Feel... The... hang?

i cant decide if i hate the title of this post...moving on... so you bought that hangboard casue everyone told you what an awesome training tool it was. that was 3 years ago. you hung the hangboard in in your house or garage. that was 6 months after you got it. three weeks ago you had friends over for beer and to watch climbing movies. you pointed out the hangboard...or they discovered it on their own. you do a couple of pull-ups as you tell your guest how cool it is. their jealous that you have one. but inside you hide the secrete that you havent touch it more than ten times since you got it. the details may vary but its still your story, and the story of so many other people.



so why are hangboards so popular and yet so useless for many people? i think its a bit of motivation and a bit of not knowing how to use it. we start out with good intentions and excitement for training. often when we people have no idea how to train they just start running for the horizon without direction. eventually you run out of motivation for horizon chasing and your tools for training begin to gather dust.

in this post im gonna try to inspire you to start using that hangboard on days you have only 30min to spare. keep in mind this is only what works for me. also, there are several websites that do a much better job of this than me, and you will see i've adopted much from them.

here are a few:

Dave MacLeod: http://www.davemacleod.blogspot.com/
Multiple Authors: http://info.rockrun.com/
Eric Horst: http://www.trainingforclimbing.com/
Metolius: http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/how-to-guides.html

so you have 30min? exactly... heres a workout:

30 min Workout
~5 min Aerobic Warm-up. i do a treadmill routine of 2 min walk / 2 min jog / 1 min walk. during my walking i do several stretch for my hands, arms and shoulders. if you dont have a treadmill anything that gets the blood pumping will do... hell you can do jumping jacks if nothing else. (25 min remaining)

~10 min hangboard routine (warm-up set). this set is devised to get the arms ready to do a harder workout. this routine lets me feel how strong i am and gauge whether or not i have an festering injury. you may choose to use my routine or adjust it to better fit your level of conditioning. (15 min remaining)

~15 min Heat Routine. heats have different make ups depending on how they are devised. in my case i run 8 (1 min) heats with 7 (1 min) rest periods between them. (DONE)


1 hour Workout

~5min Stretching routine. (i will have an upcoming post on stretching)
~10 min Aerobic Warm-up. (2min walk / 5min run / 3min walk)
~10 min Hangboard set. (warm up routine)
~15 min Heat Routine. (same as above)
~10 min hangboard set. (intermediate or advance)
~10 min treadmill routine. This set is done with the addition of 10 lbs dumbbells.
2 min walk
1 min run
1 min walk & bicep curls
1 min run
1 min walk & bicep curls
1 min run
1 min walk & bicep curls
2 min walk

how about seeing my detailed routines?

This first set is my warm up routine. you will need a stop watch or timer that has a second counter. Personally i have a digital counter i use. it works well as i can see the time from several feet away. to train using this routine is simple it is modeled after the metolius set... with my own tweaking. to complete this routine do each described task at the start of the minute. the time remain is to be used for rest before the next minute. simple enough?...



the next two routines work the same the key difference is to include hard activities. this can easily be altered when you make your own routine. the goal is to be near failure at the end of each step. try timing your hangs on each hold position available on your hang board. then take 80% of each time and apply it to your routine. than test your routine to see how well you can move through it. if you find yourself not working hard enough adjust your times, add additional activities such as pull-ups, knee raises, lock offs or leg lifts. if you find the basic routines to challenging try placing a chair a couple feet behind the board to stand on.



Next are the examples of my heat routines. these have a distinctly different format, the concept is the use of one minute blocks with one min rests. in theory this makes your training more representative of the timing of movement required to do a crux of a route or boulder problem.

here's the way i do them:
second 0 ~start standing under the board.
second 1 ~pull-up on the intended hold.
second 2-5 ~drop to a 90 degree lock off
second 6 ~pull up and drop to the ground
second 7-10 ~rest

there is a thousand different ways to tweak this model to your own requirements. it's all up to you to get creative. if you bouldering i suggest working lock off strength.

to make the exercises harder...
use smaller holds, reduce your rest times add some weight (you can use an old harness and sling to hand weight down your center of gravity... oh and start low), hang with one hand in a worse hold, and alternate hands between hangs so each hand has hung 3 times off a smaller hold and 3 times off a larger hold.

to make excercises easier...
reduce hanging time and increase resting time for each hang. instead of 6sec hang and 4sec rest, try 5&5 (or 7&3 for harder), use a bigger hold, try putting a foot on the wall or chair in front of the hangboard to take some weight off.

in the end it's all up to you. i suggest having a little training log. track how it's going. you will come up with ideas as you progress. youll want to note what was easy day to day. and focus more on those little gaps to make your training more well rounded and focused. as always hope it helps!