The Blank Slate + Hangboard

Today I got my Blank Slate from Blank Slate Climbing. The Blank Slate is a pretty unique piece of equipment that fills a relatively niche problem – mounting a hangboard easily and cleanly (without damaging, marking, or altering walls). The Blank Slate mounts in a doorway similar to common pull up bars like the iron gym. It uses the cantilever effect to mount in a doorway without damaging the door, wall, or frame. By pulling downward on the board (or anything mounted thereon), the beam is pushed into the door frame, and the rear beam is pushed into the wall above the door, and the Blank Slate is secured by simple physics. Despite appearances, the door frame molding is not supporting the Blank Slate at all.

Hanboards (sometimes called fingerboards) were designed to have a variety of holds and surfaces for rock climbers to train finger and arm strength. The benefit of the hangboard over a generic pull up bar is that hangboards offer a much more varied training opportunity for common climbing hand techniques. They are not only designed for strength training in the form of pull ups, but also hangs or isometrics. My particular hangboard offers:

• two jugs – the large “full hand” holds at the top
• a variety of pockets – the holes in the middle that vary in width and depth for finger training
• a few crimps – the very small edges on the sides and bottom which help me train for small, tight holds
• slopers – a wide, flat surface that slopes downward, proving a challenge to hold. The entire top (between the jugs) of my hangboard is a sloper surface

All the parts:

Half constructed:

Mounted Blank Slate:

Hangboard mounted on Blank Slate