Campus board training: who should campus, the exercises, sets and rest

In short

• A campus board is a row of wooden rungs on a slightly overhanging wall. You climb it with your hands only, feet off.
• It is for experienced, adult climbers. Years of climbing and a few seasons of pain-free hangboard work come first.
• Every move is fast and precise. When moves slow down or you miss rungs, the set is over.
• Little volume, long rests: a few sets per exercise, 2 to 3 minutes between them, once or twice a week.

Campus board training builds contact strength: how fast your fingers can grab and hold a rung after a dynamic move. Below is who it suits, how the rungs are numbered, the basic exercises in order of difficulty, and how to dose them. The sets, reps and rests are common coaching ranges. Measured facts from studies are in the science section, with sources at the end.

What a campus board is

A campus board is a panel of evenly spaced wooden rungs, mounted at a slight overhang. Rungs come in a few depths, and you move between them with your hands while your feet hang free. Because the feet are off, your fingers take your full body weight on every catch.

Moon Climbing, for example, sells campus rungs in three pocket depths, 18 mm, 23 mm and 29 mm, each 500 mm wide, and recommends a board angle of 13 degrees to copy the original setups (manufacturer’s product page, checked on 3 November 2026). Other boards use other depths and spacings, and there is no single standard for the gap between rungs.

Rungs are numbered from the bottom. “1-4-7” means both hands start on rung 1, one hand goes to rung 4 and the other to rung 7. Because spacing differs, a 1-4-7 on one board can be a longer reach than on another. Compare your numbers on the same board only.

A campus board is not the same as a standard training board with set problems for hands and feet. Those are covered in board training.

Who should campus, and who should wait

• Experience first. A common coaching rule is several years of regular climbing before the first campus session. A review of resistance training for climbers advises limiting campus board and fingerboard work in lower-graded climbers.
• Hangboard first. Your fingers should already handle structured hangboard training without pain. If you are still building basic grip, start with finger strength for climbing.
• Not before the fingers stop growing. Stress injuries of the finger growth plates are most common between 13 and 15. Researchers who study them advise against campus boards until the finger bones are mature. A teenager who wants to train power can do it on the wall, with feet on.
• Not on sore fingers. Skip it after an injury until a specialist clears hard finger loading, and on days when your fingers already feel tired.
• A clear reason. Campus training suits climbers whose limit is powerful, dynamic moves on small holds. If your limit is footwork or endurance, other training pays more.

Warm up before the board

Campus board work comes at the start of a session, after a full warm-up, on fresh fingers. Use the 20-minute routine in climbing warm-up, then add a few easy campus sets on the largest rungs: small reaches such as 1-2-3 or 1-3-5, well below your limit. If the easy sets feel heavy, make it a climbing day instead.

Campus board exercises, from easiest to hardest

1. Feet-on campusing. Feet on a foothold or the kickboard under the board, hands moving rung to rung. It takes part of your weight off and teaches the movement. A good first step and a good warm-up.
2. Ladders. Feet off, hands alternate up the board one rung at a time: 1-2-3-4-5 and so on. Climb down to the floor under control or drop onto a padded floor with bent knees.
3. Laddering with bigger reaches. The same idea with gaps: 1-3-5, then 1-4-7, then 1-5-9. Each move skips rungs, so you need more power and a faster catch. Lead with the other hand on the next set.
4. Bumps. One hand stays on a rung while the other moves up rung by rung, for example 1-2-3-4 with the same hand, then you match. Repeat on the other side.
5. Switch hands. Hands on two different rungs, then both let go at once and swap places. It trains a quick release and catch, with both hands off for a moment.
6. Max reach. From both hands on rung 1, reach as high as you can with one hand and hold the catch. Track the highest rung you reach on the same board, with each hand.
7. Doubles. Both hands leave the rung together and catch together on the rung above, then go up or down again. This is the highest finger load on the board. Keep it for climbers who already campus well, with very few reps.

Sets, reps and rest

The numbers below are common coaching ranges for climbers who meet the conditions above.

• Exercises per session: 2 to 4.
• Sets: 3 to 6 per exercise. Alternate the leading hand between sets.
• Reps: one ladder, one reach or a few moves per set. A set lasts seconds, not minutes.
• Rest: 2 to 3 minutes between sets, longer after doubles or max reaches.
• Effort: every move as fast and accurate as you can. The set ends when the moves slow down or you miss a rung.
• Progression: one change at a time. A bigger reach first, a smaller rung later. Never both on the same day.

How often to campus

Once a week is a common start. Two sessions a week fit a short strength or power block for experienced climbers, with at least two rest days for the fingers in between. Campus work counts as a hard finger day, just like max hangs or limit bouldering, so plan it with them and not on top of them. A whole training week, with the hard days spread out, is in climbing training plan.

Campus board vs hangboard

• Hangboard: static hangs. You set the edge, the time and the added or removed weight exactly, so the load is easy to dose and to repeat.
• Campus board: dynamic catches with the feet off. The load comes from your body weight and the speed of the move, so it is harder to control and higher at the moment of the catch.
• The order: most climbers build finger strength on the hangboard first and add the campus board later, to turn that strength into fast grabbing.

In the app: campus board work is its own kind of item in ClimbingDad, next to climbing, hangboard, gym, cardio and mobility. The built-in session “Campus board — contact strength” opens with a warm-up block, then runs warm-up sets of 1-3-5 on the big rungs and sets of 1-4-7, alternating the leading hand. Its note says to stop when you start missing rungs. The app counts the sets and runs the rest timer between them. Campus work counts towards your finger recovery score. When the app builds your week, it leaves campus sessions out unless you have climbed for more than two years, and it keeps 3 rest days between hangboard and campus sessions.

