a rubber band may give you -20Kg at the bottom and 0Kg at the top where as -10Kg via a pulley gives you -10Kg over the full range (plus you'll reasonably reliably know it is -10Kg which makes tracking progress easier where as "one rubber band, two rubber bands" doesn't really work).

Rubber bands age and as they get old they do have a tendency to snap (same for inner tubes)

For -ve weights foot loops are easier than a harness (except when you've got a height problem - normally ok for pull ups but most fingerboards are mounted too low for footloops to be much use). For +ve weights a "dipping belt" is a nice luxury.

That is pretty much what I have, a couple of loops (old holdall shoulder straps), about 18 inches above the ground. For the weights I have a couple of old slings with a stopper on one end and a krab on the other, for attaching to the pulley rope, this is detached for adding/removing  extra discs. This also means the weights remain horizontal. To use,  just step into one loop, then put that foot on the floor,  then you do the same with the other. I suppose it is important that I can just reach my fingerboard from the floor. A slight bend of the legs, so you feet are an inch or so off the floor and you are good to go, for static hangs, I don't use it for assisted pull ups.

My board being on a roof beam means I have to stand on a small stool to be able to reach it. I foresee several 'comedy moments' trying to do all that from my rickety stool

When working away, I often would take a pull-up bar mounted fingerboard. I bought a length of about 10m of bungee cord, about 5mm thick IIRC. I tied both ends together then coiled the whole thing into 5 loops and tied a big knot very near to one end. This gave a cluster of 5 identical loops that I could suspend from the pull-up bar, giving 5 levels of assistance depending on how many loops I put my foot in for any one hang. Was great for doing pyramids. A single loop seemed to give almost negligible help but by the time I had 3 or 4 of them the difference was very noticeable.

Ah, that does sound a bit more precarious. Although if you are holding the board when you are standing on the stool I'm not sure that stepping into the foot loops will be any "harder" than bands. Getting off could be more problematic, but is it any easier with bands? When you complete your set (or worse fail) are you planning to get "off" by using the stool or "falling" to the floor? 

Edit You can tell I've been doing max. hangs for the last month. Repeaters are going to be much more problematic. 

I've trained with elastic bands for more than 50 years, long before there were dedicated bands. With the help of the bands, I trained up to seven strict one-arm pullups on each arm, which I mention not to brag (the days when I was that strong are now a very distant memory) but to establish some believability on the subject. 

As gyms began to stock commercial training bands, I had plenty of opportunity to compare them to the original things, and I'm here to tell you that latex surgical tubing is better and cheaper.  I used to go to hospital medical supply rooms, and university physics and chemistry departments, since the tubing is used for gases under high pressure, but nowadays the simplest thing is to buy the tubing from diving supply stores. In recent years, I've used www.latex-tubing.com.  They sell tubing for exercise purposes, and the chart here http://www.latex-tubing.com/Exercise.html gives you an idea about sizing.  I'd go with the beefiest possible option, which is 1 X 1/8, meaning 1 inch outside diameter and 1/8 inch inside diameter, so a lot of solid rubber.  They give 59 lbs resistance if stretched double its natural length.  I'm certain I have stretched it many times more than that.

At points I've used the same pieces of tubing for well over ten years with no problem, even though the surfaces got abraded and storage was not always ideal.  I've never had anything break or seen damage that looked like it would result in breakage.

Be very careful to get latex rather than anything else, as other materials are far more likely to break.  Moreover, many elastic materials are relatively stiff, meaning that only a very small amount of stretch produces high tensions, and this not only makes breaking more likely but also provides an inferior training experience, since the load taken off varies enormously over the elongation range.  This goes for every type of bungie cord I've tried and just forget about inner tubes.  The commercial flat latex bands are far more susceptible to damage, because of their thinness in one direction and so susceptibility crosswise tears, than latex tubing which doesn't have any weak cross-sections.

