Hi! Old school user of this subreddit here with a meditation on what I’ve observed over my last decade and a half of climbing.

When I started climbing (only 15 years ago) the sport had already experienced big changes. There were already gyms in a lot of major cities and, although climbing was about to boom, it was still genuinely an unusual thing to do in most places.

As a result, there was a real sense of community around climbing. Lots of us were weirdos. The somewhat makeshift climbing gyms of the time were filled with very motley crews of very different people making friendships that would have been unlikely to develop elsewhere because of differences in age, interests, income, whatever. People talked with each other, joked, gave each other shit, tried hard, fell and laughed. This seems to have been lost, at least where I live.

It’s partly true that climbing just a victim of its own popularity. (A massive, loose community isn’t a very meaningful community.) But there are other things going on that are equally important

Architectural changes in the gyms themselves undermined sociality and made gyms less friendly places. The infusion of money from the sports growing popularity permitted bigger gyms and the emergence of “comp style” setting necessitated lower route density. You are no longer forced to sit six inches from someone who might (as a result) become your friend.

There was a moment when board climbing & training seemed like it would save climbing for some people. Only a small portion of clientele were interested and, if you wanted to climb on the board, you had to sit right next to other people and watch them climb. What were you gonna do? Pretend like you didn’t see the person right next to you? It didn’t matter that you were climbing v10 and they were climbing v3.

But by this time the black hole of Instagram was already beginning to swallow climbing. The kilter board (in retrospect) was seemingly designed to be posted and soon all the board makers integrated Instagram into to their apps and their marketing strategy. This is the real bad part.

Some board companies more than others have learned from Edward Bernays and started selling us a climbing & insta posting identity where being strong and always sending hard is the highest (and only?) good in climbing.

So it’s great that we have all these training tools and knowledge but it strikes me that people are enjoying climbing a lot less than they used to. When I go to the gym and sit under my local TB2, I am usually the only one making conversation and the only one smiling. One time recently I asked someone what boulder they were climbing and someone else leaned in and told me I could look at the name under “recently displayed” in the app. 😐

Partly it’s the phones, doing what they do, sucking people in with beta vids, rankings, and the possibility of recognition via content creation but it’s also the obsession with sending hard that business-generated social media content has engendered by linking the climber’s identity not just to climbing, adventuring, nature, or to a group of friends, but to climbing hard.

There’s no more chuckling when someone dry fires: the stakes of failure are too high. There’s no room for casual conversation: everyone is too busy optimizing and aspiring to Board Lordship. People don’t experiment, set climbs together, or play games: there are Benchmarks or Classics to send.

If you made it this far I’m honored. Hopefully I don’t sound too old. Say hi next time we’re at the board together.

I'm a V11 climber who's primarily trained on the TB2 for quite a while. Recently, I picked up a pair of gymnastics rings for home training, and I'm interested in using them to improve body tension, core strength, and power on steep overhangs.

Currently, I can do a muscle-up, L-sit, and front lever on rings. I'm considering progressing toward skills like the back lever/iron cross, but I'm not sure how much these movements actually transfer to climbing performance.

I've tried adding JUST progressions to positions like the front lever for around a month, but I haven't seen a big jump in my body tension.

For those who have incorporated rings into their climbing training:

• Which ring exercises have you found most beneficial for steep climbing?
• Have you noticed meaningful improvements in body tension over a longer period?
• Are skills like the back lever worth pursuing, or would simpler strength exercises be better for climbing?

I'm particularly interested in incorporating rings as supplemental training without taking too much away from my regular climbing sessions.

I'd be psyched to hear opinions on this.

Thanks!

Hello, I want to start focusing on increasing my finger and grip strength and also lower my injury risk.

I've only been climbing for about a month and I know the best way to improve is to keep going but I also want to work on my fingers for calisthenics reasons and thought this would be a good place for insight on these tools.

I've narrowed it down to 5 tools and was wondering if any of you guys had any experience with them and which you'd recommend. Recommendations outside of these are also appreciated.