Common mistakes

• Starting too early, before years of climbing and pain-free hangboard work.
• Letting teenagers campus while their fingers are still growing.
• Campusing at the end of a session, on tired fingers, when moves slow down and catches get sloppy.
• Too many sets. Campus work is about quality. Once you miss rungs, more sets add load without training anything useful.
• Short rests. One minute between sets turns power training into a pump.
• Jumping to doubles before ladders and bumps feel easy.
• Crimping every rung hard. Hold the rungs in a half crimp or open hand where you can, and do not let your fingers collapse into a full crimp on the catch.
• Uncontrolled drops onto a hard floor at the end of a set.
• Training through finger pain. Pain still ends the session.

What studies measured

It works in highly trained climbers. In a randomized study, 16 advanced-to-elite male lead climbers trained on the campus board for five weeks, either twice or four times a week with the same total volume, while a control group kept its usual climbing. Each session used four exercises with four sets each, alternating hands, on rungs 25, 20 and 15 mm deep, with 2 to 3 minutes of rest and every move at maximal effort and speed. Together, the two training groups improved bouldering performance, maximal reach and moves to failure on the board, and pulling strength on a shallow rung, more than the control group. Two sessions a week improved bouldering performance against the control group, and four improved the rate of force development. The two training groups did not differ from each other. The authors reported no injuries from the training.

What that does not show. The study had 16 strong, experienced men. It tells you nothing about the campus board in beginners, intermediate climbers or teenagers.

Growing fingers are vulnerable. A critical review of finger growth plate stress injuries in adolescent climbers describes them as the result of repeated small loads. They show up most often between 13 and 15, more often in boys. The review notes that campus board training, with dynamic moves and the feet off, puts the full body weight through the fingers and increases the forces on the growth plate. It advises avoiding campus boarding in every stage of rehabilitation, and pain on the back of the middle finger joint in a young climber should be checked promptly. The same authors advise discouraging campus boards until the fingers are skeletally mature.

An older case series points the same way. Among 24 young climbers with growth plate fractures of the middle finger joints, the average age was 14.5 and 23 were boys. The authors recommend removing intensive power training from the schedules of athletes of this age.

Limit it in lower grades. A review of resistance training, climbing performance and injury prevention names the fingers and shoulders as the most frequent injury locations in climbing, and advises limiting fingerboard and campus board training in lower-graded climbers.

Questions climbers ask

Train and log with a coach

ClimbingDad is a free climbing training app for training on your own or with a coach. A coach can plan your week and leave a note on a session, which shows on that day’s card. The coach reads your log, but the coach panel cannot change it; if you train with one, you subscribe to that coach. More on training with a coach.

About the author. Mateusz Kuba is a sport climbing instructor (instruktor sportu, sport climbing) with C4PC Level 1 — Strength Training for Youths. He coaches climbers on climbing walls in Warsaw and built ClimbingDad.

This page describes campus board training in general terms. It is not medical advice and does not replace an examination by a doctor or physiotherapist.

What research says

The measured facts on this page come from these papers. Only one of them tested campus board training directly, in advanced and elite climbers:

• Two vs. four campus sessions a week. 16 advanced-to-elite climbers, five weeks; campus training improved bouldering performance, maximal reach and moves to failure against a control group. Stien N, Pedersen H, Vereide VA, Saeterbakken AH, Hermans E, Kalland J, Schoenfeld BJ, Andersen V. “Effects of Two vs. Four Weekly Campus Board Training Sessions on Bouldering Performance and Climbing-Specific Tests in Advanced and Elite Climbers.” Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2021. 10.52082/jssm.2021.438 (PMID 34267583)
• Growth plate stress injuries in adolescent climbers. Most common at 13 to 15; campus boarding increases the forces on the growth plate and is avoided during rehabilitation. Jones G, Johnson R, Schöffl V, Schöffl I, Lutter C, Johnson MI, Halsey T. “Primary Periphyseal Stress Injuries of the Fingers in Adolescent Climbers: A Critical Review.” Current Sports Medicine Reports, 2022. 10.1249/JSR.0000000000001016 (PMID 36508599)
• Campus boards until skeletal maturity. The same authors summarise their review and advise discouraging campus boards until the fingers are skeletally mature. Jones G, Johnson R, Schöffl V, Schöffl I, Lutter C, Johnson MI, Halsey T. “When to be concerned about finger pain in an adolescent climber.” BJSM blog, 8 September 2023. blogs.bmj.com
• Growth plate fractures in young climbers. 24 cases, average age 14.5, 23 boys; intensive power training removed for this age. Hochholzer T, Schöffl VR. “Epiphyseal fractures of the finger middle joints in young sport climbers.” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 2005. 10.1580/pr15-04.1 (PMID 16209469)
• Resistance training and injury prevention. Fingers and shoulders are the most frequent injury locations; limit fingerboard and campus board training in lower-graded climbers. Saeterbakken AH, Stien N, Pedersen H, Langer K, Scott S, Michailov ML, Gronhaug G, Baláš J, Solstad TEJ, Andersen V. “The Connection Between Resistance Training, Climbing Performance, and Injury Prevention.” Sports Medicine – Open, 2024. 10.1186/s40798-024-00677-w (PMID 38240903)