Honestly, dude, you capturing your progress is so influential. I know it serves as a point in time thing for you personally, but I want you to know that it influences people to believe that things *are* possible if they are well planned, structured and consistent. Thanks!

"You sir, or the 7.3% of female watchers" 😂

I have been climbing the 2017 moonboard for the past 4 months, 3 times a week. But I don't climb super hard just V3/4/5s and can do moves less dynamically since I am tall. Have been taking a deload week every 3 weeks. Was thinking about skipping the deload this month, but on second thought maybe not!

Great summary :) as someone who has phases of almost exclusively climbing on the moonboard for months: You are absolutely right about taking it slow in the beginning, this is an important point that often gets ignored as people get early exitement about the moonboard and overdo climbing on it.

ya well I can't injure myself on the moonboard because I can't pull off the ground

Dude, I injured my wrist a few weeks ago right after taking about six months for my shoulder to heal. I know the feeling of wanting to still climb and improve while you're recovering. It's so hard to stay disciplined. Stay strong man

First of all: I hope you'll recover soon! Totally agree with your analysis. Moonboard is definitely less diverse than climbing in the gym. Since all gyms are closed, I've build my own Moonboard and became a heavy user now. I'd like to share some learnings from only training on the Moonboard for a couple of weeks now: 1) properly warm up: I really don't like warming up but it's key to survive the Moonboard. I spend 15-20min doing several excerices and do some easy routes at 25° angle. It turned out those acupressure finger massage rings make a big difference. I massage every finger for a minute or so to warm up my tendons. Easy to do, big effect! 2) Although I really want to finish a problem, I have to force myself to do 2-3 min breaks between tries. I've started collecting 2-3 min activities I could do in those breaks (e.g. reading articles in magazines, cleaning holds, ...) 3) Take at least two rest days. While climbing in the gym, one day was usually enough. After a moonboard sessions, that's not enough anymore for me 4) stretching and finger massage after the session 5) if you have a high-gravity day, better leave it than force it I hope that's a bit helpful. I'm looking forward watching more Moonboard content on you channel soon ;)

Shout-out to the madames following Geek Climber!!

Thanks to all who have informed me about finger health whilst climbing. Having seen things like this, I know if I feel tightness or similar things in my fingers, I reduce my amount of climbing until it clears. Here's hoping that your finger injury doesn't stick around for too long

Hey, I have been following your videos and I think this one has comon climbing controversy about training loads and I would like to give my opinion. Just to give some context, I built my own moonboard 2017 on my yard due to COVID and I have been training with the moonboard 2 - 3 times per week for a full year and for my surprise it's my best record without injures. 2 - 3 hours per sesh. 99 Entries 384 Benchmarks - 707 Problems in total. Before covid I trained 3 times per week and only 1 day of those 3 on the moonboard and I always had climbing injures. (Elbow and fingers). For sure I'm on the highest point of my climibing life. Boulder and Sport Climbing on the outdoors and indoors. I just want to clarify I'm not an climbing specialist, but I have look for improvements to avoid injures and improve my climbing game. The game changers for me were drinking the proper amount of water 2 - 3 Lt, specific warmup 15 min (For fingers I grab moonboard holds as you were climbing with my feet on the floor, 2 -3 sets of 1 min, you can control the weight on the fingers as you want), preventive exercises at the end of the moon sesh ( with low weight and more Reps) targeting golfers elbow, rotator cuff (Eric Hörst video), forearmes exercises and weighted pinch excercises. Why at the end of the sesh?, because you will also train resistance. Stretching 15 - 20 min and a good and hot shower at the end of the ritual. Weighted pull ups and strenght abs out of the climbing days. And I think this is the most important the proper rest. I DO NOT climb two consecutive days and I try to get an minimum of 7 hours sleep rest. Also as soon as I feel something different from normal on my fingers or muscle s, I give 2 - 5 of full rest and also get an preventive physiotherapy on the uptight area. I'm gladly to say that some tips were taken from your videos and from other youtube channels, Thank you very much for your work and keep the psyched!!! Sorry for my english.

I tried moonboarding once. Turns out I'm no where near close to ready.