1. Nature Climbing Stone Hanger

2. Hand of God Micro

3. Frictitious unlevel edge 2

4. Frictitious Port-A-Board

5. Hoopers Beta MODEDGE: Adjustable Finger Trainer

I will mostly be using these tools with a lifting/loading pin if that makes any difference.

Not sure if this is more injuries related or not? Sorry if it’s in the wrong thread, but wanted to hear some people’s opinions on how to handle the mental aspect of physical injuries. 5-6 months ago was managing a persistent tendinosis on my biceps femoris tendon as well as a bone marrow edema (bone bruise) on my left pointer. Well after 3 months, both were mostly dealt with, but not without the loss of the spring season. Well, lo and behold, I come back to the wall ready to get back in peak shape and try hard, and the other side of my knee/hamstring starts hurting. Turns out, MCL sprain and Pes Anserine tendonitis are flaring up. On top of this, seems I’ve started to develop Synovitis on my right middle finger, limiting any other training I can do while I focus on pt for my leg. I understand in the grand scheme of things, these injuries are not life changing or even theoretically ridiculously long term, but I feel like I’ve been going insane! Climbing is my biggest passion and not being able to exert at my max has left me feeling at a loss of identity and motivation, even outside of climbing. I find myself anxious all the time about the healing progress of my injuries and if I’m really doing the right things. I know climbing and injury are two things that go hand in hand, and I’m trying my best to manage it with as much thought, effort, and awareness as possible, but I still can’t help but feeling kind of lost, anxious, and demotivated. I don’t know if anyone has any advice or personal anecdotes, but I am really curious how other people manage this stuff. Appreciate any opinions and thank you for reading if you made it this far.

I posted about this here a while back but it's finally reached a point relevant to the community: a laser overlay for your wall. It's a small projector with a camera, set it in front of a wall, pick a route in your app, and it marks the holds for that route. No wiring and no mounting, and it fits in a backpack, so it moves between walls and resets.

We've had quite a few people climbing with it this year - in coached training, gym and home settings - and everyone is pretty psyched on how (cost-)effective it is. For anyone who climbs on a single board a lot, something like this isn't necessary, as memorization is easy when you're working a few hard problems over enough sessions. It becomes really useful after resets though, or on new boards or for circuits with many problems, or for folks who simply aren't familiar with a wall. It's also great for add-on or similar games.

Spraywalls at gyms and even having friends come climb on your homewall have pretty significant barriers to entry simply because it's hard to know which holds make up the problem you're looking for.

In a nutshell: the camera photographs your wall once and finds the holds. A galvo mirror pair then steers the laser to whichever holds the route uses. It was developed initially with the Crux app API for spray walls, but systems boards work great already (all you LED-less moon enjoyers out there) and more spraywall app integrations are in the works.

Some common questions:

Does it work with systems boards? Yes. A toggle on the projector's config page switches it to systems board mode (boardsesh etc.), so you use your board's app as normal.

What's the point if your body is just going to block the projection? Of course If you stand between the projector and a hold, you block it. You can still see the climb before you start and the upcoming holds as you climb, and feet below you. In practice it's not much of an issue - in my opinion it's roughly 90% as good as LEDs.

Does it need an internet connection? Yes. The image processing runs on a dedicated server. There's no subscription, just a one-time price. If there's enough demand I'll add self-hosting of the server side code. If I ever shut the server down, I'll open-source the whole thing.

It's past 600 hours and 4,500 routes projected on units in the field. The Kickstarter is mainly to buy parts in bulk and build the first larger batch. It's US-only for round 1, with delivery by Feb 2027.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lzrvision/lzrvision-a-board-climbing-led-alternative

Happy to answer any and all questions!

I've been training seriously for about 2 years now (currently projecting V7/7A+) and my weekly structure usually looks like: 2 gym sessions, 1-2 Kilter sessions, 2 hangboard sessions (max hangs on Climbro), and 1-2 strength sessions (pull-ups, core, antagonists).

The problem I keep running into is that all my data lives in completely different places:
- Kilter sends are in the Kilter app
- Hangboard data is in Climbro
- Gym sends are in a paper notebook (tried TopLogger but my gym isn't on it)
- Strength work is in Apple Notes
- My coach and I communicate via WhatsApp screenshots of all of the above

I've tried consolidating into Google Sheets but I spent more time maintaining the spreadsheet than actually training, and I dropped it after 3 weeks.

What I'm missing is a way to see my overall training load across all activities in one place. Am I accumulating too much volume? Is my board-to-wall ratio off? Is my finger strength progressing relative to my sends? I can't answer any of these without manually cross-referencing 4 different tools.

I've searched and tested most climbing apps (KAYA, TopLogger, Crimpd, Climbro, the board apps) and none of them seem to handle the full picture. They each do their one thing well but don't talk to each other.

What systems have you built that actually stuck? Has anyone found a workflow that consolidates board + hangboard + gym + strength without turning into a data entry job?

Hi,

Have been climbing (indoor bouldering) for a year now, and comfortably in the V5-6 range with a few 7s thrown in the mix.

I want to improve and want to commit to a more focused intentional training approach.

I climb around 3 days a week at the moment, which just involves:

- Warm up (dynamic stretches, dead hang, pull ups, fingerboard hangs {mix of half crimp, 2 finger pockets, slopers - for 7 secs, 50 secs rest in between, 3 sets of each}, then working through low level climbs (juggy overhangs VB-V3, maybe a campus thrown in)

- Around 2 hours of climbing, mix of styles depending on if I have any projects or a new reset, no real focus

I have no set days for climbing, I just go when I can, and so can’t set specific days for training.

I have no real specific goals other than “be a better climber”, and there is such a varied and overwhelming mix of advice out there that I really don’t know where to start!

Any tips, be they for training methods or where to look or anything at all would be much appreciated!!

Hey all,

I’ve been climbing for about 10 years now. The first 5-7 years of my climbing I progressed quick and quickly became a consistent v13 climber. Never got a finger injury during this time and my style was exceptionally crimpy. My training consisted of climbing hard boulders on a super crimpy homewall. But mostly sticking to the rock.

However for the past 3 years it seems I have nearly zero tolerance for crimping. I’ll feel a small tweak, back off and deload then progressively load the fingers until they feel strong and healthy and slowly ease back into crimping. The minute I do boulders with crimps, boom pick up some more injuries. I can’t remember the last time I have been able to crimp like my old self. I can still climb hard boulders outside but the style is often limited and I have to choose wisely. My tolerance for hard crimping now is equivalent to what my old warm ups would be.

Not looking for diagnosis or specific rehab but wondering if anyone has delt with something similar. It’s incredibly frustrating as I feel like I am a much stronger and better climber now but these damn finger injuries won’t stop. Seems like my fingers just can’t handle it anymore haha.

General info: training structure has been the same for the past like 8 years: one day on one day off 2-3 hour sessions, low volume strength training and finger training in warm up. Rest of session board climbing. In season, generally go outside 2-3x per week with supplemental training session focused on strength training and a bit of board climbing.

Let's see if i can make the proper format... 😄

1. Experience Climbing 15+ years. Currently redpointing 6c on rock on my best days.

2. Height / Weight / Ape 174 cm / 76 kg / ape index 6. Around 22% body fat.

3. A week of climbing and training - 3 climbing sessions most weeks, sometimes 2.
   1.5-2 hours each, mornings.
   Session content: 15 minutes warm up aikido-style (did this a lot when i was young), then progressive harder climbs for 1 hour, 5-10 minutes rest after each attempt. 15-20 minutes easy climbing, 15 minute stretcing.
   2 brisk walks on off days, 1.5 hours at about 6 km/h. No hangboard protocol at the moment. Never tested max added weight. I can hang bodyweight for 15 seconds on a 20 mm edge, half-crimp.

4. Goals: A Slab 6c+ i'd love to make "Ultima chans" at tagliacozzo crag, and "La storia infinita" at guadagnolo graded only 6b+ but with a very big roof that create me several problems. Ideally still be climbing 6b+ at 70.

