Hooper’s Beta Ep. 114

INTRODUCTION

You might have heard some… interesting things about hangboarding.

Regardless of all the conflicting opinions out there, there are some solid reasons and very strong climbers to support hangboarding as a good tool. BUT, in my experience as a PT, there is a higher risk of injury than most people think. So if you want hangboarding to actually help you climb better and not leave you sidelined, I challenge you to answer these six questions first, because if you can’t, I say you’re not worthy of the almighty wooden dangle device.

FRICTITIOUS HANGBOARD

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1. Do you know if hangboarding is actually a good use of your training time?

This one sounds super obvious, but it’s surprising how many climbers can’t give a good answer. In my opinion, if you have a decent grasp on climbing technique, are experiencing little to no progress in your climbing, and have determined that your fingers are a big limiting factor for you, hangboarding is probably a good use of your time.

But, that’s not always the case.

As effective as hangboarding can be, climbers often have other deficits that should be addressed. Finger strength is great, but you should really fix those terrible shoulder mechanics. Yeah, one-arming the 6-mils would be nice, but you should probably learn the difference between a full crimp and half crimp. And sure, maximum finger recruitment is something you want, but if you look like a floppy noodle on the wall your finger strength doesn’t matter. Since we have a limited amount of time and energy to train, we have to be strategic. Don’t just assume finger training should take up most of that time.

2. Do you know how to load your fingers without putting yourself at risk?

Hangboarding safely requires knowing how much load your fingers can handle as well as proper finger, back, and shoulder mechanics. Do you know what your max is on a given edge? Do you know the difference between a chisel, half crimp, and full crimp?

Inexperienced climbers risk starting off at too high an intensity, repeatedly exposing their fingers to near-max forces while not having the shoulder and back stability to control the load. Some may impatiently shock-load their fingers or “fight through the pain” for an adrenaline-fueled PR. This is how pulley, lumbrical, and FDP injuries can happen. The friction from allowing your fingers to be forced open under heavy load is thought to be a cause of pulley injuries.

Hangboard training should actually be a relatively calm, controlled experience, usually with a half crimp, though exact finger position will depend on your finger anatomy and goals. More importantly, you shouldn’t be sliding off the hold during every hang as this changes the force on your fingers. As a rule of thumb, if you can’t maintain stable shoulder and finger positions for the full duration of your hang, you should reduce the weight or duration.

3. Do you know how to integrate more training load into your routine?

This is possibly the most common mistake climbers make when starting to hangboard: they’ll pick a protocol, get psyched, do their hangs, and then go about their normal climbing and training like nothing has changed. Unless your training load was very low before you started, this approach usually leads to problems.

Why? Because our tissues have a limited capacity for “doing work” and they need enough time to recover in between loads. If you’re doing a lot of work and then you keep adding more and more work on top of that, eventually something’s gotta give.

Too much workload will exceed your body’s ability to recover, resulting in a downward slope of chronic fatigue and ultimately failure of some tissue -- often in the fingers or shoulders.

To fix this, are you willing to potentially reduce your climbing time in order to account for the increased load to your fingers, back, and shoulders from hangboarding? We would certainly recommend doing so if you don’t have a good feel for your work capacity. For example, if you currently climb at a high intensity 3x/week, you may need to drop down to 2x/week for a while when you start hangboarding. Or, continue climbing 3x/week, but focus on low-intensity technique climbing on the day you hangboard.

4. Do you know how your age, prior injuries, and fitness background should affect your training load?

There is a lot of advice on hangboarding on the internet, but one thing none of it can account for is that each person is unique. Your age, genetics, past injuries, sleep quality, nutrition, prior training, etc. can play a large role in determining how much volume and intensity you can handle on the hangboard.

Are you a team kid that weighs 80 pounds, sleeps 11 hours a night, has a private chef (thanks parental unit) and has the recovery time of a video game character? Or are you a 30-something V5 climber with a rotator cuff injury a few years back, working 60 hours a week, thinking coffee = breakfast, and a little pain in your fingers?

This is where you’ll have to be honest with yourself about your true capabilities rather than trying to do what works for someone else. Adults will generally need much more recovery time than those pesky team kids. They can train every day without slowing down -- you might need to limit yourself to a day-on, day-off schedule. 

Of course, you can avoid a lot of trial and error by getting personalized advice from a good coach (shameless plug for our buddy Dan Beall). None of that will matter, though, if you can’t answer this last question.

5. Do you know how to progress and track your hangboard training?

Knowing how to hang with the right weight, edge size, intensity, duration, grip position, shoulder mechanics, etc. is one thing, knowing how to use this knowledge to consistently increase your strength is another.

If you keep doing the same hang week in, week out, you’ll quickly stop progressing. While it’s natural for progress to slow and even plateau at times, you should be seeing a relatively consistent upward trajectory -- whether that means you’re able to add some weight to your hangs or you just complete your sets with less effort than before. If you don’t experience this, you’re probably either doing too much work or not enough.

The obvious way to determine if you’re ready for higher intensity or volume is to go off your effort level. If you complete every hang with ease, you can increase the intensity next time. If you struggle hard through the last few hangs, you’re not ready to increase. In general, you should always have a second or two of hanging left in the tank.

Finally, you’ll want to log your hangs each session so you have a record of what you’ve done and if your training is working. This allows you to judge if you’re doing too much or too little and allows you to spot dips in performance that could precede an injury if not accounted for.

6. Do you understand hangboard protocols?

If you don’t follow a structured plan with your hangboarding, you’re essentially taking the “try random stuff and hope it works” approach. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by using a structured protocol instead.

There are many different ones, but the most common protocols are max hangs, repeaters, and minimal edge. Even just these three vary significantly in rest time, load intensity, and purpose. Do you know why they differ so much? Do you know what each one is meant to accomplish?

If not, I’d recommend checking out the videos from Lattice and/or Dave Macleod on hangboard protocols, which we’ll link in the description!

Dave Macleod: How To Hangboard

Lattice Training: Climber’s Guide to Hangboarding

OUTRO

If you want to support us making more content like this please consider buying a t-shirt or using the affiliate links in the description. And if you want a private in-person or web consultation from me, you can schedule one easily on our website. Until next time: train, climb, send, repeat!

DISCLAIMER

As always, exercises are to be performed assuming your own risk and should not be done if you feel you are at risk for injury. See a medical professional if you have concerns before starting new exercises.

Written and Presented by Jason Hooper, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CAFS

IG: @hoopersbetaofficial

Filming and Editing by Emile Modesitt

www.emilemodesitt.com