Best ways to train for crack climbing without access to a real crack

I went to T-wall earlier this week and was shown the disparity between my face climbing abilities and my crack climbing abilities on lead. In particular my arms got very pumped very quick from doing hand, fist, & finger jams. What are some exercises/ practices I can do to strengthen the muscles involved in my jams?

You can try building a full blown crack training facility in your basement, then spending 2 years down there with a buddy to prep for your trip to America. Worked pretty well for a couple guys I know of

If you are going to train strength anyway then go for shoulders and core. Those help all sorts of climbing, and so many climbers have messed up shoulders it makes me want to stay focused on doing focused shoulder work every few months.

I'd agree that it is largely a technique issue though, as it is confusing figuring out what to do when you stick parts of your body in a crack for the first time, and then you get mad pumped when you overcompensate for insecure jams. 

If you want to improve your crack game, then climb cracks. All of them. As many as possible. Repeating cracks you've done before will be helpful to understand exactly which spots work better for locks and jams, and why they work better. And don't just get tunnel vision looking at the trad climbs, crack boulders are awesome. Many a (granite) bouldering area has some variation of a "classic crack" or "easy crack" or "Yosemite crack" it seems. Find those. I'd search for any threads about good cracks in your local climbing area, or start one if you don't!

A week long or extended trip to a trad climbing area where there's a good quantity of cracks could be a great foundation to build on if you want to advance your read climbing too. 

Finally, Pete Whittaker's textbook on crack climbing is outstanding. I think it's worth it!

Once technique is pretty solid I have found ARC style workouts to have enormous transfer to crack climbing. Usually there isn’t a stopper crux, just accumulation from doing the same move over and over. 

If you are dedicated on the crack lifestyle and there are no nearby cracks, I would definitely recommend a crack machine of some sort. It can be fairly basic; two 2x8s with spacer blocks screwed to some roof joist will teach you a lot. Once you got the technique down you can tilt it to be overhanging by 15 to 30 degrees and get more of a workout in.

Have the crack hangboard and don’t recommend it. A crack machine w your bad sizes is useful. Unless you plan on climbing 11+ and 12s, horizontal cracks aren’t that applicable technically but do help build up your crack endurance. climbing overhung or otherwise muscle intensive gym routes is realistically the best physical training. Whittaker’s book for technique. 

My gym only has a dead vertical splitter hands crack; to train for a trip to Indian Creek I would strap on 2 weight vests ~75 lbs and do as many laps without resting as possible.  I was happy with the results.

I made an 8 foot 45 degree wall. Plastic holds, etc., for my roomate on the two 4 foot wide panels. But the middle was open. There were 2x6 on either side. One was fixed, the other slid on dowels to close or open up the crack. It was shimmed with 1/4 inch masonite strips. So I could do laps on overhanging cracks of various sizes.

By the way, I say you do need strength for cracks. You need strong thumbs. 

pullups with hands gripping as you would hold a baseball bat.  Alternate the forward hand through your sets.  Alternating which side of the bar your head goes to.

Deadlifts

Single arm bent over rows.

forearm training with one of those dowel-rope-hanging weight dealies that you hold out in front of you and use the motion of your wrists to roll the rope around the dowel and lift the weight

rowing machine

some of that Ido Portal ground training......the lizard crawl, etc

yoga 

I lot of beginners and those new to crack climbing take a while to realize that foot strength, dexterity and jamming technique are equally important to train, perhaps even more so for moderate grades. When your feet are solid you don't need to over grip, friend.

Look for cracks between buildings and in facades, in your town or city. You can toe jam in blank corners, with proper footwear. etc. When you're a crack climber you find yourself looking at cracks all the time, they're everywhere once your eyes are opened! There's a cool finger crack in my car, between the dashboard and the closed door. Its even padded haha.

Without access to a gym with cracks, I think the best training option is to build a little crack machine at home with some lumber. Would take a bit of time and money, depending on how deep you go with it. But I think there's a MP thread with lots of inspiration somewhere.....

https://www.mountainproject.com/search?q=crack%20machine

There's a lot of threads, some are kinda empty, but some have some cool pictures and video links. I'd recommend any of the wide boyz videos.

