Things to come back for

Very similar to the past years the month May offered two weeks of sun and blistering heat, followed by much cooler, much wetter and horribly instable weather throughout the remainder of May and the entirety of June. But unlike spending June in the hospital or recovering at home from a rather unhealthy situation, I could go out this year. And so I did, cherry picking my weather windows.

At the very peak of the hot period I somehow ended up at the south facing cliffs of Lüerdissen in Ith with Erik and Tamas. Although my ability to climb hard deteriorates unreasonably rapidly with increasing temperature, we were determined to try the power endurance route 'Maibock' (7b). The fact that it was about the only route that didn't even get a tiny bit of shadow didn't put us off. Under any circumstances this would have been a stupid decision, but this time I won't complain as Erik and I managed to climb the route. Yes, it took much more effort than it would have in better conditions and I might as well have gotten back on that much more shady, horrible roof dyno project I still had there. But fact is: Maibock turned out to be a beautiful route and posed the perfect challenge for this day and these conditions. It felt good breaking out in flop sweat, nearly falling off the last move and topping out.

Erik working on his tan on Maibock (7b) in Lüerdissen, Ith

When the rain came, finding those small dry windows and dry rocks became the challenge. A session in Glees (that I already wrote about) was the first result, followed by two route climbing sessions with Matt in Teuto (climbing one new 7c variation and leaving two new combinations around 7b+ unclimbed). During the next free, dry day I couldn't find a partner and went bouldering on the big limestone roof of Pferdestall in Ith. I climbed the great problem 'Need for Speed' (7A+), but needed (way too) many attempts. It turned out to be an absolute horror to work, with the crux right at the end after powerful climbing into it. Only after taking many falls, I changed my beta to suit my strengths better (heel hooking and locking off in this case) and quickly dispatched it. With my remaining energy I tried to do 'Schweizer Nachhilfe' (7B+), but failed to find the essential toe hook tric to get past the crux and wasted my last strength and skin on the jump just before it. Once more something to come back for...

'Zeit des Wartens' (7c), the massive roof jump route in Lüerdissen (Ith), remained on my mind though. I tried it in Februari last year and failed with numb, frozen fingers. When I came back in October I failed again, tearing a big flapper on my fourth attempt. I made this video of the route as a reminder to myself to go back and finish it. So when I ended up in Lüerdissen for a second time this year, now with Frans and with better conditions, I had to try it again. After getting in the roof mindset with the superb routes 'Hang or Hang Not' (6c+) and 'Fluchtpunkt' (7a), I collected myself and went up Zeit des Wartens again. It took three more attempts to conquer my fear of it and go all in on that horrible jump from a mono finger lock, but it's done! The direct start ('Tsunami', 7c+) is waiting to be done next...

There's no rush though. I've made a count of the routes I've put effort in and haven't finished yet. It turns out there are at least 15 routes ranging from 7b+ to 8a+ spread out across Ith, Bielefeld, Teuto, Ettringen, Berdorf and Grotte du Brotsch that are on that list... 

Full circle

Five years ago I embarked on my first ever bouldering trip. Seeking for a form of climbing and being out that I could share with Michelle (vertigo has such a firm grip on her that even belaying petrifies her) I acquired a crashpad and a bouldering topo of the Eifel. So on March 8 2011 I drove us to the basalt blocks of Glees, determined to show the love of my life the magical beauty of climbing rocks. And boy, did I do a good job to put her off...

Happy as a kid I rushed up the hill towards the blocks, as if they might vanish into thin air any moment. I quickly climbed the first 5A I saw, then a 5B, then a 6A. After making quick work of another 6A and a 6A+, I figured that - having been a boulderer for about an hour now - I had grown enough to try something harder. That's when I saw 'Die Eisheiligen'. It was (is) so aesthetically pleasing that it had an immediate irresistible pull. I had no feeling (or respect...) for bouldering grades and jumped on it, imagining I had the arms of Chris Sharma, the fingers of Adam Ondra, the balls of Alex Honold and the grace of Akiyo Noguchi. At 6C+ it was way above my league though and I never got far off the ground. Nevertheless the sloping rock at the landing and a poorly placed crash pad were enough to break my leg in a fall...

Sander vs. 'Die Eisheiligen'...

What was supposed to become an awesome first bouldering trip for the both of us turned into a straight disaster, with Michelle having to help me complete the half hour slippery downhill walk to the car on one leg carrying a heavy crashpad, with her having to drive us home with me moaning in pain at every bumb in the road and still having to convince me that this wasn't good and I had to see a doctor, with her having to deal with the fact I absolutely refused to go to a German hospital and eventually leaving me no choice but to visit the hospital in Enschede when we finally arrived after a long drive, with her waiting there for hours and ultimately bringing me home close to midnight with my leg in a cast. My God, what a hideously Homerical  sentence to describe the horror I put Michelle through on her first climbing experience. Somehow though, five years later, she still supports my climbing and comes with me every once in a while when I go bouldering. What a lovely wife I have.

You may understand that ever since that day I felt I have a bone to pick with Die Eisheiligen. A year after the fall, in spring 2012, my mental scars had healed enough to face it again. And so I drove to Glees, only to arrive in a rain shower and find Die Eisheiligen with a soaking wet top. I haven't even touched it and climbed other, dryer boulders instead. After that, I somehow never made it to Glees anymore. I discovered the bouldering in Ruhrtal instead. With the appeal of being quite a bit closer to home it kept me satisfied throughout 2013 and the first half of 2014. After that my interested shifted towards roped climbing and I barely bouldered at all. Glees and Die Eisheiligen drifted to a desolate part of my memory, but never faded entirely.

Fast forward to May 25, 2016: I'm in my car, dogs and crashpad in the boot, driving to Glees. It's overcast and surprisingly cold for the time of the year. Good for bouldering. It has rained a lot the past week though. Bad for bouldering. I'm not really sure what to expect, but the image of a wet Eisheiligen from 2012 haunts me. Third time's a charm, right?

The forest is much darker and denser than I remember. This shouldn't be a surprise, it's Germany after all. It is also bad news though: the basalt blocks are all in the shade and well sheltered by copious blankets of freshly green spring leafs. A dry breeze has no chance of penetrating here and even if the sun were shining, the rays would never reach the boulders. Note to self: Glees is a winter destination. But now that I'm here anyway I'd better make the most of it. I drop my stuff below a good and dry looking 6A ('Brian Gedächtnis Weg') to warm up. It has big holds, big moves and it's high: all qualities I enjoy in a boulder problem. I've barely left the ground when my foot slips off. Standing on my crashpad again I contemplate what this means: no friction today. Maybe 'high' isn't an enjoyable quality after all today. A second attempt quickly lands me on top of the boulder though. So climbing is possible in these conditions. Buck up, Sander! Humidity is just a lame excuse for a losers' attitude.

