Reddit climbing finger strength. In particular, do not use a fingerboard. How long did it take you guys to develop finger strength to start pushing V4/5 boulders? I find that that’s my biggest roadblock with anything above a V3– my body’s strength is catching up to me but my finger strength is holding me back. Useful in sports like climbing and martial arts, grip training will carry over to many aspects of every day life. The home of Climbing on reddit. Climbing is so much more about technique than strength. 173K subscribers in the climbharder community. You can't grip with greater force than the structures themselves can withstand. How to know when finger strength is holding us back? Share Add a Comment Sort by: Best Open comment sort options came_to_post_this • In climbing, however, you need excess strength primarily in your forearms, as hand strength is often the weakest link. Over the year and a half I've been climbing I've gone from my powerlifting weight of 180 to a much more mobile and athletic 170 while gaining tons of finger strength from "just climbing" and some low volume hangboard and moonboarding. There's nothing wrong with training pull ups, but technique is the most important thing to learn in the beginning. These are relatively small, light muscles. However, I've always felt as though finger strength is disproportionately holding me back. It looks like you’re not joking, so my real advice with my coach hat on, is that, your finger strength is obviously really well developed so if you really want to work on finger strength I would get suuuper specific with the finger strength work you’re doing. 12c, V7. Both target finger and grip strength, but I'm curious about their comparative effectiveness for climbing. If you want to start working out then I'd begin with 3x20 barbell finger curls. The only answer is time and consistency, introduce finger boards when there’s no climbs available that are challenging your fingers strength, or you’re adding weight to max hangs (after minimum a year of solid climbing) You theoretically can finger board now and probably avoid injury, but the reward for risk is not worth it. This can be accomplished by strapping the arm down, placing it is specialty device, or simply just resting the elbow on a table so that it cannot move. Your hand would explode. Training your finger and grip strength for climbing not only helps with making technical climbs more approachable, but also helps minimize injury. In fact, you How much time does a mild finger tendon injury need to heal while “at rest”? Can low-grade climbing help encourage my finger to heal faster? What back or pull exercises can I do instead of pull-ups/toes-to-bar to continue strength training for climbing? Can finger rolls be beneficial with a hurt finger or do I risk injuring further? Pinch strength and crimp strength are somewhat related but mainly use different muscles to achieve the goal of holding on to the hold and not falling off. 174K subscribers in the climbharder community. If you are moderately new to climbing and your finger-, pull- and body strengths are equally good or bad. Climbing for 2 months? The best way to increase your finger strength right now is to just climb climb climb. While a few weeks is not long enough to guage it's usefulness personally, I've noticed some more confidence in grip strength. It's easier to safely improve technique than finger strength at this point in your climbing and will pay off more down the road. g. e. Lattice and the like (e. Have a project with a piano match? Train front 3 and Reddit's rock climbing training community. And while climbing does have a mental part involved, strength training for climbing is equally, if not more important. Finger strength in climbing is often less about grip strength and more about how much force your pulleys and tendons can handle. Climb outside a lot and you're guaranteed to improve almost all aspects of your climbing, even pure finger strength (depending on what type of climbing you're doing). Hi! I’m a beginner in climbing and I was wondering if there were workouts to increase your finger strength in the weight room. Max hangs on a 14-20mm edge. Maybe it is poorly tuned for heavier/taller climbers, not sure if it should follow the same curve for all weights as shorter folks usually need higher % pull/finger strength. In the climbing community better climbers are talking to newbie climbers to focus on technique first and then on finger strength. You really don't want a finger injury in your first few months of climbing. Non-Fixated strength testing is the opposite. The Sport Climbing Level Calculator will: Give you an instant automatic assessment and help you design a training plan tailored to your exact needs! If you're a sport/lead/trad climber, follow this link. 5 pounds) with a body weight of 67kg (147. Edit: someone asked this and they confirmed it’s the my fingers data. The resiliency of tendon structures in the fingers contribute a lot to grip strength. It has been shown to reduce injury risk by exposing the fingers to supramaximal loads in a controlled environment and to improve performance by allowing you to climb harder and more frequently 1. That said, you still have room to focus more on techniques instead of strength. If you think