Average Climber Hangboards Everyday for 30 Days: Insane Results

Over the past 30 days, I have hangboarded every single day, twice per day. I want to improve my bouldering and sport climbing, and this was my challenge. The climbing results took me by surprise! This video was inspired by another YouTuber, Emil Abrahamsson, who first did this hangboard challenge and saw some massive finger strength and climbing gains. But what would it do to an average V5 climber like myself?

Let me know what you thought of my challenge! Would you try something like this yourself?

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00:00 The Challenge
00:31 Benchmarks
01:27 Why I'm doing this
02:48 Start of the Challenge
04:43 My 10 Min Hangboard Routine
06:10 My Problems with the Routine
07:08 Final Results from Challenge
08:23 HUGE Caveat to this program
09:25 Outdoor Climbing Changes since routine

[EmilAbrahamsson]

Hey man, very well made video and happy to see you try out the protocol. Keep up the good work!

[micahchristopherson]

Super high quality vid, channel gaining some steam. Keep up the good work nate!

[duncancrosse]

Thank you for making this. You have done a really great job of editing it! I am in the same boat as you were. I have been stuck on the V5/ V6 plateau for about 3 years now so it is super relatable content for me. I also tried Emil’s routine, although admittedly only once a day but was surprised and impressed with the results. Excited to see what else you try!

[samuelpierini]

Excellent point at the end. Great video!

[surge-fox]

I started climbing recently and am very enjoy seeing videos like this it’s really helpful

[jrwhisky]

Wow, you're holding 125 lb on the 20mm edge. Even at 90lbs your strength is high and you're only climbing as a v5/V6 you might want to explore improving the strength of your lats, rotator cuff, rear delts, and shoulders and possibly flexibility

[zaidsyed-ali]

Awesome experiment! Props to sticking to it for the full 30 days. I'm curious how much of your gains came from improving your peak capacity vs. improving your finger health to better tap into that capacity. Psyched to see your progress when cycling this training with consistent bouldering, climbing outside, or more performance-focused training. Six months from now I expect to hear you're an "average V7 climber" ;)

Next video - Average Climber Replaces the Rafters in Garage After Hangboarding for 60 Days Straight

[martin.sendsonig]

Great video! I want to stress the importance of hangboarding not just for strength but the mind and muscle/tendon(?) connection on our body. When we hangboard especially on max hangs, we are exposing our fingers to a much heavier load on a safe environment. This allows your brain to understand that "okay my fingers can handle this type of weight" which may translate to confidence in reaching nasty crimps on the walls. Another point I want to mention is emil stated that when hangboarding, we are approaching the hold statically but most of the time on the wall, we either throw our hands to the holds dynamically or lock off to a reachy hold. To practice this, go to a campus board and apply contact strengthening. hope this helps! im currently doing max hangs every other day and board climbing/campus boarding twice a week.

[stevemiller]

Nice video, my dude.
Here's my experience from no hangs for what it's worth..
I saw Emil's video back in the fall/ winter of 2020. I did the no hangs regularly 2x per day for 2 months, leading into the spring season.
In March 2020 I started working a crimpy/ techy 13a. Sent around March 15 and also sent the other 13a and 13b off the same start. Those are the hardest grades I've climbed. Went on to have a nice season sending another 50ish 5.12's.
Going into the season, my fingers felt strong! They were also very injury resistant.
I know there are many factors that went into my relative success in 2021, but undoubtedly, the no hangs helped!

[extraswaggeroni]

that garage beam shifting when you hang onto it scares me

[ryanvanmechelen]

Nice work, Nate, you are killing it!

[mangiari]

Struggling at V6 despite climbing for years and even hangboarding, it seems to me the finger strength is not your current limit typically. The best way to progress dramatically is getting good motivated climbing friends that ideally climb a grade harder than you.
Climbing mainly alone or with partners that are not so keen on progressing is a pretty good way to stagnate yourself.

[Nuttyirishman]

Hangboard has definitely improved my climbing.

[samlauer]

Building strong fingers is essential to climbing harder, but that strength is not effective if you can’t apply it to holds. This means strengthening your arms, shoulders, back, and core at the same time. Your body is a system that needs to work together to pull yourself up the wall. Remember to hangboard with engaged shoulders and scapula and throw in core exercises and pullups

[sheepborg]

Fingers are almost certainly not what are holding you back the most, at least when it comes to peak force. Standard metric is 7 seconds for the lattice dataset, or 10 for PCC, but even so your finger strength when adjusted for 1 hand based on interpolated lattice data is likely in the V8-V10 range peak force.

[straightchoss]

Would love to see you try a 30 day climbing specific core challenge……I get the whole system works together, but the best gains I have made in climbing has always come from increasing my core workouts, both in frequency and intensity. I have this debate often with friends but I stand by the idea that the core exercises are the most important to a climber. What good is finger strength if you can’t maintain body tension through out the move? Just an idea. Great video, subscribed.

[AAMLce]

Great video. Did you experience acumulative fatigue? At any point, when? Last, great results, i think if you make it cyclically the expected results can be seen to climbing rather later given tendons take a while to build

[gillesr]

Thanks Nate for this video. Saw the one from Emil a year and a half ago. Tried his protocol but without a real investment in it.
I'm also an average climber, quite old now (57) but your video convinced me to go further in the Emil's protocol. My age will probably be the reason why i will have to train much than one month to see improvment in my finger strength. But as Emil said if it not hurts, it will strengthen my tendons. Thanks also to Emil and his brother for the video made years ago even if they collected some criticisms concerning the results. Your video shows that it's worth the try.
Thanks also for the last comment about the fact you've inceased your hangboarding ability and not specialy your climbing ability. Even if i think that you should be stronger on crimps holding...
Best regards from France

[ethansinger]

Greetings from Chicago! I climb at that gym often haha, I'm so surprised to see a really great climbing video with footage taken from the same gym I climb at!

[dominicwiseman]

Hey man I noticed on your hand injury diagram that you’ve had a cyst removal surgery? I’ve been dealing with what my hand therapist calls a seed ganglion for several months now. Causes pain when loading the finger unless I’m warmed up enough. Is that what you were dealing with? Did the removal help? I’m told it’s supposed to go away on its own but it doesn’t seem to be..