First Weeks With a Fingerboard

After about two years of constant "canwecanwecanwe?" / "no, you'll only injure yourself" / "but pleeeeeeeeeeeeease", and one decisive bout of steep limestone sport climbing in Spain that made us both admit that we just had to get better finger strength, I finally relented and bought Lise (well, ok - us) a Metolius Simulator Fingerboard for Christmas.

A mere four hours of strenuous screwing later (stop sniggering at the back there) it was installed in pride-of-place above the living room door, and my wrist was ready to drop off (I said STOP it!):


I've been careful to start slowly, and not overstrain myself, but I have to admit that in just over a week, I'm already seeing a real improvement. Enough to make me think it's worth keeping some kind of record of it, and that I might as well post it here for future reference and probable hilarity for you rock gods reading this who probably do a hundred one finger pull-ups just to warm up:



So here goes. All the advice I've read from Dave McLeod and others led me to shy away from crimps and concentrate on open-handed strength, so that's what I did.

I started out doing:

• 3 10-second dead-hangs, open-handed on the two big jugs.


• Then I'd do slow open-handed pull-ups on those same big jugs (slow as in a slight enhancement of Tim Ferris' 5x5 method - 5 seconds going up, lock-off at 90 degree elbow position for 5 seconds, then take 5 seconds going back down). I could do two of these in perfect form, was really struggling by the down-stroke of the third, didn't even start the fourth.


• Finally I'd do open-handed dead-hangs on the biggest flat edges (four-fingers) for as long as I could. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that that was all of 3 seconds at first. Eep!

I've been doing this above routine maybe twice a day every other day, for about ten days, and already I've moved up to the following:

• 3 15-second dead hangs on the big jugs


• 3 clean 5x5x5 pull-ups on the big jugs, can do the up-stroke of the 4th but can't hold the 5s lock-off yet


• 3 10-second dead hangs on the largest flat edges


• 2 5x5x5 pull-ups on the largest flat edges - really struggling at the end of the 2nd, couldn't start the third


• 1 3-second dead hang on the top slopers

I've also noticed a definite improvement in my open-handed grip strength at the indoor wall, particularly on slopers.

So I'm going to keep up the progress reports in the hope that it makes me keep at it, and gives me a bit of inspiration next time I'm feeling weak.