5. Strengths and weaknesses Strength: endurance.
   I don't fall off pumped. I can reach the crux of a 7a with something left. Weakness: single hard moves. Static power and lock-off strength on small holds. Finger strength is untested, which is itself a gap, I suspect it's below what 6c+/7a wants. Working on them so far: mostly volume on routes at 6a-6b, which I now think is the wrong stimulus for the thing that's actually stopping me.
   I dislocated a shoulder 4 years ago and active overhead loading is still weak, hanging is fine, pulling rope up to clip sometimes isn't. It's with a physio, so I'm not asking for injury advice here. I'm flagging it because heavy overhead pressing and dynamic shoulder-loaded moves are off the table, and any suggestion has to work around that.

My doubts
My plan was a weekly rotation: one endurance circuit session, one bouldering session, one routes session. At 2-3 sessions a week that's one session per quality, and for power, my ralweakness, one session a week looks like it sits at or below the dose that drives adaptation. The split sends most of my limited volume away from my weakness. So: is a 6-8 week emphasis block better use of low frequency two of three sessions biased toward max strength and limit bouldering, endurance dropped to maintenance?
Or does slower connective-tissue recovery at 62 argue for keeping the flat distribution even though it adapts more slowly? Mainly interested in how others training 2-3 times a week concentrate load on one quality without accumulating it.

Imagine you couldn't dead hang, couldn't active hang, and couldn't do a single pull-up or push-up. That's me.

I can barely activate my scapular muscles to get into that “back and down” position, and my PT is the one who figured this out.

Here's where I'm struggling with climbing: my overhang grade (10s) has always been significantly lower than my slab and vertical grades (12s). I've practiced the techniques you're constantly told to use on steep terrain: pulling with your toes and hamstrings, engaging your core, squeezing your glutes, twisting your hips in, flagging, pacing, resting, etc. But I still tend to “power down” about halfway through a route. My body just seems to run out of gas, and I can't hold on anymore. This does not happen to me on other styles.

I'm trying to figure out whether strength is the missing piece for me, rather than continuing to hear that it's all about technique which seems very common, especially among men who are naturally stronger than women like me.

I've watched Neil Gresham's masterclass a million times, read all the books, and practice. I'm genuinely trying to figure this out. I even had a coach at some point, but I think coaches are reluctant to tell you you're weak (since well, that sounds kinda insulting).

• Was there a baseline level of strength you needed before overhangs started to feel fluid and smooth?
• I know pull-ups don't automatically make you a good overhang climber. But I'd imagine that strong scapular control and shoulder engagement are pretty important on steep terrain. Are there any solid overhang climbers who genuinely can't do a single pull-up?
• Can you actually be too weak for the overhangs you're attempting, even if your technique is reasonably good? In other words, can a strength deficit be the limiting factor, rather than technique?

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I'm really new to reddit and have never done anything like this before. I'm a keen boulderer and I’m currently working on my A-Level EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) for college, which is focused on climbing habits—specifically how different disciplines approach warming up and cooling down, and the main barriers to doing them.

I thought this would be a really good place to gather some responses, so if you have 3 minutes and, whether you have a meticulous 45-minute routine or you literally just jump straight onto your project, please would you fill out my anonymous Google Form:

Link: https://forms.gle/kyNyB1ePN42Mm1UJ6

Thanks guys!

I've been climbing almost exclusively with a mini moonboard 2025 for a year now and figured I'd throw my own thoughts into the pile. Hopefully this wall of text will be helpful for anyone else who is thinking of getting one.

tl;dr: I really like it

Background

I built a mini moonboard because I moved to a place with no good climbing gym and also no decent access to outdoor climbing. In 2025, I was just starting to project V8s in the climbing gym. I had sent one V8-, and could pretty consistently do V7s in my style in a session (my style being power-y overhangs (super unique, I know)).

I thought my gym was decently fair with grading, if a bit sandbagged on the lower end but fairer to softer on the higher end. Compared to the kilter board in the gym, which I would use occasionally, the grades were about even or the gym was 0.5-1 V grade softer.

I don't boulder outside but I do climb trad and sport. The hardest I've ever climbed outdoors was 5.8 trad and 5.11a sport. I currently don't have interest in projecting hard things outdoors, mostly wanting to just climb cool multipitches, so my main focus on outdoor climbing is endurance rather than strength.

