Campus board - Should I use it?

Hey,

I've been indoor bouldering for 4 months now, and I'm climbing on the 6C-7A (V5) range. I've recently started doing some training on the campus board, but people have told me I should steer clear of it, or at the very least avoid down climbing.

Are they being overcautious? Should I train on the campus board, as long as I feel comfortable myself, or should I stay away from it for now?

ps. I'm a pretty light guy weighting only 58kg (128lbs)

You should not be campusing, you are more likely to get injured and time is better spent improving technique. It’s one of the last things to do after you’ve maxed out your natural gains from climbing. Hangboarding is more reasonable once you are climbing for closer to 2 years and pushing V6/V7. I would not recommend campusing until at least then.

NCD wrote:

You should not be campusing, you are more likely to get injured and time is better spent improving technique. It’s one of the last things to do after you’ve maxed out your natural gains from climbing. Hangboarding is more reasonable once you are climbing for closer to 2 years and pushing V6/V7. I would not recommend campusing until at least then.

Agreed.  Its not that you are guaranteed to injure yourself, its just that it is a significant chance of injury and as said you will see much bigger gains improving technique, doing endurance/power endurance workouts, or hang boarding.  4 months, regardless of strength/grade, will not have built up your tendon strength to where you want it for campusing as tendons/ligaments take much,MUCH longer to build up than muscle.  You might be perfectly fine, but you also might tweak a joint or tear a pulley and be out for 2 months.  The risk/reward just isn't there this early in your climbing career.

I hurt a finger in my first 6 months on a campus board.  I'm a little heavier than you (~160), had a lot of power from training before starting climbing, and thought it looked like a fun way to get stronger.  The tweak made me unable to climb hard on boulders for around a month.  I would stay off the campus board and just climb more if your hands feel good.

If you are interested in training. I would recommend reading Eric Horst's training for climbing or Mike and Mark Anderson's Rock Climbers Training Manual. The power company climbing podcast has some good stuff too that's free if money is an issue. These guys have been climbing and training for a longggg time and are the experts in the area. There are lots of ways to climb harder grades not just the campus board. 

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll stay away from the campus board for now, as you guys advised, but I have another question. I used to deadlift and do pull-ups before I started climbing so my open-hand grip strength is pretty good, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with full-crimping. Is that something I should avoid for now as well, or will it get better with time?

Benjami Turpeinen wrote:

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll stay away from the campus board for now, as you guys advised, but I have another question. I used to deadlift and do pull-ups before I started climbing so my open-hand grip strength is pretty good, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with full-crimping. Is that something I should avoid for now as well, or will it get better with time?

No need to avoid it, just practice it in controlled situations to get a feel for it (big holds on a hang board or on a boulder problem below your flash/red point grade).

 You're lucky to be asking questions at the beginning of your climbing growth. One of my biggest regrets is that I immediately began closed handed crimping and if I would've started crimping in an open hand grip from the beginning I would have overall stronger crimp strength by now. Begin open handed crimping now to improve your climbing later on. Don't do the campus board probably for a couple of years. There is so much to learn in terms of technique that campusing is pretty much something you'll end up doing when you know you have no options left. It's like a fat guy buying the most expensive, lightest road bike on the market with all the high end lightweight parts and scraping the paint off the frame to shave a few extra grams of weight off the bike while he's got an extra 20lbs on his gut. 

You should stay away for quite awhile.    You also need to he really careful in you actual climbing as the stress climbing at v5 puts on your tendons is enough to get hurt with only 4 months of climbing.  It takes several years to really build up tendon strength but only a few months to build the muscle.   In particular I would avoid really dynamic movements.   Focus on good static, fluid movement through your moves.  It will make you a better climber and help you avoid injury.   You also need to limit your time at limit climbing.  My first go round with climbing I progressed really fast and was climbing 4 days a week.   I got to v4 5.10 in a few months and ended up with tendonitis in my shoulder that took a year to get mostly resolved.   

Benjami Turpeinen wrote:

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll stay away from the campus board for now, as you guys advised, but I have another question. I used to deadlift and do pull-ups before I started climbing so my open-hand grip strength is pretty good, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with full-crimping. Is that something I should avoid for now as well, or will it get better with time?

