Finger Strength - Door Frame Pull ups - HELP :)

@stephanieloves2 I wouldn’t say anyone as people who go bouldering or climb for more than half a year and three times per week have generally stronger forearms and or fingers than most people even among the ones doing sports. In the end tendons and ligaments take more time to grow than muscle.

Now the hangboard is a device for a really specific kind of training. I myself am using my portable problemsolver hangboard although I still wouldn’t call myself fit again just yet but I have some time of intense bouldering in my tank. When I first got my hangboard I was more fit than I am now but my tendons felt like rubberbands, I couldn’t hang on it for life.
 
@hollywood3307 Using a hangboard is like any other exercise. You warm up and load them enough to gain but not enough to injure. People injured their tendons because they pull too hard too quickly. Someone experienced in callisthenics will or should have enough body awareness to exercise their fingers on a door frame.
 
@cece_lee16 Try fingertip push ups with curved, not straight fingers. This makes the muscles work harder, but also won't give you tendon inflammation. You might have to go to doing them on your knees, though, as they are harder.

It's more relevant to hanging from your fingertips on a door frame, as your fingers will be curved while doing this.
 
@cece_lee16 As @hollywood3307 said, chill. I also get the impression that you are a little bit too eager, too arrogant for your self, but to each their own.

Disclaimer: I don't know much though.

I will link /r/bouldering' s monthly questions thread. and

r/climbings monthly questions thread, also r/climbing List of tutorials.

And now a link to Menshealth article about gripstrength. Assuming you do excercises when not bouldering also, because I expect you to get a quite a lot of muscle soreness after bouldering. The excercises from Menshealth I do not agree with, but it is the definionts I specifally was thinking about.

I absolutely recommend small weights, or it may become hurtfull fast. This can be done after each workouts, andshould make your arms feel as bad as your legs after a massive leg day.

Now get a pair of dumbelss low weight, 1,25 kg may be enough, no matter how strong you feel you are your arms and wrist are usually the weakest link and it is easy to damage. Get a pair of plates low weight. I found it easier to just do the excercises by time, and not reps, because reps would lead to fatigue way faster.

Types of excercises when training grip.

Crushing: Closing fingers against resistance.

- Grab those lightweight dumbells, and imagine you are standing in the squat rack, doing biceps curls, because thats where it is supposed to be done, right? But now hold you arm out with a 90 dergree in your elbow, upper arm down and close to body. "Palms facing the floor" you curl your wrist back up. Do this kind of wrist curls for 30second to 1minute. Feel the pump yet? Well keep going. Turn your arms, so that your palm is facing upwards. Now you can try to roll the dumbell as far out in your hand as possible, withouth letting go of the grip.

The time you have for the first, use that for everything.

Pinching: Grasping something with the thums in opposition to the fingers.

- Now imedeately put your dumbbells down and grab those small lightweight plates, with a pinch-hold, 4 fingers on one side, thumb on opposite. Keep arms out and elbows at 90 degree. This hold you will find harder to do because gravity.

Support: The act of lifting something with fingers taking the majority of the load.

Extension: THe act of opening the fingers and thumb.

Both extensions and support -holds may be the most overlooked thing while grip stregnth training, which bad because just as everything else your hands and arms also needs a good balance of strength.

Immediately over to next.

Hex Hold, may be a good exercise which covers both support-hold and extensions. These may be better for your wrist to have hold your arms straigth down, probably risky to do with elbows 90 degree. Do these for a minute also. Turning hex holds can also do a lot of good.

Do this completes cirucuit 3 times, after each work out and you should see a lot of progression in finger strength. Progress with weights at rate sufficient for you. How much this carry over to boulderig I don't know, but it surely will help with your grip, and make your forearms less prone to injury. This said, know your limits when bouldering.

Just as with any other muscles, fingers and wrists, do need rest, however it usually is A LOT MORE.
 
@bobbie1941 I'm getting the same impression as you do and btw the exercises you recommended are the ones he could already be doing but he went ahead and bought a beastmaker hangboard out of them all, a hangboard were even the easy hold feels nasty and everything else is terror on your fingers, good training tool but nothing for a beginner.

I use this sub now because I got fat during quarantine so fat and weak, well I think I never started at a lower point although I’ve never been consistently fit no matter how high my highs were and for the first time in my life I thought I might get something out of reading into the ideas of likeminded people. I don’t know man I used to be even more athletic than OP before I got into bouldering and got shut down hard and while I dearly appreciate this sub it feels like every dude who does calisthenics and at some point thinks he’s looking good in the mirror also thinks he’s the second coming after Jesus and can do everything now. While I believe that calisthenics is a wonderful way to workout with a lot of carry over into other sports there things out there that are just way too fucking intense and can only be done with a lot of care or otherwise you’re gonna break yourself. That’s olympic weight lifting, olympic wrestling and climbing/bouldering if you start these three after 30 yrs of age and have never done any other sport as a little kid you need to come at it with a lot of respect and humility or you will get wrecked. Now getting wrecked in your hobby as an office worker is usually not what you want to go through but some people need to learn the hard way that you’re not some hot shit second coming of LeBron or if fictional characters are allowed Saitama when you get lean from working out bodyweight style for half a year.

Kudos to you and sorry for my lengthy response, have a good one!
 
@hollywood3307 Man .. was looking for advice haha .. sounds like most the climbers on here are a**holes tbh .. I got all the advice and I'll listen to it but you've made me think climbers think themselves as upper class to everyone else .. if thats the case i'd rather not Go ! ..

You guys sound worse than the people who play GOLF :)
 
@cece_lee16 Don't worry about not being able to do it yet. Just focus on strengthening your fingers. Try practicing on a thicker ledge and do pull ups on those to build up strength. Do some hangs on the door frame as well until you can manage to do pull ups. You can also buy a gripper to increase grip strength and incorporate bar rolls on your workouts to increase forearm size.
 
@litebrite I just tried it and I can do it...I lost quite a bit of weight in the past few months , I've always had stiff strong fingers and hands...I can only 15 pullups moderately fast or 10 slow, I dont have a bar so I use a barky tree in my backyard lol...im guessing my fingertip tendons are just strong enough to support my bodyweight. And the lighter I get the easier it is. I can do about 8 before I begin to feel the pressure....it doesn't necessarily hurt though. I can easily do fingertip pushups but I don't actually practice them. I kinda of want to make a video or put a short on YouTube to see if others can do it as well. Although I don't want people to hurt themselves because its defientely not for the normal fingers to try lol I weigh between 140 and 145 atm and obviously have enough back muscle to support my weight. I'm going to continue to practice them every few days to rest my finger tendons and re-strengthen then. Hopefully I'll be atb10 to 15 reps in the weeks to come. But I'm in no rush, just a fun goal i suppose.
 
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