February 1, 2025 5 min to read

Finger Training

Introduction

• Hangboard training is widely accepted as the best method for improving finger strength, but recent research challenges conventional protocols (e.g., full crimp training, strict duration-based hangs).
• This summary is primarily based on the work of Dr. Tyler Nelson at C4HP.
• Training doesn’t have to mimic climbing or involve hanging to be effective.
• Isometrics, including eccentric and concentric movements, are essential for finger training.
• Effective finger strength training maximizes finger involvement without conflating it with coordination, endurance, or hold variety.
  • Currently this ignores endurance, critical force, and anything else that is not strength or power.

Fundamentals of Strength Training

• Off-the-wall training provides a more objective and reproducible way to build strength.
• Non-climbing-specific movements allow for measurable, controlled, and structured volume, reducing injury risk.
• Training Goals:
  • Increase hypertrophy (muscle growth)
  • Improve voluntary activation (neural drive)
  • Enhance tissue stiffness (tendons, ligaments)
  • Develop power (force production speed)
• Strength before speed – power cannot be effectively developed without a solid strength base.
• Strength training requires progressive overload to increase capacity.
• Strength allows climbers to practice harder movements, leading to improvement through exposure.

Why Isometrics?

• Training with loads too heavy to move (isometric contractions) maximizes neural drive.
  • Isometric contractions involve holding a muscle contraction without changing its length.
  • To recruit and sustain load, the body engages more nerve and muscle fiber groups, as opposed to dynamic movements where motor units cycle in and out of contraction.
  • This puts demand on the nervous system to modulate and maintain force output.
• Isometric contractions recruit a high percentage of muscle fibers and improve force control.

Eccentric (Yielding)

• Involves pulling on a hold until muscles fail (similar to weighted hangs), engaging larger muscle groups (arms, shoulders, back) in addition to fingers.
• Generates passive tension, heavily reliant on connective tissue strength.
• Load on fingers exceeds what they can actively produce, causing them to “yield.”
• Produces greater force outputs than concentric movements.

Concentric (Overcoming)

• Involves actively pulling against an immovable object (e.g., maximal effort finger curls).
• Isolates finger flexors, targeting raw strength.
• Force exerted matches what the fingers alone can produce.

Both styles of movement patterns are necessary. Concentric pulls typically measure 50% to 70% of eccentric pulls. In practice, active finger strength is the difference between staying on a hold and being able to action it.

Coordination

• Getting better at hangboarding doesn’t equate to getting better at climbing.
  • Strength training includes a skill component (e.g., learning an exercise vs. getting stronger at it).
  • Early gains in unstable exercises (e.g., rings, calisthenics) often come from coordination rather than raw strength.
• However, the training objectives (stated above) do, therefore, to optimizing finger strength training means to maximize finger invovement.
• That implies
  • Elbow and shoulder positions should also maximize force production rather than replicate climbing form.
  • In general, it is suboptimal to train on small crimps.
  • Unlevel-style edges slightly stretch FDP and FDS tendons, optimizing force production.
  • Focussing on peak force, not stamina. Stamina is better trained through climbing-specific endurance work.

Strength and Power

On Strength

• Hypertrophy (Muscle Growth):
  • More muscle mass = greater strength capacity.
  • Not achieved through high-volume, low-intensity climbing - requires progressive overload.
• Voluntary Activation:
  • The nervous system plays a critical role in generating maximal force.
  • Strength training improves voluntary activation, meaning the ability to fully engage muscle fibers on demand.
  • More activation = greater force production without additional muscle mass.
  • This is especially important for maximal contact strength and force recruitment on holds.
• Tissue Stiffness:
  • Changes in tissue quality (not just size) improve strength and resilience.
  • Slow, heavy loading over time strengthens tendons and ligaments.
  • Load type doesn’t matter - consistency and progressive overload do.
• Power:
  • Strength improvements enable power gains.

Actionables

• Method of load doesn’t matter much - choose the most effective tool.
• Edge size selection matters:
  • Too small = limits potential loading, better for coordination.
  • Too large = doesn’t effectively target fingers.
  • Best range: 25mm, 30mm, 35mm.
• Training parameters:
  • High intensity
  • Max effort with long rests
  • Low volume (few reps, long recovery)

On Power

• https://www.climbing.com/skills/power-training-off-the-wall-part-i/
• Strength alone is not enough - applying force quickly is key to climbing performance.
• Power is critical for appling force quickly, decelerate efficiently, and move through space effectively.
• Power is the ability to generate force fast, which translates to improved contact strength, explosive movement, and dynamic control on the wall.
• Key elements of power in climbing
  • Rate of force developent (RFD): The speed at which force is applied. Faster RFD = quicker grip engagement and dynamic movement execution.
  • Contact sterngth: The ability to rapidly grip a hold with maximum force, critical for deadpoints and dynamic movement.
  • Reactive strength: The ability to absorb force and redirect it efficiently.
  • Tissue stiffness (tendon, pulley, joints): Tissue stifness improves force transmission and minimize energy loss, making explosive movements more effective.

Actionables

• Lower intensity than strength training, typically x% of max effort load.
• Reduce fatigue to ensure quality of movement.
• Maintain high intent for velocity - each rep should be as explosive as possible.
• Dynamic Exercises for Power Training
  • Fast concentric contractions (e.g., explosive finger curls or assisted plyometric hangs).
  • Drop-catch drills (rapid release and re-grip on a hangboard).
  • Campus board training (focused on short bursts, not endurance).
  • Short, powerful deadpoints or max-effort limit bouldering.
  • Weighted pull-ups with intentional acceleration.

Power training is the conversion of that strength into usable performance on the wall.