Maybe not as effective for raw strength in the fingers but definitely more applicable to general climing since you also train moving on holds and dont forget developing contact strength also! Anyways, great video Louis, glad to see you touch on this one!
I would honestly argue that using a training board is actually better finger training than using a standard fingerboard. Normally in climbing, its the amount of force you can generate quickly by pulling on edges that keep us on the wall. Fingerboards are great, but only train your fingers isometrically, aka its just static strength. Training boards are basically plyometric training for your fingers, you are forced to generate tons of force very quickly which is so much more applicable to real climbing. When it comes to getting stronger where it matters as a climber, the training boards IMO clear the hangboards by miles.
Couldn t agree more. I honestly never used a training board for the first 4 years because i had no access. I simply did some routines on the beastmaker 1000/2000. noticed an increase in finger strenght but no big translation over to climbing. When we got a moonboard with 2019 setup, after 6 months on it, my bouldering grades exploded😂.
Great video. I would like to add that be aware of your fingers and skin. Kilterboarding on these bad holds can be very demanding for you fingers after several sessions, listen to your body. Another thing i like about the kilterboard is the use of footwork, you will learn a lot how different shoes will be more beneficial on the kilter holds.
As someone who uses a training board for most of my climbing sessions, I will say to stick with it even when it feels hard at first. I had a good amount of experience and was fairly decent at climbing when I started moonboarding, and I remember the V3s felt choss at first. However, after a handful of sessions (start slow), I was flashing V4s and some V5s. It really does take a bit to actually get used to recruiting specifically on a training board, even if you're a strong climber. Give it a few sessions and the progress will be really fast initially, so don't be discouraged!
Awesome insight of how you stopped to think how you gained finger strength Louis. Thanks for the great info. And 100% agree with the being social makes climbing much more fun.
Question on these boards and strength training in general: what do yout hink beginners who only climb boulders (or rope climbs) in the gym miss out on the most? What would be the first you would add? warm-up? stretching? finger strength training? core training? I admit I cannot do all at once but would rather want to add one at a time and feel good about what I add.
Climbing regular boulders will give you the most return on your time invested. Don't substitute climbing time for training until you're a few years in, that is unless you're either rehabbing injuries or doing antagonistic work
@@nilsp9426 while it's good that you're taking sufficient rest, 2 climbing days per week is probably what's holding you back right now. If it's possible with your schedule I'd say to climb more often.
Been climbing for just over a year, tried the moonboard last week for the first time. It was rough, didn't finish any routes in the app. Didn't really think about just climbing on anything though. Will try again tomorrow.
Great and helpful video! I would love to see some videos on training for an overhung sport climb using either the boulder or kilter board. So a mix of endurance and strength. Which to train first? Can you train both at the same time? One of my long term goals is to be able to do a lead climb on the prow and to also finish a climb in the cave on the boulder.
I don't get the idea of not using technique on a training board. The fact that it's weird edges on a 45° board already makes it physically hard and the main benefit over the campus board is that you are also improving your movement. If the climb is easy when using technique, pick a harder climb and still climb the best you can. A proper board session will be hard on you physically either way.
It depends on your climbing ability and what you're looking for! Brand new climbers should try 0-20º and then newer KB climbers could do 20-45º and go from there.
Many people talk about how useful boards are, but they rarely explain what makes them so effective? As someone who doesn't have a system board in her local gym, I'm struggling understanding why the board is so effective in increasing fingerstrenght and other skills compared to "normal" steep overhanging bouldering. Is it just a matter of how many boulders you can try? I believe in bouldering you have many more interesting angles you can work on as well. Any suggestion?
Board climbs typically have smaller edges and/or more powerful moves that require a higher level of "contact strength" than typical overhanging gym routes. Essentially, since boards are so much shorter than normal gym walls, individual moves need to be much harder to accomplish a similar level of overall difficulty, plus the fact that boards are flat surfaces with no angles changes mean you're less likely to be able to use techniques that take a lot of weight off your hands (like heel hooks, knee bars, etc.). All of these things combine to make board climbing much more intense on your upper body, including fingers. More specific stimulus = more adaptations = more strength. :)
Lets be honest here, everyone progresses differently and what's effective for one person may not be for others. I used to climb a ton in the 90's and i was strong as heck. now i still climb at a 7A (V6-8) level but i am not as strong as i was in my 20s. the thing is. I don't do any finger boarding now or when i was younger. all i did was climb. (now i only climb 2 hours a week maybe 3). Also, if you recall interviewing Janja Garnbret she said she doesn't do any training, she just does climbing. The other thing I've been told from a rather strong big wall climber (5.13 ish) he always told me, you can build strength through endurance but you cant build endurance through strength. he always recommended that if i get on the wall to stay on for at least 15 minutes (however I'm more a boulderer and don't do this, but i do agree with the concept). In short, if we ask you(Louis), how many hours a week do you climb? Ii bet, its a lot more then the average person. of course working out (if body accepts both) also helps but climb to get stronger and it'll happen. My current limitations are some strength, but mainly flexibility. especially since climbing is a lot more dynamic and flexible these days.