Getting used to the conditions on 'Brian Gedächtnis Weg'

I want to know whether Eisheiligen is dry enough today. I've waited long enough for this. It should be only 50 meters away, but the view is consumed by the forest. Time to pack my stuff again and head over there. But when the jungle opens up a bit and I get a first glimps of Die Eisheiligen, Vienna sounds the alarm: the rather tiny base around the block is already occupied by a happy German couple with two dogs and a baby. One of the dogs appears to be half Husky, half Aussie, which is pretty much a guarantee for a strong personality that will collide head on with the attitude of my Aussies. Since I'd rather not find out - especially with a baby in the middle - I retreat. I muster all the patience I can find and tell myself I'll have another chance later today. Plan B: walk to 'Es'. Es is THE boulder in Glees - an absolute Eifel classic - and situated in a more open location, which considerably raises the odds of it being dry. At the grade of 7B/7B+ (it favors the tall) it should be quite a challenge, but possible.

Walking up on Es, the holds look good and the boulder doesn't appear to be very hard at all. I get a firm reality check though when my 'flash attempt' fails at the very first move. The required span is massive, the footholds are slippery and somehow the holds feel quite a bit smaller than they look. The standing start (called 'Esther', graded 6C+) goes down quickly, but the top slopers are damp and lack friction. However scary, it goes though! But the bottom half troubles me. Just when the thought of going back to Die Eisheiligen creeps in (imagine not climbing Die Eisheiligen as a result of spending all my energy on not climbing Es!), the magic of bouldering happens: something clicks and I unexpectedly climb Es from the first move in. Baffled I try to repeat the moves and all of the sudden they feel rather easy.

'Es' quickly coming together

All that remains is doing the first move and repeat what I just did. From feeling impossible to within grasps in just minutes! But the first move turns out to be hard. When I finally do it, my foot slips one move later and I'm off. New attempts all fail. Is this signalling the imminent end of the day or just specific fatigue for this move? I contemplate the implications of both for a while and conclude that either way a break is needed. If my energy for the day is running out though, continuing on Es might cost me Die Eisheiligen. In the case of specific fatigue, a quick ascent of Die Eisheiligen and some walking around might be the perfect break. But if it takes more energy, it deminishes my chances of climbing Es dramatically. Conundrum... Setting ego and grade chasing aside, Die Eisheiligen is what I really desire to climb. Third time's a charm, remember?

And so it is that I walk back to Die Eisheiligen, set up the camera and carefully place the crashpad on the slanting rock that broke my ankle five years ago. As soon as my feet leave the ground I am surprised how powerful this boulder problem feels. I really had no chance five years ago. When I reach for the small crimper below the top, it is smaller than expected. I'll have to work my way up on it and slap for the top that looks uncannily sloping. For an instant I look down. Big mistake. It turns out that due to the overhang of the block I'm not above my pad anymore. Fear of falling cripples me and I climb down to jump on my pad. I repeat this entire process twice before I realize I'll have to move the pad to protect the top. Grudgingly I drag the pad further from the base of the block. The slanted rock grins at me sadistically. This time I know that if I fall, I won't do it there though. So I set off again, climb up to the crimp and slap for the top. It is sloping indeed and very slippery. Knowing I have the pad right where it needs to be now I match the other hand and top out. It's done.

When I go back to Es later, I quickly climb it as well. Finally I can leave Glees and Die Eisheiligen in peace. I've had my revenge. It tastes sweet, so very sweet!

In the meantime, part 2: rock

After the geeky ramblings on training from my previous post, here's the more interesting part: outdoor fun! As explained, I want to focus more on volume and fun, without getting lost in ego-fed superhard projects and hardly getting any climbing done. So no grade chasing, no tunnelvision on superprojects, but just climbing whatever comes across my path. As Teuto happens to come across my path regularly, being the only crag within an hour driving¹, this resolution resulted in me bouldering quite a lot in Teuto in the past months. And I can honestly say I've been enjoying it more than I expected to do: it's a lovely forest to be and to walk in with the dogs and off the beaten tracks there is a surprisingly large amount of good and hard bouldering. Sometimes the problems require a bit of a definition to be of interest, but despite my dislike of defined - contrived - boulder problems they never felt unnatural. All fun and games, so who really cares?

Topping out Alpha Centauri, the best ascent of the year so far! Video below...

A 'good' thing about the bouldering in Teuto is that there isn't a guide book or any community kept list of problems. Most lines in the forest have once been climbed, but it's often hard to find out by who and what name or grade has been attached to it. Usually I get my info through Matt, who has the Teuto woods as his backyard and has a great climbing network via his business. Sometimes the grades are soft, sometimes silly hard. They are absolutely meaningless, which is great: it shifts the focus automatically to climbing lines instead of grades. And it's humbling and motivating in a peculiar way to get completely shut down by a boulder someone else perceived as 7A.

iPhone video of a few boulders I climbed in Teuto. The first - Boone low - I have been trying on and of for more than a year and it always eluded me. 
Not this time. Progress?

So bouldering in Teuto fits my present goals pretty well and I've been doing it for quite a few afternoons this spring. Nevertheless I do like some variaty (and climbing routes instead of boulders...), so getting to other crags is always on my wish list. So far I've only managed to do this twice this year, but both times were productive and fun! The first visit was with Matt to the limestone cliffs in Ith, where I climbed the first routes of the year and managed to make quick work of 'Neues aus der Anstalt', a 7b+/7c at Kannstein with a powerful undercling crux and a short bit of power endurance climbing following it. Although both Matt and I felt it was easy for the grade, it feels good to be able to grab a quick ascent in the upper half of the 7th grade.

