Review > Atomik Climbing > BOMBS

Ahahaha; Kenny the owner of Atomik has just made our life easier!! This week we're looking at the Atomik Bombs, something that we've had for a while and we've been using as part of our training program... a bomb! Actually... these:

These are the BOMBS, and they come in two sizes; we gave one pair (the smaller ones (which are still large) to our review at large Mr David Bursey the head setter for Vertial in Ontario (see his comments below on those), the larger set that are attached to the Boulder Board that we use as our training station at CHR HQ.

They attach nicely to the top of our board and before we raised the board up to be closer to the ceiling (read about that in our upcoming review of the board) they were easily reachable; now we have them a little lower on slings so we can reach them and we put them up as we want.

So what are the Bombs? The Bombs if Kennys video (below) doesn't explain them too well (see why our life is easier?) are balls that you can hang from to do pull ups; you're thinking I've got a pull up bar I don't need a set of bombs. Well you'd be wrong on a number of fronts! Pull up bars don't allow you to rotate your shoulder like the bombs do (yes we know our photo of our bombs has them set in a way that doesn't allow them to swing freely)... and when using these it does allow you to pull up symmetrically and in a more natural way and with less force on the shoulder... lets let Kenny talk through them quickly:

Atomik Climbing Holds Bombs. They hang, they rotate, you pull. from Kenny matys on Vimeo.


We also love the information on these holds (well training devices really) that comes from the Atomik website:
Pressed for time to get to the gym? Tired of fatiguing on your latest project or do you simply want your shoulders to stop aching? Well allow us to introduce the Atomik Bombs. There's a lot to be said about large muscle group and core strength training and this is what we have to throw at that challenge. The spherical/sloper shape of the Bomb makes these perfect to give you a forearm burning workout. What you can expect to do on the Bombs are lock offs, typewriter, pull ups, dead hang and most importantly the ever so important core strength workouts you need to have to climb efficiently on steep walls. 

There are not many training aids on the market that allow you to train "around" a hand injury, but the Bombs do. With their open hand concept design, all of your hand tendons lay ergonomically around the ball allowing you to continue to stay on top of your core and upper body strength; injured or not. Never surrender! Since you can rotate the Bombs while on them, you can switch from pull up, to chin, to biceps pull up all in one set.

The diameter of each Large Bomb is 3.5 inches in diameter which is about the size of a regulation softball. The diameter of each Extra Large Bomb is 4.5 inches in diameter which is the size of a really big grapefruit or the mid section of a football.

The eye bolt measures 5/16" and will accommodate a climbing rated carabiner, quick link, 6mm static cord and/or chain. Chain works the best to extend the Bombs to the exact height you want them to hang. Looped and sewn webbing is the second best option. Static cord is a cost effective alternative but it poses the challenge of getting the holds to hang even.  You can also use quick draws.

Common places to hang the bombs are from pull up bars, rafters, door ways and of course, everywhere you would think of putting up a hang board. They also are very cool to set boulder problems with!

Phew, that's a lot of information! One of the things they say is that they allow a climber to train around a finger injury... that is a big bloody claim but read Noodles comments and see what he has to say about that. What we've found is that they're way more comfortable than a pull up bar and in some cases where you're really working hard a nice change from hanging on a finger board. Now lets get this right first off, we love finger board training, but sometimes you need to mix it up before you get injured or worse than that bored. The Bombs have allowed us to go hangs and pull ups without knackering our fingers all of the time... we've always said "if you want to get strong without an injury climb on slopers inside" well that's what these allow you to do.

They're also multi purpose.... you can set routes with them, but as Kenny has made some videos lets let him talk for a little bit about training... (we think Kenny trains a lot, check out that pull up bar he has)
atomikclimbingholds.com assistance band chin ups on Bombs from Kenny matys on Vimeo.
Hell, lets roll with him doing some more workouts:
atomikclimbingholds.com chin ups on Atomik Bombs from Kenny matys on Vimeo.


Right enough of Kenny flogging himself to death...

When we had both sets of these on the CHR wall you know what we did we put them onto the ceiling and we part of a route with them!! Swinging madness did occur!!We've used them for training, we've used them playing around on routes and they are (HA) bomb proof :) They're well constructed, which isn't a surprise given the fact that all of their holds come with a guarantee that's second to none.

