Using the campus board is much more involved than to make one post about how to use it– and most people don’t have the necessary finger strength to use it appropriately. What else can you do?

Good thing you asked- I have a similar exercise called “layups”. This gives you the ability to build finger strength and more specifically, contact strength without the use of a campus board. I may be wrong, but contact strength is the ability to exert your force upon a hold very rapidly…..something very useful in hard/intense deadpoints. This is an exercise that I would only do once you are climbing at least V3-V4.

To start layups for your right hand, you need to pick two holds (both should be typical holds you would find on problems about 75% of maximum). First, pick a hold for your left hand approximately shoulder height. Next, choose another hold on the wall that is about 1 ft over your head and about a shoulder width apart from your left starting hold. Next, jump off the ground/mat and stick the hold you picked out and HOLD for 3 seconds, then let go. As soon as you land, re-set your feet and repeat 4x.  Do this same process for your left hand.

Once you have played around a little bit with different hold types and distances, you can get more specific with the holds and intensity levels.

I like this in addition to the campus board because I can change the angle of the holds–whereas a campus board is linear all the way through. Layups allow dynamic contact strength with sidepulls, gastons, etc.

Typically I will do 3-5 different sets of holds with 5 reps on each side.

Happy training!!!