The other visit - with Matt again - was triggered by a video Matt stumbled upon of German strongman Stefan Hochbaum climbing an amazing looking highball in the woods surrounding Bielefeld (technically still the Teutoburger Wald). Matt used his network to uncover the location of the block and a few days later we went, with two brobdingnagianly big Moon Saturn crashpads stuffed in our car. I fell in love with the boulder immediately upon seeing the video, but walking up to 'Alpha Centauri' in real was even more awesome. It was high though, impressively high. I don't consider myself a big risk taker, I am deterred by the idea of not climbing for months while recovering from a serious injury. At the same time, I do appreciate the appeal of a beautiful, high boulder problem. So we set up a toprope first to practice the top of the boulder. Falling from the top was not really an option, so we made sure we had it dialed in perfectly. Nevertheless, when we removed the rope I felt anxious. The first part of the boulder is a steep and athletic and well protected by a good landing. Halfway it switches to a lightly overhanging arrete, which is hard to downclimb. A big move marks the transition to the arrete and is a psychological point of no return. Above it, you are high enough to not want to risk a fall and the only way is up, to even higher ground. I climbed the first part being very aware of this point of no return, but felt strong. A brief moment of hesitation paused me before the big move, but I flipped the switch and committed to it. I floated up, never once looking down to the ground. Within moments I was standing on the top. It felt absolutely amazing. Minutes later Matt followed. How hard it was? I honestly don't know. The first ascentionist gave it 7B, in the video Matt found 7B+ was proposed. When I climbed it, it felt much easier. But who really cares? Alpha Centauri was the best thing I've climbed in a while and topping out felt like a victory, extremely rewarding and exciting. An additional special touch: after climbing my first 7th grade boulder problem four years ago, this was exactly number 100.

Video of Matt and me climbing Alpha Centauri.

The route climbing season has only just started and I hope to get some more routes done. Nevertheless I'll probably go out bouldering a lot more. No complaints, I'm absolutely loving it again!

1: The only exception is Isterberg, which is hardly ever dry enough to climb. When it is, there are a few very hard boulders left to do, which will probably resemble the type of project I try to avoid right now.

In the meantime, part 1: training

In a previous post I made the promise to fix some flaws in my training routine and to focus more on volume and fun outdoors. Whether that was a pledge to you or myself I'm not really sure, but either way I somehow felt obliged to keep it. And so I've been doing! There's enough to write about to fill several posts, but I'll try to keep it down to two.

Focussing on fun outdoors!

Let's start with the training and leave the outdoor fun for last. Most importantly, I abandoned the quite strictly linear training programme based on the Rock Climbers Training Manual by the Anderson brothers. I've been following it for more than a year now and came to realize that for me it has a few flaws. Three, to be precise. Firstly, the very predictable performance peaks that a linear periodized schedule produces may be very desirable for competition climbers or for training towards a big climbing holiday, it is far less ideal for the recreational outdoor climber that wants to get out whenever time and the weather allow, i.e. me. High peaks come with big troughs and when peaks coincide with bad weather or limited time that's rather frustrating. It is uncanny how much rain fell during my performance peaks.

Secondly, some phases of the programme have a strict planning that favors training over outdoor climbing. I want to be flexible enough to go out whenever I can, which doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like to. A training schedule shouldn't be another limiting factor to outdoor time when having a job and grown up responsibilities already are. Thirdly, I felt the training programma neglected maintenance of the performance aspects trained during other phases. For example, it provides little maintenance of strength during the power and power endurance phase. Most of the gains made during a strength fase evaporated during the rest of a training cycle.

So I started reading a lot again and set out to design a schedule that is less linearly periodized, includes more maintenance and always offers the flexibility to go out. I opted for a combination of classical and non-linear periodization (no periodization at all will result in plateau for sure: been there, done that) that cycles rather quickly between a focus on strength, power, power endurance and endurance while maintaining the other aspects. I'll have to stick a bit longer with it to tell whether it's an improvement or not, so I'll leave the description of the schedule for a future blog post. What I can say already, is that I can handle a bigger training volume in the new schedule.

Slowly all T-nuts on my homeboard are getting filled with climbing holds. The latest additions: Core mini jugs (grey) and Core Font micro jugs (dark green).

I also fixed a major flaw of my homeboard. So far, I've only invested in small holds to set hard boulders. Although it allowed me to do relatively short power endurance circuits (~20 move circuits in the 7b-7c route range were the easiest thing I could set), there was absolutely no way at all to train endurance in the aerobic energy system. So I asked my friend Matt from Flow Climbing Equipment to set me up with a new set of climbing holds and he did a great job again. There are 36 'mini' and 'micro' jugs from Core Climbing on my home board now (they really don't do those names justice, they're massive) and I started training on them. Although I aim for exercises around the aerobic threshold, I quickly noticed gains in power endurance as well. It's a bit unexpected (and may imply that the intensity of the exercise is actualy too high), but I'm not complaining.

Core Font micro jugs: extremely positive 2-pad jugs 

Surprisingly (and rather unexpectedly), the jugs provided a new challenge: skin management. Having climbed mainly on small 1-pad (and occasionally 2-pad) holds, my callusses are getting beaten up completely by the bigger holds. They get irritated, deep red and feel like they are about to turn into blisters or even flappers quickly. After a few sessions I figured out that if I climb on them at the end of a session (having well warmed up skin), not longer than 15 minutes and sand down my callusses agressively, I can train on them without getting debilitating skin injuries. It's enough to get quite a lot of moves done (about 200). Let's see if I can increase the volume as my skin slowly adapts to the torture I put it through...


A final fix in my training addresses my flexibility. I've always known that I don't have an impressively flexible body and that with my build genetics aren't exactly in my favor on this. The biggest mistake (the one I've been making for years) is to embrace this as an excuse, accept the weakness as it is and focus on strengths instead. Weaknesses provide the biggest potential for improvement and can be conquered with relatively little investment. So after getting shut down by a high foot placement on an otherwise easy boulder on the competition I joined in Februari, I finally decided to attack my flexibility weakness. At the end of every training I take between 10 and 15 minutes for stretching exercises, primarily for the hamstrings and hips. I'm getting noticably better at using high feet already and will try to keep stretching a part of my training routine.

Enough about training for now! In the future I'll sit down to write about some details of the training for those interested. First I'll stick with it for a while and see what it brings me! Time to write about my modest outdoor endeavours now, stay tuned!

Why all climbers should do push ups

All climbers should do push ups. Period. Well, that is my opinion... I have some arguments to back it up though that may sway the many climbers that dismiss push ups as a useless exercise for climbing: 

• Pushups work the triceps and pecs: important antagonists for the pulling muscles that we use in climbing moves. Keeping the antagonists just as strong as the pulling muscles helps keeping a balanced, injury free body. But it doesn't stop here: both the triceps and the pecs are recruited in many actual climbing moves: when moving up one hand, we (should) push down with the other. The triceps does this. And think of all the moves that require the pecs to come into action: sidestepping, locking off sidepulls, compression moves, etc.
• Pushups train core strength and stability, especially when instability is introduced by doing the excersice on one leg, using rings, a suspension trainer or a fitness ball. Core strength is required in nearly every climbing move, especially when the terrain gets steeper.
• Pushups can train a variety of shoulder muscles by varying in hand positioning (wide, narrow, above the shoulders, close to the waist, etc.) and by introducing instability to the hand using gymnastic rings, a suspension trainer or a fitness ball. Shoulder injuries are common among climbers and can hold you back for months or longer. Chronic shoulder injuries are almost impossible to get rid of. Strong shoulders are much less likely to get injured. By varying the push up excercises a lot of shoulder muscles can be trained, including all the small, tiny ones that get tweaked easily (think rotator cuff...).

