Training equipment for climbers: hangboards, campus boards, home walls and more

Walk into any climbing gym's training area and you will find a small museum of equipment: wooden boards with pockets, rungs bolted to steep walls, pulley systems, bands, weights and spray walls covered in holds. Each tool has a purpose, and each has a stage of a climber's development where it helps most. Using the wrong one too early is one of the more common routes to a finger injury.

This guide gives a practical overview. It is not a training plan, and the right choice always depends on your experience, goals and history.

Hangboards

A hangboard (or fingerboard) is a board with edges and pockets of different sizes that you hang from. It lets you train finger strength in a controlled, measurable way, which is hard to do on the wall.

Good for: structured finger strength training, precise progression, training when you cannot get to a wall.

Who it suits: climbers with a solid base of climbing experience, usually at least a year or two of regular climbing, and no current finger injuries. Many coaches start with simple protocols on large edges, sometimes with feet supported or weight removed.

Watch out for: doing too much too soon, using very small edges early, and training to failure every session. Finger tendons and pulleys adapt more slowly than muscles. Our post on periodising finger training covers how to structure it.

Campus boards

A campus board has rungs on an overhanging surface that you climb without feet. It develops explosive pulling power and contact strength.

Good for: power, dynamic movement and fast finger recruitment.

Who it suits: experienced, strong climbers. It is one of the most demanding tools on the fingers, elbows and shoulders.

Watch out for: campusing as a beginner or while still growing. Schöffl and colleagues have written extensively about finger injuries in young climbers, including growth plate injuries, and many coaches advise that adolescents avoid intense campus training. See finger pulley injuries and youth climbing and long-term development.

System walls and board climbing

Standardised boards with set holds at fixed angles, and system walls with symmetrical holds, let you repeat specific moves and track progress over months.

Good for: strength and power on real climbing movement, repeatable benchmarks, training technique under load.

Who it suits: intermediate and advanced climbers. Steeper angles and smaller holds increase the demand quickly.

Home walls

A small steep wall at home is the dream for many climbers. It allows short, frequent, focused sessions without travelling. We have a whole post on building a home training corner on a budget.

Resistance bands, weights and rings

These are often overlooked but very useful.

• Resistance bands for warm-ups, shoulder health and antagonist training.
• Free weights or kettlebells for general strength, legs and pushing movements.
• Gymnastic rings or a pull-up bar for pulling strength, core work and shoulder stability.

Who they suit: everyone, including beginners and young climbers with suitable supervision.

A quick comparison

The best piece of equipment for most climbers is still the wall itself. Add tools when climbing alone stops giving you what you need.

Safety basics

• Always warm up properly before hangboarding or campusing.
• Progress one variable at a time: load, time or edge size, not all three.
• Stop at the first sign of sharp finger pain. This is general information; if pain persists, see a doctor or physiotherapist.

In Train Climb

• Ask your coach to add hangboard or strength exercises from the exercise library to your plan, with clear sets and targets.
• Log equipment sessions as their own type, with an honest effort score, so they count towards your weekly load.
• Use progression rules so your targets increase only when you have genuinely met them.