You know what Jams My Cams?  When 20mm is NOT 20mm.

Allow me to explain.  This year I started a new training protocol from Power Company that included weighted hangs on a 20mm edge in the half crimp position.  At the time, the only “official” 20mm edge in my gym was on the old school Tension Triple Twins, two separate blocks with a jug, 20mm, and 15mm edges.  Training was not going well, or at the very least, not progressing the way I wanted or expected.  I started wondering why and ended up at the following conclusions: Option A) It could have been because the wood blocks were polished from years of use by many gym go-ers.  Option B) It could have been that the edges were so rounded that I was losing a fair bit of skin of contact making the holds feel worse than they should be.  Option C) It could have been that I suck.  After 9 sessions, I was leaning heavily towards Option C with a touch of Option A.  But then my gym did a redesign on the training area and added some new hangboards.  The old Tension Twins were removed and a Tension Grindstone Mk. II was added to our hangboard selection, with edge options including 50mm, 30mm, 25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 10mm, and 8mm.  For workout #10, I loaded the weight belt, reached up, and grabbed what felt like the same depth (re: the edge hit the same area of my finger pad) and proceeded to do the workout.  It felt a little tough, as a workout should be, but far more consistent from start to finish.  Ok, Option A was starting to be a real contender since this board is new and a bunch of greasy dirtbags and team kids haven’t played with it yet.  It was only afterwards that I realized there was light engraving to show the edge depth in the back of the routed-out space.  What do you think it said?  

15mm…

…

…Motherf*****!!!!!

Whelp, Option C is out.  I am strong!  I am capable!  The program is working!  It’s the rest of the world that’s holding me down!  I came back the next week and did workout #11 on the “correct” 20mm edge and blew the freaking doors off.  I had so much left in the tank after each programmed hang it felt like I could add 50% more weight or hang twice as long or, heck, maybe both.  I started looking into other, new generation hangboards and training tools and noticed a trend compared to the boards from 15, or 20 years ago, square cut edges.  I also looked through other training protocols and noticed something else, the increased programming of the half crimp position and a reduction of the open hand position.  A more rounded edge makes sense for the old programs of just hanging in open hand as it allows for comfort and more skin contact.  That’s what we used to do; hang, relatively passively, on edges in an [uneducated] attempt to load the tendons to get them to improve.  As the sport grew, it took time for science to catch up to strength growth curve studies and we discovered that active engagement in the half crimp position was the safest active position and the most effective way to get stronger.  Therein lies the problem.  The half crimp position keeps the hand/fingers above the hold rather than the open hand position of hanging down and under the hold. With the massive smooth beveled exterior, a significant portion of the hold falls away from under the contact surface area and we lose part of the edge we were supposed to be training.  With a deep rounded interior, one would think this is to match the curve of our fingertips, and for a passive open hand hang, this would work.  But for the active half crimp it limits the space for the skin to spread out and maximize contact but pushing back into the space, plus it reduces the usable flat surface where force is being applied by a couple millimeters from the back. These cuts combined means something around 20-25% less hold is now able to be used!  

Now, with better tooling for the creation of boards and blocks, more squared off cuts with minimal rounding allows for two things; 1) that as you squish down your fingers, the skin has room to flatten out I the back of the hold, and 2) the usable edge depth increases with respect to the half crimp position.  Altogether, that increases the contact surface area of your fingers and allows for greater force production resulting in a better training stimulus.  The edges are still slightly rounded, but more like sanded than cut that way, and that’s more for comfort and durability of your skin during training than a perfectly square and sharp edge would normally allow.  Some space is still lost, but the impact is far reduced from previous designs.

“BuT tYlOr,” I hear you say through the internet, “iF yOu TrAiNeD oN tHe OlD tYpE eDgE yOu WoUlD jUsT gEt BeTtEr.”

That’s not the point.  The Gindstone Mk. II has seven (7) different edges and there is now a uniformity to the cut, no matter the depth, compared to the old boards.  They are cut to match the other brands and the other tools so that if I am traveling, or my favorite board is occupied, or I want to make one myself, then I don’t lose a step in the program.  That’s the point.  Tension, Lattice, Metolius, Escape, Trango, Evolv, and nearly every other hangboard manufacturer has moved to the square cut so no matter what and no matter where, I am always able to train the same hold. Standardization in training means consistency, consistency means safety, and safety means longevity for my skin, tendons, and climbing career.  If a coach, some of which cost a pile of money, wants me on a 20mm edge with a certain weight for a certain amount of time and we aren’t using the same style of board, we may as well not even be speaking the same language.  I have no problem training hard or on smaller holds.  My minimal edge training right now is on a sharp 10mm Transgression edge from the Eva López Transgression board.  Now that sucker is 100% L-7, but at least I know that I am getting the full value of the depth.

So where does that leave us in the end?  I still think Option A (remember Option A?) is a factor when it comes to training.  Clean your holds, not just brushing off the chalk, but regular cleaning of the gross people grease.  If your board gets too polished, a couple passes of rough grit sandpaper should bring it back to life and get rid of that caked on top layer.  If you use a board in a public facility, please ask before you go buffing the edges.  Or maybe get enough people to complain and they will install a new one off the wall in the pro shop!  What about Option B?  This is a post about Option B, so yes, it is a HUGE factor as it pertains to following a strict program.  If you’re out there just messing around with what’s available and/or you wrote your own program around what you have on hand, it’s much less important because you are only comparing yourself to yourself.  But if you paid for a program that calls for certain edges, be sure that the usable surface matches so you and your coach are on the same page.  One or two millimeters of difference seems like I’m being pedantic, but just 1mm is as much as 5% of a difference, and when at our limit that 5% can mean the difference between a successful and safe session or failure and injury.  Finally, Option C, do I simply suck?  Also yes, but my final session #12 is this week and then I get to test and see how less terrible I became on the new edge versus the old one.  Of course, providing there will be any improvement, we are back to the old adage of simply “sucking at a higher level,” but that’s a discussion for another day.

Tylor Streett, is constantly inventing new excuses and pseudoscience to back up his claims on why he is still terrible at climbing.