Absolutely, also as more people seem to just train common courtesy goes out the window. I was picking a problem on the board last month and someone jumped on and started a circuit when I was clearly about to get on myself. How hard is it to actually talk to people nowadays and work it together. Too many climbers now just have headphones in and only care about themselves. Downsides of the olympics is seems.
The kilter at my home gym is free about 50% of the time. I found going to the same gym, but one city over, the training area is usually completely empty. I guess cause it’s all the way on the third floor.
My problem with these boards is that they seem to really hurt my wrists and elbows after quite a short session. Moves are SO intense. My only real experience is a moonboard on the easy angle up to 6C, but still.
Check out a Kilter Board, it's designed to be as ergonomic as it can be and different angles may affect you differently so hopefully with 15 angles to choose from you can find some that fit your needs!
I was JUST thinking today about trying out a moonboard at my gym! How would you say training boards compare to hangboards as far as safety? Finger injuries more or less likely? Safer to get on a training board than a hangboard as a beginner?
Safe as long as you are mindful of what you’re doing. Take appropriate amounts of rest, say 4-5 in between attempts and i’d limit my board sessions as a beginner to once a week. It’s very intense on the fingers if you climb on small holds in steep terrain. Also keep sessions short and high quality. Warm up properly and you should be fine
Def be careful at the start with load. You get into a nice, addicting flow but can really easily overtrain. First once a week even if it is a lot of fun and go from there
Hangboards are exceedingly safe, able to control load and be consistent, and are what I recommend for most folks to develop training history in finger strength (as well as for warming and priming before sessions) while training boards feature the main problems of high velocity and sudden changes to direction with this velocity. The danger of a hangboard comes when climbers do not adjust training volume to compensate for the additional stress as the majority of hangboard sessions do not leave climbers feeling tired, and this along with efforts to see constant gains and therefore excessively load the body in mechanically stressful but advantageous ways lead to chronic injuries. The hangboard is not the problem itself, while the training board can be. For a session zero on a board, make sure you are thoroughly warmed and primed for the type of movement on the board. Often this is fast, shoulder and finger intensive, and requires significant power output. Then, climb until a noticeable drop in power which should happen even before you feel tired. This is when to stop. If you feel tired on a session zero for establishing how hard you should work on a training board, you probably need to reduce the volume by a third on the next session. Give at least a full recovery day before and after. Those are extremely general guidelines.
The exploring board advice is such an underused aspect to session zeros on a board. Learning ways to grab many of the holds is essential to help focus on the physical aspects and avoid the obvious movements which simply do not work. If you simply leap for a hold and never come close to latching, you don’t develop much physically but can easily waste time, energy, skin, etc., needs to be near enough to success to engage the body. As well, the long raid ad was a bit much. I appreciate you guys getting sponsored episodes to make great content, but that was almost two minutes…
It is normal climbing but you can often set the angle of the kilter board to challenge yourself. Moves are hard but not painful and it is easy to push just a little bit more, by making small changes. Also makes it easy to retry a climb again to compare your progress. Normal walls are less flexible and new routes get set. But it *is* just climbing
The main difference with training boards to standard climbing is we often establish rules for ourselves on a system board and are interested in the training aspect to climbing as opposed to the practice and tactical aspects. This is why certain boards have certain rule sets such as sit starts and designated foot holds or no matching and more. On a standard climbing wall, if you match what was supposed to be a blocked crimp foot… great, this is a skill to develop and explore in this space, but the exploits aren’t of interest on a training board. I’ve seen climbers do everything possible, including just ignoring established rules for a problem, to avoid the hard intended movement, but this is like kipping a weighted pullup… the board is for training. Course, is everyone’s own time in climbing, thus not doing this wrong but is suboptimal use of a training board if you’ve access to the rest of a climbing wall.