There are endless variations of push up excercises. Varying them is important. Which ones you like comes down to personal taste, but I would recommend introducing some sort of instability and doing only exercises of which you can do at least a few good repetitions. It is easy to injure the small stabilizing muscles with an exercise that is too tough. That kind of defies the purpose of the exercise, wouldn't you say? 

For inspiration I've made a little video of the excercises that stuck with me and keep coming back regularly in my trainings. Enjoy training!

Ramblings from an old man

My God, am I a bad blogger! Months went by without sharing a single post. And all of the sudden 2015 is over and it's almost March 2016. Many goals for 2015 aren't realized, although it's easy to blame that on me landing on the intensive care and taking over half a year to recover to old fitness levels. A collection of uncorrelated, impossible to combine snippets of written story is scattered across a series of draft posts and by now there is no point in finishing them all and publish a tedious cluster of posts about the past months... Instead it seems more appropriate to wrap up the gap briefly (I've posted two 'new' video's from 2015 to the videos page). save you - my beloved reader - ploughing through my ramblings, and end on generally positive note rather than dwelling on the things I didn't do.

I'll go awry straight away: I tend to trivialise the physical impact of the illness I suffered this summer and expect to be climbing on the top of my game consistently again. Even without the illness that would be unreasonable, so unsurprisingly I've been disappoint myself regularly. I climbed ok, but not great. Honestly, I should be thankful to return to this shape and not having sustained some serious permanent damage. But my immune system suffered noticably (probably due to the fact that all of my blood plasma has been replaced...) and I'm tired and ill much more frequently than I used to be. Obviously that isn't complementing my training very well. I'm just returning from a four week break from training (longer even than after the intensive care!) and I hope I'll be able catch some momentum again now. It's frustrating to really want to go for it, but not have my body cooperate. Maybe I'm just getting old...

On a brighter note: lacking my sharp edge regularly is learning me to enjoy easier climbing without feeling the pressure to outperform myself all the time. I get better at picking climbs because I want to climb the line, not the grade, making every day out a more enjoyable experience. I try to broaden my palette again, the need for which was pointed out by a comp I participated in following the advice of climbing coach Jan Martin. I performed badly and discovered some weaknesses I have developped. Although I didn't feel too good during the comp and got ill the day after and I may blame part of the sub par performance on that, those weaknesses are unrelated to fitness. So I'm changing my training routines a bit and shifting my outdoor focus towards volume and fun for 2016. Lets see what the year brings!

Crash, crush!

Another strength training cycle is finished! For thirty days I religiously followed the training plan and it seems to have paid off. A few weeks ago I already wrote that even though the first sessions weren't good - number 2 being soul crushingly bad - a promising upward trend became visible after five trainings. The sessions that followed absolutely blew my mind: in terms of volume training number 6 was the toughest I've ever recorded and all the following trainings surpassed the previous. The volume graph below (in red) shows the rapid volume increase through the cycle compared with the previous cycles. After ten trainings I've set personal records on the added (and total) load for every single grip position (see second and third graph). I am amazed! After the 'big crash' this summer I set my hopes on reaching old strength levels again and didn't dare thinking about actually crushing them.

This is the first quantifiable result since I started recovery and it seems that through the course of the past thirty days I've fully reached my old (finger) strength levels again. Now let's hope the measured gains will translate well into power and increased climbing performances… Campus training is up next and I hope to get out on the rocks soon again!

Workout volume and time under tension per training (explained here). A rapid increase in volume during the third cylce is visible. The last five trainings exceed volume levels of previous cycles. Note that season 1 and 2 are hardly comparable, due to the much lower T.U.T. in season 1. Season 3 shows improvement over season 2 for similar T.U.T. though.

Added (or substracted) load per grip position (the exact excercises are described here). Personal records on all grip positions were reached. The figure below shows this also holds for the total load, which includes effects of body weight fluctuations.

Relapse, return

Just after sending my project 'Super Surfer', my life was thrown upside down. I started feeling ill on wednesday and found myself on the intensive care by saturday. Luckily the days of absolute misery that followed went by in a bit of a blur. One thing was made very clear though: if Michelle hadn't dragged me to the hospital, I would have died. Possibly on the same day. My liver was failing, my kidneys were failing, my brain was failing and my blood values were dropping like a brick in free fall. Not good. Although I was promised at least a month in the hospital, the doctors released me after a week. To this moment they are failing (and still trying) to identify the cause of my relapse, but after five days of intensive treatment and administration of a high dose of prednisone I started recovering rapidly. Two days later I slept in my own bed again. And for a few weeks, that's what I've mostly done: sleeping. Initially, even reading was too much of an effort. I got pulled through by Michelle, who arranged to be at home and take care of me for weeks.

As psychologically provoking and cathartic the experience may have been, I somehow fail to write down anything meaningful about it. I try to remember and to forget simultaneously. Most of all I want to feel healthy and strong again. It's severely testing my patience… After ten days at home, exactly three weeks after climbing 'Super Surfer' I tried climbing on my woody again. It was terrible: I couldn't finish a single boulder. Even the warmups of my previous trainings were too hard. I felt miserably weak. I was miserably weak. Since then, I did some sort of rehabilitation training on almost every single day: yoga, light crossfit, long walks, bouldering, anything to get back into climbing shape again. Gradually the intensity increased and after three weeks of rehabilitation I climbed a 7b route in Teuto again. Although still a long way from 8a, it was a massive confidence booster. I deeply enjoyed the following weeks of holiday, being able to enjoy live, to walk with Michelle and the dogs for days in Luxembourg and even do some more climbing in the lower half of the 7th grade. Higher 7's felt completely impossible though.

I will need one or more full training cycles to get back to my previous shape again. When work started two weeks ago, I kicked off a new cycle and began with strength training. Anticipating disappointment, I started with low loads. I was disappointed nevertheless… Because fingerboard trainings are very quantifiable, the results left little doubt about the fact that my initial performance sucked big time. Perseverance is paying off though and after two demoralizing first trainings I got the hang (pun fully intended) of it again. Now, five trainings in, it seems I'm on track to reach the high points of my previous season again. I'll be back!

