A Kilter Board is an adjustable-angle training wall with large, friendly holds and LED-lit problems set through an app, designed to be more accessible and fun than other system boards. The lights show each problem's holds, and the changeable angle suits a wide range of abilities, making it popular for both training and casual sessions.
A MoonBoard is a standardized, steeply overhanging training wall with a fixed layout of holds and an app that sets thousands of shareable benchmark problems. Because every MoonBoard is identical worldwide, climbers can compare their performance and train on the same problems anywhere, making it a benchmark tool for serious bouldering strength.
A campus board is an overhanging training board fitted with horizontal rungs that climbers move up and down using only their hands, with no feet, to build explosive pulling power and contact strength. Invented by Wolfgang Güllich, it is a powerful but high-stress tool best reserved for experienced, well-conditioned climbers.
A hangboard (or fingerboard) is a wall-mounted training board with edges, pockets, and slopers of varying sizes, used to build finger and grip strength through timed dead hangs and repeaters. It is the most popular and effective tool for targeted finger training, but its intense loading makes a careful, progressive approach essential to avoid injury.
A dead hang is hanging from a hold, bar, or hangboard edge with straight, relaxed arms and engaged shoulders, used both as a rest position on the wall and as a core finger-strength exercise. Timed dead hangs on a hangboard are one of the most effective ways to build the specific finger strength climbing demands.
A knee bar is a resting and locking technique where you wedge your leg between two opposing surfaces — jamming the knee or thigh against one and the foot against the other — so the leg supports your weight and frees your hands. A good knee bar can offer a precious no-hands rest on steep terrain.
Spotting is the technique of guiding a falling boulderer to help them land safely on the crash pads, protecting their head and steering their body upright rather than trying to catch their full weight. A spotter stands ready with hands up, and good spotting is a key safety practice in bouldering, where there is no rope.
A whipper is climbing slang for a big, dramatic lead fall — a long, often swinging plunge taken when leading above your protection. Whippers are a normal part of pushing your limit on safe, well-protected sport routes, where the dynamic rope and an attentive belayer turn them into a relatively harmless, if thrilling, experience.
Barn-dooring is when a climber's body swings uncontrollably away from the wall like a door on a hinge, because their weight isn't balanced over their points of contact. It typically happens when the useful holds are all on one side of the body, and is corrected with techniques like flagging to counterbalance.
Being 'pumped' is the burning, swollen feeling in the forearms when they fatigue from gripping, as metabolic by-products and blood build up faster than they clear. A pumped climber loses grip strength and may be unable to hold on, so managing the pump — through rests, efficient movement, and shaking out — is central to endurance climbing.