http://www.climber.co.uk may–jun 2020 71
CALIBRATE YOUR LEVEL
The most important facet of hangboard training is finding the
level you need to train at. It is all too easy to find a work-out
on an app or a website that says do this exercise off a ‘x’ mm
edge. The calibration is noted at the start of each protocol. It is
important to note the size of edge, often recorded in millime-
tres for both deadhanging and pull-ups as both will be slightly
different due to the exercises. It may take the equivalent of a
session to calibrate for the first true session.
FREQUENCY OF HANGBOARDING
How often you hangboard has many deciding factors, however,
for the beginner starting out we would suggest starting at one
session a week in total isolation from other training. For a
beginner you could increase this to a couple of sessions a
week, but if you are working at the top end of your max effort
then remember you probably need two days’ rest to fully
recover from the session.
You should avoid hangboarding for longer than two months
at a time, as you need some time to allow your ligaments to
catch up with the strength your muscle will develop. It is why
we would try to avoid indefinite strength training and instead
change focus around every four to eight weeks.
ANTAGONIST TRAINING
Neil Gresham, who developed the hangboarding app, is very
vocal in his belief that we need to train the antagonist muscles
for anything we do, hangboarding included. The reason for this
is our bodies do not like muscle imbalances, it is often what can
lead to chronic injuries. So training them can help prevent
things like tendonitis. To maintain functional bodies, we need to
do some cross-training covering the antagonist muscles through
innovative warm-ups with push-ups, dips done either on the
floor, or with the assistance of Thera-bands, Gym Rings or TRX
straps for shoulders, chest and bicep. For the fingers though you
need rubber finger extension trainers like the Power Fingers
System. As such if you are isolating hangboarding sessions then
spend the time after the hangboarding sessions doing some
general conditioning work focusing on the antagonist, as well
as maybe arm and shoulder specific strengthen exercises.
Remember to mix thing ups as well as having high reps and
low load on your antagonist training. Try adding in some low
rep, high load work-outs so that you start to train strength in
those antagonist muscles.
CHANGING THINGS UP
If you do enough hangboarding you will almost certainly hit a
plateau. After all it is a fairly close-loop exercise and your
body will start to adapt to it in the initial weeks of starting.
What this means is to keep the progression going you are
going to need to mix things up.
- Change from Neurological Adaptation to Structural
- Add in more grip types (pinch and slopers)
- Vary arm angle
- Add pull-ups
- Add L hangs (a front level but with bent legs) or front levers
AVOIDING INJURY
- Warm-up thoroughly
- Avoid painful holds
- Maintain proper technique – elbows must always be slightly
bent and shoulder must be engaged (don’t let them slouch) - Rest between training sessions (48 to 72 hours)
- Stop if you feel anything untoward in your fingers
HANGBOARDING SESSION
Always start a period of hangboard training with the Neuro-
logical methods, these are generally higher loads, lower
volume and longer rests. Then move to a more structural
session. Many people use hangboard timer apps to help, as if
you try to count you will almost certainly start to speed up the
count as you approach the end of each bout of effort, although
a stopwatch works well.BASIC NEUROLOGIC HANGBOARDING
WITH MAX HANGS- Warm-up thoroughly with the final warm-up being 3 x 10
second deadhangs on progressively smaller holds down to
an edge size 2mm larger than you are going to be using,
with around a three-minute rest between each of those
last hangs. Rest for three minutes prior to starting the
main hangboarding session. - Find the smallest edge depth you can hold for 13 seconds,
down to around 14mm. If you go smaller than this then
you might need to look at going back up to 18-20mm edge
and adding some weight. - With the maximum added weight or on the smallest edge
down to 14mm, hang the hold for 10 seconds and rest for
three minutes. Repeat three times for the first week or two
and then add another set for the third week and then
another set for the fourth week. - To adjust the load to allow for strength gains or approach
to failure near the end of a session for the next four weeks
adjust hold size up and or down so to ensure that would
get you close to failure at 13 seconds.
Possible variations: you can vary arm angle or hand grip for
each of the 10-second hang.BASIC STRUCTURAL HANGBOARDING
WITH REPEATERS- Warm-up thoroughly and finish this with three sets of six
reps of a five second hang, five seconds rest per set with a
three minute rest between sets. Start on a hold that is
5-10mm deeper than the calibrated edge depth. Then rest
for three minutes before starting the training session. - Find the edge smallest depth you can hold for 15 seconds.
This is the calibrated hold size for you. - On the calibrated smallest edge hang for five seconds
- rest for five seconds and do six hangs per set. Rest for
three minutes between each set and complete two sets for
the first two weeks and then add one more set in week
three and another set in week four.
- rest for five seconds and do six hangs per set. Rest for
- To adjust the load to allow for strength gains over time or
weakness as you tire near the end of a session either
increase or decrease edge thickness.
Possible variations: you can vary arm angle or hand grip for
each of the sets. nHANGBOARDING FOR FINGER STRENGTH: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
mark Reeves is a Mountaineering Instructor with a Master’s Degree in Applied
Sports Science; he has a first-rate understanding of effective coaching, sport
psychology and performance physiology. He applies this to this column and
coaching climbers and mountaineers through howtoclimbharder.com and
snowdoniamountainguides.com