UKC

I was wondering if anybody had some non-anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness of finger boarding as a training tool? I know there is lots of anecdotal evidence, but I have been struggling to find any hard evidence. I'm toying with the idea of easing my way into finger boarding, but I don't to if there's no proof that it will help me!

Thanks!

In reply to Ihem:

More than you ever wanted to know

http://en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com/

In reply to Ihem:

Here's about 20 more research papers on it:

https://beta-angel.com/research/research-inventory/finger-strength/

In reply to Ihem:

I have read many, probably most, peer reviewed papers mentioning finger boarding. I haven't come across a single paper where they have evaluated transfer of finger boarding to actual climbing. What is clear is that by doing finger boarding you get better at finger boarding, and that good climbers are better than intermediate climbers at finger boarding (who in turn are better than beginners and non-climbers at the same). The evidence at hand is probably enough to say with some certainty that finger boarding is a good idea, but no one any evidence for which program transfer best to climbing.

In reply to Ihem:

What will you do instead?

In reply to Tyler:

Keep climbing

In reply to jwi:

Thanks, this is what I had found too. It would be nice to see causation as well as correlation but nice to know it will probably help!

In reply to planetmarshall:

Wow, that's pretty in depth, thanks!

In reply to John Kettle:

That's great thanks!

In reply to Ihem:

I don't know if tompr still posts on here much, but I'd imagine that the him and the other folks at lattice would have some opinions (and maybe a bit of data....) about that:

https://latticetraining.com/blog/

In reply to Ihem: Well the starting point is how hard do you climb, and how often can you climb?

 

Anecdotal evidence is probably as good as any on this particular subject. 

Im an intermediate climber (7b+/c ish) who has/had very weak fingers for the grade as confirmed by a lattice training assessmemt. In just 1 month of weighted fingerboarding every other day, tracking progress and supplementing with various forearm exercises (done heavy for strength) I've increased my finger strength by about 20%, which is way beyond what I expected. I do attribute some of this to the forearm work as well as the fingerboarding as they have grown over an inch in circumference.

This has translated to about 1 V grade in just 1 month despite neglecting actual climbing performance and movement - route grades have probably regressed as I've not done any endurance work at all during this period. Additionally, I have found that I'm sharing the load between open hand, half crimp and full crimp much more, whereas I used to full crimp absolutely everything. This feels safer as well as stronger.  

In reply to Ihem:

Certainly anecdotal - so not evidence based I'm afraid - but I'm 46, very busy, and unable to get to a wall more than once a week due to work commitments (sometimes less than that). I installed a Beastmaker 1000 a couple of years ago as a last ditch effort before admitting defeat and giving up climbing (it was extremely frustrating, not being able to climb as much as I liked). It's taken me all that time (usually 3x per week using the app) but I can now get through the 7a session (from not being able to get through even 1/4 of a easiest session at the start). I've lost weight, toned up, got way stronger and climb better than I ever have done. It may be coincidence. Or maybe it's due to fingerboarding. 

 

In reply to Liamhutch89:

I'd be curious to hear more details of this, if you don't mind  sharing!  I know of various forearm exercises, but would be interested to know what you found helpful and how you fitted it into a programme.

In reply to slab_happy:

I do 3 sets for each of the following exercises:

Finger curls

Reverse wrist curl 

Normal wrist curl

Im aiming for progression each workout whether that be more weight or reps (keeping them between 6 and 12), and I do them after fingerboarding (every other day).

All were with dumbells, but now I've set up a rolling pull up bar and do the finger curls hanging on that, soon to be weighted.

 

Clearly these are very non specific to climbing, but I chose to include them based on finger strength coming from the forearm muscles (no muscles in the fingers), and an uneducated guess that training those muscles through a range of motion in combination with isometric fingerboard training would provide better strength gains than just isometrics. It's working well 

In reply to Liamhutch89:

Cool, thanks!

In reply to Liamhutch89:

"Im an intermediate climber (7b+/c ish) "

How depressing!

In reply to Ihem:

Well, you should be doing that anyway! *g* I think there are relatively few contexts where it'd be advisable for someone to cut down on their climbing time and fingerboard *instead*; it's an add-on, not a substitute.

In reply to Ihem:

Since fingerboarding isn't fundamentally different from other forms of strength training (yes, it's training isometric holds, but there's plenty of research on that too), it would be a very unusual finding if it didn't lead to improvements in finger strength.

But obviously climbing's multi-factorial, which makes it tricky to evaluate transfer to climbing -- all other things being equal, stronger fingers will probably help, but (for example) maybe someone already has fingers which are more than strong enough for the grades they climb at but their technique is terrible.

So it's going to be impossible to get a neat bit of research that says "if your fingers get X percent stronger, you will automatically climb Y grades harder". Though the Lattice database might produce some useful correlations if anything does ...

As to whether fingerboarding will be helpful *for you*, that's a different question. The answer will depend on things like: how long have you been climbing for? What sort of grades are you climbing at? How often are you climbing each week? Is lack of finger strength actually what's holding you back right now? (For example, maybe you don't have problems hanging onto small holds, but you can't move off them.) Are you using your climbing time to work on your weaknesses? Would fingerboarding crowd out other training stuff that might be more useful for you? Can you motivate yourself easily to do training activities, or do you find them soul-destroyingly boring?

If you can give a bit more info about where you're at, you can probably get some excellent advice from people about whether fingerboarding is likely to be helpful for you, and what protocols you might try.

There's not going to be a research paper out there at the moment which can give you a yes/no answer on this, but there's a lot of practical wisdom to call on.

In reply to Ihem:

Despite being a firm believer in the scientific method (or perhaps because of that belief), I think it would very difficult to conclude that finger boarding is better for climbing in general, and you specifically.

Is finger boarding beneficial for finger strength? Indubitably. Is finger strength beneficial for climbing? Undoubtedly.

But would ‘most climbers’ benefit from finger boarding? Probably not - as Dave Macleod and numerous other coaches stress, finger strength is only one part of the climbing equation, and for most climbers it’s probably not the part that’s holding them back.

So is it worth you starting to use a fingerboard? Impossible for me to say, and even more impossible for a scientific study.

FWIW before I started using a fingerboard, I couldn’t even statically hang the holds of my 8a project, even when rested. Having been a fingerboard devotee for a year, last week I linked the whole route to the last-hold-but-one  :O 

In reply to steve taylor:

Yes, but about right I'd say in the grand scope of things