I still remember the first time I stood in front of a hangboard. I had been climbing for about eight months, struggling on V3s, and I kept hearing the same advice from stronger climbers: “You need to train your fingers.”
So I went to the training area of my gym, looked up at the wooden board with its intimidating array of edges and pockets, and jumped on. I gripped the smallest edge I could find, pulled my feet off the ground, and hung there for maybe four seconds before my fingers peeled off and I dropped to the floor. My forearms were on fire. My ego was bruised.
I did that three more times, went home, and couldn’t straighten my fingers for two days.
That was my introduction to hangboarding—and it was exactly what not to do.
The Story of My First Mistake
I was convinced that hangboarding was about toughness. I thought the best way to get stronger was to hang from the smallest holds, for as long as possible, as often as possible. I had seen videos of elite climbers doing one-arm hangs on tiny crimps. I assumed that was the goal.
What I didn’t understand was that those elite climbers had spent years building up the connective tissue strength in their fingers. They didn’t start where I started. They started where I should have started: slowly, patiently, and with respect for the fact that fingers are not muscles—they are tendons and pulleys, and they adapt at a glacial pace.
After that first painful session, I developed a nagging ache in my right ring finger. It wasn’t a sharp pain, but it didn’t go away. A friend who had been climbing for a decade took one look at my training log and said, “You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”
She was right. I backed off, spent a month doing only light climbing and no hanging, and started over—the right way.
What Beginners Need to Know
If you’re new to hangboarding, here’s what I learned the hard way.
1. Your Fingers Are Not Ready for What You Think They Are
When you start climbing, your muscles get stronger quickly. Your fingers, however, do not. The tendons and pulleys in your fingers take months or even years to adapt to heavy loads. This is why many new climbers get injured within their first two years—they develop pulling strength faster than their connective tissue can handle.
Hangboarding is a tool for building that connective tissue strength, but only if you introduce it gradually. Think of it like this: if you’ve never run before, you don’t start by running a marathon. You start with short jogs. Hangboard is the same.
2. Start with Feet on the Ground
The safest way to begin hangboarding is with your feet still touching the ground. Stand beneath the board, grab a comfortable edge—something that feels secure, like a 20mm or 25mm ledge—and lean back, pulling just enough to feel tension in your fingers. You can gradually increase the weight by leaning further back or by using a pulley system with a weight stack.
This “no-hang” approach allows you to load your fingers in a controlled, measurable way without subjecting them to your full body weight. Many climbers use portable devices like tension blocks for this, but even a standard hangboard can be used with feet-on-the-ground techniques.
3. Prioritize Open-Hand Grips
When I first started, I only trained the half-crimp—the grip where your fingers are bent at 90 degrees at the middle joint. This is a strong grip, but it’s also the grip that puts the most stress on your pulleys. I didn’t know that.
A safer place to start is with the open-hand grip, also called the three-finger drag or open crimp. In this grip, your fingers are straighter, and the load is distributed more evenly across the tendons. It’s a grip you’ll use constantly in real climbing, and it’s significantly less likely to cause injury when you’re starting out.
4. Less Is More
In those early months, I thought more hangboarding meant faster progress. The opposite was true. Your fingers don’t get stronger during the hanging—they get stronger during the rest. Connective tissue needs time to recover and adapt.
For beginners, one or two short climbing hangboard sessions per week is plenty. A session might be as simple as five sets of ten-second hangs with plenty of rest in between. That’s it. Anything more is likely doing more harm than good.
5. Listen to What Your Body Is Telling You
There is a difference between the burn of a good workout and the warning signs of an injury. If you feel sharp, localized pain in your finger, especially along the underside where the pulleys are located, stop. If you wake up the next morning with stiffness that doesn’t go away after moving your fingers, take it as a sign to rest.
I ignored those signs once. It cost me a month of climbing. I won’t make that mistake again.
What I Do Now
Today, I approach hangboarding very differently. I warm up for at least fifteen minutes before I even touch the board—light climbing, finger stretches, wrist mobility. I use a tension block for measured, no-hang loading. I train open-hand grips as much as half-crimps. And I never, ever do a max-effort hang session when I’m tired or already feeling finger fatigue.
Most importantly, I think of hangboarding as a long-term investment. I’m not trying to get stronger in a month. I’m trying to build fingers that can handle hard climbing for years.
The Takeaway
If you’re new to hangboarding, don’t make the mistake I made. Don’t treat it like a test of toughness. Treat it like a skill—one that requires patience, consistency, and respect for how slowly your body adapts.
Start with your feet on the ground. Prioritize open-hand grips. Do less than you think you should. And listen to your fingers when they speak.
I wish someone had told me all of this before my first hang. But since I can’t go back, the next best thing is to tell you.
Your fingers will thank you.