I went with the mini moonboard 2025 solely because of space constraints; if my garage were taller, I would have made a full moonboard. I went with the 2025 set instead of the 2020 set because I've heard the 2025 is not as sandbagged. I haven't climbed on the 2020 so I can't speak to the veracity of that statement, but I do think that the 2025 is fair for the grade.

Build + Cost

I had about a 2.5 month break between when I moved and when I finished building the mini moonboard, which was mostly due to getting situated post move and laziness. The build itself took maybe a combined 16 hours, and wasn't that difficult. I had a friend with woodworking experience help me, and I used Jake Krebs's plans.

The whole thing cost ~$3500, including the holds (including shipping and tariffs), hardware, crash mats, lumber, and a miter saw we bought to make the angled cuts. I did not get the lighting kit, because it would have added more money and time to the build, and the mini moon is short enough that you don't really need the lights to remember what problem you're climbing.

Climbing on it

The lowest grade on the mini moonboard is a 6A+/V3. Now, each individual move is probably harder than you'd find on a V3 in a gym, but because it is short, it works out to be a V3. However, if you are max climbing V3 in a gym, it will be a pretty rough transition to climbing on it. The other thing about the mini moon is how tension-y it is. At 40 degrees, and being so short, you really can't afford to cut feet unless you are going to a hold on the top third of the board.

I was pretty surprised at how creative and varied some of the movement on the board can be. Now, yes, everything is still tension-y and strong, but the climbs aren't all just "crimp to crimp" type climbs.

My sessions look something like this:

10 minutes of "hangboard" warmup on E12 and F12 (the best holds on the top row), I'll deadhang for ~7 seconds and then do a pullup. I'll rest for about a minute or two inbetween, mostly based on vibes.

Do 2 V3 climbs back to back, repeat 3 or 4 times.

Do the V4 climb "Sport climbing"

Go on to do whatever projects I want that day.

The climbs I do before going to the project I'm working on is the way I've devised to try to stem my endurance atrophy, and I think it has worked. I go back to my old gym ~once a month, and before I came up with this system, I could feel the pump just working up from V1-V4 climbs. But afterwards, it felt just like before.

It took me about a year of climbing on the mini moon to send my first 7A/V6 benchmark. The last time I went back to my old gym ~1 month ago, and I flashed a V6 and made good progress projecting a V7 in one session. I would say strength-wise, I'm 100% stronger than I was before. Beta reading wise, probably about the same or a little worse. I think going and still having a true gym session occasionally helped keep up my route reading, and I tried to purposefully seek out funkier looking boulders.

Other thoughts

One of the things I've come to really appreciate is the convenience. If I want to climb, I just walk out to my garage and climb. And with no gym music being played, in between sets I can sit around and study and read.

That being said, climbing on the mini moon has really taught me how important weather conditions are, if you build it in your garage. I'm in the south east, and it was fine climbing all through fall, winter, and into spring. But the moment summer hit, it sucked. I would be climbing at 10pm but it was still 82F and 90% humidity.

The moonboard app sucks. It works (most of the time), but there are so many little things around it that make it oftentimes very frustrating to use.

I tried to climb twice a week, but I'd often (maybe 35% of the time) only climb once a week, which is almost certainly holding back the amount of progress I can make. However, that is mostly due to other life stuff happening. I've only made the conscious decision to not climb a session maybe three times because my fingers hurt.

Which, your fingers will probably hurt, especially starting off. It was never "I'm going to injure myself" levels of hurt, but it was definitely much more finger strain than a regular gym session would be for me.

Conclusion

I am very happy with my decision to build a mini moon. The 2025 set has an overall good problems, and a few that I thought were very creative and very good. Again, I have only climbed up to V6 (and only one V6 benchmark), but the higher in grade, generally the more creative and varied the problems get as well. And I've gone on two trad trips since transitioning to the moonboard, and my endurance is still good enough to lead 5.6-5.8 trad.

If you are moving somewhere with poor climbing access and have decent baseline strength, and the mini moon is the biggest home board you can make, 100% go for it. If you have the space though, I would suggest building a regular sized moonboard if it is going to be your main climbing source.

