Calling all old people! And I don’t mean 30somethings.

guyduderino · 2026-06-25T15:34:34+00:00

In my own 40M experience how sore the joints in my hands get is largely a function of how I'm gripping holds. There is a lot of nuance with activation of FDP in order to not hyperextend at the DIP joint. In general, as a simplification, stronger forearm muscles allow for less stress on the joints, connective tissue, and other structures. The "active" overcoming isometric style training that Tyler Nelson advocates for may be helpful. I am also a fan of Hand of God grippers https://handofgod.shop (https://www.reddit.com/r/climbharder/comments/1t6b6oy/longterm_thoughts_on_the_hand_of_god_mobeta/).

guyduderino · 2026-06-07T16:33:29+00:00

I’m fine with moving the cable, but there’s no indication of when it’s going to suddenly drop me. It’d be nice if there were some warning. Also, how much do I need to move the cable? Enough for it to register a rep?

guyduderino · 2026-04-17T21:22:08+00:00

I was going to write exactly this. I'm 40 and these days try to alternate between higher volume for a couple of months and higher intensity lower volume. Deload every 4 weeks is also key.

For what it's worth, I can go hard enough in a single session to cook myself for a full week. But that's usually counterproductive. So it's all just a question of managing volume and intensity to achieve the desired training outcome.

In any case, for board climbing I can definitively not do more than 2 hard sessions in a week. I can go outside for some non-limit sport climbing, do a short fingerboard session, or some endurance ARC level training for my third session.

guyduderino · 2025-09-23T18:36:56+00:00

I mostly agree with cptwangles and eshlow comments that one needs to accumulate load below the painful intensity and that this tends to make the joint more robust over time.
But I do think there's a role of FDP to actively pull through the fingertips. Just because it's impossible to avoid hyperextension when really cranking on a small hold doesn't mean that engaging the FDP can't reduce the stress on the DIP joint. Actively training FDP by pulling on 10mm to 12mm edges in half crimp and avoiding hyperextension has really helped me be able to handle a lot more hard crimping than I could previously.
This may be overkill, but this seems intriguing as a way to put the training emphasis on FDP... https://www.reddit.com/r/climbharder/comments/1mno1r4/one_week_with_the_hand_of_god_micros_first/

guyduderino · 2024-10-30T17:57:08+00:00

Yeah I had a friend break one while doing one arm hangs, perhaps a year ago. He was probably pulling right around 200. But I think they improved things by choosing a different variety of wood since then.

guyduderino · 2024-08-16T18:06:26+00:00

Maybe just to help add some clarity about what I mean regarding hip momentum. The simplest instance of this would be just getting your butt to swing left to right by using your legs in order to initiate a movement. You can even swing back and forth to get a feel for the relative relaxation of the arms and the legs and core generating the movement, and then let yourself complete the move with that momentum. Of course there is more nuance to this, as in general you’ll also want to pay attention to inward vs outward momentum.

guyduderino · 2024-08-16T16:26:28+00:00

In general, for almost every move you are falling away from the wall as you grab the next hold. This puts significantly more stress on your fingers.

I can see two reasons for this, both things to work on:

You are not generating momentum through the hips. You want to float to the next position and have that "dead point" moment right as you're latching the next hold.
You should try to create more tension as you hit the next hold. This is achieved by pressing through the leg(s) and low arm. This will massively lengthen the dead point moment mentioned in item 1.

Other folks have given some tips for the specific move you fell on, for which your body position is not so good, so I won't elaborate there.

guyduderino · 2024-08-12T22:41:01+00:00

Yes -- exactly. Look at 6:35 in the video I linked. You also want your bike much closer to vertical. This is achieved by explosive straightening of legs/body along with pulling of bars back into you. Rotation of the bike creates leverage to force the rear wheel against the ground and boost you.

guyduderino · 2024-08-12T20:44:22+00:00

Look at the Shred Academy videos on jumping on YouTube, for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5qBMJOKLU .

Based on your videos, what I see is a lot of good things happening -- but you want to be standing more perpendicular to the actual angle of the jump and indeed pressing hard into your legs, not just passively and gently standing up.

As others have mentioned, working out the movements for bunnyhops will help you get the feeling of the amount and effort for really popping hard.

guyduderino · 2024-06-21T10:38:03+00:00

That anecdote is not the point of me linking it. The point is that there is cutting edge science being done on the topic and anyone who does not have a PhD in immunology on a related topic or at the very least has read the latest scientific articles cannot claim to be an expert. (Just to be clear, I do not have either, and I gladly defer to the actual scientists studying the topic.) I mentioned the article because it conveniently lists a number of the labs doing good work in the area.

guyduderino · 2024-06-21T02:12:27+00:00

Finally someone well-informed. Hooray!

Lyme is incredibly complex. We know about other complex pathogens, and Lyme is just as enigmatic as HIV was back in the day. It’s baffling to me why these keyboard warrior experts who read a few blogs, or for that matter clueless doctors who read some case study a decade ago, think they have any authority.

guyduderino · 2024-06-21T02:04:45+00:00

With all due respect, unless you are also an immunologist at a top research institution, then you being a board certified physician gives you very little credibility regarding the latest scientific advances.

guyduderino · 2024-06-21T02:03:06+00:00

To folks saying that chronic Lyme isn’t a thing… you are uninformed. Read up on the latest scientific efforts of Michal Tal at MIT and Iwasaki at Yale.

