Nice video Emil! To add to the conversation I thought it might be interesting to add a note on campusing on boulders. You mention this could be a good way to introduce climbers to campusing before moving to the actual campus board, which we agree with. Lots of nice hold options to start with! We also think campusing on boulders is a great idea for world class athletes too. We've seen many elite climbers use footless bouldering sessions to great effect. Some V16 boulderers here in the UK very rarely use a campus board but do their campusing on system boards or woodies. The introduction on more complex movement and multidirectional holds makes it in many ways better than traditional campusing for these elite climbers. Keep up the good work Emil ✊

i thought this would be just another finger strength video but you explained it in a way i havent seen before nice job!

Possibly the best thumbnail of any climbing video? 😛💪 EDIT: Psyched to see you discussing the trackability of all these modalities. I think that's a very under-analyzed, under-utilized aspect of so many climbers' training programs. Thanks for the great video! -Emile

Great video, I like the mix of recent videos! Nice mix of outdoor, indoor and training. Perfect follow-up to your last upload too. Thanks for the effort you put in your videos!

This was so informative and similtaneously highly motivating! Great structure btw, and thanks for explaining all of this so well :)

Woah! One of my favourite videos on training so far. Love the going in depth and sharing the pros and cons + risk reward section. Informative and entertaining 😄

Fantastic video Emil, thank you so much for taking the time and effort to put it out here in the world.

Thanks you so much for putting the work to produce this video! By far the best finger strength video I've seen yet. Detailed enough without getting in the rabbit hole of technicity and clear/easy to understand and relate to!

Thanks for the great info Emil, learnt a lot even after doing lots of research into these different training methods before. Keep it up.

Nice timing Emil. Keep your work coming. It's really informative

Lovely, detailed video! Thanks for putting in the time to document these training methods

Fast becoming the most informative and interesting climbing channel on the Tube. Good to see a mix up of new ideas and styles coming through. Up there with Magnus and Erik Horst.

I really enjoyed the style you used to explain all the info. I think there's a perfect amount of detail for anyone of almost any level to get started and feel confident. Awesome job!! :)

That is exactly the videos I love: concise informative without sacrificing entertainment (which is definitely not easy while talking about training). Also might motivate me to finally start training more analytically and less randomly. Keep up the good work dude

extremely helpful. massive thanks. more strength to you.

Phenomenal analysis. Really enjoying the pros/cons lens.

this is massive episode... the most competent and reliable I could find... thank You mate

Great Job on the video Emil!! And that you are in my home gym showing these exersise is even more exiting. Keep it up.

Great Video! I think a combination of Max Hangs and snappy moves like on a Spraywall or Campusboard might be the way to go, not seeing them exclusively. Increasing your maximum finger flexor force in a controlled way with the hangs and then learning to access it as quickly as possible. Would be really interesting to see your maximum hangs and rate of force development tested in an assessment with the digital lattice rung :) keep it up :)

This video was awesome. Thanks for sharing your great overview of finger strength and the methods to get better!

This was really good and informative, it really shows that you put a lot of effort in this video. Thank you 🙏🏻

Amazing video, so much info condensed in just 20 minutes. Great knowledge.

Cheers Emil - that was not only informative but so motivating that I actually started training on my board that hangs here since a year as decoration :)

Thank you so much for this episode Emil! I can nowmake choices regarding my finger training on a more informed basis!

Thank you for this video!! Very well made!

Great introduction to the ways/styles of training for climbers, even though I was aware of all of these things, it still helped to get a structured explanation!

Cool, well planned and animated video. Thanks dude

Nice video man. Really love your analysis. Best video on finger strenght imho :)

Awesome video, thanks for the very clear break down ☺️

a seriously great video! well researched and a great take on finger strength training in all the YT world.

This was a very helpful video, full of useful information. Thank you!

Insanely motivating video. Perfectly condensed and everything🙏 God bless the man😁 I am temporarely injured, but I plan on starting a structured training approach right after full recovery.

0:33 - one of the most impressive feats of physical achievement I’ve ever seen! After climbing for between 1 and 2 years and somewhat improving my finger strength, i can’t imagine how this could ever be possible!

Thanks for your work. It's a great summary and helped me right away to think about my training! :)

Great video! Very helpful and informative. Currently rehabing a pulley injury. Which is my first injury and a warning sign that I should train my fingers (according to my physio). Fingerboard has a always been intimidating for a beginner/intermediate climber like me. But now I see it’s just like a dumbbell , track it, know ur limit and it can be very safe. Also the info about contact strength is very interesting, I should include campus board in my training as well. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

Loved it Emil!

great info, thank you Emil

Very well explained!