Super important video. I really appreciate it. Definitely important to talk about injuries especially with respect to the moonboard, so it's so easy to just keep pushing. I never got seriously injured up until the end of September 2020 (not on the moonboard, but on a dynamic move on an overhang with crimps). I couldn't climb at all for a long time, and even when I was able to start climbing again, I just did laps on super easy climbs. I'd say I'm mostly healed now, but looking back, it was definitely an issue of doing too much moonboarding accompanied with, on that particular day, not enough warmig up, and it sucked so much and I'll be sure to never make that mistake again (or try not to, at least)

Thanks for always making informative content for us out here!!! It's greatly appreciated!

Haha this must have been recommended to me because I've been climbing and uploading moonboard videos on my channel for about 3 months now. Have not injured myself yet, but maybe I'm not pushing as hard as you are. One day I climbed 16 V3s in like 1 hour and my elbow hurt for 2 weeks, but it must not have been too serious because I kept climbing with longer warm ups and got through it OK. Will definitely not do that again, and now I am thinking I should try less hard after watching this video. Thank you for sharing your experience.

That sucks that you got injured again! Thanks for sharing your experience - it's incredible how fast you've been leveling up your climbing. I hope to get to your level and maybe I'll be lucky and avoid the injuries too. Though, injury recovery makes for a great video too, I bet ;)

I seriously love watching your videos because I'm right about the same spot you are on the MB and climbing/strength in general. You'll heal up and get back at it man! Stay careful and keep getting strong 💯

great video man! makes sense, love that dang moonboard though

I’ll take this into account when I get mine built. Once per week, with the other session on the 30 degree board.

Female watcher! Also I've been injuring myself quite often recently and it blows. I'm sorry, hope you heal and get back to crushing soon.

One year ago indoor gyms were closed, so my gym installed outside walls. Those walls were mostly overhang, pretty straight forward, hard climbing comparable to moonboards. Because I was excited after several months without climbing, I suffered a lot of injuries. I also pulled out one tiny bone in my hand that my physical therapist had to put back. I realized that (besides the fact that I didn't climb for some time), I usually do a lot of slab during my climbing sessions. Alternating slab and overhang allows you to climb longer and avoid injuries. Variation is the key !!

Sorry to hear about your finger, wish you a speedy recovery. Lesson learned!

Hope you have a speedy discovery! I think this video is a great reminder to all of us on how we should take care of ourselves, imo it's better than the sucess story/tips video which there are plenty online already. I like how u joke about it at the end, hope you have a good recovery and I will be excited to see your other vids. Oh and 新年快乐！

Moonboard focused training needs lower volume, for sure.

I want to share with you my thought for moonboard training, hopefully it can be helpful :) About my level: onsight V6 and project V8, I have finished Moonboard 2019 V3 and V4 benchmarks and several V5. Plan: Moonboard session twice per week (3 or 4 days in between), each session for 1.5 hour maximum. During the climbing, I usually avoid little crimps or big dynos on the left hand as I have A2 and A4 pulley injuries on my index and ring fingers. Also, I would avoid to climb one problems for more than 3 times during one session as repetitive movement can more likely cause injury Effect: I always have inflammation on my fingers (good pain) second day after the moonboard session, which means the session indeed works. Also, I can feel the improvement in my finger strength and body tension day by day without an increasing suffering from the fingers. Hope you can recover soon and send awesome projects in the future!

I'd be really curious to see you try the two time per day hangboard approach Emil Abrahamsson posted about recently. Lower intensity, high frequency.

Are you going to do videos on finger rehab/prehab?

May your recovery be simple fast and complete

Do you know about active recovery using a hangboard? Get well soon!

I have a moon board at home been climbing on it 3 times a week for 6 months. Fingers def get sore and stiff but so far so good. I take 2 days off between climbs but I don’t buy into the moon board being that different from the gym especially the 2017 version. Climbing gyms have become so soft grade wise it’s not realistic gives you a false sense of your abilities like thinking you can climb a v8. Lessons learned here are listen to your body take an extra day off if you have to warm up really well and climb for your self not for KZfaq or Instagram. Play the “moon board game” and slowly progress your way up the ladder, don’t focus on benchmarks too much. I do enjoy your channel!

Moonboard is hella addictive but super aggressive on the finger, got similar experience with you... Whatever the level don't overdo moonboard and limit your session to a few problem or limited time

I have the 2016 moonboard in my house. I sleep under it at night. I feel personally attacked by this video lol.

