Beginner Hangboard Training (Rock Prodigy)

Looking for a little help/advice around the hangboard workout in Rock Prodigy. I reread the chapter last night after doing my first few hangboard sessions ever and I couldn’t find a few answers I was looking for (maybe I missed them in there).
I’m following the beginner workout session since I've never done any hangboarding before: around 8 different grips, only doing a single set per grip with 6 reps, 10 seconds on, 5 seconds off then 3 minute rest between grips.

Questions
1. Baseline resistance – what am I aiming for here? The amount of weight I need to add/subtract so I reach failure on the last rep for each grip? (in this case #6) I think that is what’s implied in the book:

Establish baseline levels of resistance (in terms of weight added or removed with your pulley system) for each grip position. This takes some trial and error, and baseline resistance will be different for each grip. Novice hangboarders should err on the side of using too little resistance (which will require removing 30 or more pounds for most grips); it’s much more motivating to progress quickly than regress or stagnate, and using too much resistance can cause injury.
If every repetition of each set of a given exercise is successfully completed, increase the resistance during the next workout for each set of that exercise by five pounds. It may take a few sessions to get to your true baseline resistance for each grip. That’s ok! Patience is the key to injury prevention.

2. What’s next after I get my baseline? The book constantly mentions needing to overload to stimulate strength gains but I don’t see anything specific in the hangboard schedule that notes when you should try to add/remove weight from your baseline for the beginner routine. Is that only for the more advanced HB workouts (I think this might be the case)?

Thanks for the help.

Gold Plated Rocket Pony wrote:Questions 1. Baseline resistance – what am I aiming for here? The amount of weight I need to add/subtract so I reach failure on the last rep for each grip? (in this case #6)

Yes. The ideal is to end each set not able to hold on for any longer, i.e., you reach failure on the last second of each set. I believe the Andersons shoot for failure a few seconds before the end of the last rep, though.

Gold Plated Rocket Pony wrote:2. What’s next after I get my baseline? The book constantly mentions needing to overload to stimulate strength gains but I don’t see anything specific in the hangboard schedule that notes when you should try to add/remove weight from your baseline for the beginner routine. Is that only for the more advanced HB workouts (I think this might be the case)? Thanks for the help.

That would be my suggestion. Add weight as needed since your baseline will continually go up as you progress. That comes with the caveat that, as a beginner, you should err on the side of progressing more slowly than injuring yourself. Torn pulleys suck and will set you back several months.

You can add the same amount of weight each day (say 2.5lbs), but listen to your body. If you find that you've plateaued, drop the weight back down and inch it back up from this new baseline. If you find that you aren't fully recovered by the time you get to the next workout, take a few extra days off.

Thanks for the response.

I also did the beginner set and interpreted baseline as "barely making it", at least for the beginner routine. It's different for intermediate and advanced. Essentially, you want to add 5 lbs the next session if you were successful on all 6 sets. If it's not challenging, I'll add 10, but that's rare. If I fail, even at the last second of the 6th set, I keep the weight the same on the next session. So, on workout #1 I might barely hold on at -5 lbs, but at the end of the phase, I might be barely holding on at 25 lbs. you're still fighting, but you've clearly gained strength. I only remove weight if I'm failing miserably on an early set or if I haven't moved past a plateau and want to make an attempt to "jump start" it.

baseline is essentially the weight you need to add or subtract for a given hold and hang duration, number of reps, so that you just barely are able to complete the full set without failing. this is essentially your strength level at the beginning of your training. to determine this it really helps to do a preliminary workout or two to figure out this load. baseline is sort of etched in stone - you will pretty much always use this as a reference point when comparing future workouts, or beginning a new cycle.

so, for example let's take a 3 finger open hang that we hang for 7 seconds, rest for 3 seconds, and do 6 reps for our set. after a bit of trial and error we determine that with an additional added weight of 10 lbs we can just barely do it. perfect - this is the baseline that we will use for this particular hold, hang/rest, # reps as our current and future reference point.

our first workout we will use this weight for this particular set. if we pass this set we will add additional weight during our next workout, etc. so a table of our workouts would probably look something like:

Workout # weight added pass/fail improvement (added - baseline)
1 10 pass 0
2 15 pass 5
3 20 pass 10
4 25 fail 10 (didn't pass 25 lbs, use previous)
5 25 pass 15
6 30 pass 20
7 35 fail 20
8 35 fail 20

so, we had an improvement of 20 lbs versus our baseline for this particular hold/hang/rest/reps.

on our next cycle (in a few months or so) our baseline would still be +10, but for workout #1 we might try adding 12.5 lbs if we are feeling strong. or perhaps if we are starting the cycle after a long layoff, we would start at +5 and try to build back up to (and beyond) our original baseline.