Numerically quantifying hangboard for a better understanding of when and why hangboard may be useful for hand strength long term

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Determining volume of climbing versus hangboard for long term persistent adaptations

For persistent long term gains in hand strength one needs to take into account any type of hangboard or campus board work in conjunction with the amount of volume and intensity of climbing. Theoretically one can “just climb” and get to elite hand strength like Sharma, Graham, and others who pretty much never trained. One can also use only max hangs and climbing, but you can also use repeaters and climbing and so on.

That’s the hard nature of things because taking into account the combined stimulus is more difficult to do due to the variation in grip types and variance of climbs one does in a session and various sessions.

The easiest way to track things could be something like only analyzing crimp climbs. Theoretically, let’s use these hypothetical examples of comparable volume on the hands that may elicit similar strength stimulus:

• 10-15 crimp climbs in a session
• 3-5 sets of max hangs + 7-12 crimp climbs
• 3-5 sets of repeaters + 7-10 crimp climbs

Obviously, there may be some variability, but the cumulative stress on the hands is of approximate similar volume and intensity to improve. Max hangs tend to be more stressful because of the higher weight, but repeaters tend to have much more time under tension so they represent a much bigger overall stressor cumulatively. With each of these you’d obviously be working on harder crimp climbs, max hangs, and repeaters over time as well to elicit the hand strength improvements. Thus, this is probably the simplest way to intuitively understand the volume of “only climbing” or “climbing and hangboard” needed to progress.

This also answers the question of why for beginners it’s better to just climb in most cases than doing a combination of climbing + hangboard.

• A beginner will have technique deficits such that doing 10-15 crimp climbs focusing on technique would be better than doing say 3 repeaters + 7-10 crimp climbs by getting in 3-5+ extra climbs working with technique.
• That adds up: [3-5 climbs per session * 3x a week * 50 weeks in a year] = 450-750 extra climbs/year to work on technique.

You’d see huge technique differences in someone just climbing versus someone who would be doing climbing + hangboard from the get go.

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Complexity because of various grip types and climb styles

The above example does not take into account the variation in grip types, climbing styles, and so on and it gets a little harder to start doing that.

You cannot train everything at once lest you get overuse injuries. For instance, if you were trying to train say half crimp, open hand, pockets, slopers, and such on hangboard to improve at all these different types of grips you’d barely have any volume to be on the climbing wall or outside much at all to learn the nuances of climbing technique. This is generally where the understanding that training half crimp provides the most carryover to full crimp and open hand. You get the most benefit for minimizing the amount of grip time you spend on hangboard to maximize your climbing volume.

Also, to answer the max hangs versus repeaters debate the main conclusion I’ve come to personally is that repeaters represent a more consistent amount of hand strength work when combined with enough volume and intensity on the wall probably lead to the most consistent improvements. However, that is mainly because it’s a bigger stimulus of volume and time under tension than max hangs. One can absolutely get max hangs + climbing to work consistently or only climbing to the level where it’s a good stimulus to improve hand strength long term… But these things tend to be more intuitive to some climbers than others even with tracking everything you’re doing.

The repeaters make things a bit simpler giving a bigger hand strength stimulus which combined with climbing seem to offer the most consistent returns in the long run from my experience using them and recommending them. However, the downside is obviously that repeaters also require much more time under tension, so it can take away from volume spent on climbing compared to just climbing or climbing + max hangs.

The reason why board climbing like moon, tension, and such seem to provide steady improvement is that it forces someone to consistently try hard with their grips which can consistently improve hand strength. Moon board in particular seems to force hard crimping hand movements and cutting feet which makes you strong at those movements. Unlike the normal commerical gym setting where half a set can be mostly parkour moves and such, you’re getting regular tough climbing moves on the body and hands to force adaptation long term. However, in many cases board climbing forces a specific style and perhaps a particular angle if your board can’t incline or decline, so it’s indeed limited in some regard too.

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Find something that works for you

And this is why the answer is it depends. Whatever helps you get the most consistent stress on your hands to progressive overload safely long term. Can be any variation of the modalities and it can vary as you get stronger too.

• Just climbing
• Climb + max hangs
• Climb + repeaters

The key is to make sure you’re improving at your climbing and not just improving at your hand strength. One can absolutely prioritize hand strength like this and get way too strong hands for the grade, so there must be a balance if you’re using the latter two to make sure the climbing + hangboard is translating to the wall as well.

Sometimes it can ebb and flow in cycles. Sometimes it is effective to spend 90-100% of the time on the wall if your hands are too strong for the grade, but if they were too weak for the grade maybe 70-80% time on the wall and getting in some specific hand strength may be more effective.

Original post on climbharder.