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Climbro Hangboard

Original Post
Cade Smith · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2021 · Points: 5

Maybe this belongs in the gear discussion or training forum, but i’ll try here first.

My partner was telling me about the Climbro Hangboard, this is what it says on their website 

“Climbro is the first smart hangboard of its kind. It is an advanced measurement system and a powerful training tool. Its unique combination of force sensors and mobile application allows for comprehensive evaluations of climbers’ physical state. These evaluations are used to provide climbers with personal training plans to improve their climbing performance. The greatest thing about Climbro is that it is based on years of scientific research and performance evaluations of more than 1000 climbers.” 

They also claim that based on the force sensing and baseline testing in the app, it will tell you what grade you can potentially climb given your current skills? 

Has anyone used one of these? Is it as cool as it sounds? Is it worth the seemingly absurd amount of money it costs?

I F · · Megalopolis Adjacent · Joined Mar 2017 · Points: 4,368

There's a sucker (climbro) born every day, and someone with a flashy idea to extract cash from said sucker. 

Houghton Gremlin · · Houghton MI · Joined Apr 2022 · Points: 20

pull hard and if it hurts you pulled too hard.Repeat as necessary

Hangdog Steve · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2020 · Points: 0

Doesn't really sound that necessary.

Why do you need to measure the forces? Why not just base your measurements on edge size + hang time + weight like most people already do? That should be enough to tell you if you're progressing or not.

Why do you need a custom training plan? Hangboard training isn't rocket science.

Want to know what grade you can climb? Go try some climbs? This device can only tell you how good you are at hangboarding.

Anon Here · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2022 · Points: 0

It is as cool as it sounds. Not cool at all. 

J I · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2022 · Points: 5

marketing's a bitch these days....what-with all these "advanced measurement systems", "mobile applications", and "comprehensive evaluations".  Not to mention the kids and their moonpod bean-bag chairs.  Insert young lady wearing 1984 kindergarten teacher glasses and a bull ring in her nose; to tell us about the "comprehensive evaluation of climber's physical state" and I'm sold.    

WF WF51 · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2020 · Points: 0

I agree, it's overpriced. Spend the money on 3 to 4 pairs of shoes - that should bring the total value of your collection to $3000. 

The results of the latest MP IQ test are available.  

Dan Schmidt · · Eugene, OR · Joined Feb 2016 · Points: 349

My last comment was a little reactionary, so here's a more measured take:

  1. The basic concept of force measurement is reasonable and offers some benefits, namely accuracy and motivation when training overcoming isometrics. Feature-wise, I'd want a device that's been validated for consistency and that has a high enough sampling rate to measure RFD (or, at minimum, force at ~200ms).
  2. I dislike that it's baked into a fingerboard, as that vastly limits what you can do with the device. It also seems somewhat pointless, because if you're pulling overhead, the finger action will almost always be the same as if you were just hanging (i.e. yielding).
  3. The price is ridiculous. I actually thought it might be a scam, but after looking into it more deeply, if it is a scam then they went to great lengths to make it seem legitimate. (E.g. they have a ton of Instagram content and Yves Gravelle is a follower.)
beaki · · San Jose · Joined Jan 2015 · Points: 90

I can actually share some first hand experience with the climbro hangboard. And yes, I find it really very useful.

While there is no magic bullet to training (it is and will always be about time and sweat) you can use your time more or less
efficiently, including logging your training and progress.

These days there are a number of smart hangboards, e.g.
https://climbro.com
https://www.smartboard-climbing.com/
for the beastmaker there is griptonite.io/motherboard/

I have not looked into the smartboard-climbing (price point north of 2K ) but I know that the motherboard (software) does
logging only but no analysis of your different finger strength factors (aerobic, anerobic, max strength, endurance)
and no training plans.

The software behind the climbro and the generated training plans (with the stimulus according to your body weight and
current finger strength) seems to be modeled by some of the people here
http://www.imosc.org/index.php?page=keyNoteSpeakers
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34630259/
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/599370/publications
I read some of their papers out of curiosity.

As a hobby project I actually built a hangboard with load sensors and an arduino; the hardware material was only $20-30 e.g amazon.com/SparkFun-Load-Ce…;keywords=HX711&qid=1690224240&sprefix=hx711%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1

The value of a climbro is of course the software model and the training plans.

I find it is worthwhile to know that the training plans require you to have access to the climbro board every second day; something to keep in mind
because this either means you need to commute to a gym having a climbro or buying one.

Even after a few months of training with the climbro it still surprises me how well the training stimulus is selected. I often start an
exercise thinking "Yeah, I got this, this is easy!" ... only to struggle towards the end. And when my exercise score is too low I know I am overtrained /
too tired and need to rest more. I talked to some 8a climbers in our gym and they experienced this, too.

Overall, yes, I improved a couple of letter grades in climbing. And its bleedingly obvious when I need to take a rest.

Hope this helps!

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

General Climbing
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