Climbing Magazine | Training: Hangboard Ladders for Finger Strength

This story originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Climbing Magazine.

In climbing, when your fingers fail, the rest of your body falls. Focusing on this direct connection to the rock can benefit your climbing performance greatly, and luckily, finger strength is relatively easy to train. The key with this, like any training, is to do it correctly and in the right amount, as too much can be time-consuming, boring, and possibly harmful. In my 20+ years of training experience, I’ve found a simple way to maximize finger strength while staying far away from the zone where injury is possible. The idea is to strategically change the volume of work in any given session via “hangboard ladders,” where easy, medium, and hard sets are cycled through and weights are adjusted in a way that increases strength while completely avoiding risk. Read more…