What’s your weight setup for hangboarding?

I’m starting to take hangboarding more seriously and I need to get a legit set of weights. I have two fifteen lb dumbbells that I girth hitch but my max hang is right now around +60lbs on the 20mm so it doesn’t cut it.  Any recommendations for weight sets? 

the standard little barbell weights (plates). 1 x 2.5 lbs, 1 x 5 lbs, 2 x 10 lbs, and 1 x 25 lbs should get you through most scenarios.  if you are going + 60 on a hold you might want to go to a more challenging hold, or start one-hand hangs.

Good point. 

Kettlebells or plates. When I assess my max hang (in order to dictate the rest of my hang board routine) I use kettlebells.

There are two protocols and neither has a definitive advantage over the other in regards to gaining overall crimp strength. As far as I know there are conflicting studies as to which is “better”. One method is done by adding weight on (roughly) a 15mm edge over time and the other method is gradually reducing size over time. Obviously the second one is easier to attain without weights. Personally, when I do training at home and want to follow the first method isolate one arm at a time using a tension block. You theoretically only need about half the weight to do this method obviously.

I tend to disagree with slim that adding +60 pounds means you should start to size down or move to one arms, but training is extremely intimate in that each persons training program and results will differ based on that individual. For example, I can hang on 6mm edges with relative ease (like I can probably do 6 or 7 pull ups on them) but can’t hold a one arm with body weight on a 15mm. Different people have different strengths. Just gotta find what methods are most efficient for you based on either your results or limitations. I don’t doubt for one second that for slim those weights are highly effective, but for how I train those would not work.

Sorry, if you knew all of this. My TLDR answer is kettle bells

i mostly say that from a practicality standpoint.  slinging 70, 80, 90 pounds to your harness is just kind of uncomfortable.  it's easier to remove a bit of weight using a pulley and then one-handing. (at least in my opinion). i also think one-hand hanging has kind of a mental benefit.  i think a lot of folks have a bit of a hangup on whether they can one-hand a hold, so being able to do it can help confidence a bit.

Something’s off - +60 lbs on a 20mm (7 secs?), you appear to be a 150-60 ish in your profile pic - and V4 - does not compute - seen guys climb V10/5.14 with weaker fingers. Guessing you’re doing open 4 on a sharp radius and bascially measuring your skin tension more than muscle strength - so learn a proper 1/2 crimp on a proper board - or you need delete fingerboarding altogether and focus on learning to climb.

vvvv

Those sound like my kind of V10/5.14’s  

Enduro for the grades, for sure, but legit.

Ryan Jwrote:

Something’s off - +60 lbs on a 20mm (7 secs?), you appear to be a 150-60 ish in your profile pic - and V4 - does not compute - seen guys climb V10/5.14 with weaker fingers. Guessing you’re doing open 4 on a sharp radius and bascially measuring your skin tension more than muscle strength - so learn a proper 1/2 crimp on a proper board - or you need delete fingerboarding altogether and focus on learning to climb.

Those sound like my kind of V10/5.14’s  

@slim I agree about it being uncomfortable, luckily my TUT is less than a minute lol

Ryan Jwrote:

Something’s off - +60 lbs on a 20mm (7 secs?), you appear to be a 150-60 ish in your profile pic - and V4 - does not compute - seen guys climb V10/5.14 with weaker fingers. Guessing you’re doing open 4 on a sharp radius and bascially measuring your skin tension more than muscle strength - so learn a proper 1/2 crimp on a proper board - or you need delete fingerboarding altogether and focus on learning to climb.

vvvv

Enduro for the grades, for sure, but legit.

I wish I was 150lbs. I’m 6’ tall and 185lbs trying to get back to 175lbs. It was a tension mk2 20mm edge. Don’t have a lattice edge but I may make one at some point. In terms of grades I haven’t updated my profile in a few years. Right now v5-6 and 12a are more my max red point grades. According to lattice’s database I’m dead on for my strength to weight ratio for max hangs vs climbing grade.

I agree that I could do more with learning to climb though. It’s a work in progress. 

Phil Sakievichwrote:

I wish I was 150lbs. I’m 6’ tall and 185lbs trying to get back to 175lbs. It was a tension mk2 20mm edge. Don’t have a lattice edge but I may make one at some point. In terms of grades I haven’t updated my profile in a few years. Right now v5-6 and 12a are more my max red point grades. According to lattice’s database I’m dead on for my strength to weight ratio for max hangs vs climbing grade.

I agree that I could do more with learning to climb though. It’s a work in progress. 

V6 and 5.12 sound about right for the metrics provided...but we need to shake down Ryan for beta on these V10/5.14's for real.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

V6 and 5.12 sound about right for the metrics provided...but we need to shake down Ryan for beta on these V10/5.14's for real.

That Redit post looks whacked - at best a small sample.

Power Company has a better presentation.  For example, my [incorrect] guess that the OP was (60+150)/150 = 1.4 places him where I expected - in the +/- 1 std for 13+ or harder and just below 1 std for V10 - ie, people are sending these grades with those metrics.

Lattice is basically the same, as I have seen.  They are oversimplifying by reporting just the median, as the 1st std is also rather wide - just like Power Company.

 ie, OP’s reported 1.3 median might be 12-, but just 1 std is still well into the 13’s. 

The original question - a few 2.5, 5 and 10 lb weights from Walmart and a 2 ft runner - though I recently upgraded the runner to a lifting pin.

Ryan Jwrote:

That Redit post looks whacked - at best a small sample.

Power Company has a better presentation.  For example, my [incorrect] guess that the OP was (60+150)/150 = 1.4 places him where I expected - in the +/- 1 std for 13+ or harder and just below 1 std for V10 - ie, people are sending these grades with those metrics - or so it’s reported - might be 100 tries at Ten Sleep - but whatevs.

Lattice is basically the same, as I have seen.  They are oversimplifying by reporting just the median, as the 1st std is also rather wide - just like Power Company.

 ie, OP’s reported 1.3 median might be 12-, but just 1 std is still well into the 13’s. 

The original question - a few 2.5, 5 and 10 lb weights from Walmart and a 2 ft runner - though I recently upgraded the runner to a lifting pin.

The Reddit post’s survey supports everything you’ve referenced from Kris and Lattice, albeit a smaller sample size, but all 3 surveys yielded very similar results. The only difference is that beastmaker data was attained by using the grippul which isolates single side pulls instead of double hand hangs…

100 tries in Ten Sleep lol 

Weight plates is what I use. We have a large collection of 2.5-25 lb plates. Multiples of everything below 25. Used sporting goods store, or garage sales in summer is a very cheap source of those.

I prefer to split the weight into halves, and hang each half off of the gear loops on the sides, if the total weight gets above 30, so I don’t need anything heavier than 25 in a single plate. 

I’m starting to take hangboarding more seriously and I need to get a legit set of weights. I have two fifteen lb dumbbells that I girth hitch but my max hang is right now around +60lbs on the 20mm so it doesn’t cut it.  Any recommendations for weight sets?

I use weight plates, as Lena does. 2" steel plates can be found used for cheap, and obviously you could use them for barbell lifts as well. FWIW I don't find them to be too bulky compared with 1" plates. As for suspending them, I used a simple sling for a long time, but switched to using a loading pin and never looked back—it's tidy, stable, and cheap. There's really no right or wrong way to load In my opinion—heavier on a large edge can work just fine, not to mention you might want the extra weights for pull-ups or other lifts—but I do think the skill component of one-handed hangs is really useful. That said, I pretty much stopped hang boarding a few years ago in favor of no-hangs (a little) and board climbing (a ton), and my fingers are absolutely their strongest, although my "numbers" have all slipped a lot.

RE: Metrics — I mean, OP didn't ask, but in any case the normative ones are completely useless. You don't need to compare yourself to others (or at least, their "numbers") to know what you, personally, need to work on. At best they tell you what you already know, and at worst they send you off in the wrong direction, racking up useless stats when you should be practicing hard moves.

I don't have a weight set but have started hangboarding at home and like my system.

I use a few large heavy duty grocery bag that I fill up with gallons of water. Each bag can fit 6 gallons. 2 bags is plenty easy to handle and more weight than I will probably ever need.

