Paul Robinson hangboard workout

American Paul Robinson is one of the world's best boulderers right now being only one of two people to have climbed proposed V16, and he's posted up on his blog one of his typical hangboard workouts. Obviously this is going to be more advanced that most people can handle, but it might give you a few ideas on exercises you can perform on the board. Have fun, and watch those elbows!

 P-Rob's Workout
A few people have inquired about what I do on the hang board for my workouts. It pretty simple considering there is not too many extreme workouts you can perform on a hang board; use the picture below for reference. So here is a single workout I do (sometimes times a day). I start each workout by hanging on the upper jugs of the hang board for maybe 10-15 seconds or so. To continue the warm up I do 10 pullups on the lowest of pinches (very positive and not tweaky on the fingers at all).

Next it is one arm lock offs on the same pinches. I start with both hands on the pinches do a pull up and let go with my right hand first holding with my left arm in a locked off position for 10 seconds. I then do this with the right hand for 10 second and then again with the left for 10 seconds and then one last time with the right for 10 seconds. Without coming off I campus to the upper jugs do a pullup and bring my knees up into an L hang. I hold that for 10 seconds and then lower my arms to a 90 degree angle and hold for another 10 seconds before finally dropping off.

Next it is more L hangs. I grab the slopers directly below the jugs do a pull up, hold an L hang for 10 seconds, bring my arms to 90 degrees hold it for ten seconds, and then repeat this 3 more times without leaving the L hang position or letting go of the slopers.

Then it is 10 pull ups on the smallest two finger pockets followed by 10 pullups on the bad pinches on either side of the board. Then I go to my other board and do 10 pullups on the smallest crimps, 10 pull ups on the biggest crimps, and 10 pullups in the middle slopers.

After this it is back to the blue board again. This is the most difficult part to explain so bear with me. I start with both hands on the good pinches down low. I campus first with my right hand to the crimp rail on the middle of the board then with my left hand to the jug at the top. Then right hand to the jug. Hang, then bring left hand to same crimp rail, campus back down into the pinches with both hands and repeat this 3 more times switching which hand goes to the crimp rail first. And then finally I do 10 pullups on the first good pinch and then campus to the jug and do 10 more pullups and by that time am pretty exhausted and can barely crutch back into the house!

If you have any questions regarding this or are completely confused feel free to comment and ill try and answer you the best I can.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

do you think two finger pull ups are bad for you at all or do u favor middle/ ring or pointer/ middle

Lee Cujes said...

Good question. They're not "bad for you" as such. Strong pocket climbers (like guys who climb in Frankenjura and Margalef) can regularly crank out multiple two finger and even one finger pull-ups, and beast strong guys do that with just one arm. However, like with all training, you have to build up to it very gradually. Start with four fingers (a regular open hand grip), then go with 3 fingers (front 3 and back 3). Then move down to two fingers and do all three combinations. Hangs are just as good as actually doing pullups using the grips. You're after grip strength rather than a lat workout, so I would put more focus on hanging the grips for a certain time (say, 7 seconds, 3 sec rest, repeat) than cranking up on them.