You will want to put a webbing foot loop on the tubing, don't just stand on it.  The commercial bands are better in this regard because they are flat and this keeps them in place, whereas the tubing is round and can easily roll off the bottoms of your feet, typically when you point your toes down without thinking about it.  The band snaps off and wacks you on the back of your legs.  Significant welts are possible. 

I tie the tubing to chinning bars with clove hitches.  Make sure to tighten the hitch so that the strand crossings are above the bar and are tightening down on it, rather than below the bar and pulling away from it.  With this precaution, I've never had a clove hitch release.  If you are fastening to some type of beam with relatively sharp edges, some padding would naturally be called for.

In order to titrate the resistance supplied by the tubing, you can put rubber bands or pony-tail ties around the tubing and position them to indicate where the tubing will be tied to the supports.  As you get stronger, the tubing is tied up longer and you then roll the ties up to the new position.

Surgical tubing is great if you want to bring places (gyms, outdoor playgrounds, campground trees, etc.).  But for a home installation,  pulleys with counterweights give  a uniform amount of resistance with a very precise controllability.  You  have to have two pulleys to keep the weights away from your body.  If you have your anchor points set up and your pulleys prethreaded and ready to go, then you just clip up the threaded pulleys, attach the weights, and you're ready to rumble.  True, you do have to put on a harness...

Hi. As you say the 'how to train on a fingerboard' is a whole new thread. However, if you want to message me I'd be happy to chat and share some ideas that might help you regarding pulley set up, training protocols etc.

Cheers, Christy

A friend of mine was doing face pulls - got distracted and looked sideways - let go of the band at max tension and - kapow ! 

Punched herself in the face with a blow worthy of Mike Tyson - we cried with laughter 

“Jump Stretch’  is a high quality loop with great elasticity and a wide range of band strengths.  Of course the anchor point and positioning is crucial 

What kind of pulley are you using there? I got a couple of cheapies from eBay and they are very squeaky and run rather unevenly. 

I used one of these which I happened to have...

https://www.climbers-shop.com/2818521/products/petzl-oscillante-swing-cheek...

It's ok, works fine, but I think you can get better ones.

Thanks. Looks the part. I’ll have a look at what else is available too. 

That is what I use most although I also have 2 pulleys with ropes. I have weights on one end of each rope and foot loops tied in the other so I don't need to bother with a harness.

Mine is quite low but I tie the footloops so they are just under the pulleys when the weights are flat on the floor. With 10 kg it is easy to pull the ropes one at a time until a high step gets a foot in the loop. There is then ample room for keeping my feet off  the floor by bending my knees back a little.

If you want good quality resistance bands for free go to a bike shop and ask for some old punctured inner tubes. Racing bike size (700c) are pretty good because they're long and not too fat.

These can be used as they are or sliced around the circumference into thinner, lower resistance bands. Or used doubled up to increase resistance.

Hi,

As fun as it is to jump straight into pull ups or hangs you're thinking the right thing wanting to warm up first .It doesn't matter what age you are, a warm-up will reduce the risk of injury but also prime you for better performance. 

For a warm up I'd look into some mobility exercises that get your shoulder blade moving through the full range of motion, kneeling thoracic rotations or lying half windmill's are great, a quick youtube search will show you what they are/how to do them.

Investing into resistance bands is a great idea, not only for warming up the pullup pattern but also for a lot of other exercises (resisted push-ups, Palloff Presses, resistance band rows/presses, etc).You can also assist your bodyweight with the bands when learning or doing more complex pullup variations or fingerboard exercises.

Don't know what your goal is but if you want to improve your strength in climbing and core strength I'd also look into buying a pair of olympic rings (£24). If you do then a great warm up exercise for pullups would be olympic ring rows. This will warm up and prime the Biceps and Lats. You can also learn to do a ton of useful climbing exercises with the rings like neutral pullups, incline push ups, skin the cat, hanging knee/leg raises etc.

I hope this helps.

I'm a strength & conditioning coach that works with mountaineers. My youtube channel focuses on helping mountaineers and climbers, maybe this will be helpful for you:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPwHsgiBuM7GXXmrbSmshQg