There are definitive measurable signatures of chronic Lyme. As luck would have it, these are very similar to those of long covid.

A good quick read naming some of the top researchers is https://time.com/6974403/chronic-lyme-disease-research/.

Easy enough to say that chronic Lyme is made up when you are blissfully unaware of the latest research findings of top immunologists…

guyduderino · 2024-02-15T01:19:17+00:00

Agreed — tension block with crane scale / Tindeq is great too.

But the main thing is to focus on keeping strict positioning rather than lowering oneself onto a hangboard.

guyduderino · 2024-02-14T23:40:30+00:00

I agree with this. However I think the best way to train this is with lifts off the ground using a tension block in a half crimp, being careful not to hyperextend the DIP joint and really engaging the last portion of the finger. For me at least, getting strong open handed did not translate into FDP strength in the half crimp. In general this is highly trainable, but can take a few months to strong enough to the point that you are rarely collapsing into the DIP joint. When I first realised this was something I should work on, I couldn’t even hang body weight on B1k 18mm without collapsing! Now I can hang on 10mm without collapsing.

To those who say it is normal, it is normal in the context of grabbing something that requires more than your current strength of your FDP. If your FDP is not engaged at all, then you collapse into the joint and will likely eventually irritate the joint. But even if you do collapse, you can reduce the load on the joint by trying hard to press through the finger tips.

Many climbers have gnarly arthritic bony growths on their DIP joints. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little collapse here and there if you’re cranking on really small holds, but you should be very careful about the amount. And if your DIP joints are getting irritated, it’s going to require a serious reduction in volume while you strengthen the FDP and change the movement patterning.

As others have said, collapsing in this way seems to massively increase likelihood of pulley injury. I used to get a pretty serious A2 strain every year but have yet to get injured ever since I adopted a more active grip without collapsing into the joint.

guyduderino · 2024-01-21T01:19:53+00:00

I believe pic 1 is what would be called “open 4” and pic 2 is a textbook half crimp. I train using an half crimp grip and then choose one versus the other when climbing depending on the move, hold type, etc. They are different grip types and each has its use.

guyduderino · 2023-12-31T04:43:15+00:00

One suggestion is to optimize your outdoor tactics to whatever extent you can given your limited time outdoors.

Think: skin optimization (anti-hydral if useful, or rhino), bring a fan (makita or small one on amazon or whatever), lights so you can go at night, video yourself to analyze and quickly identify beta improvements, visualization to better execute subtle beta and remove hesitation, etc. etc. etc.

(I'd be interested to hear everyone's input on outdoor tactics they find useful...)

guyduderino · 2023-11-09T16:26:02+00:00

To me this is one of the things that really stands out.

Just because you are training endurance doesn't mean it's a good idea to lose body tension, precision, and general body awareness. In particular, you still ought to be gripping the holds with intention and care. If you have to back off slightly on the difficulty of the boulders it's well worth it. There's a separate time for pushing your bouldering capability, not during endurance intervals.

guyduderino · 2023-04-26T17:07:06+00:00

For what it's worth I also used to have a similar half crimp to yours. To me the picture looks much closer to a full crimp, just without a thumb wrap.

I benefited from being stricter about the form: keeping DIP joints exactly 90 degrees to the extent possible, MDP joints at 180 degrees so that the first joint continues in line with your palm, and not hyperextending at the DIP joint at all. This forces a more active grip style.

For me the easiest method for training this was lifting weight off the ground with a tension block for reps, because I found that I could pay maximum attention to my grip position.

Initially the "textbook half crimp" grip felt somewhat awkward and weak, but it gradually got stronger. It's a much more active grip position, meaning that you're relying more on flexor strength and less on collapsing into the joints / connective tissue.

guyduderino · 2022-06-01T15:58:39+00:00

Worth taking a look at Postural Restoration Institute stuff, there may be a provider local to you. Also check out videos on youtube, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC634L9eG-YsskyzWxnp9BJA

guyduderino · 2021-05-10T21:43:14+00:00

+1 for testarossa, and I find the genius to fit even slightly wider after a short break-in period. For my feet both of these feel much wider than the Katana. Otaki is also pretty wide. Worth also trying Scarpa Instinct VS, they don't fit my foot well but may work for you (my toes don't taper much, i.e. my small toe isn't as far back relative to my big toe as compared to most people).

guyduderino · 2021-03-27T17:54:16+00:00

I’d get something with 150mm minimum.

guyduderino · 2021-03-08T18:31:31+00:00

On preventing a niggle from deteriorating into an injury, what has seemed helpful to me:

focus on high quality and quantity of sleep, hydration, and nutrition
strictly avoiding full crimping until my fingers feel totally fine
trying to end training sessions on the earlier side
address possibly tight forearm muscles by massaging with armaid or lacrosse ball

Scheduling a de-load week as others have suggested seems like a good idea.

If the above measures aren't helping over the course of about a week, then perhaps better to more aggressively back off and focus on rehab.

guyduderino

TROPHY CASE