Hangboard is a great way to train your climbing skills, it’s often used by intermediate and professional climbers, but unfortunately, the new climbers tend to avoid it. We would like to recommend this also to the new climbers because that is a simple way to improve your skills overall. If you just recently started to get interested in hangboard training, then this article will be full of information about it like “How long should you hangboard for?”, ” What are the grip types on hangboard? ” or “How often should you use hangboard?” so stay with us and let’s begin.
As the first question, we will take “How long should you hangboard for” and according to the guidelines from many experts we took the average of that and those are the results: You should hangboard for 8 to 15 seconds for 3 to 5 sets, and that should give you the best results because overdoing your training is even worse than not doing it at all.
Hangboard is great because we can use them at our home or even apartment, rather than going to the climbing gym or building the bouldering wall in our garden, so when you don’t have enough time to go to the gym then hangboard will be a great solution for you!
What are the grip types on hangboard?
It’s important to train all possible types of grips to be prepared for everything, and the most basic hangboard that you can buy almost everywhere will let you train your grip with at least 3 basic methods:
- 2 finger pocket
- 4 finger half crimp
- Pinch block
The most basic hangboard will give you enough grip types to get a good workout so don’t spend too much money and focus on how to mount a hangboard because that will give you headaches for sure.
How to use hangboard?
Hangboards can be very different, also the way to fasten them can vary a lot, but overall you should find a place where you can have enough space for your legs while you are hanging, like for example above the door jamb. There are also special types of hangboards that you can attach to your pull rod.
The workout with hangboard should look like this for example 3 reps of 4 finger half crimp for 10 seconds each, then 2 reps of 2 finger pocket for 8 seconds each. Do those with 2 minutes to rest between each rep. Remember that we are on different skill levels when it comes to climbing, so if you are new then lower the time to hand or give yourself more time to rest.
Hangboard is also a great warm up for your fingers, just lower the number of reps, and time to hang. If you struggle with hangboard then lowering your weight should be the goal for you, so check out our article about “How much weight should I lose to be a better climber“.
How often should you use hangboard?
Don’t hangboard more than 3 times per week, because that will kill your gains so take about 2 days to rest between every hangboard session, that will give you the best results and will increase hand and finger strength. Using a hangboard every day simply won’t let your body regenerate. Remember that your muscles are growing when you regenerate and not when you are exercising, so give them some time to grow, then train again.
The wooden hangboard is better for your skin than any type of plastic, so it’s worth paying more and buying a wooden hangboard. That will let you climb more often because all climbers should know that taking care of their finger skin is important to climb better.
Hangboard is considered to give you a better result than any other type of training, except climbing itself. Also if the hangboard will be too easy for you then you can buy additional weight for you like a weighted vest to increase temporary your total weight to get better results from using the hangboard.
In conclusion – How long should you hangboard for?
Hanging on a hangboard for about 10 seconds is enough then take a 2 minutes rest and hang for another 10 seconds. Don’t overdo your workout and take at least 2 days between every hangboard session to get great results. You can also use a hangboard to warm up your fingers.