Unrelated question: what steps did you take to learn the false grip and is it absolutely needed to do a muscle up? I can never really hold a false grip for too long.

If anything on your hand starts to hurt, full stop, rest for a while, and investigate on what could be wrong.

Awwww bummer, dude-sorry to hear that. Heal well and fast. Speaking of “training” - I’m less than an hour from you. 😂 Come join me for my backyard variety: traverse wall, cave wall, artistic campus, Muay Thai, rings, home made weights, strong man template, and a whole bunch more. 😁

I had the same issue after returning from thyroid removal, where i lost a shit load of mass. What I think happens on moon is not just the stress over time but also you gain power fast! too fast... and your tendons are not able to keep up, its just better to increase power over 2-3 years to give your fingers give time to catch up and be aware of that that you cant push too much in the mean time :/

So obviously this is from a sample size of like the 3-4 climbs you've included in the video but it seems like you're cutting feet an awful lot where you don't have to, and maybe it's that kind of unexpected force on the fingers that's been causing you injury.

Yo I popped my pulley on POS which is a v9 in my ring finger. I bounced back within 3 months. However, didn’t stop climbing I sought out slopper and pinch climbs in order to have an active recover. POS is a bench on the moon. You’ll be ok man.

Every climber needs to know this

Those that can climb without injuries are those that climb within their limits and are the same that focus on the process (learning to climb, and proper and safe strength building), not the result (the grade, the speed, or the number of sends).

Great video bro!👍

I built one at home and for sure its really tweaky. A couple years ago it lead to me tearing my TFCC in both wrists and thats already beginning to flare up again

I can climb v8 and the moonboard is a struggle. Overhung crimps are hard

Actually I have never trained on a moon board so far. In the gyms I am visiting here, they don't even have one I think. However, I agree with you. I think only training on a moon board for a long time, is probably not a good idea (for the reasons you mention). Getting in some variety is extremely important in my point of view. Not just performance wise but also motivation wise. Furthermore, you train different muscles and muscle groups and you are more balanced instead of trying one specific kind of move again and again. Good luck with your finger injury!

It's a year I am really trying to understand something about training, nutrition and peaking performance. The first thing I have observed is that climbers really don't know what they are doing, in terms of scheduling and planning, and I might say sometime also when speaking of high level climbers as well. Anyway, the Moonboard is a super good tool to develop fingers strength, as the campus board, cause it is a "plyometric" exercise, i.e. you have to apply force quickly (and isometrically). This type of exercises (the plyometric ones) are the best to develop power and strength, due to their explosive nature. So one can think to do them every time. The requirement though is a high level of basic strength, in order to not get injured. Moreover, after some time you also need the famous week where you halve the amount of training you do normally, in order to lower down the fatigue you accumulated the weeks before (for example 3 weeks on, 1 week half, and repeat). What lacks to climber in the end is just a SCHEDULE/PLAN. Since bouldering is purely a strength/power activity, one should know how to periodize the performance, cause it is the only way to progress. Otherwise one just get stacked or get injured (depending on the genetics). So the basic ideas of "try harder" and "no pain no gain" are old and wrong! What I really suggest you is, for example, the reading of "The Rock Climber's Training Manual" by the Anderson's brothers. It is very compelling and proved to work in the long run. Moreover, it explains also why you do certain things. I think it is very complete and it makes so much sense what they want you to do. I think it is very good as a starting point if you wish to improve and to not get injured anymore (or possibly as less as possible). For the sick of the long comment, I just want to mention that with this kind of plans I moved in one year from a 6a+/6b lead to 7a lead. Disclaimer: I am not an expert or a qualified person, I just read and listened to different experts (also from other disciplines, such as calisthenic), and here I reported what I have (hopefully!) understood.

hey geek climber! If you are trying to send V8 and more V7s I think that you need to be climbing more, because you are already stronger than a lot of people that climb at that level. I think that main thing you should be doing is just climbing, and to be honest I would love to see some climbing videos

I started training on the moonboard 2 months ago. Did 240 Benchmarks by now and went from v4 to v7, so far i don't feel any inconveniences in my fingers... Hope it doesn't just hit me full force one day.