Project done

On any other day I would have been happy to go home satisfied after climbing a 7c route. Today it turned out to be the warmup. I just climbed an exit variation to Alien (adding a slightly harder, more sustained top section) to familiarize myself with the first crux of my project after a three month break from it. On the way down I checked out the second crux. Visualizing the moves every single day of these three months proved to be a powerful exercise: nothing felt rusty and I could redo the moves instantly with great precision. The next time my feet left the ground I baffled myself and climbed the project. Before I set off, Frans convinced my to set up my camera already, after I announced my intention to film some of the later attempts. I really didn't see it coming and the resulting absence of redpoint pressure may have contributed massively to my success…

Anyway, thanks to Frans there's a video. Because it shows me applying a small amount of chalk before entering the second crux, I feel I have to elaborate on that first and share the statement that I've written in the video description on vimeo:

"Although sector Schinder seems to be a place where Teutos no chalk policy is commonly violated, using magnesia is not allowed. This makes the hardest moves on Schinder unclimbable, which led to the decision of using a very small amount of chalk before entering the second crux of the route, as can be seen in the video. Friction+ cream got me through the first crux. I've cleaned my traces afterwards. The big chalk stains that are visible in the video were there before I arrived: what you see is my first attempt on the route in three months."

As I sit down writing, it slowly dawns on me how much time and effort it took to get here. 'Super Surfer' (see below for a brief history of the route) combines the hardest sections of sector Schinder, home to the toughest routes in Teuto. I started climbing on Schinder in the summer of 2011 and after several session I climbed 'Banane', my first 8+ (7a+). One year later I battled through 'Die Hexe' 8+/9- (7b) and 'Alien', my first 9- (7b+). The crux of Alien remained a very low percentage move (I stuck it only incidentally and have fallen off it beyond count) and it took nearly two more years before I climbed the direct start to Alien in spring 2014, climbing straight into the crux without using the left side of the wall. According to Teuto local Andreas this variation is a 9 (7c). A month later, again after several sessions, I climbed 'Banane' without the big block as a foothold: 'Banane ohne Rampe', my first 9+ (7c+). All that remained now were the combinations. I started trying the Alien-Hexe-Banane combination, but failed to climb in throughout 2014. The Alien crux spit me off on most attempts and whenever I got through, I lacked the power endurance to make it to the hands off rest on the block of Banane. I couldn't even imagine climbing it without the block.

In november 2014 I - unknowingly - made the most important step towards the ascent of Super Surfer: I bought the Rock Climbers Training Manual by the Anderson brothers and made it my personal training bible. After one cycle of strength, power and power endurance training I returned to Schinder and made it to the block on my very first attempt. I was shocked. It turned out to be more than luck: I haven't fallen from the Alien crux once this spring (and climbed it about six times). Suddenly the thought of climbing the line without the block became realistic and an obsession was born. I immediately started trying it, but failed to stick the dynamic dead point near the end. More power endurance was needed. For three months I left the project untouched and did another cycle of strength, power and power endurance training. Yesterday I finally felt ready to try it again. I was right. Four years after climbing the easiest route on Schinder, I've climbed its hardest combination. What I never expected, was to climb it in one attempt. I'm still shocked. And deeply satisfied.

A brief history of Super Surfer or the 'Boerenjongens' project:

The idea of climbing variations and combinations on Schinder isn't new. Already in the early 90's Enschede locals Jan Martin Roelofs and Peter Horning started doing it. In 1989 Jan Martin calimed the first ascent of Banane ohne Rampe and a few years later (date unknown) Peter climbed a combination of Alien and Banane ohne Rampe on toprope. Jan Martin repeated it later, also on toprope. It is listed without a name in the topo as a 10- and I later learned that Jan Martin and Peter referred to the route as 'Boerenjongens'. Whether they climbed the direct or easier left start of Alien I do not know. In the meantime the routes on Schinder have been rebolted and a lead ascent became possible. Nevertheless, to my best knowledge the route never saw a repeat or a lead ascent. Not until yesterday.

An ode to joy

After a winter without outdoor bouldering somehow my approach to the activity changed. Rather than chasing grades and trying the hardest boulders I can find, I find joy in climbing the lines that appeal to me, regardless of their difficulty. Although it's probably just a phase and I'll get sucked back into chasing higher grades at some point, for now I like it this way. It's uncomplicated, free from frustration and very playful. Maybe that's exactly what bouldering is supposed to be: the ultimate expression of hedonism.

In that spirit I spent a truly enjoyable evening bouldering, waking and relaxing with the dogs. I tried to capture it with my camera and although the girls are so fast and energetic that most of their action happened off screen, I did get some great footage of them as well. Every time I watch this video it puts a smile on my face, I hope you'll enjoy it too:

At one precarious moment a hold broke. Ten points if you spot it!

Font again

A very short update, because right now I lack the time to write long stories here without sacrificing valuable training time... Too much work again, I hope next year is better. During the Ascension weekend I visited the bouldering Mekka of Fontainebleau again. I hadn't been there for years and needed (still need, to be honest) to get used to the specific, technical style of climbing. Although I only climbed a handful of low 7's, I haven't enjoyed bouldering this much in a long time. Font truly is one of the best climbing areas I've ever visited. I should visit it more often!

Below is a short video I cut from the rather random footage I managed to shoot there. I should have spent much more time to capture the beauty of the forest, but I didn't. Next time maybe... Nevertheless the video doesn't fail to convey the great atmosphere and the fun we had.

In the meantime I've started training power endurance. Gradually campus training started to have detrimental effects on my body. It took only a few hints to make me change gears and progress to the less injury prone power endurance training: a split middle finger tip that got deeper and more painful with every training, a flapper on a pinky and a near flapper on the other, a slowly developping nagging little pain in my wrist and elbow and a mild inflamation in a collateral ligament. Although I''m fully aware that a more sensible person may have stopped a few trainings earlier, I am mildly proud that I didn't stubbornly stick to the plan a let go of a few more campus trainings to prevent more serious injuries. It is motivating though to start working on power endurance, knowing it'll get me in shape for some hard route climbing in the summer. The first training was and absolute disaster and reduced my forearms to pulp even before finishing the first circuit, so there's a lot of room for improvement. That's good, right?

New season!

