In this second installment of the “Common Sense Training Series,” I sit down with Coaches Matt Pincus and Alex Stiger to discuss how they go about finger training with their clients and themselves in the pursuit of gaining finger strength and keeping everyone’s fingers healthy and injury-free.

Basically, they both feel like this topic is extremely confusing to climbers, and they wanted to simplify what you should be thinking about when you’re trying to plan your finger training protocol. Matt talks about his minimal hangs protocol that he does every day, how that might apply to you, and why he thinks it’s so effective.

Alex talks about how she incorporates finger training into her warm-ups with a hangboard and in her climbing sessions just on the wall. They each give examples of some of their clients’ sustainable finger training protocols. Sustainability is a huge theme in this conversation because most of the time, people go in over their heads with finger training plans and they just can’t be sustained with busy schedules.

Then they give their 3 most important tips for making an effective, sustainable finger training plan for yourself.

As always, they did an amazing job of preparing for this interview, and both of them have so much experience at this point with training people that their advice is truly simple and easy to follow. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

• Try out the Bouldering Program by Coach Matt Pincus at the new $18 price

If you’re tired of going into the gym without a plan and you want a clearly laid-out program made by an experienced coach, our Bouldering Training Program is just that. And it doesn’t cost nearly as much as working one-on-one with a coach. Matt Pincus created this online subscription bouldering program based off of what has been super successful with his clients over the years.

There are 3 levels of training available to you, depending on how much experience you have with climbing training. You’ll go through non-linear cycles (learn more about what that means in the link below) of training power, strength, skill drills, and throughout it all you’ll be gaining all-day capacity.

Hundreds of people have felt an increase in their bouldering ability within weeks of being on this program, and you can too. You get a 7-day free trial to see if it works for you and you can cancel at any time. Go to the gym with a plan in your hand, trust the process, and see results, all for just $18 per month.