Buying a hangboard when you can only climb twice a week

Hey everyone, I have been climbing for about a year but I can only get to the gym or crag about twice a week. Would getting a hangboard for my home help me progress if I use it on days I cant climb? I feel where I am lacking is with crimps and pinches. I do fine with slopers and jugs.

Do you need to work on strength or technique?  A hangboard can help with strength, but it isn't going to do anything for footwork.  That said, as long as you don't overtrain and do some damage to your fingers on the hangboard, it isn't a bad idea.

Im sure I need both. The problem is the limited amount of time I have to get to the gym or outdoors, so I am looking for things I can do at home in the downtime. Any suggestions for at home equipment that can help with technique that wont break the bank?

A hangboard is definitely a worthwhile investment, if used correctly and in a controlled way. I know a decent number of people (myself included) who theoretically could climb up to five or six days a week, but choose to hangboard, campus, limit boulder, etc. inside some of those days and even after they have already climbed outside earlier in the day. I realize that this is the beginner forum, so your interest/goals in climbing may not require any kind of extra training, but there are very few situations in climbing that increased strength (especially in the fingers) would not provide a benefit. If you want to climb as many 5.10s/5.11s as you can when you go to the gym or crag muscular endurance and technique will be large factors, but increased strength will allow you to recover more easily on route and allow you to improve your technique more rapidly, by allowing you to focus explicitly on your technique while climbing rather than just trying to make it to the chains. The same can be said for long multi-pitch and adventure climbing. If you want to climb harder grades and push your physical limits, then hangbaording is a much more efficient way to build finger strength than route climbing. By hangboarding you can spend your time at the gym or crag trying hard and having fun rather than feeling like that is the time you have to spend building strength, which means less climbing and more rest between attempts. Furthermore, the strength and power required to climb harder grades is very difficult to gain and maintain just through route climbing and requires a much more targeted approach and considerably more time spent out climbing, much of which is spent resting between attempts or on route. It is very unlikely that marathoning pitch after pitch of 5.11 will give you the strength to climb 5.13, especially if you are only doing this twice a week and would lead to a considerable drop in strength if a 5.13 climber transitioned to this type of climbing. People tend to say that the best climber is the one having the most fun and I agree. For me that means feeling strong and not feeling personal pressure to wreck myself every time I'm at the crag for fear of loosing strength. I realize that this has gone a little farther into the weeds than the original question might have warranted, but a lot of it comes down to how you want to spend your time. Hangboarding one hour a day twice a week seems like a better use of time to me than spending an entire session at the gym (which I could otherwise spend climbing whatever I feel like) trying to get the same increase in strength through route climbing. 

A hangboard would be a good idea. If you can only climb a couple days a week, but you have time to hang then do it. Your fingers will get strong. I doubt strength is a limiting factor for you, but with that said you can never be too strong.

Andrew Demaree made a good point or two. I would say consistency is the only way it is beneficial. If you are using it to compensate for skipped climbing days you wont really see much difference. If you are still crab grabbing holds you need to realize it is form and fear. Doing a few laps up the same route while concentrating on form and thinking "was that an efficient move'' will quickly change the way you climb. Hell downclimb your last route of the day and bingo bango boingo you're pumped out and learning to use your feet more.

Warning: a hangboard workout is both boring and painful. You will probably get limited benefit from it if you have only been climbing or a year, and definitely expose yourself to higher risk for injury.  It certainly will not fill the "I want to go climbing" desire.

You'll get a lot more out of a hangboard after climbing for 4 or 5 years. Invest in the pulley system and follow a regular program, like the one in the Anderson brothers book. I would personally go until you plateau from just climbing, then focus on specific training. Chances are that at this point your limiting factors are from technique or endurance, rather than finger strength. 

Hangboards are a waste of money imo. I have one and I even have my own climbing wall built. They both get old because at least for me what I climb for is the enjoyment of solving a problem. Setting your own problems and climbing them isn't the same and a hangboard will likely get ignored soon after you start with it (can't remember the last time I touched mine)

ViperScale . wrote: Hangboards are a waste of money imo. I have one and I even have my own climbing wall built. They both get old because at least for me what I climb for is the enjoyment of solving a problem. Setting your own problems and climbing them isn't the same and a hangboard will likely get ignored soon after you start with it (can't remember the last time I touched mine)

Boom. Headshot. 

Hangboards are certainly not a waste of money if you use them. They are quite easy to hang up and never use, though. Hanging on a hangboard is quite boring. They will make you strong, however. Past a certain point the number one predictor of hard climbing is finger strength. Hangboards are the best way to train finger strength.

If your options are do nothing or hangboard I would hangboard. If your options are climbing or hangboarding choose climbing.

I was in a similar situation about 4 months ago for close to 2 years, there was no climbing gym where I lived and all I could manage was at best 8ish days a month outside. I hang boarded 2-3 times a week and did calisthenics 2 times a week. I got better at climbing and got a lot stronger, but I didn’t nessasarly get the technique I needed for how strong I was nor was I able to build endurance. This also didn’t help me get over the climbing itch it was very much so training, but it did make climbing outside more enjoyable knowing that I was strong enough for what ever I wanted to try.

While I think it might be a little early for you to start hang boarding, in your situation it will be worthwhile. Take it very slow! Look into repeaters and not max hangs at your level, if you can’t hold onto the hold for 6 reps of 7secs with 3secs off between reps your on the wrong hold, for now at least. Always concentrate on proper form over size of the crimp while hangboarding at your level.  Rest 1-2 days between sessions, don’t over due it and listen to your body. It’s better to take the extra day off than to get hurt.