It's funny that I have been watching your channel for quite a while and only know Kevin is your brother from that last video... totally have that resemblance but never quite noticed :P

I think you only wrong on being only about dynamic moves.. I do volume on easy grades on the moonboard2019 and as soon as I need to go dynamically, I skip. Plenty of the ones that seem dynamic at first, can be done with proper body tension working the abs af. Usually I do abs after climbing sessions.. but usually never after moonboard bcs it already leave my core wrecked

Injure sucks. Get well soon! 好好休息！早日康復！

Rest up! I like to tape my fingures together (bad finger with a good finger) and climb under my limit during recovery.

That sucks! Hope you get well soon. One thing I notice when you climb moonboard, is that your arms don't seem 'connected' with your body. Maybe do super easy climbs for a while and focus on moving in unison, with your arms pulled back into the shoulder sockets? I'm not sure if it helps against finger injuries, but usually it's a big help if you allow your whole body to take the stress of a movement. In any case, thanks for the video - it's very useful to see your successes as well as your struggles!

Yea I haven't climbed moonboard for a long time since the gym has been closed but I have a 45 degree wall at my house that sometimes I gotta take breaks from. I can only at most maintain 2 sessions a week on it along with some days with minimal hangboarding cause training on such a steep board will send your tendons to hell lol. I do like to make dynamic moves too on my board as well. The gains happen during rest not necessarily during the training. One last piece of advice is I train to climb my projects at 110%. That means I am not always maxing out or going beyond that during training sessions. With training you accumulate more volume than when projecting, so it's so much more important to be more efficient with your training. Also think about it from recovery perspective, if you trained with such high (100%) intensity with a given higher volume, you'd need so much recovery time and resources (nutrition, sleep quality and etc.). Just take this break from moonboarding as a deload cycle and when you are better you can learn from your mistakes to be more efficient with training. Good luck :)

Hey man, could you make a video about Hoseok Lee’s V8 training? But only until your fingers heal of course, hope you get better soon!

Always great content. Practice open hand crimp.

Average climber does an Average training plan, Would be cool to see you potentially collaborate/doing one of the common training plans advertised by louis parkinson, lattice or whom ever else

Hope you’ll recover soon and start progressing on the moonboard

I have never heard anyone getting injured on a hangboard so far. Yet heard numerous people injured themselves on a moonboard. Often heard someone suggesting not to hangboard too often but imo hangboard doesn't have dynamic move which are FAR LESS dangerous than a moonboard

Yo, I've been climbing roughly 10 years. I recently started climbing v7 outdoors and v8-9 indoors (I'm local too, I climbed at VH before the shutdown). I have never sustained a climbing injury aside from a few flappers or scrapes. I don't think it's really anything special. I think you diagnosed the issue pretty well yourself. The moonboard trains very specific parts of your body and without adequate rest periods your are bound to injure yourself. In my mind the best way to improve climbing ability is finger dexterity and the best way to train finger dexterity depends on what you can access. Finger boarding > Moon boarding > Gym climbing > Outdoor climbing Do what's accessible and with moderation. When you're bored you can focus on dieting and other fitness routines that don't involve your fingers.

Yeah I once tried using the moon board twice in a week... didn't go so well lmao

Thats the moonboard for you, very hard on the tendons.

Hello geekclimber I have two questions. Related to full recovery time. In how many months or weeks do you think you'll be at your 100 % level again? How much time did you spend to fully overcame your last injury? I have been out of climbing for two months now and my finger still hurts. Thanks for reading me.

Makes sense. But it seems that you full crimp A LOT so maybe try to strengthen your open hand position

im just gonna say sucks for you cos all i do is moonbord and i try 1005 every sesh and iv never injured on it and have send well over 100benchmarks so yeh to anyone watching don't be afraid to try hard just cos some youtuber has week tendons find out for your self how far your body can be pushed, also luv you geek you make great vids keep it up

Do a collaboration with Dave MacLeod and read his books!

nice vid.

always rest/train easier after a hard day. never two finger-intensive days in a row

Now you have the opportunity to make a video called "climber recovers finger injury in 60 days" or so. Make lemonade. 👍

Most of the time im climbing my gym's moonboard is at the end of a bouldering sesh. Do you think once a week full training only on the moonboard is better?

