Ever since the campus board was first developed by legendary German climber Wolfgang Güllich it has been a valuable training tool for developing contact strength and power.  However, while campusing can produce huge gains, it is also extremely dangerous and will quickly result in injury if you are either not yet ready for the campus board or are performing exercises with compromised form.

To help you campus effectively and safely, here’s a video with Mercedes Pollmeier, a strength and conditioning coach and our in-house online climbing trainer here at TrainingBeta, in which she lays out the basics of proper campus board use.

Basics Covered:

Here are the campusing basics covered in the video:

• Campus readiness test
• Proper form – open hand grip, engaged shoulders
• Foot on campusing to footless progression

If you are new to campusing, this video is a great place to start.  Mercedes does a great job of explaining and demonstrating all of these basics and why they are important.  As we said above, campusing is one of the highest impact forms of training.  If you are going to campus, make sure you are doing it properly so you don’t end up hurt.

Drills Covered:

To further help you get started, Mercedes outlines the campus drills she typically uses with the climbers she coaches.  They are:

• Long move
• Ladders
• Continuous ladders

Check them all out in the video below or click through at the bottom for the original.

Campus Board Basics Video: