Campus Board Training
The Key to Explosive Strength in Rock
Climbing
By training with a Campus Board as well as
a full climbing gym, the total climber will embody all
aspects of  strength. At her best,
she'll be able to pull extremely hard moves, find resting
places to shake out, and continue on through extended
sections of difficult climbing and still maintain a clean
headspace in order to pull more extreme moves at the very
end. Each aspect of training has its own unique approach.
Strive to master them all as you progress through cycles
of training.
In the case of explosive strength, no
apparatus has been devised that exceeds the campus board.
Campusing requires care in order to avoid an injury. It
is presumed that any climber who takes on a regimen of
Campus Board training is already in good shape and will
sensibly understand his or her own limits. It is
important to rest adequately and listen to your body in
order to avoid overtraining. The potential for tendon
injuries cannot be overstated. Warm up and warm down
before and after any Campus Board work out. Stretching,
hydration, nutrition and incremental progress is the
responsibility of every climber in order to avoid undoing
every bit of training that has taken a person to where he
or she is at the moment.
Now that the gratuitous disclaimer is
done… let's look a bit closer at the campus
board!
In order to prepare for the extreme one
and two finger pockets on the groundbreaking route Action
Directe, Wolfgang Gullich devised the Campus Board. He
needed apparatus that could help him develop amazing
contact strength in the most explosive power that anyone
had developed in climbing to that point. Additionally,
the apparatus had to provide the types of moves that he
would actually encounter on the route. Since he was
working out while at the Campus Center Gym, the name
Campus Board became associated with the training device.
It wasn't long before the most elite sport climbers in
the world were bumping up their strength with Gullich's
revolutionary board.
Getting Started with the Campus
Board
Simple
Directions for Building Your Own Campus
Board
1.
Attach strips of rectangular and slightly rounded molding on a
3 foot to 6 foot wide by 4 foot to 7 foot long piece of 3/4
inch thick plywood. The larger your Campus Board is, a broader
spectrum of sizes you can
attach.
2.
Now mount the Campus Board at a 75° angle. The board should be
in a place where you can reach up and grab the bottom rail
while your feet are still on the ground. Remember to sand
extensively for comfort and work a flat section on the back
side of any dowels that you will use for sturdier mounting with
wood screws and wood glue.
3. Ideal spacing between rungs is 8 to 9
inches. If the ceilings are high enough to accommodate 9 to 10
rungs, that should be enough. If you are new to campusing, it
will be wise to have some larger sized rungs in order to
accommodate both your current level of fitness and readiness
for the stresses of Campus Boarding as well as the need to have
an easier section on your board for warming up. Even though you
may not be able to handle smaller campus holds right now,
you'll want to have them on your board so that you can
incrementally build up to the most difficult levels of
campusing. Everything at the right time.
4. Number each rung from the bottom to the
top. This will allow you to systematize your training. In the
photo above you can see little pieces of duct tape with numbers
at the far right side of each rung. That's the
numbering. Simple!
Campus Board
Exercises
Most climbers find
that there are certain Campus Board exercises that they
like and others that they literally cannot stand. It's
normal and you shouldn't feel like there's something
wrong if there is an exercise that you want to avoid,
particularly if you feel like you may be injured by doing
it. There is usually some overlap in the training effect
of each of the exercises that are performed on the Campus
Board. Sometimes the avoidance of certain exercises is
simply because a particular climber is weak in a certain
area. For example the doubles exercise will cause some
climbers to feel like they're going to fall off every
time because their dynamic contact strength is sub par.
It's a good idea to have a crash pad below to allay the
fear. Whatever the case, give a good shot at every Campus
Board exercise to see how you deal with it. What you can
barely do today, may be easy in a month or two from
now.
The Exercises:
Ladders
Ladders are exactly what they sound like.
Going up and down the rungs of the campus board with your hands
the same way that you would do with your feet on a regular
latter. At first you want to simply reach one rung at a time
and match the other hand. Reach up again and match, alternating
which you reach with. For most climbers that will be too easy
and it's just a preparation exercise for actual ladders. Do it
anyway and see how it feels. Next hang from the bottom rung
with both hands reach up to the next rung with the right, than
go all the way to the rung above with the left then to the rung
above that with the right and continue to the top. That's a
simple ladder. You'll want to progress by going up the rung
with one hand, locking off with the lower arm and popping up
with the same hand to yet another rung. Then do the same with
the opposite hand lock off, then pop one rung higher. Next try
skipping a rung. Try as many different types of ladder
exercises as you can devise.
