Initial impressions of Trango Rock Prodigy Training Center (RPTC) hangboard

SteveZ wrote: I tried using the small hateful square crimp...mercy! Super realistic though which is awesome. Perfect for all the vertical crimpfests on the front range here. I just need to buy more weight to take off or get stronger before I can touch them again.

The BRC now has an RPTC board too. Not moveable, mounted with the halves 3.5 inches apart. It's in the upstairs training area.

3.5 inches will be way too close together for most folks, unless you are about 4 feet tall with a negative ape index. its kind of a bummer that they aren't setting it up to use one of the most important features.

Its entirely possible that they are indeed targeting people who are four feet tall.

I don't know who set it up, but I'm sure it can be lobbied to have the spacing changed. Which are the most important features?

i think one of the most important features is the ability to adjust how far apart the holds are. i think you had a DRCC V5.12 (me too). using the holds in the middle of the board was almost impossible for me. too small and too close together, my hands just fought over real estate. rough on shoulders and elbows as well.

Tried out the RPTC at BRC today. A few of us were there & we agreed 3.5" spacing is probably too close (not so much for the pinch). There's room to widen it a few inches (the right pinch won't be completely backed by plywood, but the outermost screw hole will still be weight bearing. Making it adjustable may be a bit harder since there are already 4 fingerboards & various wooden rungs/slopers in the weight room. Stay tuned.

The finger pockets are definitely much more friendly than any plastic boards I've used. I'd definitely train on it if plastic is my only option, but I still like wood better. The sloper, at least with the initial texture of the board, is a bit easy (noticeably easier than the 35 degree sloper on the Beastmakers, which is easier than lower of the 2 big wooden slopers in the room). The pinch was already well chalked up & I gather is pretty popular, since the only other pinch on all of the hangboards is pretty easy. I kept giving friends shit for hooking the top of the fingers over the pinch, but I guess that can be used for progression if you can't pinch it yet. I can't hang off the narrower pinch, but it's nice to have the option. As for the crimps, I only tried the smallest one, hanging open handed with 3 fingers for 15 sec...and it hurts, a lot more than the smallest "crimp" on my Beastmaker 2000, but the latter is a bit easier. I guess if you want to train small holds, it's gonna hurt no matter what. I kind of like the idea of training less fingers on slightly larger holds.

If you are only allowed one training apparatus, this should be it. It is more complete than any hangboard on the market (that I've tried). The 2 slots with graduated depth would be great for progression. It gets a bit murkier if you have the option of added weights, pulley & supplemental holds. The Beastmaker 2000 has superior slopers (& a few ways to progress between the slopers without involving weights), but does not have pinches (at least in ways that'll stress the thumb enough). If you have weights though, I think picking up weights hanging off of a block of 4x4 (or 2x4 for narrow pinch) is more adjustable than hangboard pinches. Because of the split design, the RPTC is not as versatile for training one arm hangs (no doubt made popular by Chris Webb Parsons' video, but I think is a good training tool & quite different from 2 arm hangs), but a few holds bolted between the 2 halves will address this. For a lot of people, I think this will be the best option (I'm considering buying this for oversea friends that don't have easy gym access), even if it may not be the best for my current situation.

For those interested, I finally got around to building an adjustable mount for my RPTC, based on the French Cleat idea suggested on this thread. Here's a short video of the rig in action:

http://youtu.be/BnEobt_C1kU

You can read a tutorial/trip report about the project here

as a follow up to my original post, here is general update.

i have gone through 3 cycles on the HB now. definitely stronger, particularly on pockets. despite battling weather, family trips, work, and more work i have managed to bump up my grades a bit.

here is one of the most impressive things about this hangboard (at least to me anyway). i haven't had to bail on a single set, or even a single REP of any of my workouts due to flappers or other discomfort. not a single rep. for me, that is mind blowing - i used to have a lot of trouble with this. there have definitely been several times when it wasn't exactly comfortable (that nasty little crimp, sweet moses malone that thing is a bastard), but i was still able to chug through it.

i am also really psyched about the pinches. i have actually kept improving on these, and i can definitely tell when i am bouldering in the gym.

I just got my Rock Prodigy Training Center. My last cycle ended with a slight collateral ligament strain and this board is perfect for rehabbing. I am able to remove a significant portion of my body weight with the pulley setup.

What really stands out to me are the ergonomic holds and the fantastic hold textures. Both are really top notch. I mounted it with French cleats described up thread, and that seems to be working great. It took a while to remember to move them for each grip. I guess I catch on slowly.

A couple side notes, I have access to a table saw which makes the angled rips MUCH easier! I also chose to do a 14" floating cleat and plywood mount. I thought I remembered Mono saying there was a slight wobble on the pinch grips with the 12.5" floating cleat.

