Effect of 4 weeks system training on various strength parameters in rock climbers

Rock climbing is a sport increasingly spreading around the world. Finger flexor strength and endurance are primarily performance factors in climbers. However, limited research has been investigated climbing-specific training methods regarding to increase climbers' performance. The main aim of this study was to determine the effect of 4 weeks system training (ST) on grip strength and endurance and to compare bouldering in climbers. The participants in this study, 13 male and 11 female climbers randomly allocated to control (CG, n=12) or training group (TG, n=12) for 4 weeks training regimen. Hand grip test (HG) was used as to determine grip strength before and after training session. Isometric max voluntary contraction (MVC) test on climbing-specific apparatus was used to measure max finger flexor strength for 'crimp' and 'pinch' grips with dominant (D) and non-dominant hand (ND). It has been performed intermittent finger hangs (IFH) and continues hang (DH) tests with specific grips on fingerboard to assess forearm muscle endurance. And lat-pull down test was used to determine upper body strength. After training period, HG-D value was found to significantly increased in TG, but not in CG (Δ%=4,1 p<0.05). There were significantly increase in MVCcrimp (D; Δ%=20.1 and ND; Δ%=18.2, p<0.05) and MVCpinch (D; Δ%=17.3 and ND; Δ%=15.2, p<0,05) for TG, while it were observed gains only for MVCpinch on ND hand in CG (Δ%=14.8, p<0.05). For all endurance test, there were significantly increase in TG (IHF; Δ%=41, DHcrimp; Δ%=42, DHpinch; Δ%=45, DHslope; Δ%=26 p<0,05). In CG, it was observed increased just on IFH and DHcrimp (IFH; Δ%=53.4 ve DHcrimp; Δ%=62.8 p<0,05). It was found similar strength gains between grip types and D-ND hands. According to results, ST could be suggested to use as effective training method to increase finger strength and endurance in climbing training periodization.