For other contexts, it really depends. If you are looking for a fun training board to work on finger strength, tension, and overhang climbs? I also recommend it. If you are looking for something with variety though, I wouldn't. Even though I talked about how interesting some of the problems were, it is still a 40 degree overhang short board at the end of the day.

I hope this big wall of text was/will be helpful for someone, and happy to answer any specific questions for the three people who read the whole thing!

edit: a picture of my setup (the pullup bar I added in a couple months ago).

Hi - I’m a 30 year old male, been climbing about 8 years. I’m experiencing what I perceive to be an excessive amount of performance variation and wanted to get some of your thoughts.

This year I did my first V10s (indoor and outdoor) and this season did V9 in a session outdoors, so i know that when everything is working I can perform at a high level. I’m also working my first 8As and making good progress. However, I keep having sessions though where I can barely climb V5, where everything feels absolutely desperate. If I film myself in this state I’m sagging and climbing like crap. It isn’t just antistyle problems, I’ve repeated this on climbs I’ve done indoors and out.

What should I be aware of here? What could be going wrong? Do others experience this? Some ideas I had were:
- Fuelling…? I feel like I’m eating fine. My diet is good and my weight is stable, but perhaps local fluctuations in fuelling are making a big difference. I’m 70kg and try to get about 100g protein.

- Skin. My skin is absolute garbage, super soft and sweaty. I antihydral which helps but sometimes I feel like I’m in a skin hole, which I guess does contribute to feeling weak and insecure even if the top layers feel ok.

- Sleep. Bit of a sore point. I get a lot of sleep but feel like quality could be better. Already doing normal sleep hygiene things, I also take Mirtazapine

Keen to hear other’s experiences or ideas for things to test or change.

[FR]

Hey, je vous partage ici un projet sur lequel j'ai travaillé pendant maintenant plus d'un an.

J'ai terminé et publié mon livre sur l'entraînement en escalade, en particulier le bloc 🧗. Il est disponible en deux versions:

- Gratuite (don facultatif) en version digitale sur ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thomas13ansdescalade/shop

- Pour 9.8€ en version physique sur Amazon: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0HK6691DB

Le livre est en Français. Tous les profits réalisés jusqu'à la fin du mois de Novembre seront reversés à l'association Movember pour la santé physique et mentale des hommes ❤️

N'hésitez pas à le partager autour de vous 🤙

[ENG]

Hey, I wanted to share a little project I had been working on for one year now.

I’ve just finished and published my book on training in climbing (in particular bouldering) 🧗. There are two versions available:
- For free (optional tip welcome) in digital version on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thomas13ansdescalade/shop
- For 9.8€ in physical version on Amazon: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0HK6691DB

Note that it’s in French. Also know that all profits made until end of November will be given to the Movember association for men’s health ❤️

Don’t hesitate to share with whoever could be interested 🤙

24m 5'11" +3.5 150lbs v8/7b+ Max boulder grade

I pretty much only board climb on the 2016 MB for 2-3 sessions per week for around 3 hours and do the new set once a week when it gets put up. My off the wall training is pulling on a 20mm edge on a pin off the ground and a beastmaker 2000 with some other supplemental calisthenics exercises.

For context I used to train all my hangs and my pulls off then pin with a passive DIP because it felt stronger but it also always felt easy to over do it. 3 months ago I switched to only pulling on the pin with my DIP engaged to see if it would help with pain after crimping hard, at the start my max weight went down from around 100-110lbs to 45lbs. The first 2 weeks I felt very weak and didn't climb anything hard so I could maintain an active grip on the wall aswell. Now my max is at 85lbs and my unengaged pin pull has lowered to around 90-95lbs. I've started to climb hard again and I feel much better after crimping something small but I also noticed feeling much stronger in general even though my max unengaged pin pull is lower and deadhangs feel about the same. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed getting stronger and weaker at the same time well training a more engaged grip or if there is some other factor I'm not considering?

Hello people,

I have great curiosity about the micro and crusher, as well as people’s anecdotal experience/ theoretical thoughts on the training protocol attached to these tools.

