Climbers can do workouts at their homes without any dedicated climbing training equipment or fingerboards. Here we will mention three grip strength exercises for climbers, which will help them maximize grip strength at home in the lockdown period.
We often say practice makes a man perfect. This quote is applicable for climbers also. A regular climbing journey improves your climbing capacity and enhances core stamina. But in the covid-19 pandemic, rock climbers won’t get enough opportunity to practice outside due to lockdown. At this resting phase, climbers should focus on building their gripping strength. Bettering grip strength can expand your capacity on routes with specific kinds of holds you may encounter.
Thus, let’s discuss the top three easy yet practical grip strengthening exercises that will help you move towards betterment. To learn more, read this article till the end.
Warmups
Before doing some strength exercise, a warmup is a must. Warmup routine increases blood circulation to muscles and tendons of specific areas. Before grip strengthening exercise, you have to warm up your hands. Here we mention some warmup exercises such as:
- Straight fingers
- Hooked fist
- Full fist
- Flat fist
- Relaxed elastic bands
- Tensile elastic bands
Finger Lifts
Finger lifts exercise is helpful to maximize forearm muscle strength as well as finger joint flexibility.
To make finger-lift exercise challenging, increase the holding period gradually before increasing the weight.
Requirements for finger lifts:
Here you need a heavy object with a handle, for example, an extensive DVD carry case or weighted rucksack.
How to do it:
- Stand with the rucksack on the ground, bend your knees and then push it up to a standing position
- Then regulate the object so that it hangs from your fingertips
- Next, gradually curl your fingers to a perpendicular position
- Hold this tightly for a minimum of 15 seconds
- When 15 seconds is crossed, slowly lower back down your fingertips
- Repeat these three reps a session
- Then do the same with another hand
Pinch strength
Pinching is another important grip strengthening exercise that is effective for climbing holds. To make this exercise difficult and challenging, increase the holding time gradually to maximum periods before augmenting the weight with further objects.
On the other hand, you can increase the weight up to shoulder height to foster movements.
What you need:
You must have a heavy-weight object that can be placed at multiple widths between your four fingers and the thumb at the pinching gesture. Imagine pinching a hard thing like brick, books, food can; try it with varying thicknesses.
How to do it:
- Place the set of books on the ground or table so that you can upright later
- Compress the end of the book between your thumb and four other fingers, then stand upright with the object
- Hold this for at least 15 seconds
- When 15 seconds have passed, slowly lower the set of books back down on the table or on the resting surface and then rest your hand for the next 30 seconds.
- Repeat this pinching form for three times
- Then perform this with another hand
Rolling Slopers
This exercise strengthens forearm muscles as well as your fingers joints. To make this exercise more challenging, prolong the holding time gradually before increasing the weight with heavier loads.
What you need:
You need to take a cylindrical object in shape; for example, you can take a foam roller or rolling pin that you can twist around your hand. It would help if you likewise had a length of string or line which, with the utilization of a clove hitch or other appropriate bunch, can hold the roller without slipping. Join the rope to a weighted item with a handle like a clothes washer fluids bottle. On the off chance that you have genuine rec center loads, these could make the activity harder.
How to do it:
- Take the foam roller above your waist height so that the heavy object remain off the ground
- Then twist and turn the roller with any of your hands to coil the cord around the foam roller.
- When the loaded object meet the roller, hold It for a minimum of 5 seconds
- Then gradually release the coil back so that the thing lower down to its initial position
- Repeat this three times for each hand.
Grip strength is essential for every case, from sports to the gym to regular life. Grip strength is the biomarker of your muscle health and a heart condition. Experts proved that if an individual has muscular grip strength, he must have a better quality of life in old age because he has enough muscle strength and flexibility. However, grip strength can be developed by regular practice. You can use the best hand grip strengthener to build your forearm muscle strength and finger joint flexibility gradually.
