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Hang board vs. system board vs. campus board

Original Post
Andy Bandos · · CO · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 760

I really wanted to build a woody to stay strong over the winter, but don’t have the room. I settled on the next best thing...some hybrid creation that’s half campus board and half mini bouldering wall. A 6’ x 2.5’ plywood that I installed over the closet door. It has five rungs for a campus board on one side and about 20 holes drilled for climbing holds on the other side. I took off the closet doors and drilled some small feet holds on the inside wall of the closet. My wall is more like a systems wall without the specialty tile holds.

Ok, so here’s my question: Would I achieve any additional benefit from adding a hang board to the mess? Is a hang board really just for people with limited space and my system board hybrid can achieve the same thing? Would I achieve any added benefit or will campusing, kinda bouldering, and working on my sorta system wall work well enough?

Your thoughts?

Alex Bury · · Ojai, CA · Joined Jun 2012 · Points: 2,376

Picture?

frankstoneline · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 30

why not run the rungs up the middle, then put systems holds on the sides in between? alternate between pinches and slopers, mirrored of course.

Andy Bandos · · CO · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 760

Yea everyone likes pictures.

My hang board/system wall/campus board hybrid

And you are right about putting the campus rungs in the middle. After I built it I thought the same thing.

frankstoneline · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 30
Andy B wrote:Yea everyone likes pictures. And you are right about putting the campus rungs in the middle. After I built it I thought the same thing.

looks like a good compromise to the space issue. My thought was mostly just because systems training typically emphasizes the uniformity of movement for both sides, which is easier with a mirrored board.
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
Andy B wrote:Is a hang board really just for people with limited space and my system board hybrid can achieve the same thing? Would I achieve any added benefit or will campusing, kinda bouldering, and working on my sorta system wall work well enough?
Well a fingerboard does save space -- by placing a whole bunch of (hopefully) useful holds close together. To achieve this compactness, most of the holds have the same orientation (horizontal), which might not "work well enough" (for what goal?).

I guess if you cut the fingerboard in half down the middle, perhaps you could mount each half on a different side of the campus rungs, maybe get more value from it?

I prefer to call it a "fingerboard" instead of a "hang board" because there's lots more to do with it than just static hangs. I've got one of mine mounted above some (closely spaced) campus rungs. So I can do campus moves from the rungs up to different fingerboard holds (and at different vertical distances) from the campus rungs.
Can also do little campusing moves between different holds on the fingerboard itself. Or if you mount a campus rung or two above the fingerboard, can launch campus moves off (unequal or equal or unsymmetrical) holds of the fingerboard.

In a doorway, with feet supported on a chair (I also like to have a pull-up bar as a self-belay) could do single-arm lunges from one hold to another on the fingerboard, or between campus rungs and the fingerboard.

btw Looks like maybe you could add more campusing options by putting different size rungs in the "half-steps" between your current rungs. Might also squeeze more in by cutting some of the campus rungs shorter (of course drill some new countersunk holes into the rung).

Note that campus rungs on larger dedicated campus walls are mounted with an overhang (usually at least 15 degrees) which makes them harder to launch from or catch moves than vertically mounted rungs at home. So I've put shims behind the tops of some of mine at home.

Ken
Jon Frisby · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 270

doesn't hangboarding train a pretty different type of strength than system and campusing (static vs. dynamic)?

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
Jon Frisby wrote:doesn't hangboarding train a pretty different type of strength than system and campusing (static vs. dynamic)?
First time I've heard the word "hangboarding".
If you've decided to define it as static, then I guess it must train static strength.

But a "hangboard" in itself is just a physical object. What you think you should do with it is in your own mind. That's why I prefer the word "fingerboard" -- because it does not prejudice what you "ought" to be doing with it.

I do lots of dynamic moves on my two fingerboards. So I guess I must not be "hangboarding". Fine with me, since I like building dynamic strength.

Sometimes I also do static hangs on my Metolius wood campus rungs. In themselves they're just pieces of wood.

But I never hang statically for more than 3-5 seconds, and even that with a fair amount of rest between hangs. Because I don't want to take a chance of confusing the stimulation for developing my Type IIb + IIa muscle fibers -- or worse yet encouraging some Type II fibers to transform toward Type I.
Maybe if I were into climbing harder Trad, I might be open to static training (for placing pro). But for now I limit my Trad leading to routes well within my limits and with mostly easy clipping stances.

Ken
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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