If you're looking to train then these are some pretty powerful tools to have in your arsenal... if you're setting something for a comp a couple of slings and you've got some fun routes for your competitors

SUGGESTED USES:

If you're tired of hanging from a bar then these guys make pull ups a nice task again. If you have an injury then these guys allow you to train without stressing out your hands; of course if you have elbow problems then they won't really help because pull ups will just aggravate the problem.

Noodles had a hand injury when these arrived and he used them to train around his injury and he loves them... from just training to adding them to a roof will add some interesting moves that will catch some people off of guard 


OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 2
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): These need to hang from quick links and some slings if you don't have a set up that allows just a quick link set up
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds):
• Large: $39.99 (sold as a set of two)
• Extra Large:$69.99 (sold as a set of two)
• Color: Ours are pink and yellow swirled
• Bolt placement: Top, for sling / attachment for hanging
• Sanding: None
• Hollow backed: None
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Grippy
• Set size: Large and Extra Large
• Versatility: Good
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: TBC
• Weight:
• Large: TBC
• Extra Large: TBC

What can you say? Look at your anchor placement on these guys; it's bombproof; 5/16" placements that take a carabiner; you can order silver or black for these placements and can order any colors you want.

The Bombs are made in two parts so they do have a small seam running around them, but as you're focused on just hanging on these guys most of the time you'd never notice it; we didn't because it's not that prominent.
On the texture front you have enough to hang from as you train without giving you a burning sensation and this allows for long sessions (not that they should be) on the Bombs. As usual Kenny had provided us with some great colors, the Large Bombs that Dave has are neon green and blue and ours are Neon yellow and pink and when you see them hanging in a gym you kind of just want to hang on them because they're different!

Atomik doesn't make cheap holds, they make solid holds and these are definitely that, these guys do weigh in pretty well but that's fine because you're probably only going to put them up once and then you'll just leave them to train upon

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Great

RATING:
Noodles:
So a finger injury; yup it's part and parcel of climbing sometimes. I've had a niggle here and there and when the balls had arrived I was struggling to not climb and to keep away from trying to play on some plastic. The balls came at the right time they allowed me to rehabilitate myself back into the realm of the gym again; would I say that they're something that I want to keep in my arsenal of things that hang around my house for me to knock my head on? Yes of course, these Bombs helped me climb again.

Why?

Because of their radius it meant that I could hang without stressing my hands. They came at the right time for me that's for sure, I've not stopped using my hang boards (on the Blank Slate) I still use them and I train on them; I've just added these into my arsenal and glad that I have.

In the end, these are something that is better for pull ups than a bar, if you have a bar then I strongly suggest that you hang these from it and do your shoulders and fingers some good

David Bursey:
First time I saw training balls was in a Patxi Usobiaga training video, and it was basically two softballs
bolted with an eye bolt.

What Atomik did with these is great. Super easy to set up, given you have access to a strong anchor
point, and perfect size to give you one hell of a burn!

The website description says they’re perfect to train “around injuries” and I’ve found it to be true, and
others I’ve had hang on these with tweaked fingers have said the same. Since there’s not one specific
point where these rest, it’s really the whole hand/forearm, not the digits getting beaten up.

I think the only thing I’d change about these is the texture. Awesome to help you hang on, but after
longer sessions on these, I needed a day or two to grow skin back.

Bottom line, these are great to add on to your training system if you have the room to hang them, and
at 40 bucks, they’re worth it, if only for the hours of ball jokes they fuel.

PROS:

• YADDA

CONS:

• YADDA

prinz climbing holds

Review > Figure Four > Lines Two

If you know anything about us and new companies you know that we don't just review one line from a company, we generally look at one or two to see if their shaping and pouring is consistent. So here's a second set from Figure Four; they're called Lines Two, lets take a look:

If you read the review on the Lines One (here) you know that they were simple clean shapes that in some cases could be matched. With the Lines Two you find the same thing but on a bigger scale, all of the holds are easily matched and if paired with the One's it means you have enough holds for a pretty good boulder problem. All of the holds are incut so the terrain you put them on is pretty much up to you; we've had them on the roof and we've taken them to the local gym and have set a V1 with some fairly long moves on it.; so far from asking people that we've seen climb the route no one has complained about the texture or the clean grabbing areas that you're going to find.