I love that you incorporate Swedish vocabulary in here! Would love to hear more of it ☺️

What a fab video! Thanks so much for this and you fingerboard video, they are so good.

Great video, many thanks for the effort!

Emil you legend, keep putting stuff up, love how informative this is and make more vids with Nikken too :P

Another fantastic video :)

Nice, stoked to implent these to my training in a controlled manner😇

Great format! love this kind of video where you make structured education. It really helps beginners like myself! :) greetings from Denmark

This was great. Tying in several training tools that many of us use but don't really know how they relate is very useful. Some info on tracking/journaling and how to modify the training accordingly would also be useful.

Training tools are key! A nice hangboard will take you far! Great video

great informative video man! really enjoyed it;)

Great Video, thanks!

Thanks for the video :) Would you be willing to make a video about journaling for climbing? It would be interesting to see how you write up your training plans, notes for specific climbs, or progress in general

That was a class, ty professor Emil

Thanks for the really well structured and the very understandable presentation in the video. There's a further climbing orientated method which we called "system wall training". It´s the way of training Alex Huber for instance used before climbing "Om". It was invented in the early ´90s by a German Trainer called Rudi Klausner. It´s more precisely documented in a video called "Die Kraft im Klettern" from VHS times ... It uses a symmetrical set up of the wall and includes basic climbing movements and positions. The intensity of the exercises can be controlled pretty exactly through using a wall with an adjustable angle. It´s kind of old school, because of lacking the contact aspect of gripping. But it is as well a very useful method to combine climbing movement, strengthening the whole body and the training of different holding positions.

thanks for all the super informative thoughts emil! from my experience one other amazing pro of hangboarding is injury prevention. albeit, im not very strong and climbing V5/6 but I had a lot of issues with overworked tendons and always hit an injury point just as i was breaking a plateau which brought me back down. hangboarding strengthened my tendons a lot to raise that base of load that they could handle and over the last year i haven’t had any finger issues since. you have great points but also wanted to throw that pro in there too!

Thanks a lot for the tips, super clear and useful information! One small thing I saw from the video that might have minimal impact short term but "might" make a difference long term, you seem to be doing 4 seconds max hang instead of the min. 5s you recommended, and a 6/4 seconds repeaters instead of a 7/3, make sure to add that one extra second in, and hope you don't mind me pointing that out! Happy training and thanks again for the video!!

awesome explanations

great video, learned a lot!

Great video. 👍🏻

Thank you, great vid

Good info, thank you!

Thanks for the good info

Great content Emil! Impressive how concise you have been able to showcase your idea. I will start doing some campus latches and campussing on bigger holds. Thank you

Dude, thank you so so much for your content. I'm new to bouldering though I've been a natural climber all my life- I've been climbing trees, houses, rocks, cliffs, town halls, and theater buildings for as long as I could remember. So when I started bouldering it was quite shocking to see how far I had to go to build up the specific technique and strength to progress. At first, the progression was good and fast but since I hit my first plateau I've had to start thinking about moves more than just moving through moves - your videos give me a structured approach to my training and answer many of the unknowns before I even think about those aspects. From me, a big round of applause and gratitude for all the effort and knowledge that you pour into these videos! Cheers mate!

Really cool and precise video! As a 1 year climber I'm moving onto easy campus boarding sessions integrated in climbing sessions and probably fingerboard for warmup only after this, thanks. And I'll note results! ✊

Thanks so much!

Seriously awesome content. Thanks!!

Thanks for the great content :)

great video!

Nice video!

thanks to the youtube algorythm for recomending me this gem of a vid!! and thanks to you Emil for making it... idk if il be a frequent veiwer but this is an easy subscribe in my book.

Hi Emil. Thanks for sharing this content. It's really insightful and well explained. I have one request. I'm interested in your thoughts about how often and how long should you train. Do you believe it's good to have rest days? I personally train every other day, because otherwise I feel too tired the second day and perform poorly. But maybe it's just that I'm training too hard and for too long. Thanks!

The idea that hangboarding is an isometric exercise just revolutionized my training. I never thought of it that way. The most effective exercises are full extension or full muscle range of motion. It makes total sense. When I trained for a front lever, the only way I was able to get it was about a month of full motion front lever exercises that unlocked it for me. This was after about a year of unsuccessful isometric training. I can't wait to see my gains after incorporating forearm curls and more campusboarding into the mix.

