Beginner Campus Board Workout (Plus Frenchies and 4x4s)
Three workouts that still earn a place in a week: Frenchies, a real 4x4, and a campus board session.
If you are in your first year, skip the campus board. Do Frenchies if you can do a few clean pull-ups. Leave 4x4s until you can flash a consistent band of problems. A beginner indoor week lives here: Indoor Climbing Training Plan for Beginners.
Frenchies
Frenchies build lock-off strength. One set is a pull-up with a pause at 90 degrees, a pause around 120 degrees, and a pause with your chin over the bar. Hold each pause for 5 seconds. Rest 2–3 minutes. Do 3–5 sets.
If 5 seconds is too long, start at 3. If a full pull-up is not there yet, use a band. Warm up first. This loads elbows and shoulders.
4x4s
Four boulder problems climbed back to back, four times through, with short and deliberately incomplete rest between sets. It trains power endurance: the ability to keep producing near-maximal force once your forearms are already loaded.
The protocol is simple; getting the intensity right is not, and it's where almost everyone goes wrong. Pick problems 2–4 grades below your flash grade, keep the clock honest, and run it as a block rather than a year-round staple.
Full detail on set-up, rest, progression, and who should not be doing them yet is in 4x4 Climbing Training: The Complete Guide.
Campus board workout for beginners
This is not a first-year session. If three gym days a week still leaves your fingers sore, stop here. Campus board work loads pulleys hard, on a board with no feet.
When you are ready, start with ladders only. Skip max reach and one-arm work until ladders are easy and boring.
A first campus session
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Ladders
- Start with both hands on the lowest comfortable rung.
- Move one hand to the next rung, then match.
- Continue for 5–10 rungs if the rungs allow it.
- 3 sets, 2–3 minutes rest. Stop at 3 until this feels ordinary.
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Touches (only after ladders are clean)
- Both hands on a rung. Move one hand up one rung, touch, return.
- Repeat with the other hand.
- 2–3 sets of 5 touches per hand, 2–3 minutes rest.
Leave max reach, bumps, and one-arm ladders for later. Those are not a beginner campus board workout.
Rules that keep you off the couch
- Fresh fingers only. Not after a limit boulder session.
- Never on consecutive days. Once a week is enough at the start.
- Pain in a pulley or elbow is a stop, not a "work through it."
- Feet stay off. If you need a foot to finish a ladder, the rungs are too far or you are not ready.
How they fit in a week
Do not stack all three. Pick one hard session. Frenchies can sit on a pull-up bar after an easy volume day. A 4x4 is a session on its own. Campus board is a session on its own, never the same day as limit bouldering or max hangs.
Write down what you did. Sequence will take these as repeating workouts, which is the only way you know whether the campus ladders got easier or you just got tired.
Frenchies, a 4x4, and a campus board session are old on purpose. Run the one that matches your limiter. Leave the campus board until showing up is already easy.