Wonder what magnus midtbo stats are?

pretty sure 2 times a week should be the upmost limit for moonboarding, while only once a week is better i think. Also i think you should aim for around 1 hour session, if you try hard you wont need any more than that. Moonboarding shouldnt be looked at like normal climbing, essentially it´s maxpower training (most of the time, but can surely be used for other aspects too).

How do people feel about Tension Board vs Moon Board? My regular (pre-covid) rock climbing gym only has tension board, which I got into the habit of training on quite frequently, and for a while I have found myself quite comfortable on most 6c (v5) boulder problems. While home in December I went to a different gym that only had Moon Board, and after trying it (only at the end of 2 or 3 already quite long sessions), was finding 6b really quite challenging, and there were several 6b benchmark problems that I had to leave unfinished. Is Tension Board actually softer than Moon Board at these lower grades, or is it just a psychological thing/need to spend some time getting used to moon board first? (could also be that I was just more tired when trying moon board, because when I try tension board, it is normally 1.5 hours into the session, because at that gym there is a 2 hour time limit, whereas at the gym with moon board it was more like 2.5 or 3 hours into the session that I started moon boarding)

When you say you are a V7 climber; what does that mean actually? Do you easily climb V7, or do you project on them? PS: love you videos! :-)

yea be careful with the moonboard.. take it slow, take it easy, and don't overexert yourself.

Hi comment to help you

You seem to be able to build strength really quickly. I am the opposite. All of my climbing friends are stronger than me. So, in order to compensate, I had to develop good technique. Of course, that has it's limits, but I still manage to make the others go like 'how the f****' because they are at least twice as strong as me. You can probably build up some muscles within a month. Tendons on the other hand can take years to develop. You look like, your strength is constantly too much for your tendons, so while you can catch a very small hold, after catching it, the tendons need to be strong enough to support the strength your muscles develop. If they are not, they pop. So my advice to you would be: do a slab every once in a while (you do look much better now than you used to, but still kind of clumsy :-D ), practice standing on small holds, do lower body mobility/flexibility exercises, practice moving your body between different balance points in a climbing wall, practice heel hooks (especially because the knees also have tendons and at some point you can't progress without using heel hooks and if your knees aren't ready by then, knee injuries will be the next thing you have to deal with. No joke, seriously! ;-) ). Take a look at Adam Ondra. He constantly manages to outperform everyone else by not being the strongest by far, just by being able to find the good body positions.

Maybe for the next weeks work on your flexibility and show us some slab climbing, I'm sure it will be entertaining :)

This video gave me a panic attack

So you were moonboarding 2-3x a week? Actual question, not sarcasm.

Climbing the moonboard exclusively for six months?! That sounds like work not play.

I have climbed 8a (13b) or harder for 27 years...no injuries. Sport and trad are way easier on the body than bouldering. Look at Paul Robinson, poor guy.

TIP HERE: i would like you to take a strength test in aspect of climbing like Magnus Mitbø took. (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i7VydZeo0LrIqIU.html) Also it would bring you new challenges:)

Haha, you did everything they tell you not to do when you sense an injury is happening

Sometimes you wonder if the universe is playing pranks on you. I literally watched this video for the first time yesterday before my climbing sessions and I thought to myself, "yea, I am 37 years old and I have an injury history, and definately not getting injured is the most important thing" You know what I did? I was low on time, and I was feeling good and I didn't warm up, did many hard boulders right in a row with almost no warm-up, then did a 5.11 top rope and POP, I felt my ring finger pulley literally pop. Whelp, now I am sure it is a pulley injury and I am sure I will be in rehab for the next 2 months... WHY UNIVERSE WHY

If you don't start outdor sport, multypich or trad climbing you are mising out... Get out of your comfort zone and trie something new after your fingher gets better. No hate, big fan.

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Pls change you'r move when you speak, don't do juste one plz

Hello! Sorry but for me this sound you climb for the totally wrong reason! Climbing is not made for Instagram or KZfaq! It's such a natural thing! And you really drag it down!!!

really appreciated this video. it was super honest, (and funny) but before I got to the end, I was thinking if your gym climbing had improved, and then you answered that question for me. However, I do think its not an instant grade booster, Im sure if you measured finger strength/grip strength there would be improvement and maybe the time it takes to project sometime is now less so. curious to see if you just need a month or two of recovery and getting back in to gym climbing and then the improvements take place. cant wait!