Super great video Emil! I would really like some demostration on how to note the progression and how to plan a training becouse I'm very lost on how to do it.

Realy good video

Thanks, I needed this video a lot! Also it's surprising to me that you enjoy campus boarding more than board climbing

being able to carry your body weight is a genius metric for fitness though. They have a problem in bodybuilding where the people keep trying to get bigger. Creating a physical proportionality to fitness of how well you can carry your weight with your fingers is genius. I never knew beyond a certain point of sitting down or lying on my back lifting weights why I was doing it. This and power to weight in cycling, running, and rowing is genius.

A great, insightful video that a lot of us can learn from - including you I guess. So, campus, brace yourself, here I come!

Very much enjoyed this video! But as an avid system boarder, I think an important aspect of trackability was missed. I agree that tracking progress between climbs can be difficult/arbitrary depending on the climb, but repeating boulders and logging their difficulty (not by grade but by how you feel on the wall) can be a very effective way of tracking your progress. For example, when I was first getting into moonboarding I would repeat climbs I had difficulty with (Hatha Yoga) and log how the holds felt as well as how hard it was to move between them. Keep on keeping on sloper daddy

Super informative video. My biggest takeaway is I really need to log my progressions. Currently I just do everything by feel and I think it's starting to become more difficult to keep up with where I need to progress

Nice Video !

Hey Emil, I think it would be a gread addition to the video to come up with some sort of testing protocol on what your weakness is. Or add a link to a video. So one can find out what they are mainly lacking of when it comes to holding strength in the fingers (tendons), force generation ability (in the fingers, which is like contact strength) and force generation through the back muscles or forearms. Also maybe like a benchmark route on one of the boards to test wether you lack strength in some part or body tension. As for me as an example, i have 80kg BW, can do a Pull up with max +50kg (62% BW) but only hang with +10kg (12% BW) from a 25mm edge for like 5s, but for like 30+s with BW. And also i can't full crimp and have a hard time staying in half crimp when using crimps/HB in general. Also when i pop of crimps when bouldering i always have the feeling like my finger tendons are giving in, like i never feels something in the forearm muscles. So i am wondering what would be the best approach to increase my finger strength, max hangs or pulling on ledges? And also it seems to me i am super bad at slopers because i can't generate enough friction trough generating force with my fingers. Also when deadlifting 140 kg for reps, grip is not an issue. So i am having a hard time understanding what my main lack of strength is in climbing (besides technique of course).

It’s just insane what you guys are capable of! 🔥

Very informative video and well structured too! I‘ll be coming back to this one once or twice to look stiff up :) Also cool to see you in in my home gym :D did you happen to try some of the boulders too, I‘d be very curious to see you go on the light blue overhang problem ;)

I think one important thing to note is that just bouldering on boulder with hard holds will make you progress in finger strength, so just making sure that you try hard on boulders with small holds can be enough to progress. It's even more sport-specific than board climbing, because you will train all types of movement, but it's probably even more chaotic, because if you don't choose the right boulders to try, your finger strength will not progress as much.

Great video. Campus can be used with feet on for entry level.

any advice for training with chronic finger joint pain? (years of having it) btw: really nice and well put together video

Great video! I think one aspect for the pros/cons that you didn't consider is accessibility. Sure, system boards and campus boards are great tools to build fingerstrenght, but a lot of people either prefer doing fun climbing or don't have those instruments (or they don't have enough strenght to use them), while a hangboard not only is very accessible in the sense that anyone could use one, but also that you have it at home. I wonder what would be the best approach for the average, non elite climber who doesn't have the time to train twice a day 5 times a week, considering that climbing is already a great tool for improving your overall fingerstrenght.

Great video! How do you think this would be adapted for a teenager? I’m particularly curious about the system boards.

great vid

Hi Emil, i agree with mostly everything, but think you missed out on one important topic. During your Mesocycle, you would have different exercises working on your energy system, just like you explained. During a base, you might work on MaxPower and Endurance, but during a build block, literature usually guides you to power endurance (like campusing, campus bouldering). Would you say, that you select different exercises at different times of your training period? I am a triathlete, thus i am used periodisation of a training year. I know, that climbing in somewhat different. Due to your scientific approach to training, it would be amazing if you could shot a video about building up a training plan for an entire year. Based on the period you are at, which exercises are the most useful. How to choose working to resting periods, rests between sets an so on. Anyways, great video.