To be honest, I’m already quite sold on the micro, I listened to Dan Varian, on the test piece podcast, talk about the importance of better DIP joint control and strength some time ago, and as far as I’m aware, the micro seems like the best tool available (in terms of both practicality and safety) for this given purpose. The crusher however, I’m unsure how it would benefit my climbing, and aware that it would incur further costs after purchase, to be able to train hard on it in a way that doesn’t nuke my shoulders. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have value though, my uncertainty is from cluelessness. What would it provide for me that my rolling thunder can’t accomplish on a cable machine, aside from the app integration, which could potentially make it worth it even if there is actually little functional difference between my current rolling thunder set up.

I’m under the impression that Mobeta used to have more available content, which got deeper into the reasoning behind the creation of the tools and the protocol, as well as a allegedly earnest comparison to alternative tools, but that they’re currently unavailable and that he’s in the process of remaking them. If this is the case, if anyone has seen the videos, or is knowledgeable about the tools and protocols regardless, I would appreciate it if they could pass on some of the information

For those of you that have experienced training with these tools, I’d also be curious how you managed initial fatigue. Eg. Assuming that you climbed the same frequency, and the climbing itself took a temporary hit, how long was it until you adapted back to your previous baseline of a quality climbing session, how long was it until you adapted beyond initial capacity

All input is very much appreciated, thanks for your time!

This is a thread for simple, or common training questions that don't merit their own individual threads as well as a place to ask Injury related questions. It also serves as a less intimidating way for new climbers to ask questions without worrying how it comes across.

• r/Climbharder Wiki - many common answers to questions.
• r/Climbharder Master Sticky - many of the best topic replies

Commonly asked about topics regarding injuries:

Tendonitis: http://stevenlow.org/overcoming-tendonitis/

Pulley rehab:

• https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/stories/experience-story-esther-smith-nagging-finger-injuries/
• https://stevenlow.org/rehabbing-injured-pulleys-my-experience-with-rehabbing-two-a2-pulley-issues/
• Note: See an orthopedic doctor for a diagnostic ultrasound before potentially using these. Pulley protection splints for moderate to severe pulley injury.

Synovitis / PIP synovitis:

https://stevenlow.org/beating-climbing-injuries-pip-synovitis/

General treatment of climbing injuries:

https://stevenlow.org/treatment-of-climber-hand-and-finger-injuries/

This is a thread for topics or questions which don't warrant their own thread, as well as general spray.

Come on in and hang out!

Traditional wisdom is that forearm pump is a result of weighting your fingertips for a long time, and you train it by doing hangboard repeaters on 20mm or smaller edges.

However, I don't get pumped doing repeaters, and thinking of the times I get pumped on rock, it almost never involves small holds or finger engagement. I have no doubt that a long overhanging sequence in small holds could get you pumped, but that doesn't occur in the type of climbing I do. If there's small holds, it's on slab and/or in short boulder problem sequences separated by rests.

Here are a few instances when I have gotten pumped recently:

1. I have a project that's a sequence of hand jams, thin hand jams, and finger locks, and finally jugs. There is not a single small hold in the entire thing. But I get pumped out of my mind, even in the hand jam section. Its steep so there's a lot of weight on my hands. In this case my fingers are straight but are actively pressing against the side of the crack.

2. Recently I was following a sequence where my right hand did: a juggy hand traverse on a 4" deep lip with an incut edge; then a bomber hand jam in a constriction where my wrist simply slotted in and my fingers didn't have to do anything; then a similar upward-facing undercling-handjam with the weight still on my wrist. Got pumped but managed to hold on by alternately unweighting and shaking out each hand.

3. In any steep ice pitch I will get pumped while holding onto literal jug handles unless I take steps to address that.

4. When traversing under a roof on hand jams and foot smears, the fingers could be completely relaxed; the geometry means the weight is just on the "meat" of my hands. But still I will get pumped.

What is causing pump in these cases and how do I train it?

In cases 1&3, my fingers are required to press or wrap around something, and in cases 2&4, my fingers are doing literally nothing.

Hangboard repeaters seem very unrelated as they neither get me pumped and are challenging for another reason(hanging onto small holds with first 1-2 sections of finger). I'm sure they're great for training endurance on small holds, but that's not my problem.

