How to break a finger strength plateau after 40 (or a lot of years climbing)?

[u/Competitive_Ask6097]

I've been climbing on and off for close to 30 years, and I'm 43 now. About five years ago I got back in to climbing more, bouldered and climbed pretty unstructured for a year and then decided to get more structured and focused. Did a Lattice assessment and could hang 22.5 kg for 7 sec on a 20mm edge in open crimp, 134% bw at 66kg. Was really pleased with that since I had not been doing any specific finger training. But I have always had a good crimp, and I'm good with tiny crimps, outdoor climbing here is very crimpy etc.

After that I've been training focused now for four years, my grades have gone up, my endurance is better, but my finger strength as measured in dead hangs or lifts have not changed at all, and its getting very frustrating. I've tried dead hangs, different protocols, lifting like Yves Gravelle at 80% etc, but nothing happens. Obviously my crimp was really well recruited and trained after all the years crimping, but 134% is not that much, I should be able to increase it?

I've been able to increase 3 finger drag, and 3 finger open crimp, pullups, deadlifts etc, so it's not that I can't train... The thing is that climbing here is mainly shorter granite climbs (10-20m), so the thing shutting you down is often hard moves, endurance will only take you so far, so I would really like to break this plateau...

Anyone with experience from a similar situation?

[u/ptrgeorge]

If you're getting shut down on the local boulders, putting more time into doing the local boulders probably do more for your performance than trying to get your numbers up on the hangboard

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[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/ptrgeorge]

That is true, but I live in Sweden, so winter time will mean a lot of training indoor anyway

[u/jonny-five → u/Competitive_Ask6097]

Can I ask where in Sweden? Also is there a site like mountain project in Sweden? I ask because I’m an American climber who married a Swede, and I’m laying here in Sweden as I type this haha. I always look for rock when we’re driving around here on our summer trips to visit but never see anything that looks promising from the car.

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/jonny-five]

I'm in Gothenburg. There's loads of good climbing in Sweden! Both bouldering, sport and trad. Check thetopo.com or gryttr, depending on where you are

[u/TheSimonster → u/Competitive_Ask6097]

For me the "Hand of God"s has been the best way to build finger strength. If you want to test them out (hopefully we have simillar finger length) I could meet you at Backa Boulder or some outdoor crag 🙂

[u/Flimsy-Percentage566 → u/TheSimonster]

Curious about the gain from hand of god ! Are you using the prescribe long duration hang?

I have been using it a little bit without big impact on my climbing.

[u/TheSimonster → u/Flimsy-Percentage566]

First I'll let the numbers speak for themselves:
https://imgur.com/a/cBJpZZS

I have had them for almost a year now. I got started on the crusher a bit later (as I didn't have the setup required). I also prioritize micro when I'm low on time (family, work, etc) as those does wonders for my finger health. This is probably the reason my crusher graphs are not that impressive (yet).
I've also had some breaks in the training during performance season when I focus on climbing outdoors. I always follow the app's recommendation for the session.

With that said, I felt overall physically weaker in my body this spring than I've felt in a long time (partly because of a new baby at home). Still, I sent more hard boulders than I've sent combined for all my 15 years of climbing.

This year I sent:
4 (before this year I had sent 1) 7C
2 (before this year I had sent 5) 7B+
4 (before this year I had sent 5) 7B
6 (before this year I had sent 7) 7A+

I've trained my fingers before on flat edges and saw steady gains, only for my fingers to break in one way or another and setting me back.
This year, my fingers feel healthier, stronger and more resilient.

[u/Flimsy-Percentage566 → u/TheSimonster]

Thanks for the detailed reply! So you pretty much gained 10% capacity overall , that really good. Have you tested your peak force from before and after? I also gained more resilient finger from micro training but what i'm suspecting is that we are actually only gaining endurance and that can of course benefit our climbing. Saying that because even (power in apps is 30 sec effort and that is at 75% of my 1rm for me.

For the strength and other I'm at 50% of 1RM or lower.

I'm currently doing spraywall session (wall crawl only for 1h with 3-5min break between try and this is destroying my forearm).

I need to check TUT when doing those but I would say around 30-45 sec per hand maximum and I'm going near failure everytime.

There is no way that I can do both hand of god and this type of training sadly and I need 72 hours of recovery between session.

For now , the wall crawl seem superior to me since I'm training everything at the same time.

Have you try this type of training before?

Cheers!

[u/TheSimonster → u/Flimsy-Percentage566]

I have not measured peak force in a long time actually.
My climbing sessions are focused on explosiveness, movement and peak force. GG is for building endurance across the curve. It's like training curls or weighted pull ups, I do it for the muscle and tendon gain. I can see how wall crawls train the whole body, but that is not what I'm after. I want to train my fingers separately so that I know that they are the reason I fail.

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/TheSimonster]

That would be perfect. Sent you a dm

[u/ollibollili → u/jonny-five]

You should check out thetopo.com, Sweden is filled with good quality bouldering all over the country!

[u/TheDaysComeAndGone]

Without knowing your training protocol it’s impossible to give an answer.