Sample Ladder Routines
Go up the board hand-over-hand with or without feet depending
on your initial strength, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9. Descend the same
way without feet.
Next go for 1-3-5-7-9 up and down. Add sets as you're able.
Progress to 1-4-7 and then the mutant prize
1-5-9.
Ladder
Pyramids
When you are stronger, you can split the
routine into easier and harder sections. Do a set with a 1
minute rest after the set, do another set then 3 minutes
rest afterward, then watch the progresion down the
list.
Video
of campus board training
demonstrated by Sonnie
Trotter. |
A:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.......1,3
minutes rest
B: 1-3-5-7-9..... 1,4 minutes
rest
C: 1-4-7-10.......1,5
minutes rest
D: 1-5-9.....1,5 minutes
rest
E: 1-4-7-10......1,5 minutes rest
F: 1-3-5-7-9....
1,6 minutes rest
G:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9...
Touches
To do touches, hang from
the bottom rung with arms fully extended with your hands 1/2
crimped. Pull up with both arms as far as you can and reach
with your right hand to the highest rung that you can touch.
Touch it for just a second, then come back down to the bottom
rung. Lower down to a dead hang. Next pull up again as high as
you can, reach with the left arm and touch the highest rung
that you can with the left hand. Come back down matching on the
bottom rung into a dead hang once again. Repeat the
cycle.
Touches are a fun
exercise, but like the old "Bachar Ladder" tend to be
hard on the elbows. Back off if you feel signs of
tendon injury.
A nice routine is
1-3-1 or 1-4-1, repeating as many times as you're up for
with three or 4 minutes rest between sets. To work
lock off strength, 1-4-3-4 works really well. If
that's too much to start, try 1-3-2-3.
Remember to
alternate arms and record what you're doing and how much
rest you take.
Doubles
Doubles are the most dynamic
exercise that can be done on a campus board. Start by dead
hanging with both hands, pull up as far as you can, releasing
your hands and, in-flight, grab the highest rung that you can.
Most people can skip at least one rung. Do as many double pulls
as you can, then reverse it but instead of coming down two or
more rungs at a time, drop only one rung. I've seen people
descend up to three rungs at the time, but the potential for
injury gets higher. Doubles put a tremendous amount of stress
on tendons and joints during the descent.
Another routine is to go up two rungs and
then descend one. Repeat this sequence as many times as
you can: 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7-9
Advanced
Doubles
The most advanced form of doubles campus board
training involves plyometric, that is, a bouncing type movement
in order to maximally recruit muscle fibers. Mega high fiber
recruiting causes stress that induces them to adaptively
increase strength as quickly as possible. Injury potential with
this exercise is high. Be careful and only do it if you've been
at campus board training for several
months.
Start with both hands on rung number three.
As quickly as possible: 3-1-3 then
repeat.
After the first time, wait a couple weeks
before trying it again. See what effects it has. If
everything goes well, after a couple weeks try it again
to see if there any signs of injury. If there are no
signs of injury, this exercise can be repeated at a
frequency of up to once a week, and no
more.
Triples
This is the same as the doubles routine, but you'll skip two
rungs instead of three. Only the strong need
apply!
Power
Endurance
For pure bouldering, the above routines will
build plenty of strength to take you far beyond the power that
you've had for the hardest problems that you've ever
encountered. For climbing hard routes most people will need
more than just pure power. Power endurance building is possible
on the campus board as well. The routines are grueling and
you'll need to be in top shape in order to do them and not be
so exhausted that you can't climb for a
week.
Power endurance on campus board involves
staying on for at least 30 seconds to up to a minute or
more per set. Doing a minimum of at least six sets and
building up to 9 to 10 sets is excellent. Plan to rest
two minutes between each set. It's important not to rest
too long. If you find that your strength is failing at
the third or fourth set, don't worry. Stop when you need
to and don't keep pushing it beyond what you are up for.
If you do, you'll overtrain and need a couple weeks off.
Just build up slowly.
Gripping
Style
Three types of handgrips are used while campusing. You can use
an open handgrip, crimping, and half crimping. It's important
that you stay conscious of the style of grip that you use so
that you don't crimp too much. It's preferred that you half
crimp or use an open handgrip. With an open hand it's possible
to use less than all four fingers. You can do three, two or
even one finger pulls, depending on your level of strength and
the specificity of your training. For most people going down to
three fingers is enough.
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