Finger strength?
 

Hi everyone, I went rock climbing today with some of my friends and I had a blast.

I found that the biggest issue was that my fingers lack the endurance necessary to scale the tougher walls. Does anyone have any tips on how to build up finger endurance?

*shrugs* I've never thought of finger strength outside of playing guitar. But I did come across this:
http://www.bodyresults.com/S2preseason3.asp

You can actually get grip trainers to increase grip strength, but back in my climbing days I did it just through doing it; I kept climbing until I could hold those grips all damn day. Between that and guitar playing I built up an unreal amount of grip strength; to this day, I still have surprisingly strong hands.

Work on your flexors and extensors. They are the muscles on the top and underside of your arm that dictate your gripping power.

Wrist Curl (Do this kneeling on the ground with your arms supported by a flat bench instead of your upper legs)

Reverse Wrist Curl (kneeling and supported by a bench instead of sitting and supporting with upper legs)

Wrist Roller (This one is a favorite of mine)

And these three

Finger endurance is from strong forarm muscles.

Google 'powerball', they will help no end.

If you're in a pinch, I do fingertip pushups.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I always assumed wrist curls were for well... the wirst :lol:

i guess it's time to start doing them again

I have been checking out sandbag training lately. One of the harder part of sandbag strength training is finger grip strength. Should be great cross training for rock climbing.
A google search should get you all the info you need.

I have been climbing for 1 year, as of july 1st. My only training (besides some cardio) is climbing itself. I have gone from climbing 5.8's to leading 5.10b's. Be careful that you don't overtrain, and especially beware that tendons get stronger slower than muscles. This is why athletes that abuse steroids often have tendon injuries.

The fastest way to be a better climber is to learn good technique. Your legs will always be stronger than your arms, and good balance, technique, and smart movement can improve your ability regardless of your grip strength.

check out the rockclimbing.com forums for more info!

That's all the advice you need right there. The best training for climing, is climbing. I don't know where you're at now, but if there is a rock gym near you they'll probably have some campus boards that will help. If you have any intention of getting serious about climing you can head over to metolius to check out their guide on how to build your own campus board.

I climbed a 5.8 this time (1st time in 8 years, 2nd time overall), failed at 5.9

And while ideally I would be climbing often (rock climbing does kick ass, and reading week is coming up. Hopefully I can go climbing at least once during that time), I just don't have the time/money to do such a thing.

So I want my fingers to be adequately prepared for the next time I go, since they were the parts of my body that were holding me back.

I will definitely look into climbing technique, because I have absolutely none. While I do plan out roughly which stones to use, I climb purely with brute force.

Well I have never been worried about the problems that fingers can solicit but after going through the different opinions here as regards to the endurance of the fingers and the ways to make them better was something more than helpful to me. This would also ensure that I can be more confident the next time I plan to go for a rock climbing session.

Here's why: this is 'flexor digitorum profundus'
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...gprofundus.jpg
See how it attaches to the fingertips, but crosses the wrist and forearm.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/hs/grip.html

If you're a beginner, start with the 100lb resistance. You can also find a site that sells the whole set for around $75.

There was once something called Power Putty, which was good for working the fingers.

Apart from that, there are silicone balls in fitness shops (that I've seen) - and failing that, when I was a young punk with an interest in martial arts, I used to just squeeze an old tennis ball as I walked from A to B. This has the advantage of not looking weird. You just bounce it if anyone takes an interest.

But I think these mainly develop strength.

For endurance.... I can recommend some tough and painful piano exercises... : >

Oh yeah. Use one finger at a time... not the lot together. Otherwise it's too easy.

That sounds like a good tip :thumbsup:

If you want finger strength like me (I can pop a tennis ball and break an egg), play piano for several hours a day, every day during your teenage years.

Tennis ball... okay, that's impressive. Those things are tough.

But you can break an egg with your fingers?

Big deal. I can probably break an egg with my cheek muscles.

What kinda eggs are you busting? Platypus?

(waits for predictable physics lesson)

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You play piano? God, you can be my sidekick when I'm drunk (and thus depressed). "Play it again, WillRavel."

Just name a time and place, brother. So is this sidekick like Robin or R2D2?

A lot of these techniques will help a lot for your finger strength but what will really help is to improve your balance and the way you climb. A common mistake beginners make is to climb with their upper body when in reality you should be supporting yourself with your lower body (it is much stronger). Balance helps.

I started years ago and began doing it regularly about a year ago. I'm currently about a 5.10. When I started climbing seriously I thought I needed to improve my strength in my hands too, my forearms got huge. And then I learned balance.

Not that this couldn't work (& quite effectively), but i'm not so sure it's good advice for a beginner. I've seen seasoned climbers with more than a decade on rock have to take weeks off for overdoing it on a single finger. It's so very, very easy to go overkill on one of those tiny tendons, single fingers were never meant to work individually to assist in moving the entire weight of your body. Also you have to make sure you keep your fingers balanced, all of them, even the little guy on the end even though you would never actually use just him, - not never, but not often.