I still don't really know why I didn't write a decent wrap up for the last season, because in the end it wasn't really that bad. Although I didn't get outdoors nearly as much as I had wanted to, I climbed enough to discover that the disciplined training I've put myself through this winter is paying off and I am getting stronger again. Honestly, that's quite a relief after the absolute lack of results since April last year. After the initial (and undeniable) gains of installing my woody I got stuck in doing the same bouldering routine over and over again, which turned out to be equally effective as flogging a dead horse. Totally unnecessarily though, because essentially I have a luxury version (it has a window) of the dark and damp training dungeons that got British pioneers like Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt to the top of their game 20 years ago. It feels like only now I'm learning to use it properly with the help of some fancy training books offering the latest insights in climbing training. Somehow it seems though that said heroes like Moon and Moffatt were doing awkwardly similar things long before these books were written...

Ode to old school! Released in 1996, 'The Real Thing' was the first ever real bouldering movie.

Don't forget to watch parts 2 and 3!

Anyway, let's talk about me. I still haven't bragged about the last Teuto session halfway March and it's already a while ago since I shared how far my ego drifted off during the preceding session. It's baffling how little is needed to feed it! During the last session, my confidence got another boost. By failing. Now that's a rare thing. Usually failure frustrates me beyond reason, but this time I had no expectations whatsoever and got surprised by falling on the last hard move of my intended summer project. Twice! Reality check: the last move is a real bitch. It's a very powerful, technical deadpoint that requires accuracy. Although I can do it consistently when rested, it's horribly hard to do when fatigued and it's right at the end of a 16 move power endurance sequence. There can be a really long way between falling on the last move and doing the last move here… Nevertheless it's right on top of my goal list for the next season!

Fast forward to today: as I am writing this, over a month of the second training cycle has past already. The mentally draining strength phase is done and I've started working on power already. I carefully logged my trainings again and the results are quite insightful. I've described the training before, so I'll go straight to the results. Below are the graphs displaying the data from both season 1 and 2.

Time under tension (T.U.T., i.e. total time spent hanging) and Volume (integral of total load over time).

Added load per grip position (negative load implies weight was substracted). Grip positions are listed in chronological training order. The 'front 2' grip position (middle and index finger) has been added to the routine in season 2. The plateau on the 'Big Sloper' position is deliberate as the purpose is to warm up the elbows and shoulders (and not injure them).

Total load equals body weight plus added load and is used to calculate training volume.

Boring details (skip to Summary for the conclusions):
Having to build on a previous season brings the difficult choice of the starting loads of the first training. In the nearly three months between strength cycle 1 and strength cycle 2 detraining occurs: some strength is lost and it's unrealistic to expect to pick up right where I stopped. The aim is to surpass the previous highpoint at the end of the cycle though. Having no real clue what to choose, I varied the drop a bit per grip position: on the '4 finger open' hang I didn't drop weight at all, on 'front 3' I dropped 8 kg, on '4 finger half crimp' 6 kg and on 'mid 2' 4 kg.

To explain the additional drop for the last three after two trainings, I have to admit to making the stupid mistake of neglecting the advice of sticking to a 30 day regime of hangboarding exclusively. I broke the discipline already after the first training by squeezing in an outdoor bouldering session in Avalonia. I climbed six 7's in a day, but payed for it during hangboard trainings 2 and 3. They were terrible and I felt so weak that I decided to drop weight on the mentioned hangs after training 2.

Based on the results, it seems that dropping more weight is better: for the '4 finger half crimp' and 'mid 2' positions the weight drop was small and I only matched the highpoint of season 1. I wonder if I would have surpassed it if I hadn't gone out to Avalonia though… 'Back 3' had a slightly bigger drop (6 kg) and surpassed the previous season by 2 kg, 'front 3' had the biggest drop (8 kg) and the biggest gains (6 kg). The '4 finger open' positions seems to contradict the trend with no drop and a progression of 6 kg as well, but I think this particular grip position did benefit a lot from the campus training I did after the first strength cycle. With that in mind, it's spectacular that the 'front 3' grip has progressed 6 kg as well, especially since I did complete the 'front 3' hang on training 10 and failed to complete the '4 finger open' hang.

Because of the drop in load, a corresponding drop in training volume is expected at the start of a new cycle. It doesn't show up here, because the T.U.T. was increased by adding a new grip position to the routine. On this position ('front 2') I hit a brick wall during the last five trainings and wasn't able to progress anymore. I have no idea why. Next season I'll start with an even lower load and see what that does.

Summary:
The implications now, for those interested in hangboard training themselves and for future me, who should really, really read this before starting the third hangboard season:

• Stick to the program, don't do anything that interferes with the hangboard trainings. That means no hard climbing: the forearms get two full rest days between trainings. I did an hour of crossfit training for arm, core and shoulder strength and injury prevention on every first rest day, which seemed to work fine.
• Drop back in load significantly from the end of the previous cycle. Make sure it's high enough to be able to surpass the previous high point at the end of the cycle. Next season I'll try to drop back 10 kg. With a possible progression of 2 kg per training, it should be possible to match the previous highpoint during training 6. That leaves 4 trainings to try and surpass it.

New found strength

Everything seemed to line up to make my first training cycle end in disaster. I had to cancel the trip to Spain for which I more or less planned the entire cycle and closer to home winter condition lingered on, making sports climbing impossible. Stubbornly I ventured to Ith, but failed to get warm enough in the ice cold wind to climb anything hard. Equally demotivating was the flu I struggled with for more than a month, culminating in a bronchitis infection right at the planned fitness peak at the end of the training cycle. I felt anything but fit and saw the chances to reap the rewards of the hard work slipping away rapidly.

But right when I got desperately frustrated, my mood hit all time lows and I considered starting up a new training cycle without achieving a single climbing goal in the first, a spell of spring arrived out of nowhere and sparked my enthusiasm. Two afternoons in Teuto with Frans and Koen were all it gave me - normally a second choice option in any occasion - but they gave me exactly what I needed to finish the training cycle and get psyched to start a new one. On the first afternoon (with Frans) I climbed the power endurance route 'Stamina' (7b+) in Plisseetal. Allthough gradewise that isn't new ground, I was shocked by how easily I climbed it, feeling fitter than I've ever done before. I continued working the moves of an extension (making it 7c/7c+) and fell on the last move when I gave it an attempt. On the second afternoon (with Koen) I climbed the extension on the first attempt. Meanwhile, in a vulgar display of fitness, Koen impressively flashed Stamina.

Having quite some time left owing to our quick ascents, we walked to Schinder, home to the 7c+ project that threw me off many times last year. It has a powerful crux halfway, followed by a short power endurance section to a great rest just two moves below the top (one tricky, one easy). Last year, I only occasionally managed to get through the first crux and when I did, I lacked the power endurance to reach the resting position. Now, I climbed through the powerful crux moves immediately and climbed to the rest with a feeling of mastery and control that seemed impossible last year. I rested, did the tricky move and then made the monumental fuck up to let a foot slip, preventing me from clipping the chain. With all the hard climbing done, I blew the formality of finishing it correctly. The 'real' goal is climbing the same line without the good rest, changing the finishing sequence completely and adding a 7A/7A+ boulder problem at the end of a demanding route. Climbing it with the rest therefore only is an intermediate goal, mostly a psychological support in building the believe that the ultimate goal is possible. Until this day that goal felt way out off my leage, but having finished the easier variation for all but clipping the chains, I started to believe. I've never been as strong as I am now. Having spent many time on Schinder in the past years, it's hard cruxes and sustained link ups are the best benchmark I have and I've never done them as easily as I did them this day. It's time to commit to my hardest project yet and consider the intermediate, easier 7c+ goal as done!

Two afternoons in Teuto turned out to yield the strongest climbing I've done in a long time and provided the closure for my training cycle right at the moment I'd lost believe in it ever happening. The new training regime pays off, I'm progressing again and I've gained the confidence to start believing in a next level project. It'll be on my mind during every training of the new cycle I'll start next week. Back to training!

From the archive: my first time on Schinder back in my hair days almost four years ago. In the picture I struggle on the moves of 'Banane' (7a+). It's fun to look back and realize how much I've progressed in the meantime.

Power Training Recap

Time flies by and I've nearly completed my power phase. Campus training has been the name of the game for nearly a month and having no significant prior experience with it, the gains were big and extremely motivating. In fact the workouts were so much fun to do, I feel a bit sorry to progress to power endurance training. That's a sharp contrast with the extremely demanding fingerboard session from the previous phase, which I haven't missed for a second yet.

Much like hangboarding, campussing is very quantifiable, so my inner geek went berserk again and I've analyzed the campus trainings a bit. Trainings consistently comprised a few warmup ladders (after roughly an hour of full body work and bouldering), followed by 'max ladder' attempts: three moves between three rungs as far apart as possible, out of which the second move obviously is the hardest. Because the ladders really boil down to this one move, they are asymmetrical: starting out with the left hand ('leading left') is different from starting out with the right hand ('leading right'). The first graph below shows the hardest max ladders I've completed per workout, differentiating between leading left and leading right. As I've stated before, I had no significant experience in campussing before starting this phase. This explains the fast progress to harder max ladders that the graph displays. I don't expect anything similar in the next season: I'd be very happy to get to 1-4-7 then.

The second graph shows the volume per workout (in red) and the average distance covered per hand move for each workout (in blue). In my opinion, the combination of these two reflects the performance during a training a bit better than just the best performed max ladders. Volume is calculated as the total distance covered multiplied by my body weight. Note the difference with the definition of volume I used for the strength trainings, in which I multiplied mass and time. Due to the static nature of deadhangs, no distance is covered. It's all about the T.U.T. (Time Under Tension). Now, with the dynamic campus exercises, covering distances is what counts. Most readers won't be very interested in these details, but it's important to point out that the quantitative values of volume from hangboard workouts cannot be compared to those of campus workouts. Throughout the phase a steady rise in volume and average distance per hand movement can be seen, which - obviously - makes me very content with the results of this power phase. Now it's time to shift my focus to power endurance!

Hardest max ladder performed per workout, differentiating between leading left (left hand first) and leading right (right hand first). On the vertical axis are the progressively harder max ladders. 1-3-5 for example means both hands start at rung 1, one hand moves up to rung 3, the other to rung 5 and finally both hands match on rung 5. Rungs are at Moon spacing (22 cm), half numbers (like 5.5) indicate rungs at half Moon spacing. More board specs here.

Average distance per hand movement and volume for each workout. Together they give a good indication of the intensity of a workout: a workout with many, many small hand movements could still have a very high volume, but has a very low average distance per move.

Some interesting things I've noticed or learned during this power phase:

• Already after a few campus trainings, I noticed an increase in contact strength on dynamic moves while bouldering.
• Performing a fully maximal explosive movement requires extremely high arousal. Taking time to concentrate on getting all fired up prior to starting the exercise really helps to explode up and makes the difference between not even coming close and sticking a movement easily. This is a bit different from the power breathing approach that worked so well for deadhangs, although power breathing can help induce high arousal.
• Campus training is addictive and it requires discipline to end the workout before performance drops and the risk of injuries increases dramatically.
• Focussing on the lower hand (to push down) rather than the higher hand (to pull up) is extremely helpful. I figured out how to do this during workout 4. See for the results yourself in the upper graph.
• I'm considerably better at max ladders starting out with left. As in this case the left hand does the pulling during the hardest move, this isn't really surprising for a left-handed guy...

Strength training recap

Last week I enthusiastically wrote about starting a periodized training schedule. Truth is that I had already started it weeks before and this week I've completed the strength phase. The core exercise of this phase was doing isometric deadhangs on the fingerboard. I've approached it quite differently though compared to how I used to perform deadhang training. Previously I followed up the advice of Dave McLeod and Eva Lopez and aimed for a very small volume of very short, maximum intensity hangs (in my case a set of 12 single hangs I could hold for up to 8 seconds and then take several minutes of rest before the next hang). Such a routine aims for neurological adaptations exclusively.

In my current training program (based on the The Rock Climber's Training Manual by the Anderson brothers) neurological adaptations are primarily addressed in the power phase. In this case they are trained in the context dynamic movements, which is much more sports specific than isometric hangs and therefore makes a lot of sense to me. As the strength phase precedes the power phase, aiming for hypertrophy first is sensible and therefore a different approach to the exercises is required. So I switched to doing 'repeaters': sets of 7 second hangs separated by just 3 seconds of rest. Sets contain 6 or 7 hangs and are separated by 3 minute rests. With a harness, some weights and a pulley system the load can be carefully adjusted to aim for muscular failure at the last hang of each set and progressively increase the intensity through the strength phase. The basics are described elaborately in The Rock Climber's Training Manual and partly in this article plus video by Ned Feehally from Beastmaker fingerboards (see also the second part about the advanced routine).

