This is the first ever training program review from this blog and perhaps it won’t be the last. I will be looking at the pros and cons of the program and how to us it to help you improve as well as what equipment or training devices you may need to be maximally successful.
Most climbers, through regular sessions and standard projecting can get up into the 5.11/V5 range. That is fantastic and a quick survey of Mountain Project shows that over 70% of cataloged routes fall in that realm. But, some of us want more, and to do that we need to train our fingers more specifically than just climbing and that means adding some hangboard work. All the pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, and pistol squats in the world will not help you if you can not hang from small holds, and that is where Jonathan Siegrist comes in with his 6 Weeks to Stronger Fingers program, brought to you by Climbing Magazine and AIM Adventure University. J-Star has made a name for himself with multiple 5.15 ascents and a rigorous training cycle that makes it seem like every six months he becomes even more unstoppable. With this program, he hopes to impart some of his wisdom to use normies. Because this is a paid for program, out of respect for the author and distributors, I will not be posting full workout schedule, but will comment on some specifics.
Equipment
-Climbing Gym (duh)
-Campus Board (preferably with a kick plate)
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| Something like this: 3 rung sizes and a kick plate for different sized climbers |
Cost
$45 (plus tax)
Pros
1) The relatively short time frame. Having a set time frame that is also a conceivably short block style of training means that you can focus on the goal at hand. If you know that you have a trip or competition and want to train specifically for that event, start this six weeks out and you should be in good shape. Longer programs can become dull, excuses creep in, and usually there is no long term goal besides “getting better.” This is laser focus on the immediate future.
2) No campus, no problem. If you still struggle to campus, or even do a pull-up, the Beginner track of this program has you covered. Your feet stay on a kick plate or box and you still get to do the pull through exercises on the same campus board to practice the motion and get stronger, preparing you for the day can campus on your own. This is also the only portion of the program that is scale-able, meaning you can pick the campus rung that works best for you.
3) No pull-ups. Similar to the above, there are no pull-ups in this program other than the campus work in the Advanced track. The purpose of the program is stated very simply as getting you stronger on smaller holds and that means a lot of hanging. Many other programs call for pull-ups, or at least lock-offs at varying degrees of elbow flexion, but that is not always feasible for some folks. Heck, I have know plenty of hard grit 5.11 climbers that have never once had their chin clear the bar. If you still can’t do pull-ups but love to crimp, this one is for you.
4) Crimps. Most other hangboard training protocols only have you train in the open hand or, at most, half crimp position. This is a safer training methodology, particularly for those new to hangboard training, and open hand does have carry over to the crimp, but not the other way around. But, you do miss out out one of the key hand positions in hard climbing. There is balance here of full crimp and open hand training so you get maximum force production up front combined with a nice stretch and some endurance in the second half.
5) Adequate rest periods. The longest set is 90 seconds, but no more than 60 seconds is spent hanging because this is a repeaters style program. You are on the board, then off for the required time over and over until the set is finished. Once the set is complete, you get three minutes of uninterrupted rest, and trust me, you will need it. Though this does add to the total time on for the entire workout, it does address some latent issues of hangboard training from days gone by that sought a gnarly pump as a means of training due to limited rest. A great example of this old school hangboard protocol are the 10-minute sequences from Metolius. We are training connective tissue, not so much the musculature, and that means more rest to keep tissue that receives little blood flow and is relatively inelastic safe. It needs more rest, so now you get it, especially from the full crimp position. Science!
6) You still get to project. Many programs also ask that you put your project on hold and run the program to rise to the occasion. Siegrist knows that reason we are training is to send and the way we stay psyched is never losing sight of the goal. With days programmed that focus on working your project means you can keep slogging away at it, and if you send, you earn the right to shovel another project in its place. It also prevents you from fixating on one project for a whole season but encourages you to have multiple projects running at once and to work what feels right for you that day/session.
Cons
1) It’s actually only 5 weeks of programming. Seriously, the sixth week is dedicated only to projecting, no hangs and no campus training. I felt a little ripped off that I paid for a six week program and only got five, so in my mind I got 83% of the value I paid for, and despite everything below, this was my biggest gripe.
2) 20mm and 18mm edges are freaking small. For reference, the small rung of a standardized wood rail campus board is 0.75″ or 19mm. The program states that it is made for the 5.11-5.13 or V4-V6 climber and that seems way off base. Even when I was on-sighting 5.12 and V5 outside, that small rung still put me on my ass in the gym. Because the program was made to be used with the Tension Simple Board, those edge sizes are the only option, but many hangboards and campus rungs do not even come with both of those sizes as an option, so you have to just try and get close. The other problem is that it is not scale-able. A good program should be able to be scaled for all ability levels so that everyone can reap the benefits.
3) The schedule changes every two weeks. I’m [usually] on a pretty set schedule as to what days are climbing, lifting, and running days. I didn’t mind sacrificing 20+ minutes of climbing time to run a hangboard or campus training program, but then the actual training days changed in Week 3 and in order to stay honest with the program, I had to change my other workout days too. This may not a big deal for other people, but it threw me off from my other goals and I like a concurrent training program. If you have a job with irregular hours, this can also be a problem. Also, as a fitness professional, I know the power of a schedule and how it keeps one honest. Changing it up makes it harder to commit and to stay true.
4) The progression felt erratic rather than gradual or sustainable. See the above con of the training day changes because they coincide. For two weeks you are doing one thing, each session a little harder than the last, then it suddenly changes course to try something else. Training in this tight time frame should build, whether via linear progression or on a curve, not spike and dip every couple of sessions. If this was a sixteen week program, and it did that every four weeks for a new block, then it would make sense, but a two week block of only a couple sessions is not long enough for adaptation and increased performance.
4a) You need the right edges and a campus board. Not every gym has a campus board, or, if they do, maybe not the correct one. I know, as mega gyms become the norm, that the training devices they have available become a major selling point, but some small gyms don’t have all the shiny toys, particularly college climbing walls. One small commercial gym that I have visited only had a sloper rung campus board; great for building dynamic power, but not great for building stronger fingers. My current gym has a whole added on area dedicated to training with multiple campus boards so I was set with that element, but I could not find a proper 20mm edge (one that allowed full crimping) on any of the seven hangboards available because none of them were the prescribed brand, so it was either 25mm or 19mm to get close to the correct size.
4b) No kick plate, some problem. Without a kickplate available, I used a plyo box and went barefoot to keep only my toes on the edge and stop from cheating. I even used the next size down in rail (read: hangs on medium, assisted campus on small) and the Beginner campus portion still felt too easy to make any real gains. If you have never campused before, see above for the Pro.
5) The time demand on training day is excessive. The warm-up period, if followed to the letter, is about an hour. Yes, we want our joints and connective tissue warm, but at a certain point in the night we are on the downside of the curve and I felt tired approaching the workouts rather than ready. The need to warm-up is important and we should not just jump on a 20mm hold cold. But, on the flip side, training while fatigued can be just as dangerous.
6) Shameless product promotion. This was made to be used on the Tension Simple Board but written by someone else and sold by another company even though Tension has its own program in their blog. Everybody got their beak wet and it was unnervingly transparent. J-Star for the name recognition, Climbing Mag for the promotion, AIM Adventure University for hosting and sales, and Tension for the training tool. The program may be $45, but if you also have to buy the hangboard and have the right gym set up, the cost starts to inflate. The constant clicking through multiple web pages to eventually get to the program from the original ad and then have an advertisement for the “right” hangboard in the email with the program was also annoying.
Relections
Did the program do what it was supposed to do and make my fingers stronger? Anecdotally, it may have or may not have made my fingers stronger.
I ran the Beginner program twice through, once on the large rung (1.25″/32mm) and once on the medium rung (1″/25mm) but still did not feel ready for the small rung (0.75″/19mm). So I decided to run the Advanced on the large rung first since I could already competently campus on those holds.
My first real project session outside of the program after three rounds, I suffered a grade 1 tear of the A2 pulley of my left middle finger while still technically warming up. I will say that I had put on some significant mass in 18 weeks from lifting, but I had also been running this program with that mass, so my weight on the scale should not have been much of an issue. The injury was from a crimping-pinch type hold from a big left cross move (assumed grade V4 as my gym does not use conventional grading) to cut feet and swing and was not a hand position that was practiced in the program. I was not pulling as hard as I thought I could and a rupture still occurred. Flip side, later that week I participated in an outdoor competition and pulled multiple V4’s and a V5 flash while taped up. Perhaps it was just a bad position and my fat ass can’t handle this newfangled gymnastic type of route setting, because the rest of the fingers were just dandy on real rock. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t training on the 20mm rail so I did not make all the necessary gains. Or, even more perhaps, despite it being an off-hand, off-kilter, off the wall move, the damage was lessened because of the training. Who knows. It’s been 8 weeks and my finger feels great now and I’m ready to get back on my regular Iron Palm and OG Metolius Simulator. I spent my time away from the board putting my own knowledge of progression and training to good use.
Verdict
Try, Don’t Buy. In the end, based on both my training knowledge and personal experience, I would NOT recommend buying the program. It was so miserably put together that it brought me pause in pursuing the other more expensive programs on AIM Adventure University. In writing this review, I had some difficulty coming up with enough Pros to match my long list of Cons. No program is perfect, but some are better than others. Look for a Jams My Cams about hangboards and protocol coming soon. If you know someone that has purchased the program and you want to try yourself, please go ahead, maybe it’s just what you need.
However, if you want to try a similar program that uses the same idea but with a standardized structure, allows for it to be tailored to any level, maintains a set schedule, uses linear progression and periodization, and is actually six weeks in length, I re-wrote the program. I ran it once on the large rail while taped up and it felt much better than the one I bought. So, instead of you spending $45 for $37.50 worth of value, I have posted the 6 Weeks to Stronger Fingers (Redux) for free.
Beginner, or Progression A, is
HEREAdvanced, of Progression B, is
HERE
Happy Training!
-Tylor Streett, is an old curmudgeon that will never be a strong, good looking, or suave as J-Star (even though we are the same age), but he can probably out deadlift him.
If you have a program that you would like reviewed or tweaked, please share it with us! I will run the program and let you know what works, what doesn’t, and what can be made better.
