Applying Hangboard Training to Rock Climbing

It’s a lot easier to motivate to train when you feel like you have a purpose or goal for training, right? Do you think you would spend more time using a hangboard if you felt like you had a reason for it and knew how it would translate to your actual climbing? My guess would be, probably.

This is an article from Will Anglin’s site, willanglin.squarespace.com. It is an article put together by himself and Ben Spannuth (creator of the bäm Board) about the most effective way to train finger strength on a hangboard based on climbing specific goals.

“The first thing to do when thinking about how to go about hang boarding is to decide why you are training. To get stronger on a certain type of grip for a specific project? To increase your general finger strength for a variety of grip types? Or are you looking to enhance your ability to perform on longer boulder problems or routes? Answering questions like these will help you set goals for your hangboarding sessions and help you decide which exercises you will be performing on your board in order to increase your climbing performance.” -Will Anglin

They talk about what a good training regimen should look like and how it should build in intensity differently based on your goals. Will and Ben explain how a carefully planned out hangboard training regimen can be good for injury prevention.

As they put it:

“By stimulating the bones, pulleys, and connective tissues in the hand, hangboarding encourages favorable adaptations in these structure over time, making them stronger and less susceptible to injury.”

They describe how to use the RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale to determine when to increase the intensity of your hangboard workouts and by how much.

Then the article includes hangboard workouts- 4 different sets of workouts based on what you’re hoping to accomplish (i.e. strength, strength endurance, etc). They include a range of hang and rest times based on your climbing level. And these guys explain how to structure your hangboard workouts over multiple weeks.

Check out the article in full to learn more about how to set up your hangboard workouts to meet your climbing goals….

CLICK HERE: Applying Hangboard Training to Rock Climbing (link no longer available)