Re technique or not. Every climb needs technique. If you want to get strong and use technique then do something harder. Its like folk climbing with a weight vest, just destroys their technique, just climb harder routes (and the weight vest usually willy waving by young men).
@@stephanvg imagine them getting paid for all this work?!? Making videos which you keep getting recommended because you value them enough to keep clicking on them.....
Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS/ANDROID/PC: clcr.me/R_CatalystClimbing and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days
no
Sorry but is this a f#ching joke?! Com on we don't need this!
My favorite part of the video was at 1:43 where you talked about Raid: Shadow Legends.
Cool that you show Swooped. It's a climb I can just do at 30°, but that feel utterly impossible at 40°
Dude my goal is to do it at 60° I was one move away last time I tried that! Super cool climb
@@Ian_climbs I was able to do it on 50 but 60 seems insane
Maybe not as effective for raw strength in the fingers but definitely more applicable to general climing since you also train moving on holds and dont forget developing contact strength also! Anyways, great video Louis, glad to see you touch on this one!
I would honestly argue that using a training board is actually better finger training than using a standard fingerboard. Normally in climbing, its the amount of force you can generate quickly by pulling on edges that keep us on the wall. Fingerboards are great, but only train your fingers isometrically, aka its just static strength. Training boards are basically plyometric training for your fingers, you are forced to generate tons of force very quickly which is so much more applicable to real climbing. When it comes to getting stronger where it matters as a climber, the training boards IMO clear the hangboards by miles.
Couldn t agree more. I honestly never used a training board for the first 4 years because i had no access. I simply did some routines on the beastmaker 1000/2000. noticed an increase in finger strenght but no big translation over to climbing. When we got a moonboard with 2019 setup, after 6 months on it, my bouldering grades exploded😂.
I think when you say fingerboard then it's implied you also will be using the campus board to train contact strength efficiently
Great video. I would like to add that be aware of your fingers and skin. Kilterboarding on these bad holds can be very demanding for you fingers after several sessions, listen to your body.
Another thing i like about the kilterboard is the use of footwork, you will learn a lot how different shoes will be more beneficial on the kilter holds.
Great video, thanks! I just had my first Kilter board session today, it's way more fun than hangboarding indeed! Much love from HOLLAND.
It’s so interesting that almost all the climbs you’ve showed today I have either done or tried haha. Guess these are the classics
ad ends at 3:43
As someone who uses a training board for most of my climbing sessions, I will say to stick with it even when it feels hard at first.
I had a good amount of experience and was fairly decent at climbing when I started moonboarding, and I remember the V3s felt choss at first. However, after a handful of sessions (start slow), I was flashing V4s and some V5s. It really does take a bit to actually get used to recruiting specifically on a training board, even if you're a strong climber. Give it a few sessions and the progress will be really fast initially, so don't be discouraged!
🔥 Thank you Louis! Hopefully some folks will try the board that wouldn't otherwise venture into it!
Awesome insight of how you stopped to think how you gained finger strength Louis. Thanks for the great info. And 100% agree with the being social makes climbing much more fun.
🗽I like the Kilterboard holds (good for skin), but it looks easier, than it is, especially with a steeper slope.
.
Question on these boards and strength training in general: what do yout hink beginners who only climb boulders (or rope climbs) in the gym miss out on the most? What would be the first you would add? warm-up? stretching? finger strength training? core training? I admit I cannot do all at once but would rather want to add one at a time and feel good about what I add.
Climbing regular boulders will give you the most return on your time invested. Don't substitute climbing time for training until you're a few years in, that is unless you're either rehabbing injuries or doing antagonistic work
@@AMM1998 I am one year in, climbing twice a week.
@@nilsp9426 while it's good that you're taking sufficient rest, 2 climbing days per week is probably what's holding you back right now. If it's possible with your schedule I'd say to climb more often.
Been climbing for just over a year, tried the moonboard last week for the first time. It was rough, didn't finish any routes in the app. Didn't really think about just climbing on anything though. Will try again tomorrow.
such good advice. kilter for the win!!
Great advice for starting out. I'm going to try using any holds to get to the top!
I agree I went from v8 to v10 in 6 months
Great and helpful video! I would love to see some videos on training for an overhung sport climb using either the boulder or kilter board. So a mix of endurance and strength. Which to train first? Can you train both at the same time?
