Max hangs and repeaters train different things. Max hangs are a few short, heavy hangs with long rests, and they mainly build finger strength. Repeaters are strings of hangs with short pauses at a lower load, and they mainly build the ability to keep gripping as your forearms tire. If your problem is a hold you can’t pull on at all, start with max hangs. If you can do the moves but they fall apart halfway up, repeaters fit better.
That’s the short version. The rest of this post covers what each protocol actually is, what the research says about them side by side, and how to choose (or combine) them.
What each protocol is
Both are hangboard work, so both come after the hangboard readiness checklist: over a year of regular climbing, healthy fingers and a plateau that genuinely points at them. Neither is a shortcut for the first year, because tendons and pulleys adapt more slowly than the muscles that load them.
Max hangs
Around 10 seconds per hang, at a load you could hold for a few seconds longer, with two or three minutes’ rest so every hang is on fresh fingers. You never get pumped. A session is only a handful of hangs. Max hangs explained covers the protocol in detail, including how to set the load.
Repeaters
A repeater set is a run of hangs separated by short pauses, a few seconds each, so your forearms never fully recover within the set. The most common coaching format is 7 seconds on and 3 seconds off, six times, which makes a one-minute set. You then rest a few minutes and repeat. The load is lower than a max hang, often reduced with a pulley or your feet on a chair.
The research versions differ from the 7/3 standard, which is worth knowing if you read the studies yourself: they used 10-second hangs with 5- or 6-second pauses. The idea is the same: hard-but-sustainable hangs with too little rest to fully recover.
Side by side
| Max hangs | Repeaters | |
|---|---|---|
| Hang length | ~10 s | ~7–10 s |
| Rest between hangs | 2–3 min | 3–6 s within a set |
| Load | High, with a margin before failure | Moderate |
| Feels like | Hard, short, never pumped | A growing pump across the set |
| Mainly trains | Maximal finger strength | Strength endurance: grip that lasts |
| Session time on the board | Short | Longer |
What the research says
Two studies compare these approaches directly. Both are small and short, in experienced climbers, so read them as a direction rather than a rule.
In López-Rivera and González-Badillo’s 2019 study, 26 sport climbers averaging around 7c+/8a trained twice a week for eight weeks. One group did max hangs, one did intermittent hangs (10 seconds on, 5 seconds off, four or five reps a set, a minute between sets, on a small edge set so the last rep was close to failure) and one did four weeks of each. On a hang-to-failure test of grip endurance, the intermittent group improved most and soonest: about 25% after four weeks and about 45% after eight. The max-hang group improved too, by about a third at eight weeks, but showed nothing significant at four. The differences between groups weren’t statistically significant, which the authors put partly down to the small sample. Their conclusion was that intermittent hangs seem more effective for grip endurance, and that the two methods could be alternated over longer periods.
Devise and colleagues’ 2022 study put 54 advanced and elite climbers on an instrumented board that measured force, for four weeks, twice a week, on a 12 mm edge. Three groups trained at different intensities against a control group that didn’t:
- Maximal hangs (100% of max force): finger strength rose about 14%. Stamina and endurance didn’t change significantly.
- Intermittent hangs at 80%: finger strength rose about 12%, and stamina and endurance improved significantly as well.
- Intermittent hangs at 60%: stamina and endurance improved significantly; finger strength didn’t.
The pattern across both studies is the useful part: you mostly get better at what you train. Heavy, rested hangs move peak strength. Repeated, submaximal hangs move how long you can keep pulling, and at the harder end of the range they can bring some strength with them. The 2022 authors also noted that climbers who started stronger gained less, and that the low-load version may suit climbers wary of injury.
Which one fits your goal
Look at how you fail on the wall, not at which protocol sounds harder.
Choose max hangs if
- You fall off at the same single move: the crimp you can’t hold, not the ninth move of a sequence.
- You mostly boulder, and your limit problems are short.
- You’re short on time. A max-hang session is a few minutes of hanging, which leaves your energy for climbing.
Choose repeaters if
- You can do every move of a route or long boulder on its own, but not in a row.
- You climb routes, and your route grade trails your boulder grade.
- Your fingers do better with moderate loads than near-maximal ones, and you’d rather not hang heavy yet.
Not sure?
Run a simple test on the wall. Pick a problem or route at your limit and note where you fall. If it’s on a specific hold, with fresh arms, that’s strength. If it’s late, with a pump building, that’s endurance. If the answer is “it’s always the footwork”, neither protocol is your fix yet.
Many climbers end up doing both, one after the other rather than at the same time. The 2019 study’s authors suggest alternating them over longer periods. If you do this, give each one a block of at least four weeks, as the study did, rather than swapping every session.
A repeater block you can run
This is a conservative entry block, lighter than the research protocols. Twice a week, at least two days apart, at the start of a session after a proper warm-up: ten to fifteen minutes of easy climbing, then a few short, easy hangs building towards your working load.
Setting the load
Use a 20 mm edge, or whatever comfortably fits your fingers, in a half crimp (middle joints bent to roughly a right angle, thumb off the edge). Take weight off with a pulley or your feet on a chair until you can finish all six hangs of a set feeling you could have done two more. That margin is your safety rule: repeaters to failure put the most load on your fingers at exactly the moment your form is breaking down.
The block
| Week | Sets | Each set | Rest between sets | Load |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 6 × (7 s on / 3 s off) | 3 min | Working load |
| 2 | 4 | Same | 3 min | Same |
| 3 | 5 | Same | 3 min | Same |
| 4 | 3 | Same | 3 min | Slightly less help, if week 3 finished with a clear margin |
| 5 | 4 | Same | 3 min | Week 4 load |
| 6 | 2 | Same | 3 min | Week 1 load: an easy week before you retest |
Then climb as normal, a little shorter than usual. Don’t put repeaters on the same day as max hangs, campusing or a hard limit session; your fingers take a similar load from each.
Mistakes to avoid
- Chasing the pump. A brutal last set feels productive. Stop with reps in reserve.
- Shortening the rest between sets. The pump within a set is the point; carrying it into the next set mostly makes your form worse.
- Full crimping as you tire. If your thumb wraps over or your grip opens, the set is over.
- Adding load and shrinking the edge together. Change one thing at a time.
If you feel a pop or sharp pain in a finger, see swelling, or have finger pain that’s still there the next morning or keeps coming back, stop and see a physiotherapist or doctor. The red flags that mean stop covers what to watch for.
How to tell which one worked
Test the thing you trained, fresh, under the same conditions each time. For max hangs, that’s the heaviest load you can hold for 10 seconds with a clear margin. For repeaters, it’s how many 7/3 hangs you can do at a fixed load, stopping when your grip starts to open, not at full failure. Test before the block and after the easy week at the end.
Then check the wall. A better number on the board only matters if the hold you couldn’t pull on, or the route you kept pumping off, starts to give.
If you’d rather not work out which protocol, load and block length fits you, Mantle plans your finger work from what you log and your climbing history, and adjusts it as your retests come in.