You are asking a very good question and one beginners often miss, I know I did a long time ago before info like this was so widely available online. You are better off open handing to avoid injuries and climb more efficiently. Even higher level climbers often avoid full crimping unless when necessary. I think there is an argument for you must train full crimp at some point so you can be adapted to do it but I would not worry about that for now.

Here is a video I'd agree with,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYUHESJfns

You should watch the whole thing but at 5:30 sec is the start of the relevant full crimp discussion. 6:30 his advice is basically avoid full crimping all together indoors to help avoid injuries. 

Like everybody else is saying, wait until you're sending V7 and onsighting 512 pretty regularly before you consider training on a campus or hangboard. Don't use the full crimp while climbing when you can avoid it. Never use a full crimp if you're training, half crimps are ok, just don't ever wrap that thumb over the top. 

It's easy to get over stoked that first few months of climbing when you shoot up 3 bouldering grades in a month, but trust me when I say you should focus on the long game. I've seen alot of promising climbing careers cut short by training on these things too early which brought on some pretty severe elbow tendonitis, ruptured finger pulleys and torn rotator cuffs.

Get good at climbing first, strong 2nd.

there are many softer training techniques you can do on the campus / hangboard than just straight campus and deadhang/pullups... provided there are some foot placements below..

some light full crimping in climbs can be alright... provided you have catlike reflexes and let go the instant anything is about to peel off... again.. good feet below help in training this..no desperate crimp catches..

J Squared wrote: there are many softer training techniques you can do on the campus / hangboard than just straight campus and deadhang/pullups... provided there are some foot placements below..

Yes, but he can get many of the same benefits from just going climbing this early in his career. Plus, with a whole lot less injury potential and a whole lot more fun. 

Again, true, dedicated training fucking sucks. It takes forever and you really just don't send anything hard while you're training because you're too tired. Otherwise you're not really training. A legit hangboard work out takes an hour minimum, some people spend 2 hours staring at/hanging on those things! Campus board you typically need 3-5 minutes rest between sets to prevent injuries. On top of all that you need a good proper warm up for roughly 30 minutes. 

Climbing is fun and you'll make plenty of progress for a long time. I made steady gains every year for 6 years, climbing outside 90% of that time before I really felt like I plateau'd for a year and had to start training. In the end you won't remember a single hanging or campus routine you do but you'll remember a good day out at the mtn with your homies.

Aaron Livingston wrote:just don't ever wrap that thumb over the top [while crimping].

Second that. It's a sure way for a beginner to hurt a finger. Wait a couple years for that one

I'd agree with most of what's been said so far: certainly don't campus, be careful of full crimping, and be aware of injuries when you're pushing so hard already.

You can probably get all the gains that you'll need for the next year or more just by climbing 3-5 days per week. If you want specific things to work on, I'd encourage you to:
1) Focus on mastering the movement patterns present in climbs close to your limit (i.e. V4 or V5 at this point). If you send something hard for you, or even something that takes more than 1 or 2 tries, repeat it. Find any flaws in how you're approaching it. If there are moves you're just barely pulling through, try to see how you can make them easier. Or, if there are types of movement that feel tricky or awkward, practice moving in that way until it feels more natural.This is especially relevant for climbs in your 'anti-style'. 
Make sure that you're well-rested whenever you're trying hard.

2) Stretch regularly, mostly your hips and upper back. Hip flexibility will open up new realms of movement for you, and pay huge dividends later on. Upper back mobility also opens up some movement possibilities; but more importantly, helps keep you injury free. Relatedly:

3) Do regular antagonist exercises. Wrist and finger extensions, push-ups, rotator cuff work, back extensions, etc. There's a wealth of info on this online and in the climbing training books already mentioned.  This will keep your body strong and healthy, and also really help in weird, thrutchy problems.

Several people here seem to be against hangboarding for beginners. I'm more or less with them - you'll probably get more out of just climbing, at this point. But hangboarding is useful and totally appropriate after a few months of regular climbing if you're intelligent about it, especially if you have trouble with grips other than open-hand. For a beginner, I'd recommend Steve Bechtel's Ladder protocol, which focuses on moderate volume and progresses slowly. Make sure you're never going to failure - remember, isometric strength is built effectively with stimuli well under 100% effort. 
https://www.climbstrong.com/hangboard-ladder-training-1/