The 5 Greatest Hangboards of 2024

Greatest Total Hangboard

Stress Climbing Grindstone

Materials: Wooden | Dimensions: 23″ x 7″ x 3″

The Stress Climbing Grindstone takes residence our award for finest total hangboard. Whereas easy in look, this board packs a critical punch of options that make it distinctive for contemporary hangboarding. We love the texture of the perimeters — in actual fact, they’re so snug you possibly can simply drop fingers to coach pocket climbing for those who want. The jug on high runs the entire board size and is formed like an actual pull-up bar, permitting for a lot of snug grip choices. We’re additionally enormous followers of the maintain structure, which retains the arms on the similar width irrespective of which edge dimension you are coaching on. The labeled edge sizes enable for simply trackable coaching and switch nicely to different in style boards you could discover at a climbing gymnasium. With edges from 30mm to 10mm in 5mm increments, this board permits for warming up and coaching arduous. In the event you’re actually feeling robust, bear down on the 8mm edge that is additionally included.

Provided that the most important edge on the Grindstone is 30mm, newbie climbers would possibly really feel restricted by what they’ll practice. If you’d like bigger maintain choices however nonetheless search the consolation of a Stress board, contemplate the Stress Whetstone, which is extra beginner-friendly. Intermediate to elite stage climbers will discover loads of edge selection with this feature to coach arduous regularly. Minimal critiques and all, we expect the wonderful consolation and easy structure the Grindstone affords steals the present for the majority of finger power coaching situations.

Greatest Bang for the Buck

Stress Flash Board

Materials: Wooden | Dimensions: 19″ x 3″ x 3″

The Stress Flash Board isn’t a historically styled hangboard, however it packs a number of options right into a small, transportable, and inexpensive board. Extremely snug, this board is a pleasure to tug onto. Whereas we see the Flash Board on the crag typically as a warm-up device for arduous climbing, its commonplace edge sizes make it a fantastic do-it-all choice. The board has commonplace 20mm, 15mm, 10mm, and 8mm edges. Its spherical form makes it a comfortable pull-up bar, and there are maintain choices within the heart for one-arm coaching. Hanging the board is so simple as looping it round your foot, hanging it off a hook above the door, or attaching it to your native gymnasium’s pull-up bar. Climbers on the transfer and van-lifers rejoice; this board would be the resolution to your way of life.

The Flash Board is a wonderful alternative for consolation and portability, however the largest edge is 20mm. Climbers with much less coaching expertise will discover it to be a difficult coaching device until accustomed to this maintain dimension. Climbers with good coaching expertise looking for a transportable quiver of 1 hangboard will discover a number of use for this board. From warming up on the crag in a skin-friendly option to pulling your max hangs after work, the Flash Board affords a number of worth. In the event you’re searching for a extra entry-level mannequin, the So iLL Meagan Martin Coaching Tiles edges vary from 24mm to 50mm.

Greatest Maintain Selection

Trango Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle

Materials: Polyurethane | Dimensions: 12.1″ x 9.1″ x 3.5″ per piece; 2 items

In the event you do not wish to be restricted by what you possibly can hold off of, it is arduous to beat the Trango Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle. True to its namesake, this board actually is a coaching heart — with variations for virtually any maintain possible, it may be arduous to discover a restrict to what weaknesses you possibly can work on. The pinches actually stand out as they provide three totally different grip positions, oriented horizontally on the board. The horizontal pinches drive you to have interaction your thumbs to hold on, in comparison with vertical pinches, which you’ll be able to “cheat” by compression. The variable edge sizes enable for nearly limitless steps in development as you’re employed your manner all the way down to smaller sizes. These edges have index bumps, enabling you to repeat finger placement exactly each time you hold. When adjusting our grip primarily based on these bumps, we discovered 16 totally different edge sizes.

Regardless of the numerous selection provided, most of our hangboard coaching is on four-finger edges. Pockets and the like are terrific for route-specific coaching, however they can be skilled extra particularly on a climbing wall. If you’d like most coaching choices, know that the Coaching Middle is top-tier for a motive. Even so, we all know area is usually a limiting issue. In the event you search simplicity or a extra compact choice, the Beastmaker 1000 is a space-efficient design.

Most Area Environment friendly

Beastmaker 1000

Materials: Wooden | Dimensions: 23″ x 6″ x 2.25″

The now legendary Beastmaker 1000 takes residence our decide for area effectivity. Born out of the coaching scene within the UK, the Beastmaker boards have been made for small basement coaching areas like these we have seen for many years. When area issues, it’s a must to make each bit rely, and this board does simply that. At solely 6″ excessive, that is the second shortest true hangboard in our check, however it packs far more into that area than rivals of an analogous dimension. With a row of bigger 4 to two-finger pockets within the 45mm vary, a second row of pockets within the 20mm vary, a 15mm edge, 2 slopers, and jugs, this board has every part to heat up on and practice arduous. If in case you have free weights at residence, that 20mm edge can be utilized to construct power for a very long time by including weight to your physique.