One of my long term goals is to be able to do a lead climb on the prow and to also finish a climb in the cave on the boulder.
Where is this kilterboard? I’d love to see pictures of the gym or setup, what a cool full glass door and garden view
It is over at the brand new Eustonwall!
I don't get the idea of not using technique on a training board. The fact that it's weird edges on a 45° board already makes it physically hard and the main benefit over the campus board is that you are also improving your movement. If the climb is easy when using technique, pick a harder climb and still climb the best you can. A proper board session will be hard on you physically either way.
Looks fantastic. I have no access to a board in my gym.
At what angle would you recommend? Is 40° an effective angle for training purposes?
40 and more are the best angles for body tension, so sure!
What angle should it be set for someone who's never used a kilter board before?
It depends on your climbing ability and what you're looking for! Brand new climbers should try 0-20º and then newer KB climbers could do 20-45º and go from there.
Many people talk about how useful boards are, but they rarely explain what makes them so effective? As someone who doesn't have a system board in her local gym, I'm struggling understanding why the board is so effective in increasing fingerstrenght and other skills compared to "normal" steep overhanging bouldering. Is it just a matter of how many boulders you can try? I believe in bouldering you have many more interesting angles you can work on as well. Any suggestion?
Board climbs typically have smaller edges and/or more powerful moves that require a higher level of "contact strength" than typical overhanging gym routes. Essentially, since boards are so much shorter than normal gym walls, individual moves need to be much harder to accomplish a similar level of overall difficulty, plus the fact that boards are flat surfaces with no angles changes mean you're less likely to be able to use techniques that take a lot of weight off your hands (like heel hooks, knee bars, etc.). All of these things combine to make board climbing much more intense on your upper body, including fingers. More specific stimulus = more adaptations = more strength. :)
@@EmileModesitt big hug to the Hooper people 🙃
Lets be honest here, everyone progresses differently and what's effective for one person may not be for others. I used to climb a ton in the 90's and i was strong as heck. now i still climb at a 7A (V6-8) level but i am not as strong as i was in my 20s. the thing is. I don't do any finger boarding now or when i was younger. all i did was climb. (now i only climb 2 hours a week maybe 3).
Also, if you recall interviewing Janja Garnbret she said she doesn't do any training, she just does climbing.
The other thing I've been told from a rather strong big wall climber (5.13 ish) he always told me, you can build strength through endurance but you cant build endurance through strength. he always recommended that if i get on the wall to stay on for at least 15 minutes (however I'm more a boulderer and don't do this, but i do agree with the concept).
In short, if we ask you(Louis), how many hours a week do you climb? Ii bet, its a lot more then the average person. of course working out (if body accepts both) also helps but climb to get stronger and it'll happen.
My current limitations are some strength, but mainly flexibility. especially since climbing is a lot more dynamic and flexible these days.
The most difficult part of training on a board is finding it free 😅
Absolutely, also as more people seem to just train common courtesy goes out the window. I was picking a problem on the board last month and someone jumped on and started a circuit when I was clearly about to get on myself. How hard is it to actually talk to people nowadays and work it together. Too many climbers now just have headphones in and only care about themselves. Downsides of the olympics is seems.
Agree. Especially in Innsbruck, absolute nightmare
If you live in paris its finding one at all.. There seem to be some snobism around system boards around here
@@wircoal same for Japan
The kilter at my home gym is free about 50% of the time.
I found going to the same gym, but one city over, the training area is usually completely empty. I guess cause it’s all the way on the third floor.
My problem with these boards is that they seem to really hurt my wrists and elbows after quite a short session. Moves are SO intense. My only real experience is a moonboard on the easy angle up to 6C, but still.
Check out a Kilter Board, it's designed to be as ergonomic as it can be and different angles may affect you differently so hopefully with 15 angles to choose from you can find some that fit your needs!
I tried climbing the kilter board yesterday for the first time, the board actually climbed me.
I’ve finally learned the source of Louis’ strength it’s the mo 😉
It is truly strong
@@CatalystClimbing the mo is strong with those one
That ad was hilarious xD
the advertisement 🤣
I was JUST thinking today about trying out a moonboard at my gym!
How would you say training boards compare to hangboards as far as safety? Finger injuries more or less likely? Safer to get on a training board than a hangboard as a beginner?
