HIT Training is Working Stupendously!!

I find it a little frustrating how very few people seem to post on what they do in their training that is working, so since I've tried a few things that have really worked recently, I thought I should share. A lot of the stuff I have learned will translate well for people in other sports besides climbing and running.

HIT Strips

As shown in the picture, these are basically just big climbing holds that have pocket, crimp, and pinch options. The workout I'm doing (as per the instructions that from Eric Horst, the inventor) involves doing two sets of up to twenty hand moves with each grip with exactly a three minute rest. To keep reps under twenty, you add weight to yourself.

Results:

I really started counting the weight increase after I had done it for two weeks, as the first couple of weeks involve a rapid increase due to training muscle coordination so that you can pull harder with the same muscles. This continues to happen after two weeks, but to a much more consistent and less wildly rapid degree.

When I officially began recording weights I could not complete twenty reps with the following weights for each grip:

Pinch: 5 lbs

Open crimp: 25 lbs

Closed crimp: 0 lbs

Index/middle finger team: 5 lbs

Middle/ring finger team: 0 lbs

Ring/pinky finger team: Not doing due to injury

Just this last week (4 months of training), my weights had risen to:

Pinch: 35 lbs

Open crimp: 55 lbs

Closed crimp: 35 lbs

Index/middle finger team: 55 lbs

Middle/ring finger team: 50 lbs

Ring/pinky finger team: Still not really doing due to injury in forearm.

I can say that a bit of the increase in weights can be attributed to whole body muscle memory making the HIT strip climbing process more coordinated, but a recent change to some really crappy shoes that coincided with weight increases even with my feet occasionally popping off show that the strength increase I have seen is very legitimate.

One other note that I should make is the even though the HIT strips are designed to target finger strength, I have noticed that my pullup test has gone up more rapidly since beginning HIT training. I had been working my pull muscles consistently since the beginning of 2011, and I have gone from ~16 to ~25 ( taken post workout, so some fatigue existed) at a time. My pullup ability seemed to plateau during the spring in the upper teens, but then jumped to ~25 in the late fall.