The result of this regimen is a much higher training volume at a slightly reduced intensity, aiming for hypertrophy in the forearms (it should be noted though that most strength gains in this phase are still from neurological adaptations). I did 10 workouts, consisting of about an hour of progressive warming up (mostly by bouldering) followed by 13 sets of repeaters in varying grip positions (although I had to start with less, but could increase the volume quickly in the first 4 workouts) and finally some upper body and antagonist exercises. As predicted, I was able to increase the load consistently between the first workouts, but the gains started to diminish towards the end of the phase, which is the cue to progress to the power phase.

As hangboarding is extremely quantifiable, it's easy to keep track of progress and analyze workouts. I've made the following graphs from the data I collected during my trainings and they nicely show the progress through the strength phase. A list of the grip positions and their abbreviations can be found below.

Time Under Tension (T.U.T.) and Volume per workout. T.U.T. is the actual time spent hanging and volume equals the integral of total load over time. Initial gains in volume are mainly due to the increasing T.U.T., after workout 4 primarily due to increased load.

Added load for each grip position per workout. Negative numbers imply weight has been substracted. Chronological order (as shown by the legend) is important, as is demonstrated for example by the open handed 4 finger hangs: small hold, high load at the start of a workout and a lower load on bigger hold at the end due to fatigue. The initial decrease observed in load for the latter is because I started too high and had to keep adjusting it down during the first 5 workouts.

Total load equals body mass plus added mass and is actually a more interesting number than the added mass, as this is the total load the fingers have to support. Fluctuations in body mass are visible and explain for example the small volume drop in workout 9.

List of the grip positions (in chronological order):

1. 'Big sloper': open handed hang on big sloper
2. '4f open 18 mm': open handed, four finger hang on 18 mm edge
3. 'front 3 24 mm': open handed, index/middle/ring finger hang on 24 mm edge
4. 'back 3 24 mm': open handed, pinky/ring/middle finger hang on 24 mm edge
5. '4f h. crimp 24 mm': four finger half crimp hang on 24 mm edge
6. 'mid 2 28 mm': open handed, middle/ring finger hang on 28 mm pocket
7. '4f open 24 mm': open handed, four finger hang on 24 mm edge

Some valuably things I've learned during this strength training phase:

• Repeaters are punishing on the fingers and if a grip position is only slightly unergonomic, the results are devastating. Already after the second workout I had a mildly inflamed collateral ligament on the PIP joint of my left index finger due to a tweaky grip position. I performed an open front three hang (ring, middle and index finger) on a set of edges that's too close to the centre of my board, forcing a tilt in my arms (pushing the elbows out) and putting strain on the PIP joints of the index fingers. By responding quickly, taking a few days off and moving this particular hang to a different, wider set of holds allowed to continue training without further problems. The take away message: (almost) all boards have holds close to the centre that are potentially dangerous for two handed hangs. Try to position the hands above the shoulders to avoid injuries.
• Power breathing is a great way to enforce a state of high arousal and push trough the extremely uncomfortable final hang(s) and really reach muscular failure. I'm trying to apply it to hard climbing moves as well, but still struggle with the fact that coordination seems to suffer in a state of very high arousal. Maybe it simply needs some practice...
• Starting a strength phase turned out to be very exciting and the rapid initial gains were very motivating to push through the workouts. Towards the end of the phase, the workouts became more and more mentally challenging. Hangboarding works best when you dig deep, really deep and I've consistently managed to push myself to the point of being slightly dizzy and nauseated (thanks to power breathing). During the final workouts it became hard to keep doing this and I'm happy - almost relieved - to switch to a new phase now. Obviously periodization is not only beneficial for the body, but also for the mind!

Attic upgrade: Campus board!

I've almost finished the strength phase of my training cycle, doing a lot isometric deadhangs on the fingerboard. Next up is a power phase and the key concept for power training - plyometrics (i.e. going explosively from a forced eccentric contraction to a concentric contraction) - requires a special training tool to target the forearms: a campus board. The concept was developed by the legendary Wolfgang Güllich to train for his then futuristic, powerful test pieces in the Frankenjura. He was the first to apply plyometrics to forearm training and his campus board has been embraced by the climbing community ever since. Every gym has one nowadays. My attic didn't...

And now it does! Having a training plan that requires me to train on a campus board finally made me construct one. I contemplated doing it for months, but I've always avoided campus board training. I was put off by the relatively high risk of finger injuries that is inherent to the activity. But truth be told I really suck at campus board training, which didn't contribute to its appeal either. It should though, because apparently there's huge improvement potential in it for me. Two more hangboard sessions and I'll start training on the campus board for power. I can hardly wait now that the board is finished!

Constructing my own campus board allowed me to make all design decisions myself and I wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be. The biggest constraint was the available space in the attic. Additionally, it had to be mobile, as the only big enough space was right in front of my climbing wall. So it should be possible to put it up relatively easy after thoroughly warming up by bouldering and take it down afterwards, without sacrificing stability of the board to cope with the dynamic moves I'll be making on it. The result exceeds my expectations and it's ready to use.

The board is 1.90 m tall, allowing for 9 rungs at Moon spacing (22 cm centre-to-centre spacing). This should keep me busy for a while: the 1-5-9 is considered the ultimate expression of power and is a challenge for the elite (except for gravity defying machine Jan Hojer). Between rungs 3 and 9 I've added rungs at half spacing to allow for easier progress to larger campus distances. The board is 16.0 degrees off vertical. The guideline here is to aim for 15 to 20 degrees, where smaller angles tend to make the campus exercises harder.

What I dreaded the most was choosing the depth of the rungs. The smaller, the better, but it should still be possible to perform the exercises from them. Given more space, I could have installed two or three rows of rungs with varying depths, but that's not the case. A rule of thumb is that you should be able to do at least 5 pull ups on one rung. I knew I could easily do that from the smallest rung on my hangboard, which is 18 mm deep. That's not 16 degrees overhanging though... Eventually I decided to buy the rungs from same supplier as the rungs on the board in Cube Bouldergym: Woodpecker Holds from Poland. Ordering directly from the supplier was no problem at all and the service provided was great (and quick!). I knew for a fact that the quality of the rungs would be good and the curvature of the edges would be ergonomic and skin friendly. Additionally, in Cube I was able to test the different sizes Woodpecker makes: 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm. Of these, 25 mm seemed ideal for me. 30 mm feels difficult enough, but exceeds the size of a finger pad and is therefore tough on the calluses. 20 mm feels terribly hard, but 25 mm perfectly corresponds to a single finger pad and feels the most ergonomic. It still feels uncomfortably hard, but at least possible. And hey, isn't campus board training supposed to be hard?