Don't tell me it's overgripping or I'm actually just the world's weakest climber... Anyone will get pumped on a long ice pitch or overhanging hand jams. It's not just me.

I recently talked to an online coach about some issues with finger strength i was experiencing. I was wondering what the difference in finger strength and forearm strength was as i understand our fingers don’t have muscles and the actual muscle that is doing the work is the forearm. however, by training our fingers what do we gain from that other than strengthening our pulleys.

and i also wanted to ask, if forearm strength is the dictator on how strong we can grip, why is it not the case for people with really strong forearms to not be able to hand onto a 5mm crimp?

i struggle a lot with slopers, so much so that any climb with slopers would be 1-2 grades lower than my usual grade i’d climb. and the coach mentioned that it is an issue with my forearm strength as i can’t generate the force required to be able to grip a sloper but my fingers can handle a small crimp

could someone please explain to me how our forearm and our finger links and what each does in our role of climbing?

thanks a lot :)

I only recently got into climbing a few months ago and was full crimping everything and never knew there were even other ways of gripping. and now because of that i’m in a rehab phase for my fingers.

one issue i wanted to raise was. i cant physically not full crimp, and from what i found online its called hyperflexible dip joints, and i was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks to fix this.

another question was on how to grip properly while doing rehab. every educational video ive found has told me to essentially build up weight with half crimps wether it be isometrics or crimp pulls. i wanted to ask where i should be putting the force from my fingers into?

i have attached a video below demonstrating what i mean as it might not make much sense.

am i pushing force into the tip of my fingertips and essentially curling my whole finger or am i pushing force into my pip joint and therefore leading to full crimping. and when i train my fingers like this. am i more thinking of trying to squeeze my hand shut or just move only my fingers?

https://youtube.com/shorts/JC17W9zfERE?si=Dc6g8GCgTcv7_-EB

I'm looking for a climbing coach that helps me see what I'm doing wrong with my training/climbing. And I want to know more or less your advice on it, rates, what are the red flags...

Ideally I'd have someone in person who can correct my technique, but I doubt there's a good one where I live. Most climbers I know who hired a coach did a bunch of assessment tests in the first days, got a plan built around the results, and barely saw the coach again. I haven't seen them improve, and I suspect many of them would benefit more from learning to climb better than from repeating the same exercises for a year.

So my questions are: what red flags should I look for in a coach? Does the coach need to climb at a certain grade, or does it not matter? And what apps or plans have actually worked for you? I've read some books, but each focuses on one discipline (bouldering or lead) and I don't know how to adapt them to train both.

If it helps... I think my technique is quite good but can improve, specially for bouldering, but I think I'm starting to need a coach because even if I see slow improvement I think I'm training a lot for how little my results are.

About my goals: v10 boulder, 8a+/b route for 2027

- I'm almost 32 and I trained since 2020 with lots of injuries in between.
- Can do most of 7b boulders in a session, but 7b+ and 7c take a lot of sessions or feel imposible.
- Lead climbing 7b is OS grade and 7c redpoint. I projected a lot of 8a this summer, but none of them wants to go.
- Don't have a good facility to train with hangboard, weights... so I tend to just do boulder problems or set circuits in a spray wall with friends that have similar level.

I'm in Valencia Spain just in case someone knows a good one near me :)

I have been using LatticePlan since the beta and while I found everything a bit generic I really liked that it provided me with a structure to my week and the tracking aspects kept me honest. With a bit of tweaking to the exercises and protocols I made it work for me.

Unfortunately the whole thing has been going downhill since a few months. This Monday the weekly check in was broken and after a few tries I got a new week without any of my requested changes (keep workouts, keep schedule). I opened two support tickets and got no reply. I complained in an insta post and got absolutely useless replies (especially for a DM).

u/remuslattice hasn't posted in three months, the app updates are completely minor and obvious features like "swap open climbing with open outdoor climbing" are still missing.

What is going on here? Lattice went from something really personal and ambitious (Tom responding and adjusting my training plan himself) to an automated nightmare experience.

I apologize if this post comes across like a huge unfocused rant, but I used to get something out of their offers and would rather have them succeed.