Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

the first sign of any pain in your finger tendons or wrists.
HYPERGRAVITY ISOLATION TRAINING
     
    Hypergravity Isolation Training is unquestionably the best method of developing climbing-specific grip strength. Use the HIT workout as part of a training cycle or an off-season program during which time you can dedicate yourself to performing the exact protocol described below. Given its stressful nature, it’s best to cycle on and off HIT every couple of weeks. For instance, as part of an off-season (winter) program, you might do four HIT workouts over the course of two weeks of maximum-strength training, and then spend two weeks training anaerobic endurance by climbing for volume (bouldering intervals or laps on routes). Another popular schedule is to incorporate HIT into the three-week maximum-strength phase of the 4-3-2-1 Cycle described in chapter 8.
    Always perform a thirty-minute warm-up comprised of gentle stretching and bouldering of increasing difficulty. The HIT workout trains six basic grip positions, beginning with your weakest grip position and concluding with your strongest. For most people the training order will be: pinch grip, two-finger third team (pinkie and ring finger), two-finger second team (index and middle finger), two-finger first team (middle and ring finger), full crimp, and half crimp. Here’s how you do it.
    1. Sit on the floor below the first HIT Strip, and then grab onto the lowest pair of pinch holds. Pull up and grab the next higher left-hand pinch hold. Adjust your feet as needed and then upgrade your right hand to the next higher pinch hold. Continue up the pinch holds until both hands are grasping the top pair of pinches (four total hand moves).
    2. Immediately begin reversing the sequence by alternating left and right pinch holds to descend the wall. Again, your feet can use any holds and your body can turn naturally to provide optimal body position and tension for each hand move.
    3. Upon reaching the starting pinch holds, immediately start back up the wall using only alternating pinch handholds. Continue up and down the wall until your pinch grip fails.
    4. Upon stepping off the wall, use a stopwatch to time a rest of exactly three minutes before beginning the next set. Meanwhile, record the total number of hand movements (or reps) into your training notebook.
    5. If you were able to do twenty or more hand moves, then you must add weight when training the pinch grip in the future. Add five pounds if you just barely succeeded at climbing twenty hand movements; and ten pounds if the twenty movements felt easy. Note that doing more than twenty reps (ten movements per hand) will train anaerobic endurance, while adding weight to produce failure in ten or fewer reps per hand trains maximum grip strength, which is of course the goal here.
    6. After your three-minute rest, proceed immediately with your next set on the HIT Strips. Advanced climbers with experience at HIT should perform a second set of the pinch grip, while those new to HIT should move onto the next grip position.
    7. Continue alternating training burns with rests of exactly three minutes, until you have worked through all the grip positions. Always record the number of hand movements performed as well as the amount of weight added for each grip position. This information will be helpful in doing future HIT workouts and it will quantify—finally—that your finger strength is indeed increasing!
    8. Safety note: Tape your middle and ring fingers using the X method shown on page 228. This is imperative when training with twenty or more pounds added to your body. End your HIT workout early if you experience any pain in the joints or tendons of your fingers or arms.
     
    This completes your HIT workout, though you may wish to do a few sets of hypergravity pull-ups or some lock-off exercises to complete strength training of your upper body. As a cool-down, do ten minutes of light bouldering. Take two or three rest days before engaging in another workout or going climbing—although you can do antagonist or aerobic training on these rest days.
    The History of Hypergravity Isolation Training
     
    In the mid-1990s I set out to develop the most targeted training method for developing maximum finger strength. Much experimentation with equipment designs and training protocols led to what I call Hypergravity Isolation Training (HIT). While similar to the System Wall Training described later in this chapter, HIT is more highly