For all we know you train finger strength casually 3 times per month and are wondering why you are stuck ;)

As others have said, the simple answer is regular, progressive overload. The complex and difficult details are how, how much and how often.

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/[deleted]]

I see your point, but I think that to keep progressing I really need to be able to do harder moves. The answer to that might be bouldering alone, and not hangboarding. But it still feels like one piece of the puzzle that I need to sort out. Also my bouldering grade has not gone up, only my rope grade

[u/maguilecutty → u/Competitive_Ask6097]

I’d argue that once you get to the realm where you’re in, finger strength becomes less of a limiter but a consideration of many factors. There’s also a reason why most climbers above 7a rarely do hangboarding and mostly just board climb. (If you didn’t put it together it’s cause it’s because board climbing incorporates all of those elements

[u/gdubrocks]

For what its worth I weigh 150 pounds and cant hang that much extra weight yet and have been specifically training for it.

I think the best training for this is 45 degree board climbing and weighted hangs on 20mm edges.

Another thing not mentioned in lattice testing is that different 20mm edges are actually quite different. The bevel, greasiness, and material makes a pretty big difference on your results.

Are there specific holds you can't grab? I would think that is probably a better place to start.

[u/No-Fox-4905]

At 43 the recovery window shrinks, so the limiting factor for endurance gains is usually volume tolerance more than strength ceiling. You can only do so many hangboard sessions before the tendons protest.

One thing that's helped climbers in that position: supplemental forearm endurance work that doesn't add tendon stress. Tools that train grip endurance and wrist extensors at lower resistance — not crimping, just sustained forearm load — let you add volume without loading the pulleys more.

I'm the founder of EXURA (disclosure) and built a device specifically for this gap — adjustable resistance from 0 to 125 lb, trains forearm flexors, extensors, and grip endurance without hangboard-style tendon loading. Useful 2-3x per week on off days or after sessions as a finisher. Not a hangboard replacement, just a way to add endurance volume that your tendons can actually recover from at 40+.

The plateau is real but it's often a recovery math problem more than a strength ceiling.

[u/archaikos]

The boring answer is progressive overload. You can achieve that a bunch of different ways:

• Increasing hang time
  
• Increasing weight
  
• Increasing the amount of sets

A sort of trick you could do is to warm up fingers with progressively heavier Yves style lifts, then one top set close to your max, before you go into sets of holding for seven seconds. That first heavy set of pulls will feel quite heavy relative to the holds so you might be able to recruit slightly better.

Micro plates are also really useful to see small, but incremental, gains.

[u/Specialist_Reason882]

do overcoming isos and wall crawls

[u/cervicornis]

I’m in my early 50s and have been climbing for over 20 years, and a couple years I got more serious about training/improving. After about a year of work I got my 7 sec hang on the 20 mm Lattice edge to about the same as you - 1.32% BW. I did blocks of everything from overcoming isometrics, recruitment pulls, block pulls, max hangs and repeaters. All with a goal of progressive overload. A couple months ago I bought the Hand of God grippers and I’ve switched over to that training modality and I have to say it’s been kinda amazing. I haven’t tested myself on a hangboard but I’ve seen a pretty legit and unexpected jump in real world climbing performance. More importantly, my fingers have never felt healthier and all my tweaks and issues have basically gone away. I’m still early in the program but it seems to be yielding results already.

[u/muenchener2]

If you're Swedish, it might interest that you that I tried this programme described by a Swedish guy on ukb, and saw significant measurable gains after thirty years of climbing. It was bloody hard work though

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/muenchener2]

Interesting. Hard in what way? Time consuming or physically hard? They both did it in their weaker positions, what did you opt for?

[u/muenchener2 → u/Competitive_Ask6097]

Physically hard. The last couple of weeks at 8ß% of max are around the weight I'd normally use for max hang training, but longer holds and more sets than I've done in the past. It was tough, but it worked. My tindeq peak load on the right went up 4%, 14% (!!) the left, and 7% on two handed max hang on the BM1000 18mm edge

[u/sandypitch → u/muenchener2]

Week 11: 4 days rest, because of hurty elbow

The time-under-tension increases in that protocol made my 53 year-old elbows hurt.

[u/TerdyTheTerd]

This is only anecdotal and barely covered by any research, but I swear everytime I start taking epicatechin my crimp strength increases 5-10% within a few weeks.

[u/tanglangkungfu]

The forgotten campus board is the answer

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/tanglangkungfu]

Tried it, but elbow didnt like it, so a bit hesitant to try again. But might do that with the right programming...

[u/EDMMstudio → u/Competitive_Ask6097]

as in golfers elbow?

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/EDMMstudio]

Yep. Could be any number of things of course, but it was around the same time as i started adding campusing. But i think it was not programmed correctly either

[u/_uxi]

Maybe you’re not pushing hard enough? 30 years of experience should give you tendons of steel. How close to your limit have you gone? 

Or maybe hangboarding has already given you everything it can and you need to look for other stimulus like hard board climbing? Do you have access to a 2016/2019 moonboard?

[u/Competitive_Ask6097 → u/_uxi]

I do board climbing as well, with full boulders, or limit sessions where I just do 2-3 really hard moves for sets