about the last few times you fell Super weak fingers. This is a list of 12 great training exercises that come from training books, interviews with professional climbers, social media, Reddit and some of my climbing friends. Your grip strength is determined by forearm strength and the tendons in your fingers, hands and wrists. /r/GripTraining is a resource for anyone wanting stronger hands, bigger forearms, or to compete in the sport of grip. Aside from that, a very cheap option is to buy a 3/4 in strip of wood, and nail/screw it onto another piece of wood (Porch rafter, over a door way, under the stairs, etc). Got a crimpy project? Do some small edge work. 5 hangs, 10 seconds each, with 2-3 minutes rest between each hang. If you Improving finger strength is definitely the end-game for climbing harder, and if you're going to start down that path, really commit to it. What is an efficient way to train finger strength for a climbing beginner who has a decent amount of pulling strength from Callisthenics (1. Add or subtract as much weight as needed so that you can hang at least 6 seconds, but fail before 12 seconds. So I've been climbing for about 1 year, 9 months and recently have tried lattice finger strength testing on their 20mm fingerboard to find my 1RM. I’m finding it difficult to make any progress on the types holds I’m uncomfortable with (crimps or slopers mainly I have found that, while hangboarding has a risk of injury, it has increased my finger strength and reduced my amount of climbing-related finger injuries. My local climbing… 10 votes, 43 comments. ex shoulder stability or just technique under the fingerboard. I’m fairly new to climbing (4 months) and I’m getting to a point where I feel very limited by finger strength and technique on more difficult (for me) hold types. Aug 14, 2019 · While climbing, we face the risk of a foot slip or a dynamic move that can all of a sudden super-load the fingers. Watch: Crank up your finger strength with 6 Weeks To Stronger Fingers and send the project you’ve been aiming for. That being said, some things you can do to help focus on grip strength and good climbing technique early on: climb down instead of jumping down (safer on your joints and you get double the climbing!) Looking for some advice. While its possible finger pull ups aren't appropriate for you depending on your current finger strength and climbing experience, they are in no way pointless or reckless. The tool's initial version was based solely on the results of the maxtograde survey, but the accuracy was not satisfactory. 4M subscribers in the climbing community. Check it out! Obviously, early on you want to take it easy because you haven't built up the foundation strength, but even pros hurt tendons. I’ve always had super strong pinch strength due to hand morphology and the only way I increased it was focusing on board climbing on shallow narrow, shallow wide, deep narrow, and deep wide pinches all separately. The crux of the "climbing as primarily a strength sport" idea is that most people can acquire the climbing skill over enough time to climb hard (lets say V-double digit) but many fewer people will be able to build that appropriate amount of elite finger and hand strength. From what I've read, it's way too early (in terms of time spent climbing and grade) for me to start hangboarding. I have around 140% max hang on 20mm edge in half crimp position with all fingers on the edge but I feel there is no way in hell my back 3 fingers could hold anywhere near that, whereas my front three could easily get close. I have incredibly weak fingers that I’m looking to strengthen. which is +37. In the beginning, finger strength will come just from climbing, along with the added benefit of technique. A lot depends on morphology and a lot of rock pinches are more like pressure scums. Not a very exciting answer, I know, but just be patient. Climb V3-V5 indoors (V4-V5 on Vert/Slab/sloper/burley climbs or basically anything that doesn’t require true finger strength, V3 on any significant incline/overhang). Stronger fingers mean you can use smaller holds—and holds that felt unhangable before will feel more manageable. Hangboarding is both pretty similar and pretty different from lifting weights. 11a) sport grade outside and 7a+ (5. Just be patient, keep climbing and you will get stronger. Jan 5, 2022 · Tools Climbing Finger Strength Analyzer The Finger Strength Analyzer will allow you to see how strong your fingers are. Every video I've watched on finger strength assessment has subjects hanging on 20mm edges with various amounts of added weight or lengths of time. com Jun 25, 2020 · It analyzes the athlete's finger strength and forearm endurance profile to estimate the expected climbing grade accurately. As someone who has a gym background you might want to make sure you're not solving your problems with just strength. You DON'T want to have extremely strong fingers and poor technique, those people always seem to have finger injuries in my experience. Mar 10, 2023 · For the psyched climber climbing in that V5 to V8 range, you can only safely add finger stress if you correspondly decrease your total climbing volume. So I analyzed the input data sets that lead to errors, and based on the There is *some* overlap between grip training and finger training (climbing-specific) but, if you're looking to improve your ability to pull down on small holds, spring loaded grip training tools are likely a waste of your time/capacity to recover. What would you… In terms of finger strength, id like to note that ive been climbing around 3-4 times a week for the past year with no supplemental training. I have the luxury of being able to workout at work and have been working out consistently for the last 3-4 months but really seem to struggle with my finger strength. Dedicated to increasing all our… Basically, at the moment I'm just cutting my climbing down to extremely low volume, trying to maintain my strength, and do more open hand and finger roll stuff with full range of motion exercises to resolve it. I've recently been working on improving my Finger Strength Analyzer tool. Have you ever been injured specifically while finger-strength training? Your view around weight loss for climbing are not based in reality and insanely unhealthy. 1. It's not to say just climbing won't improve your finger strength, steep crimpy board style climbing in particular will certainly give you strong fingers, however it's hard to maintain the correct progressive stimulus for continued finger strength gains. If you really want to see progress on the fingerboard, maybe some weeks of light training with it will make you able to hang with more weight. I rarely hangboard but have decided this lockdown to work on my pinky and ring finger strength by using bodyweight hangs. It sounds like you're on the right track. Just a thought Both climbing outdoors more and climbing harder grades in the gym will require open hand positions-- actually, all hand positions-- more frequently. 5” tall, and currently weigh 195lbs. Find a problem in your gym that is particularly finger-y and work it regularly - you'll find improvements in strength but also in technique and body position as you learn how to make a difficult climb easier. This will help condition your forearms and fingers for finger training. D ynamometry is used for the finger flexors Reddit's rock climbing training community. So obviously hangboarding increases finger strength and your ability to hang longer/more weight on thinner edges, but I've always wondered how stronger fingers actually impact climbing on the wall. I’ve been at this for about a month and absolutely love it. Hangboards and no hang devices are the best substitutes for long periods of no climbing, 6 weeks is actually a great timeframe for a training cycle too! There are tons of protocols out Climbing multiple times a week does wonders for finger strength if you focus on working problems that require a lot of finger strength. I’ve been climbing for about 3 years. Use our weekly Q&A posts for your questions, routines, exercises, reviews of equipment you use, grip accomplishments, technique/training tips, grip sport news, grip Muscles in the forearms contract the fingers, so "finger strength" is "forearm strength". Apparently the 20mm edge size is a good baseline standard for measuring finger strength. As much as people hate to hear it, when it comes to grip strength in the early years of climbing, climbing is the best training for climbing. Is this something that’ll naturally improve as I progress or is there something I should be doing to target it? Apr 7, 2024 · Introduction to Arm-Lifting finger strength training Finger strength training is essential if you want to improve your climbing. Dedicated to increasing all our knowledge about how to better improve at our sport. Here's the thing though, I've never climbed more than like 6b+ (5. While the pinch uses your thumb muscles, it uses a different finger muscle, the Lumbricals. (first post on Reddit ever so be kind :D) I notice a lot of climbers default to their middle finger for mono pockets, and even read some forums wherein the general consensus seemed to be that the middle finger is the strongest, followed by ring finger, then index???!! (eg. Finger strength is only one of many components that contribute to your overall climbing ability, but for intermediate to advanced climbers it is also one the most important things you can train. 62x BW 1rm chinup and working on OAC) ? Currently climbing V4 consistently, did my first v5 recently, and can flash most V3s. Not only will you not be able to adhere to a 1000 calorie per day diet, but you will also quickly lose muscle and strength as your body will go into starvation mode and begin consuming its own muscle. You are limited by poor technique which puts a lot more load on your fingers than is necessary. If you start on an easy hangboarding regime and take appropriate recovery time, you might find the same effects. Feb 24, 2023 · Finger strength, though critical to climbing performance, is just one component to climbing hard. There’s plenty of finger extensor trainers available for cheap. IMO, try to understand if, when you're climbing, finger strength is holding you back. trueHey all — new caliber here. It drove me nuts too when I first started, but for now, your best idea is just to climb more. This will increase fore arm strength and wrist stability. Reply reply The Soviet climbers claimed that heavy finger rolls produce measurable gains in forearm circumference (a sign of muscle hypertrophy), whereas strength gains from fingerboard or campus training are primarily the result of neurological adaptations. Your fingers are the means by which you directly engage the rock, and finger strength is usually the weakest link in your chain of physical abilities. If using any sort of assistance placed to the side and gripped with the non-hanging arm (pulley, band, cord), then the rotational component is mostly eliminated. And crimps with good thumb catches. Do that for 6 weeks then take a de-load week. I would argue they are a more controlled and easier variant on campus boarding. climbing on monos? Train monos. Any decent training book (Horst, Neumann, Hague) will have recommendations for finger strength exercises that actually work, but almost all of them require a hangboard or a climbing wall. I think you'll find the dose of finger training needed to improve strength and resilience to be much less than you're anticipating, especially with your history, current volume of climbing, and overall strength. Combining a finger program with mental conditioning and movement training can further optimize per Despite this I perceived my strength climbing on edges, esp smaller positive edges, but now edging in to V10 I feel it may be a limiting factor (of course it's problem specific but let's say generally for fingers problems). I recently started finger rolls as a rehab exercise and specifically started more isolated forearm exercises like wrist curls in order to address some weakness in open hand strength on slopers and compression climbing. I was rather surprised, and somewhat dismayed, to find that my fingers are apparently incredibly weak. Training your crushing grip strength as part of a well rounded hand/forearm prehab/strength protocol is great, training it as a substitute for climbing is not. I'm at V5-6 and just consider finger now to try to break into V7. you stop climbing set boulders and, instead of starting to fingerboard Climbing finger strength is not the same as hangboard strength. If they exist, what is typical for say grades V6 -V11/12? F = ma. Grip strength is specific to the hand position. Being highly deficient in one will eventually come back to bite you (although, to be fair, if you're going to be strong any any-- half crimp is likely the best to be strong at). This will give you a basic idea of how hard you should be able to boulder and how much time you should invest in strength training to progress. The basic idea is that a climber's bouldering level is correlated with their finger strength relative to their body weight. I generally climb v5, 11b-11c outside and I can only pull 40-45lbs for 10 reps and it feels like it's working my climbing muscles a lot harder than doing deadlifts with the tension block with 90-100lbs. Have any of you tried both these methods? I'd appreciate your experiences, insights, and any Reddit's rock climbing training community. absolutely do not go anywhere near a campus board. Power endurance: 6b Pulling power: 7a Climb consistent 7c/7b+ in a session, and have climbed two 7c+ in world class climbing areas in the past few months. And yes we are scared of falling. No hangboarding or campus boarding. Max I have climbed is V4 and 5. I'm debating between two methods: hangboard + weights vs arm lifts using a small edge with added weight. The strength will come. Recovery time is critical for strength and injury prevention. Anecdotally, I have a buddy who can three finger drag 6 mil all daybut he sucks at slopers because his shoulders are weak. I don’t want to hangboard yet (climbing for only 1 year now) but I want to know if there are any other safe drills y’all use to speed up tendon I need to work on finger strength more and i was going to try out going to do finger curls at is it an effective method to build finger strength? Do not train your finger strength more than what you already do by climbing, at least for a first year or two. Finger strength I’ve been indoor climbing about once a week for 5 months now and seem to be struggling a lot with finger strength. Hence, worthless, completely and utterly--at least if you're trying to improve your climbing. This statement seems reasonable since the heavy finger rolls cause repeated, high-intensity eccentric and concentric contractions of the forearm 110 votes, 58 comments. here) I find this quite surprising because for me, my index fingers are significantly stronger than either middle or ring Fixated strength testing for climbers is where dynamometry of the finger flexors is performed but the upper limb is “fixated” meaning it cannot move. Do this after a thorough warm-up twice a week. Avoid the finger strength training for now, injuries are your worst nightmare and will set you back more than anything. Obviously if you can hold a sharp edge more easily it will help, but how does it impact things like slopes, or bigger holds on an overhang, or overall movement on the wall? What does it actually Listen to everyone in the thread who's telling you to just keep climbing and avoid finger strength training. 7 pounds) with two arms. I recently just started to be able to hang with a half crimp on a 20mm edge, but I don't think this routine is responsible for my finger strength gains, but it has allowed me to feel better on my climbing days to pull harder. So I plugged my result into the thingy, and apparently I've got the average finger strength of a V11 climber and the theoretical strength necessary to climb 8c (5. Alternatively, you could begin a dedicated strength phase in which the climbing becomes the training intervention—i. 5 years, am 5’ 8. r/griptraining is a super knowledgable community and has a section in the sidebar specifically addressing grip training for climbing. Additional strength training, especially for your fingers, isn’t recommended until you have at least a year of regular climbing. Your tendons get stronger way slower than your muscles and especially using those hand grip trainers (captains of crush, etc) is too risky to be justified. Apr 27, 2025 · Finger strength training is a foundational factor that sets the difference between novice and expert level climbers. this online finger strength calculator) always claim that my fingers are very weak for the grades I climb. Being a strong climber isn't a mathematical formulation of max_pull_up + max_hang. Of course holding a tough crimp requires a lot of forearm activation but more likely you are more limited by what your fingers can support. Is this progress typical? The picture is a screenshot of the results of Crimpd’s finger strength test, which is basically building up to a 1 rep max at 20 mm for 7 seconds. 5kg (82. As this is 100% right i have focused on improving technique in the past year and made a lot of gains there but here comes the question. I’ve noticed my form improve and I e gone from struggling with simple V2s to mastering tougher v3s. Thanks for this, inspired me to swap from barbell finger rolls to tension block finger curls on a lat pull down machine. 28 votes, 75 comments. Also notice how the excersises work the antagonistic (opposing) muscles in your hands and forearms, this helps to prevent repetitive strain injuries. It is usually recommended to start finger training after a year of climbing. Nov 9, 2022 · Managing finger strength training as a climber can be confusing, what to do what not to do? In this blog we clear the fog and keep it simple. 11+. Hangboarding only trains force in one direction, while climbing require three dimensional strength, even on crimps. Reddit's rock climbing training community. I can make moves on more difficult climbs if the hold style is right. See full list on trainingforclimbing. 12a) sport at my local climbing gym. Somewhat new to climbing but when I watch videos demonstrating good technique, the climber smoothly moves like water between… Reddit's rock climbing training community. I’ve been climbing 3. For now I'd mostly recommend just climbing with a focus on technique and making sure to do crimpy routes every session. Hangboards don't need 10 different pocket combinations to work. That said, I still struggle immensely with smaller, thinner holds. You aren't limited by finer strength. Given I once submitted 4 entries in 5 minutes to figure out what grade my finger strength was enough for I really don’t trust the data at all. When bouldering it can be quite obvious, I agreed that it could be harder on sport climbs. Train on climbing days so you can rest your hands at least one day after. 14b) sport. I think this is likely true from a statistical sense. Mar 26, 2025 · The Solution: Train finger strength by hangboarding. Mar 20, 2023 · My max hang (7s, 20mm edge, half crimp) is 32 lbs @ 135lbs, max outdoor grade 5. Are finger rolls actually training finger tendon strength or just grip strength? I’m not an expert and I’m not trying to be a dick but that exercise looks more like it trains forearm strength than it would finger strength for climbing specific movement (holding onto smaller edges for longer). Hello climbing community! I'm seeking your input on optimizing finger strength training. Some of the training exercises require rock-climbing grip training equipment or other exercise tools but most of them can be found in your local climbing gym or inexpensively online. You almost certainly have a lot of technique, footwork, movement that will improve with climbing and it’s not solely finger strength holding you back. For very small edges (6-8mm) does skin tension/finger shape matter more than strength? I've been climbing for 20+ years, but until recently I've never tested or trained my finger strength with any rigor. You strengthen your finger flexors when you climb, so when you’re not climbing, work on your extensors. A few months ago I started using a tension block to measure my strength in various hand positions. The crimp, depending on how exactly you do it mainly uses your Flexor Digitorum Profundus. In the description it seems so, which isn't the same data in their assessment model from what I gather. Dedicated to increasing all our… To me that implies that one-arm hangs are actually better for isolating finger strength, at least on the fairly large edges used for testing (~18–20mm). The drop in max strength might be because that way of testing finger strength is unusual for you now - f. 128 votes, 41 comments. Because sloper strength is so complex- compared to crimp strength at least- I personally just like climbing a lot of sloper climbs to improve. bjyn dirae nqfzuzo bifemx swlx pzhk fvaf atmqc vwrlk fvicy