Workouts on the hangboard are ideal for improving the strength and endurance of the fingers, arms and the entire upper body.
As with any sport (training), there is a risk of injury on the hangboard. In order to minimize these as far as possible, a few basics must be observed:
- Warming up : Hangboard training is just as high a strain on the strained muscles, ligaments and joints as a real climbing / bouldering session. Accordingly, you should warm up like this before training, so it would go straight to your hardest project.
- Stop if it hurts, pinches or burns: Especially at the beginning of climbing-specific training, the muscles adapt to the new strain much faster than ligaments and tendons. This phenomenon is by far the most common cause of finger injuries among climbers. Consequently, it is important, especially at the beginning, not to train stubbornly to the point of failure, but to pay close attention to the signals of your own body: pain, pinching, burning and other discomfort can be a strong indication that the adaptation of the soft tissues to those of the muscles lags behind. In this case, you should definitely end the workout and take a break of at least 2 days.
- Open hand vs. full crimp: When training on small strips (crimps), holding on with an open hand is the most gentle grip technique. At the same time, the open hand technique is also the most technically demanding way of holding on to a small bar. Intuitively, many climbers therefore tend to put up their fingers (full crimp). You should definitely resist this instinct, because in the full crimp the ring bands are in your fingers and the risk of injury is therefore maximum. If in doubt, it is better to choose the bar one size larger and leave your hand open. PHOTO
- Active Hang vs. Dead Hang: Training on a hangboard puts strain on the shoulder and elbow joints in addition to the fingers. In order to stimulate these structures to adapt as sustainably as possible, you should always maintain a certain basic body tension. Activate your back and shoulder muscles by pushing your shoulder blades together and toward your back pockets at the same time, tensing your stomach and paying attention to a slight but constant bending of the elbows ("active hang"; in contrast to this is the almost lifeless hold on to the handles, that's why "Dead Hang"). PHOTO
How exactly you design your training course depends entirely on your individual circumstances, goals and preferences.
You can find an overview of different approaches and examples for training planning in our article Strength training on the hangboard: training planning .