very nice video

A lot of interesting thoughts. Thumbs up for good videos in general. There are though nowadays a lot of studies about isometric training and the benefits of them. With other words, even bodybuilders can use isometrics to get into hypertrophy or if you want to build strength, isometrics are also very efficient, so with other words, finger curls vs hangboarding might not actually be of any difference in building a better "nyp". Board training is for sure helping with overall strength, but as stated, not really measurable if you don't measure the "results" later in others ways like max pull up weight and finger strength on a hangboard. I use max hangs as kind of a warm up and climb on a board for training.. outdoor climbing is where i get my technique schooling. I think these are three different ways of training in general, and one should know what one needs to train and how to use them properly. Everything depends a lot on what's the level of the climber and what is the target. Keep up your good work 👍

Couple of max hang sets at the beginning of a climbing session. Thanks that seems doable

Thanks for the video! I've been waiting a while for a video like this. From your video I got that two ways to de-risk system board training would be to (1) using personal benchmarks to check in each session and (2) being careful with volume. Do you have any additional suggestions on how to de-risk system board training?

What's your opinion on pinch block training as a tool for stronger fingers? As it should be as applicable as a hangboard is?

Damn thats the Kraftreaktor in Lenzburg! Thats my homegym and its awsome :D

This got me thinking about how climbers can have such different muscle development. Makes sense that climbers with bigger muscles probably climb more dynamically and pull through positions whilst climbers with more condensed muscles are more static.

Learned a lot! Been climbing for about a year now and just recently climbed my first v8/9, I feel like i'm not progressing as fast but have quickly realized that climbing is logistic growth and not linear. Very helpful to see what training tools help your fingers adapt in certain ways and it's now much easier to connect that to where I feel I can grow. I think another pro of hangboarding that is not so much developed through more powerful anaerobic training methods such as campusing or board climbing is the ability it gives you to rest on the holds that are not so good or in a position where your muscles are still in a locked off/contracted position therefore being fatigued. The example of training a pull up with an isometric body position explained this very well I think. Last video with stefano emphasized this a lot about how you can put him on a micro edge and bad crimps and he finds a way to rest due to such a high aerobic capacity instead of just draining his power and trying to scramble up to a better hold. That was at least my interpretation and I still have a lot to learn so videos like this are great. Also recently strained my A2 pulley😕, any tips?

0:33 The van turned out really nice.

Super interesting video, i would like to whatch a video training on the moon board. Gettings from Mallorca💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

My take, as a V10 and 8b climber : -Hangboarding is simple, meaning that you'll have trouble messing it up. it's also compact and cheap, meaning that you can probably have it at home. However, it's boring as hell, and while you're pretty sure to have so physical gains, you might notice low, or even none improvement to your climbing performance (because of contact strength, body positionning, etc). I would only recommend it to people with no other climbing facilites, or super low finger strength related to their climbing level. The risk/reward is in my opinion low/low. -System wall is actual climbing, and if you get better at that, you'll be a better climber. However, i"ve noticed that such walls oftenly have a way too high percentage of "small/medium pinches" holds (like the moonboard does), and it means that you actually get good at such holds, and cut-loose moves (because they make up for pretty bad footholds). While it's interesting, it may push you in a very specific direction, so make sure to diversify somewhere else. In addition, the space required and price of such a training tool is pretty high for an individual : i would actually say that it's not worth it to have it at home unless you have no climbing facilities nearby. if you train on such a tool, try to visit climbs (rock or plastic) that are very different from that, so based on body positionning, huges volumes, that sort of stuff. The risk/reward ratio is high/high if you have it at home, it's quite addictive and you can build yourself ultra-hard boulders on those. -Campusboard : my favorite compromise. You can fit it in a garage or next to your house. Maybe even in an appartement if ceilings are high enough. it comes affordable, and with little woodworking skills you can build rungs yourself, lowering the price. The variety is higher than simple hangboarding, and you can train contact strength and coordination on it. However, it will at some point become boring too, and still doesn't train body positionning, some same advice than for the system wall : try to mix it up with climbs that are very different from a campusboard. The risk reward is medium/medium while using the campusboard "dynamically", and high/high if you use it more statically (yes !) All in all, i pretty much agree with you. In addition, i add that the only time i injured myself was when i wasn't tracking or structuring training. So, either : -fiddling around on a hangboard without structure, "just to keep fitness" every now and then -going to the gym whenever i had the time, without taking rest days into account No training is better than injuries, all the time.