As climbers, we all know that having strong fingers is important for climbing harder routes and boulders. When we first start climbing, we develop finger strength just through climbing. However, eventually, these gains level off and if you are really looking to maximize your potential, just climbing isn’t enough as it does not allow you to progressively and specifically target your fingers.
To further make the case for finger strength training, here’s an article from The Arch Climbing Wall by climber and trainer Eva Lopez about why targeted finger strength training using a hangboard is so important for climbing progression.
“Training allows us to manage and choose the load in real time; this is a safeguard against injuries and is conducive to a more gradual, solid and controlled progression as well. This becomes especially important when we resume training after rest or lower load periods and, most importantly, after an injury.” – Eva Lopez
Eva Lopez has done extensive research, even getting a PHD, on how to most effectively and safely train your fingers for climbing. In this article, she first explains how integral finger strength is to climbing and then attempts to address some common misconceptions about training your fingers. The misconceptions she touches on are:
- Finger training is dangerous
- Bouldering is sufficient for developing finger strength
- One should wait until finger strength is the main limiting factor to use a hangboard
While this article is only an introduction to the topic of finger strength training and Eva does not delve into how to most effectively training your fingers, it is a perfect introduction to the topic. If you have never specifically trained finger strength give this article a read by clicking through below. It makes a great case for just how important this kind of training is and trust us you won’t be upset with the gains you’ll see after training your fingers.
Click Here: Eva Lopez Finger Strength Training
(link no longer available)
(photo by Javipec; courtesy of archclimbingwall.com)
Other Articles You Might Like:
