I started bouldering late last year and have plateaued at around a V4 level. I feel like my biggest weakness by far is my finger strength, so I’m thinking of starting hangboarding to work on that.
I’m not sure where to start though, I feel like I already tax my fingers when climbing so I don’t want to go overboard and injure myself.
To agree with other posters here V4 is the first plateau you tend to hit a new climber, then getting to consistent V6; and do not rush into heavy ass hangboarding too soon. Tendons develop much slower than muscle and going too hard too fast will just lead to you hurting yourself and being injured for long periods of time.
Starting with sub max hangs and working into just bodyweight would be good starting goals to supplement your climbing. I tend to follow the advice from Beastmaking in the “little and often” mentality now; I do 2 sessions a week after warming up before climbing that are very short that are up to 6 hangs if I’m feeling very strong, but as little as 3 hangs.
Since I’m working back into V6 after a very long break and I’m a pretty big guy I will do either sets of half crimp and/or 3 finger drag (at bodyweight) with hangs going up to 10 seconds and up to 3 minute rests before my climbing sessions. Depending on how I feel I will cut that down to just one grip type , preferring 3 finger drag.
For someone who hasn’t been climbing for very long I would honestly recommend getting as much milage as you can and doing sub max or “no hang” as supplemental to help build your tendons up.
Just my 2 cents and your mileage may vary and all that.
A little clarity to add is once you can climb V4 consistently then you could start worrying about things like actually incorporating hamgboarding but the sub max training you could start doing very early.
It’s still easy to overdo sub-max hanging though. You don’t get any feedback until it’s already too late. You only start noticing the problem on your next session.
That’s why I was recommending 50% bodyweight if they decide to start now.