Safe as long as you are mindful of what you’re doing. Take appropriate amounts of rest, say 4-5 in between attempts and i’d limit my board sessions as a beginner to once a week. It’s very intense on the fingers if you climb on small holds in steep terrain. Also keep sessions short and high quality. Warm up properly and you should be fine
As a beginner you will not be able to do much on a steep training board. And you should avoid the campus board.
.
Def be careful at the start with load. You get into a nice, addicting flow but can really easily overtrain. First once a week even if it is a lot of fun and go from there
Hangboards are exceedingly safe, able to control load and be consistent, and are what I recommend for most folks to develop training history in finger strength (as well as for warming and priming before sessions) while training boards feature the main problems of high velocity and sudden changes to direction with this velocity. The danger of a hangboard comes when climbers do not adjust training volume to compensate for the additional stress as the majority of hangboard sessions do not leave climbers feeling tired, and this along with efforts to see constant gains and therefore excessively load the body in mechanically stressful but advantageous ways lead to chronic injuries. The hangboard is not the problem itself, while the training board can be.
For a session zero on a board, make sure you are thoroughly warmed and primed for the type of movement on the board. Often this is fast, shoulder and finger intensive, and requires significant power output. Then, climb until a noticeable drop in power which should happen even before you feel tired. This is when to stop. If you feel tired on a session zero for establishing how hard you should work on a training board, you probably need to reduce the volume by a third on the next session. Give at least a full recovery day before and after. Those are extremely general guidelines.
@@zacharylaschober Super helpful and thorough, thanks!
The Stokt app is good if you have wooden training boards
I just wish my gym had any kind of training board 😭
Wild! Louis on a Board and not cutting loose once. Also not even metioning the "historic" name he got from it.
Otherwise nice video :)
i do not understand climbing without technique at ALL. just get strong with good technique…? you’ll get strong no matter what. use good technique
Bring back the 2min vids packed with content like when the channel just started!
Why was Omar from bouldering bobat reading your raid shadow legends ad? 🤣
Omar works with us too!
The exploring board advice is such an underused aspect to session zeros on a board. Learning ways to grab many of the holds is essential to help focus on the physical aspects and avoid the obvious movements which simply do not work. If you simply leap for a hold and never come close to latching, you don’t develop much physically but can easily waste time, energy, skin, etc., needs to be near enough to success to engage the body.
As well, the long raid ad was a bit much. I appreciate you guys getting sponsored episodes to make great content, but that was almost two minutes…
Should we use chalk when using training boards? Every time I try to use these I get a flapper
Is the training board really a secret though?
Will playing Raid Shadow Legends improve mye finger strength? Keeewl
Good video, but can we have climbing related adds?
NOOOO raid is infecting climbing now
How tall is Louis?
What's the difference to normal climbing?
It is normal climbing but you can often set the angle of the kilter board to challenge yourself. Moves are hard but not painful and it is easy to push just a little bit more, by making small changes.
Also makes it easy to retry a climb again to compare your progress. Normal walls are less flexible and new routes get set.
But it *is* just climbing
The main difference with training boards to standard climbing is we often establish rules for ourselves on a system board and are interested in the training aspect to climbing as opposed to the practice and tactical aspects. This is why certain boards have certain rule sets such as sit starts and designated foot holds or no matching and more. On a standard climbing wall, if you match what was supposed to be a blocked crimp foot… great, this is a skill to develop and explore in this space, but the exploits aren’t of interest on a training board. I’ve seen climbers do everything possible, including just ignoring established rules for a problem, to avoid the hard intended movement, but this is like kipping a weighted pullup… the board is for training. Course, is everyone’s own time in climbing, thus not doing this wrong but is suboptimal use of a training board if you’ve access to the rest of a climbing wall.
WTF commercial of some funny game for children 😆 c`mon guys
Re technique or not. Every climb needs technique. If you want to get strong and use technique then do something harder. Its like folk climbing with a weight vest, just destroys their technique, just climb harder routes (and the weight vest usually willy waving by young men).
Hahahaha jesus christ what was that commercial? Sorry Louis but I have to unsubscribe, that was just too cringe 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oh sorry I realised I hadn't actually subscribed before, I just thought I was because I keep getting recommended and then watching your videos
@@stephanvg imagine them getting paid for all this work?!? Making videos which you keep getting recommended because you value them enough to keep clicking on them.....
I wouldn’t unsubscribe for a single advertisement in a video nor be so melodramatic, but if this became every video… yeah that was two minutes of ad.
Just skip it..?
🤡