Given its space-saving dimension, the Beastmaker 1000 affords loads, however the development between maintain depths is sort of massive and does not allow you to simply work by sizes incrementally. As an alternative, you’ll need so as to add problem by doing hangs on pockets or by including weight to your self (see our evaluate of weight vests for suggestions). If you’d like most effectivity, this shortcoming should not flip you away, as you’ll get a few years of coaching on this board with out seeing limitations. After we need a hangboard to suit the smallest elements of our home with out compromising selection, this basic board is it. In the event you desire a mannequin providing higher development on edges, try the Trango Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle.

Greatest for Entry Stage Climbers

So iLL Meagan Martin Coaching Tiles

Materials: Urethane | Dimensions: 14″ x 8″ x 3″ per piece; 2 items

The So iLL Meagan Martin Coaching Tiles is our favourite choice for entry-level climbers. In the event you’ve solely been climbing for a 12 months or so with out coaching and need to begin, the Coaching Tiles are a fantastic alternative. This hangboard has critically comfortable edges, which is nice for those who’re simply getting began. There are many choices for bigger holds right here that make warming up and progressing by maintain sizes a breeze. The massive pockets provide a fantastic intro to pocket coaching, and the slopers create a pleasing platform for open-hand coaching.

The feel of this board is a bit tough regardless of the very comfortable edges. This may also help create friction for these new to hangboarding, however those that discover it too tough can easy issues out with a light-weight hit of sandpaper. In the event you’re searching for bigger maintain choices in a high-quality hangboard, the Coaching Tiles will maintain you busy for a very long time. We do not typically see coaching choices at this stage, and we’re excited this hangboard is available on the market. Whenever you’re able to improve to smaller holds, the Stress Climbing Grindstone is a wonderful choice for intermediate to elite talent ranges.

Examine Merchandise

How We Check Hangboards

With a decade of expertise testing and coaching on hangboards, our group has examined dozens of choices, from stand-by classics to fashionable updates to up-and-comers. We bought each single one in all these boards, and our check group put them by in depth testing with the assistance of bodily therapists, skilled climbers, and undercover crushers. We thought of their maintain varieties, evaluated the feel and ergonomics for consolation, assessed total versatility, and even accounted for the way straightforward they have been to put in. From every day finger well being exercises like Emil Abrahamsson’s submaximal protocol to pre-climb hangboard warm-ups to pure max power coaching classes, we have been in a position to log a number of mileage on these boards and charge them on 4 key efficiency metrics:

• Number of Holds (40% of total rating weighting)

• Versatility (15% of weighting)

• Ease of Mounting (15% weighting)

Why Belief GearLab

Our lead tester Dom Rickicki used this information to check and rank all of the fashions on this lineup. Dom is an AMGA Licensed Rock Information that brings over a decade of climbing and coaching expertise to the desk for this evaluate. Residing within the climbing epicenter of Estes Park, CO, surrounded by a number of the hardest boulder issues within the nation, alpine huge partitions like The Diamond, arduous single pitch check items, and a storied historical past of climbing, he’s regularly motivated to progress. As an enjoyer of all disciplines of climbing and a climber with critical consideration to element in his gear, he was in a position to break down our record of boards that can assist you select what’s finest to your type, wants, and budgets.

Evaluation and Check Outcomes

An important a part of coaching for climbing is consistency. Fad coaching routines might provide help to see fast beneficial properties, but when your coaching falls off after that, these beneficial properties will not final lengthy. Many of the top-end recommendation nowadays exhibits that constant coaching, over the course of a few years, ends in the very best beneficial properties in climbing particular power. With that in thoughts, the very best hangboard for you may be the one which you’ll use constantly all year long.

The hangboards that our testers most frequently attain for have quite a lot of edge depths that can be utilized for warming up, coaching arduous, and ranging stimuli. We worth boards that maximize the consolation and longevity of the pores and skin. We additionally need boards which can be straightforward sufficient to mount that you just truly put them up. For many boards, there’s a diploma of tradeoff between selection and luxury as totally different supplies enable for both most selection or most consolation. That can assist you additional discover precisely what suits your wants, we break down our testing metrics beneath.

What is the Greatest Worth?

Hangboards can are available at a variety of costs. On the highest finish of this worth vary, we regularly see excessive ranges of maintain selection, chosen with important analysis. The sting depths can be laser-precise and well-labeled whereas additionally having wonderful consolation and ergonomics. For these critical about their coaching and who get pleasure from particular information factors, hangboards on this class are going to be price their value. For these much less centered on specifics and extra serious about simply getting some weight on their fingers, you’ll find a number of worth in boards at a decrease value.

