Mahogany Everything

I have had some extra time recently, so I have been crafting some new training tools that I will be using over the next few months.

Hangboard:

I have always prefered to do my hangboard workouts on the campus rungs instead of on an actual hangboard. The texture of resin or urethane hangboards wrecks my skin and interferes with the quality of my training. All the fancy features of the commercial hangboards are essentially worthless. Who needs all those pockets? If you want to train 3, 2, or 1 finger, then just use those fingers...Anyway, the rungs are mahogany. I know. Pretty classy. I feel like I should be doing my workouts in a red velvet smoking jacket while smoking a pipe. Alas, velvet is too sweaty, and smoking is bad for the lungs...Seriously though, the mahogany is so comfortable and gets nice and tacky with chalk. I am super biased, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the best board I have ever trained on. Word.



Pinch Blocks:

Yup...also mahogany. That is how I roll on these streets (it's hard out on the farm). Three sizes so far: Small=@2.1in; Medium=@2.8in; L=@3.5in. I might make an XSmall (@1.4in), but who knows. I haven't ever trained pinch strength, outside of just climbing on pinches. Mainly because I find pinches on a hangboard to be uncomfortable, and more of a compression workout. I have seen videos of others using wooden blocks like these, so I figure I'll try it out and see how it goes.

System Holds:

I am probably most excited about these (of course they're mahogany). After testing a few different shapes I don't think I ever want to train on plastic again. Okay, that's a little extreme. There are certainly things that plastic can do much better than wood (complex shapes for example), but these wooden holds are pretty rad. Again, the mahogany doesn't wreck the skin and gets nice and tacky with chalk. The decrease in friction also requires you to grip HARD to stay on these things, which I like. Another thing I like...being able to make whatever shapes I want (within the limitations of the wood's structural integrity). I can also make sure that they are perfectly mirrored so I can train both hands equally. I can even make  shapes to mimic certain holds on my projects outside, then slowly sand down the shape so it gets harder and harder to hold. A neat and hopefully effective way to adjust training intensity.


I'll keep you posted as I make new things and assess whether  any of this nonsense actually works.