I can't wait to get into a new cycle with this tool.

All the comments I have are relatively minor, and I would highly recommend this board.

I don't know about others, but during my cycle I bring my arms down from the board to get some blood into my shoulders between reps. This takes practice to do in 3 seconds, but is quite manageable - the one sticking point is on the deeper pockets, the openings are a bit narrow and I find my first knuckle "sticking" in the hold a bit which can slow me down.

Additionally, I find that the wide pinch pinches the skin on my thumbs a bit uncomfortably, but as these are the best pinches I have ever come across for hang-boarding am quite willing to tolerate. I have not yet incorporated the smaller pinches so I am not sure if they will provide a similar experience.

I'm a little uncertain on the best usage of the "tapered" crimps - do people use tick marks to locate their hands on this hold, or just bunch up at one end or the other?

Finally, I've taken to calling the smallest hold the "hateful crimp" and echo the assessments that it might be evil incarnate. I had to start with a baseline of -30, which is like 20% of my bodyweight. That being said it makes getting stronger on it that much sweeter.

Ben, I have the same issue with thumb skin discomfort while pinching. I found that only using the first pad of my thumb alleviates the rolling, but makes the pinch even harder (already a weak grip for me).

I believe the bumps on the tapered crimps are meant to line up with the tip of each finger, allowing for 1 finger width increments of very repeatable adjustment. Does that make sense? I am having a hard time with the words this morning.

Good call on the single pad thumb usage Mike, it hadn't even occurred to me. I'll have to try it out.

I must not have noticed bumps within the tapered ledge, to be honest I only played around with it when I first got the board and it's not in my rotations yet. I'll have to check for those when I get home.

As an aside, your set-up is super sweet. Training outside makes me super jealous.

Cheers.

I have just started using the RPTC and overall it is very well thought out. I am however confused about the variable depth rail. I get why having various sizes is great, but basically your fingers are all on different size holds. Your index is on a biggish hold while your pinky is on a noticeably smaller one. Sure you might find such a hold outside, but you might find the opposite too. This seems counter productive. Does anyone have comments? Mark A., I know you have put tons of thought into this board, and I do like it otherwise, so thanks for any feedback!

the variable depth edge works pretty well for the 4 finger open crimp. it allows your index to be pretty much open, middle and ring to be half crimped, and pinky to be pretty much open. it took me a little bit to get used to, but after using it a bunch i really like it. when i used to do the 4foc on a constant depth edge i was always trying to get as much of my pinky as possible on the hold, so i would over-rotate my wrists. this kind of bugged my wrists a bit.

with the little bumps inside, it is pretty easy to consistently hit the same part of the edge. takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it you can do it without thinking too much.

A couple of random questions:

1. How are people attaching the weight? Currently, I have a loop of 5mm with an overhand at either end which I run through the weights and clip to a biner. There has to be a better way.

2. Rock Prodigy specific - when using the middle pinch, the top of my hand wraps up and over the top of the board like a pseudo-sloper instead of a true pinch. The other alternative is only to pinch with the first two pads of my fingers and the first pad of my thumb...which will require taking off some serious weight! How are people using this hold? With my hand size, this isn't an issue with the wide pinch, as that takes my whole hand.

3. When do people start moving in or out on the variable width edges versus changing resistance?

aliebling wrote:A couple of random questions: 1. How are people attaching the weight? Currently, I have a loop of 5mm with an overhand at either end which I run through the weights and clip to a biner. There has to be a better way.

aliebling wrote:A couple of random questions: 1. How are people attaching the weight? Currently, I have a loop of 5mm with an overhand at either end which I run through the weights and clip to a biner. There has to be a better way. 2. Rock Prodigy specific - when using the middle pinch, the top of my hand wraps up and over the top of the board like a pseudo-sloper instead of a true pinch. The other alternative is only to pinch with the first two pads of my fingers and the first pad of my thumb...which will require taking off some serious weight! How are people using this hold? With my hand size, this isn't an issue with the wide pinch, as that takes my whole hand. 3. When do people start moving in or out on the variable width edges versus changing resistance?

Did anyone ever have an issue with symmetry? I ordered one online, and it was pretty obvious that they were asymmetrical. The right half was longer and thicker than the left half when I ran my hand sideways. I ordered another one, but again, they sent me an asymmetrical pair. It was a little less noticeable, but right half was still slightly thicker and longer than the left half as well. The slopers didn't feel even.

I noticed the same thing when I mounted mine a month or so ago. Right was thicker than the left and not as square overall. I ended up saying f-it and just mounted them. Haven't noticed any negatives.
This does seem to be a downside of having independent pieces/molds.
I'd assume Trango must have noticed this in their QA process.