Post by jcm on May 4, 2015 11:32:59 GMT -7
I am planning to build a portable hangboard mount to use in hotels while on work travel, and am looking for input, ideas, and anecdotes.
The basic situation is that my job requires frequent travel, often just 1 week at a time. In the past, I’ve gotten by with a load/unload cycle, wherein I’ll do a training cycle for several weeks at home, and then use the week of travel to recover from that accumulated fatigue. I have had varying results with this method, and am looking to improve it. Additionally, I have a big chunk of travel (4 weeks) coming up this summer. From mid-June to mid-July, I’ll be working in middle-of-nowhere eastern Oregon, far from climbing or gyms, and with no time to try to go climbing anyway. While it is a big loss to miss a chunk of the PNW rock season like this, it also happens to be very well timed with the season and my training for doing a hangboard cycle. The length of time is about right (4 weeks), the lack of climbing opportunities means no distractions from the hangboard, and the timing will set me up to peak in late August-early September…right when conditions are reliably ideal. So, it isn’t so bad.
The next step is to figure out how to build a hangboard setup to use while travelling. I am assuming that I will not have access to much in the way of workout room facilities, and will need to base everything around the resources of a standard hotel room. During past travel, I have experimented with using a setup based around a doorway-mount pullup bar (essentially a home-rig “Blank Slate” type setup), but have had a very low success rate with getting it to work. Essentially, every time I take it with me, the hotel room ends up having some sort of non-standard door configuration (too wide, no edges on molding, door goes all the way to ceiling height, door right in a corner, etc.) and the bar won’t mount on the door. So, time to design/build a new system.
I am now thinking of building something akin to Mark’s door-mount setup described in the ever-useful “How’s Your Hang” post (http://rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/2014/03/06/hows-your-hang/). Essentially, this is a wood-frame mount the uses metal hooks that go over the top of the door, such that you are hanging on the door itself, not on the door frame. I am hoping that his would have a better success rate. I would like to know if anyone one here (including, of course, Mark) has any input on this based on their experience (or on wild speculation). Questions include:
-What is the success rate of this type of setup? What sort of door configurations might "defeat" it? How might the design be modified to improve the success rate? I do not know ahead of time what sort of doors this hotel might have.
-Based on Mark's design, how might you change it to improve it? Notably, I will be taking a big work truck, so the design can be bulky; it doesn't have to break down to fit in a suitcase.
-Any special notes on specifications, especially regarding the size/type of the hooks?
-Any precautions, aside of strategically placed foam/padding, to prevent doorway damage?
Other notable datapoints: I already have a good quality, compact hangboard (Bam Board) to mount on the system. I have access to basic tools/equipment, but am by no means skilled with them (so nothing too difficult to build). Also, I have some interesting ideas about the training protocol to use with this setup--I hope to experiment with decreasing edge size hangs--but that is the subject of another thread.
The basic situation is that my job requires frequent travel, often just 1 week at a time. In the past, I’ve gotten by with a load/unload cycle, wherein I’ll do a training cycle for several weeks at home, and then use the week of travel to recover from that accumulated fatigue. I have had varying results with this method, and am looking to improve it. Additionally, I have a big chunk of travel (4 weeks) coming up this summer. From mid-June to mid-July, I’ll be working in middle-of-nowhere eastern Oregon, far from climbing or gyms, and with no time to try to go climbing anyway. While it is a big loss to miss a chunk of the PNW rock season like this, it also happens to be very well timed with the season and my training for doing a hangboard cycle. The length of time is about right (4 weeks), the lack of climbing opportunities means no distractions from the hangboard, and the timing will set me up to peak in late August-early September…right when conditions are reliably ideal. So, it isn’t so bad.
The next step is to figure out how to build a hangboard setup to use while travelling. I am assuming that I will not have access to much in the way of workout room facilities, and will need to base everything around the resources of a standard hotel room. During past travel, I have experimented with using a setup based around a doorway-mount pullup bar (essentially a home-rig “Blank Slate” type setup), but have had a very low success rate with getting it to work. Essentially, every time I take it with me, the hotel room ends up having some sort of non-standard door configuration (too wide, no edges on molding, door goes all the way to ceiling height, door right in a corner, etc.) and the bar won’t mount on the door. So, time to design/build a new system.
I am now thinking of building something akin to Mark’s door-mount setup described in the ever-useful “How’s Your Hang” post (http://rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/2014/03/06/hows-your-hang/). Essentially, this is a wood-frame mount the uses metal hooks that go over the top of the door, such that you are hanging on the door itself, not on the door frame. I am hoping that his would have a better success rate. I would like to know if anyone one here (including, of course, Mark) has any input on this based on their experience (or on wild speculation). Questions include:
-What is the success rate of this type of setup? What sort of door configurations might "defeat" it? How might the design be modified to improve the success rate? I do not know ahead of time what sort of doors this hotel might have.
-Based on Mark's design, how might you change it to improve it? Notably, I will be taking a big work truck, so the design can be bulky; it doesn't have to break down to fit in a suitcase.
-Any special notes on specifications, especially regarding the size/type of the hooks?
-Any precautions, aside of strategically placed foam/padding, to prevent doorway damage?
Other notable datapoints: I already have a good quality, compact hangboard (Bam Board) to mount on the system. I have access to basic tools/equipment, but am by no means skilled with them (so nothing too difficult to build). Also, I have some interesting ideas about the training protocol to use with this setup--I hope to experiment with decreasing edge size hangs--but that is the subject of another thread.