These holds all have a nice little lip, that is rounded down so it's not sharp, that allows climbers when these holds are being used as side pulls or even when they're up the wrong way to get some nice sneaky thumb catches pretty much wherever they grab; the only time the ledge really come into play is when you're setting on steep (over 30 degrees) and when the holds are being used to force moves. Forcing moves is always an interesting task when the holds are easily matchable, getting the sequence just right takes some tweaking but we're glad to say with some creativity you can do it with these guys... it's hard but not totally impossible.

Where these holds really shine is when they're paired with their little cousins and they're used to create problems on steep terrain, setting a V3 to V5 is simple as pie because although these holds are incut they're not bomber incut, they're just enough and comfortable enough that people can work a problem and not worry about their fingers.


SUGGESTED USES:

The suggested uses is an interesting one, it depends upon how steep you're planning to go with these holds; they're super hand and skin friendly, kids can probably get all of their extremities onto them and any beginner on shallow terrain is going to be happy. We've had them on the roof for some opposing moves and you can hang around quite awhile without too much bother, we've also set 5 move V1 problems with them on 15 degree walls... most people want these guys on a 30 degree where they're great for training strength and matched sequences


OVERALL BUILD

• Number of holds: 5
• Type (Bolt / Screw Ons): Bolt
• Price per hold (set price divided by number of holds): $45 / 5 = $9 per hold
• Color: Deep red
• Bolt placement: Middle
• Sanding: Great
• Hollow backed: No
• Soft back (Rubber backed): No
• Texture: Very grippy
• Set size: Medium / Large
• Versatility: Good
• Pre-drilled screw holes: No
• Shaper: George Reynolds
• Weight: 2lbs

Lets roll with whats missing first... set screw holes because we made these holds spin a bunch despite how tight we did them up... it's a little thing and the one thing we can (and will) complain about, we really thought that people had got the message already!!

All of the holds have a QA stamp on the back of them, and you can see that they've all been sanded totally flat. All of he bolt holes are square and well drilled with an inset washer to spread the force of tightening them down

Simple and clean lines with a texture that has a bite to it, once they're chalked up it gets much better without clogging too much; when they do get over chalked they can tend to become a little slippery to grab but just taking off some of the chalk without having to scrub too hard brings them back to life quickly

These holds are a deep almost maroon color that's nice to see and if you're wall is covered in red holds picking these out isn't a problem at all; they stand out against the normal run of the mill reds most people put out

These holds again like the Lines One have a clean simple style to them, they're eye catching but great for the hands (and the occasional heel hook), we've always said that in most cases for training simple is better and these holds mix simple lines with a lip that when the going gets steep allows you to set on steeper terrain and still be able to crank out the moves.

Overall, strong mix, clean simple lines and great colors; shame about the lack of set screw holes

WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM:
Urethane

PACKING / SHIPPING:
Awesome

RATING:
Noodles:
Simple clean, easy in shallow, pullable on the steep... overall a versatile hold for most angles!! Figure Four have done a great job with these holds and for once I won't harp on about the lack of set screw holes I think we drilled (HA) that one in enough above.

What do I like about these holds? Well the color sets them apart for sure, the shaping is also another stand up and take my hat off job... simple and a little complex at the same time and I appreciate that; it meant I could set what was in my head with little problem and have a great number of climbers walk away happy.

Another thing is the fact that we can gym test holds now as we set and have access to a commercial facility... (we also climb there a bunch) and I was worried about the holds getting slick quickly from all the hands and feet that would hit them... no such problem, maybe because loose chalk isn't allowed so you can't cake you hands in the white stuff before climbing. I've stuck a do not brush these holds tag on the route i've set and I climb the route a few times a week (taking notes each time about the holds) and i've not seen any problems... for gyms this is great news because you won't have to clean them too often!

Figure Four have done a great job and again the price is pretty damn spot on! We cranked these guys up hard on our bench and they're bomb proof... after two months of gym use they show no signs of wear; great job

Chris:

PROS:

• Great price
• Awesome color that stands out
• Clean simple shapes that are good on the steep stuff as well as the shallow stuff

CONS:

• No set screw hole