Most of the boards by Metolius, such because the Wooden Grips Compact II or the 3D Simulator, are available on the center of the value vary and provide comparatively good selection and luxury for his or her worth. The tradeoff right here will largely be within the type of non-standard edge depths, which can not switch nicely to the hangboard at your native climbing gymnasium. Because of this, we actually loved the Stress Flash Board, which has snug commonplace edge depths (together with a 20mm edge) in a extremely transportable board for an excellent worth. For these on a much bigger price range, the Metolius Mild Rail affords just a few good edges in a board that is each transportable and mountable at a critically low worth.

Maintain Selection

Whereas having a big number of holds might seem to be the last word objective of a hangboard, the truth is that you just solely want a range of some snug edges to construct finger power. What we worth probably the most in maintain selection is a choice of edges which can be massive sufficient to heat up comfortably on, a 20mm edge for self-assessment, and quite a lot of smaller holds for extra particular coaching. Further holds like pockets, slopers, or pinches can add some good selection for route-specific coaching, however for the majority of contemporary finger coaching routines, you may be on a four-finger edge.

Discovering a board with just a few edge sizes from straightforward to difficult could seem straightforward sufficient, however not all edge choices are created equal. As finger coaching data continues to advance, we’re seeing high coaches and trainers undertake extra standardized metrics. With that, we additionally see hangboards which have labeled commonplace edge depths. The Stress Grindstone exemplifies this development because it has commonplace edge depths from 30mm all the way down to 10mm in 5mm increments. Different boards just like the Metolius Simulator 3D, which have been available on the market for some time, have non-standard sizing of the holds and gaps between maintain sizes.

The main good thing about standardization is how a lot simpler it makes monitoring your coaching over time. In the event you’re utilizing totally different boards between your home and the climbing gymnasium, otherwise you wish to monitor your progress for a few years, having labeled commonplace edges permits for consistency. It additionally permits for simpler communication between climbers and coaches for tailoring particular exercises.

Of all the usual edge depths, crucial of those is the 20mm edge. The 20mm edge has develop into the gold commonplace for finger power testing and monitoring your progress over time. Most finger power coaching plans may have a session of max power testing to start out this system and uncover your present limits. All through the course of your coaching, you’ll come again to this testing session to see if the coaching you are doing is working.

It’s possible you’ll contemplate a board with quite a lot of pockets, slopers, or pinches for those who want to coach for particular routes. Usually, hangboard coaching that includes hanging from small pockets or different such holds is finished previous to a visit or redpoint try. This pre-training helps the physique adapt to sure holds you could not climb on typically. For these critical about projecting or taking journeys, contemplate searching for some selection in your hangboard.

For pocket coaching, we love the staggered depth pockets on the Trango Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle because it permits for wonderful consolation on holds that are usually not very comfortable on rock. For pinches, this board additionally shines because it has three totally different pinch grip choices which can be all horizontal. When coaching pinches, a horizontal orientation goes to be extra helpful than vertical as a result of vertical pinches can help you create compressive drive and take stress off your thumbs. For slopers, it is arduous to beat the large, comfortable slopers on the So iLL Iron Palm 2.0.

When choosing a hangboard for maintain selection, bear in mind to concentrate on what your precise targets are. If the objective is to construct finger power, selecting a board with a stable number of edges will profit you probably the most. In case your objective is to do a number of route-specific coaching at residence on a hangboard, then choosing one thing with a big number of maintain varieties goes to learn you most.

Consolation

Maintain selection is nice, however if you cannot comfortably hold on the holds, you will be much less possible to make use of your hangboard. It is very important do not forget that consistency comes from a board you will truly use, and the board you will use is one that’s pain-free to hold from. When a board has good texture and good ergonomics, you’ll put your entire effort into your max hold somewhat than tolerating ache.

The primary and most blatant factor differentiating the consolation of a hangboard is texture. Concerning texture, you basically have two selections; wooden or plastic. Plastic hangboards are available two flavors, polyester resin and polyurethane. The principle distinction between the 2 is weight and sturdiness, with resin boards being heavier and extra prone to chip. With all that mentioned, the feel between the 2 supplies goes to differ solely by producer and never by sort.

Plastic boards are likely to have extra artistic shapes and holds, however they’re rougher on the pores and skin because of the added texture wanted to create friction. Boards which can be tough on the pores and skin could be useful for constructing calluses but in addition require some therapeutic time after a exercise. If you’re warming up to your climbing day on a hangboard, contemplate wooden over plastic to assist maintain your pores and skin in high form for the day. In the event you worth selection in your holds, plastic boards could also be price the price of some pores and skin.

