Mo' Hangboardin'

Lessee here... today was HB #7; and we changed 'er up today.

Did get #6 in on 2/25, and it was pretty much utterly stale. Can't say I've made no progress this go 'round, but it's been smallish. And I've been for several workouts wrestling with a tweaky right flexor tendon--especially on the two-finger hangs--and that's been demotivating.

So today i changed the program up. Have been doing the Anderson bros' intermediate program, and that's worked fine. But when i think about the rep/set stacks compared with, say, any other breed of strength training, it seems it's designed more like an endurance/hypertrophy program, and really never touches on the power end of strength. Seven and six rep sets respectively are high for pushing strength. There is a more advance program in their book--which i'm pretty sure adds in a third set of 5 reps for several grips. But i couldn't get hold of my book due to the plague befalling my book-getter. So, Necessity being as she is the mother of Invention, and i finding myself in need, nuked the thing and invented. And frankly, it ain't a bad program.

Went from 8 grips to 7. Tossed out the pinches as i was making zero progress on those. Also nixed the F3,4 pocket due to the buzzy tendon (although i'd consider adding it back in). Replaced those with an F3,4,5 pocket (that's in addition to the F2,3,4 pocket) and the tiny tips crimp, which is basically a sharp, shallow depression in the Trango board.

Took each grip (excepting the warmup jug hang) to 3 reps, but in the spirit of more standard strength-to-power pyramid dropped each set by 2 reps instead of one; and sticking to their generic rule of thumb increased weight between sets by 20lbs instead of 10 to correspond to the 2 rep drop. So i end up with 3 sets of each grip with 7, 5, and 3 reps respectively, increasing by (about) 20lbs between sets.

Ended up being an excellent workout, and i felt (once again) like i was fighting for the reps instead of just either enduring them or failing miserably. Nice feeling. We'll see if gains are indeed there to be gotten. And i'm curious to see if i can heal between workouts. Li'l early to say, but i have a feeling it'd make a great combo to start the season with the higher rep workout, and about halfway through switch to this lower rep scheme.

Was pretty wildly guessing on weights seeing as it was a beta run; but didn't miss by much on most of the grips. I'll record the workout (which i've not been doing recently) for future reference, and so i have the template recorded.

WUJ: -15

Large Open:
1: +15. No fail.
2: +35. Last sec last rep. Felt 'bout right.
3: +50: Last 2 secs last rep. Obviously, not a 20lb incr. I agonized a bit over where to fit this in the program, but it makes a pretty low-risk-of-injury warmup for the following grips, so i left it first. Weight's prolly about right as it seriously affects the other grips. Could go up though.

Small Crimp: (Again, the shallow depression on the Trango board)
1: -40: Nope. Got 2 of 7 well. Way too fat for this. Probably need to start -60 or 65.
2: -45: Better. Got 3. This might've felt right if set 1 were lighter.
3: -35: Got 1 solid. This is the money set of this workout, so i need to lighten the prior sets to make me hurt properly on this one.

F 2,3,4 Pocket: (Same as last workouts--used the 3 finger scalloped pocket)
1: -20: Really not bad. Felt pretty easy.
2: BW: That got real on the last rep. Failed last 3 secs.
3: +20: No fail! Increase eh.

Slopa':
1: +10: Last 2 secs last rep. Typical. Seems like failure on these is more dependent on time than weight. I think i finally grease off.
2: +30: Hard last rep. Came unglued last sec or so.
3: +50: No fail!

F 3,4,5: (Again used the same scalloped pocket)
1: -40: No fail. 'Bout right maybe.
2: -20: Yeah. Ow. Last sec last rep. Hard.
3: BW: Oh man! Got 1 1/2 ok. Then big fail.

SemiClosed Crimp: (Small rail, F3 to outside dimple)
1: -40: Failed last 2. Prolly need to go down to -50.
2: -25: Again last 2 failed. Ugh.
3: -10: Got one rep solid. That's about right. This grip is very much an analogue of--well, really all the other grips--but especially the Small Crimp. Sticking it at the end was a nice finisher and brought the burn, but i need to expect my weights to go down from previous workouts.

Really this worked out very happily. No injuries, and i actually felt like i worked strength instead of just endurance.

Then i got in a 30min run. That went pretty well for being outta shape.

Good day of it. :)