[douglas]

I asked this question in another thread a while ago but it didn't get answered. Does anyone have any insight?

Would someone be able to answer this question. Say I have equal crimp and open handed strength. I train open grips for a year and get x stronger. Do I need to train for another year to get x stronger on crimps? Assume the effectiveness of the training is equal for crimps and open.

What I want to know is, when getting stronger on crimps will some strength that I had open handed be moved to crimp or do I need to gain the crimp muscle mass from scratch?

Cheers!

It was mainly in response to this quote that got me thinking.

"Strength gained at one angle will only transfer weakly to other angles. For the fingers this is further complicated because each finger is multi joint, so there is more than one muscle involved, each contributing to a different degree depending on the grip used. For this reason training open handed will not transfer to the crimp grip. If you want to get stronger on crimps you have to train on crimps.
"
 
From here <http://www.theclimbingdepot.co.uk/blogs/training/blog-3-how-we-get-stronger>


Thanks

[jwi]

I vaguely remember some result on isometric training for the upper arm (and I think the legs?) that isometric training of a  muscle in slightly contracted position (15° or so ~open hand grip) had some slight transfer to isometric strength in a position with the muscle in a strongly contracted position (~crimp), but no transfer the other way around.  Can't be bothered to look it up now, because I think the result is of little importance.

The entire movement pattern is different when you hold a crimp from when you hold an edge with open hand. When you hold a crimp your lever is shorter and it is possible to lean out more (which is more wasteful but may be the only way to do a certain move).  Training for climbing is primarily about learning movement so it makes sense to train all grip positions, unless you are injured.

[TobyD]

because I think the result is of little importance.

The entire movement pattern is different when you hold a crimp from when you hold an edge with open hand. ... Training for climbing is primarily about learning movement so it makes sense to train all grip positions, unless you are injured.

  Climbing is such a dynamic, varied activity that lab testing is probably rather meaningless, unless you are very focussed on improved beastmaker performance. I think that using a variety of hold types is as much getting used to the feeling of pulling on them, and using them 'in anger' as it is training absolute strength.

It used to be asserted that open handed training had a cross over to crimp strength, but not the other way round, but i have no idea whether this was KNOWLEDGE or pretty much conjecture, and as you say, i'm not sure it matters as much as being used to the technique of using each hold in a specifically climbing situation.

[douglas]

Not quite the answers I was looking for but thanks anyway.