Wooden is the usual for max consolation in hangboarding. With its easy texture and tender edges, wooden affords the most suitable choice for retaining your pores and skin pain-free all through a session. Whereas plastic hangboards are getting higher with smoother textures, they nonetheless don’t match as much as the sleek texture of wooden. Because of the porosity of wooden, you possibly can practice on a smoother floor with out sweating off of it as simply as you’d on a plastic board of the identical smoothness. The smoothness of wooden additionally makes it a bit more difficult to hold onto, which may add a bit of further oomph to your exercises.

The second factor we contemplate in consolation is ergonomics. Bizarre maintain shapes, pockets which can be too tight, holds that get in the best way of one another, or sharp edges can all create painful hanging experiences. Normally, a lot of the boards on the center to greater finish of the value scale all have holds which can be ergonomically formed, with the one distinction between them being how sharp the angles of the perimeters are. Boards with good easy edges distribute stress evenly, which helps facilitate even put on of the pores and skin. Of the picket boards we examined, the Stress Grindstone and Stress Flash Board have probably the most snug edge angles. Of the plastic boards we examined, the Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle has probably the most snug edge angles.

The most important development in ergonomics, which is surprisingly easy, is the repeated symmetry of the holds on the Grindstone. This design places all the holds the very same distance other than one another, so you might be at all times coaching on the similar width. Most hangboards are bilaterally symmetrical, which makes the holds on the furthest sides of the board really feel very large and the holds within the center really feel uncomfortably shut collectively.

The bilateral symmetry of the Coaching Middle versus the repeated symmetry of the Grindstone.

Versatility

One thing we contemplate when selecting a hangboard is the straightforward truth that the majority of us do not solely practice at residence. With climbing gyms popping up across the nation, the probabilities that many people will cut up our time between the house and the gymnasium are actual. We additionally contemplate that many people might journey for work and practice at no matter gyms could also be close by. With this in thoughts, we would like a hangboard that has the flexibility to have the ability to switch our exercises from board to board.

On this context, we use versatility as a way of describing how nicely we will carry out the identical exercises on totally different boards or, much more merely, take our board with us the place we go. Boards which have a excessive stage of versatility may have commonplace, easy-to-find edge depths. Many gyms may have boards with labeled edge depths on them. This makes it simpler to switch your exercises from place to position.

With a purpose to gauge recognition, we reached out to climbing gyms throughout the Entrance Vary of Colorado to ask what boards they’ve hanging of their gymnasium. Overwhelmingly the most well-liked board on this space was the Stress Grindstone. Nearly all the gyms we contacted had this board, or one thing else from Stress Climbing. Different in style choices have been the Transgression Board, Trango Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle, and the Beastmaker 1000. If you’d like to have the ability to transition seamlessly from your property to the gymnasium, we recommend additionally calling your native spots to see what they’ve earlier than making a ultimate determination.

The underside line is, if journey or splitting time between residence and the gymnasium are elements of your coaching, then contemplate selecting in style boards with widespread edge depths. Moreover, selecting one thing compact can can help you journey together with your board of alternative. Some artistic new choices are cropping up, such because the Trango Rock Prodigy Pivot — this board options virtually the identical maintain set because the Rock Prodigy Coaching Middle however in a smaller package deal.

Ease of Mounting

Ideally, you solely have to mount your hangboard as soon as. That mentioned, if getting it mounted that one time is so grueling that you just by no means hold the board, it is not doing you a lot good. We worth boards which have a minimal variety of screws, just one piece to mount, and which can be gentle.

Two-piece hangboards provide a number of customization for width (nice for accommodating totally different shoulders), however they’re much trickier to mount. With two items, you have got twice the leveling to do, and the 2 sides should be lined up. With a one-piece board, you possibly can stage it, screw it in, and neglect about it.

For putting in any hangboard, you will possible wish to contemplate mounting it to a backer board. A backer board can be what attaches to the studs in your wall, permitting freedom to screw the hangboard itself into a spot you need it with out ripping out your drywall.

After getting your board on a backer, your choices for the place and the right way to mount it enhance.

If screwing holes into your partitions is not one thing you have got the choice to do, you could contemplate a doorway hangboard mount. These mounts act like doorway pull-up bars to can help you hold a board with out placing holes within the wall. Our present favourite for that is the mount by Frictitious Climbing.

There are a ton of artistic methods to mount your hangboard, it doesn’t matter what form of area you have got.

Conclusion

Selecting the right hangboard to maintain you constantly coaching could be difficult. Our testers shredded their fingertips and prepped for the approaching season on a number of the finest choices available in the market that can assist you work out what would possibly give you the results you want. In the event you’re nonetheless struggling to determine, contemplate testing some boards at your native gymnasium and see what feels finest underneath your fingers. For all the opposite questions you could have had about hangboards, we hope we have been in a position to assist get you began in your journey to crimping nirvana.