Also, another option, you could buy their little adjustable crack thing instead of building your own. Still need a wall or somewhere to put it though. Seems like a hangboard for cracks though, pretty cool!

https://wideboyz.com/product/crack-trainer/

Also, my friend built a tiny adjustable one, i'll see if i can find a picture. it's like two wood plates with three bolts holding it together, with points to attach a cord, and enough room to fit one hand. Adjustable so I think you can go from fists to fingers, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, it's like of like one of those finger boards (pictured below), that you warm up at the crag with by hanging on a first bolt or putting your foot through the strap and pulling. But could be a cheaper/easier option to start, although idk how much endurance, technique you can actually get from something this small?

[edit: found a pic, although i think it's unfinished in this pic]::

I think in the end he hooked it up to some kind of strength tester, so you could see how many lbs of force you could hold as well. I'll add a finished pic if I can get one.

Combo of reading all you can, watching all the great YouTube content, build what you can at home (that allows for at least 4 leading hand moves, the crack hang boards are useless), find a gym with cracks.

The wideboyz stuff is great, and they will do their best to help you with shipping, but since they don’t have a US distribution, it’s a bit pricey. You can make these things without too much trouble.

In terms of angles, for a beginner vert would be ideal. Hands. for training once you have gotten technique dialed in, at 20-40 degree overhang is prob best. Horizontals are a bit specialized, and best for projects. Don’t think they’d be terribly helpful in first few years of crack climbing. Agree with early statement you want to get great at using feet, where as roofs are more about power, lockoffs, core tension, and turning knees in like crazy.

Supposedly the thinnest hands possible is the most transferable size when training, but I think mastering perfect hands is the way to go for a beginner

I climb a solid grade harder crack than face, my advice would be get some 2x8s, some traction tape (the stuff that goes on stairs or metal ramps) and get building. A hand jam should feel better than sex after working a crack machine for a few miles.

Nick Budka wrote:

I climb a solid grade harder crack than face, my advice would be get some 2x8s, some traction tape (the stuff that goes on stairs or metal ramps) and get building. A hand jam should feel better than sex after working a crack machine for a few miles.

This guy fucks

I seem to have lost the photo I had of it, but a couple years ago I put together what I called "a crack-in-the-box". It was a sturdy wooden box about a foot square. In it were a pair of concrete patio pavers. Behind these I slid boards of various thicknesses, so there would be a variable space between the paver faces of anywhere from tight fingers/tips up to hand-fist stack. I just played with the various sizes to lift the box up off the floor (so jams were all facing downwards), but someone clever could mount a pair of these on the wall or even on the ceiling to serve as a jam-hang board. One thing became apparent as I played with it; I do MUCH better at all sizes with my dominant hand.

M Appelquist wrote:

You’re doing one of them wrong... :)

I just do one more of one. My gym is fortunate enough to have 2 ~5.11 cracks built into the wall, auto belay is on the off width. So far Ive redpointed harder cracks than faces. Hoping to change that with my next trip ; )

Slam your hands in a car door repeatedly, for 15 minutes a day, for about a month straight. Drop cinder blocks on your feet in between hand slam reps. And id say you’re good!
But in all seriousness. Just climbing cracks with people who are way better at it than i am. And are also willing to explain things to you.Putting down some miles on rock, Finding a good size crack that you can climb also, to get some confidence built. Then venture into the harder sizes. Thats what kinda worked for me. I know this doesn’t really answer your question. Just spend a lot of time in the creek, its like an outdoor crack training facility

Free: go explore your local parking garages, bridges, stanchions, urban infrastructure, etc. You'll be amazed how many concrete splitters you'll find. Your local crew, MP forum, etc may also turn up secret spots. Here in Tucson we have an area with hands to OW within a two block radius

Take a belt sander to the back of your hand.  

Skateboard grip tape in between two boards.  Hang above the door. Vary width and hang.