I'm a 35-year-old rock climber with about a year of experience in my sport. I've decided to add barbell training both for the general benefits of strength and to improve my climbing ability.
Many climbers claim that weight training is counterproductive because it will cause you to gain weight. Because I heard this, I've previously focused primarily on pull-ups and related exercises, and basically done nothing but running for legs. The idea was that I would pack strength only into the muscles I need for climbing, thereby gaining the strength I need while keeping my weight as low as possible.
I no longer think this is the right approach, but I can see why people are concerned that weight gain will hurt them: When you're unable to complete a difficult climb, it is almost always because of insufficient finger strength or endurance (or bad technique, of course). It seems to me that I can become a better climber by gaining general strength as long as I can get my finger strength growth to track (or hopefully exceed) my rate of weight gain.
The common implement that is used for improving finger strength among climbers is the hangboard. (Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know.) This consists of small horizontal edges that you put the fingertips on while holding the proximal interphalangeal joints at 90 degrees of flexion and then doing a dead hang.
But the common way hangboard training is programmed (generally progressing by switching to smaller edges, using only three or two fingers, or doing more sets, taking shorter breaks, hanging longer, etc.) doesn't seem ideal for gaining strength. It seems it would be better to do weighted hangs and increase the weight slowly along with the rest of the training program.
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with programming the hangboard in this way, or has insights regarding finger strength adaptation. Since there is a great deal of slow-adapting tissue involved (tendons, finger pulleys, etc.) it seems like moving slowly is a good idea. But I'm not sure how many times a week would be optimal, or how long to rest between reps and sets, or what safe jumps look like.
Any thoughts or insight you have would be greatly appreciated.