I then just clip the bags to my harness through the waist belt (they hang a little low if I use the belay loop). Easy and almost free

Ryan Jwrote:

That Redit post looks whacked - at best a small sample.

Power Company has a better presentation.  For example, my [incorrect] guess that the OP was (60+150)/150 = 1.4 places him where I expected - in the +/- 1 std for 13+ or harder and just below 1 std for V10 - ie, people are sending these grades with those metrics.

Lattice is basically the same, as I have seen.  They are oversimplifying by reporting just the median, as the 1st std is also rather wide - just like Power Company.

 ie, OP’s reported 1.3 median might be 12-, but just 1 std is still well into the 13’s. 

The original question - a few 2.5, 5 and 10 lb weights from Walmart and a 2 ft runner - though I recently upgraded the runner to a lifting pin.

the power company chart seems way, way off.  i am really curious about where this info came from.  a 20mm hold is a big fucking hold.  i would think most 5.13 climbers could hang that one handed pretty easily.  i haven't trained in a long time, and i have never had strong fingers, but i would guess i have a 50/50 chance of hanging that hold at 1.4 x body weight even now, unless it was a really slippery hold or something weird like that.

slimwrote:

i would think most 5.13 climbers could hang that one handed pretty easily. 

Lol - according to my Insta feed, if you’re not doing 1-arms and front levers off a 4mm, you probably don’t even climb.

slimwrote:

the power company chart seems way, way off.  i am really curious about where this info came from.  a 20mm hold is a big fucking hold.  i would think most 5.13 climbers could hang that one handed pretty easily.

Lol, A +100% bodyweight 2-arm hang (probably a bit more difficult than a bodyweight 1-arm hang due to bilateral deficit) is v15 according to the lattice chart.

Unless you're talking about people who regularly on-sight hard 5.13, you must know some really strong climbers who are really bad at climbing.

slimwrote:

the power company chart seems way, way off.  i am really curious about where this info came from.  a 20mm hold is a big fucking hold.  i would think most 5.13 climbers could hang that one handed pretty easily.  i haven't trained in a long time, and i have never had strong fingers, but i would guess i have a 50/50 chance of hanging that hold at 1.4 x body weight even now, unless it was a really slippery hold or something weird like that.

Why don’t you try, and report back?

FWIW, Lattice 20mm edge feels harder to me than other 20 mm edges. And while I know a fair number of 5.13 climbers who do some hangboarding in their training, I don’t know anyone who is one-arm-hanging on that edge.

For me personally, the Power Company and Lattice assessments are accurate, in a sense that my hanging and weighted pull-up metrics are in the range for the grade I climb. 

J T wrote:

I agree. 10 seconds is also a long ass TUT to be doing a 1RM max hang…at least from a boulderers perspective 

They don’t tell you to do 10sec max hangs for training purposes. If I recall correctly, they do an evaluation at 10 sec, and then tell you to do max hangs at 7sec on/53sec off, using the weight you established in 10 sec 1rep max test. I guess they calculate it to be roughly equivalent of doing max hangs at 85-90% of 1rep max. 

bridgewrote:

Lol, A +100% bodyweight 2-arm hang (probably a bit more difficult than a bodyweight 1-arm hang due to bilateral deficit) is v15 according to the lattice chart.

Unless you're talking about people who regularly on-sight hard 5.13, you must know some really strong climbers who are really bad at climbing.

I think what slim is saying is that a lot of 5.13 climbers can hold 100% of their body (no extra weight added) with one hand on the 20mm….my guess you’re confusing 200% bodyweight (you hanging plus weight equivalent to your bodyweight) with 100% bodyweight (only your bodyweight without any added weight).

Lena chitawrote:

They don’t tell you to do 10sec max hangs for training purposes. If I recall correctly, they do an evaluation at 10 sec, and then tell you to do max hangs at 7sec on/53sec off, using the weight you established in 10 sec 1rep max test. I guess they calculate it to be roughly equivalent of doing max hangs at 85-90% of 1rep max. 

I’m assuming you’re referring to Kris’s program when you say “they” but Lattice’s program is not formatted that way at all