Wood is the choice of the world’s best climbers for good reason. Although pre-made plastic rungs are available, there is no need to try to simulate real rock on a campus board. Plastic rungs will wear out your skin long before your workout is complete. Wood is far more absorbent of sweat than plastic, so for a similar degree of friction, it can be made much smoother and more friendly to train on. Another benefit is that wooden rungs can be made consistently smooth and uniform which is crucial when doing moves near your limit. Plastic rungs suffer from warping during construction, which results in a wavy hold of inconsistent width and uneven upper surface.

Rung size can vary from about 3/4" to as much as 1 1/4" in thickness. Any smaller and finger-tip bruising becomes more of an issue than strength. Large holds are required for warming up, and for various exercises, but anything larger than 1 1/4" is unnecessary.

16" is an ideal rung width. There is no need for wider rungs, as each rep moves you toward the center of the rung, and 16" is more than enough for matching and double dynos. It’s better to fit sets of different sized rungs side-by-side, than to be limited to fewer sets because of their width.

It is absolutely crucial to have user-friendly rung shapes or you just wont be able to give a maximum effort. The edges need to be well rounded, with each size requiring a different radius of curve relative to its depth.

Whether you want your holds to be incut slightly or flat depends on what exercises you want to train, how good you are, and the angle of the board. Flatter holds tend to be slightly harder to use at first because they force you to control swing more carefully, but the advantage is that they are super-friendly and force you to use good technique. Incut holds, however, are good for getting started, for doing pull-ups and lock-offs, and are necessary on steep boards.

We recommend spacing the rungs 4-12" apart. Spacing is totally arbitrary, but closer spacing allows you more control of your training. If a move is slightly too hard or easy the next increment of difficulty will be closer. The downside is that you will have to use a greater number of rungs to cover your board. We recommend spacing each set of rungs on your board differently to keep as much variety in your training as possible; after all, the moves on rock aren’t in even 8" increments. Small rungs should be closer together than large ones. Leave about 4" of slap space above the top of the last rung. You can also cap or tape the top of the board for use as a finishing jug.

After extensive testing we chose spruce wood for our rungs, due to its desirable combination of hardness, workability, finish characteristics, and friction properties.

The rungs come in three sizes, 3/4, 1" and 11/4". Each rung has a flat side and an incut side, providing options for every angle, ability, and exercise. Their rounded edges have smooth radii carefully chosen to suit each rung size. The ideal curves cannot be found ready-made, so we designed custom tooling to produce them.

Metolius rungs are 16" wide, an ideal width for training, which also allows you to place three sets side-by-side on a standard 4’ plywood board, or all three sizes with both flat side up and incut side up (that’s six sets) across an 8’ wide board.

Attaching Metolius Rungs

Do not pre-drill the plywood. The included 2 1/2" #9 decking screws are self-drive. Drive the screws so the screw head sits just below the surface of the face of the rung. Do not over-drive the screws into the rungs, as this will weaken them! We recommend the following spacing, although these are only guidelines:
 

Warning All Training Board Users:  Training on a hangboard carries risk of injury to fingers, arms, shoulders and the joints connecting them.  Take every precaution to avoid damage to yourself;  warm-up, stretch, don't over train and listen to your body.  Remember, even under the best of circumstances, injuries can occur.  In addition, however you mount your board, be sure that it cannot move in any direction.  There should be no possible way for the board to come down while training.