How to increase strength of the arms?

AndrewArroz wrote:

I said hand strength. Not just "pinching" grip strength.

If hand strength isn't important why do you think climbers do hangboard workouts?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/adventure/photos/2017/stories/alex-honnold/alex-honnold-summit/alex-honnold-van-excerise-yosemite.jpg

I think I made a mistake by interpreting your use of "hand strength" to strictly mean grip strength.  

In the picture you linked it looks like Alex is working on increasing the strength and stamina of fingers and forearms.  I reckon that for most new climbers when they hear "hand strength" they immediately, and possibly only, think of grip strength.

Jaren Watson wrote:

My technique must be awful. I use my hands on all those types of holds. Maybe if I just let go?

If you are trying to squeeze as hard as you can on slopers, jugs, crimps, etc. then, yes, that is awful technique.

Baba Fats wrote:

Your assuming that "grip strength" only applies to closing both your finders and thumb around something.  In fact, grip strength involves any hand strength used to hold something or hang from something.  You don't pinch the handle of a bucket, but you use grip strength to keep from dropping it.  That's a similar grip to holding a jug.  

Pinches are the most used type where you close your fingers and thumb around a hold, but all climbing holds require grip strength.  If you had none, your fingers would just flap open and you'd never keep your hands on the wall

For almost everyone who tries rock climbing for the first time, whether in a gym or outdoors, they ALREADY have enough "hand strength" to hold on to a jug.  If anything they have the opposite problem of utilizing too much hand strength and end up overgripping the jugs!

Jaren Watson wrote:

You know what else is awful? Your reading comprehension.

hahahahaha

Fritz N. wrote:

Don't forget to work your antagonist muscles with exercises like pushups, dips and reverse wrist curls to prevent lopsided muscle development, which can contribute to tendonitis.

There's no good evidence that's true. What would be the mechanism for it to cause injury?

It's just something people have been saying for a long time. Lots of climbers do not do any antagonist exercises, but don't get any injury from that.

If "lopsided" muscle really were a problem, then climbers would be in big trouble, because our finger/forearm flexors are always going to be way way stronger than our finger/forearm extensors.

Ken

Jen Saito wrote:

Thank you all for your advice! I'll do hard in the gym and hope to try myself at outdoors within the next few weeks. 

I'm going to take a trip to the Cascade Mountain (Adirondacks) in September, it's almost 5 miles long hiking trails and which endswith a little open rock for climbing. Having heard that most people who attempt to hike the all Adirondack high peaks start with Cascade, so do I. Have anybody been there?)

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're planning to hike up Cascade, then do some climbing near the end of the trail? I'll say that if you haven't climbed and/or hiked outdoors a lot, I would recommend against this. I suspect you'll find that you enjoy hiking and climbing more when they're separate. Hiking is made less fun by carrying a bunch of climbing gear, and by the time you get to the climbing you'll be tired from the hiking. Some people do it and enjoy it, but for me it would have to be a truly amazing climb for me to do a 5 mile approach hike.

The Adirondacks are great for both climbing and hiking, though. If you only climb a few of the peaks, I recommend Algonquin be one of them. It's easier than some of the shorter peaks and it has better views usually than the only taller peak (Marcy).

As some folks have said, it's as much or more setting things up so you can push with your legs rather than just being about pulling with your arms. That being said, every time I've wanted more 'arm strength' I've found it easier to lose weight than to necessarily get stronger arms.

Jaren Watson wrote:

You know what else is awful? Your reading comprehension.

Heh

If you want to evaluate reading comprehension then I'll point out that I talked about hand strength in regards to grip strength on different types of holds. 

Yet your response was to highlight the fact that you use your hands on holds - period.

So.....

kenr wrote:

There's no good evidence that's true.

http://nicros.com/training/training-articles/antagonist-muscle-training-to-prevent-injury/

http://trainingforclimbing.com/training-the-wrist-stabilizers/ 

I'll take Eric Horst's word for it, plus my personal experience with golfer's elbow. I was paying eighty bucks a week for physical therapy. Upon impelenting antagonist muscle training, I no longer had to go to PT and haven't had a flare-up since.

Your turn to cite some sources.

In my experience it's actually slopers that require the most hand strength and the most subtle, unique to climbing use of hand muscles. Which is totally distinct from crushing handshake grip type of strength. 

Jaren Watson wrote:

True, you did. And yet, despite it being blatantly obvious that every single hold imaginable requires some degree of hand strength, you somehow believe only pinches require hand strength.

But don't believe me (or everyone else). Test it for yourself. Next time you go climbing, don't bend your fingers. Keep them straight as boards and see how well you move up the route.

OK... so now you're acting as if I said not to flex ones fingers at all....

Where did I say that?

It's looking more and more like it was a very bad idea for you to accuse me of poor reading comprehension.

Pinches are the only holds where the climber benefits from squeezing harder.

Once you're holding onto a jug, squeezing it harder does not help.

Once you've got you fingertips onto a crimp, squeezi - you can't even squeeze a crimp as there is nothing to apply an opposing force onto.  You CAN, however, benefit from putting your thumb over as many of your fingers as you're able to in order to increase your purchase on the crimp.

Once you've got your hand(s) on a sloper, squeezing it harder will push you off of it.  You CAN, however, apply varying amounts of pressure with different parts of your fingers, especially your fingertips in order to increase your traction on the sloper.

Khoi wrote:

Once you've got your hand(s) on a sloper, squeezing it harder will push you off of it.  You CAN, however, apply varying amounts of pressure with different parts of your fingers, especially your fingertips in order to increase your traction on the sloper.

And fingers are not part of your hand? You think only "squeezing" is an expression of grip strength (or hand strength as some of you put it), but most grips in climbing require isometric strength (holding a static position with force applied). Maybe any new climber to the gym have the hand strength to hang on to jugs on the vertical wall, but you put them on a 45-degree overhang, ask them to hang onto a jug and shake out, and see how many of them can actually recover instead of fall off.

aikibujin wrote:

And fingers are not part of your hand? You think only "squeezing" is an expression of grip strength (or hand strength as some of you put it), but most grips in climbing require isometric strength (holding a static position with force applied). Maybe any new climber to the gym have the hand strength to hang on to jugs on the vertical wall, but you put them on a 45-degree overhang, ask them to hang onto a jug and shake out, and see how many of them can actually recover instead of fall off.

I agree that isometric strength is important, far far far more important than grip strength (except when it comes to pinches).  When Andrew mentioned the importance of "hand strength" I erroneously thought he was solely referring to grip strength.  I encounter far too many [new] climbers (especially boulderers....) who are too fixated on improving their grip strength.

Khoi wrote:

I agree that isometric strength is important, far far far more important than grip strength (except when it comes to pinches).  

Urgh. The point I was making is that grip strength in rock climbing IS expressed isometrically. Even the pinch. Unless you're so strong you can crush the hold.

kenr wrote:

There's no good evidence that's true. What would be the mechanism for it to cause injury?

It's just something people have been saying for a long time. Lots of climbers do not do any antagonist exercises, but don't get any injury from that.

If "lopsided" muscle really were a problem, then climbers would be in big trouble, because our finger/forearm flexors are always going to be way way stronger than our finger/forearm extensors.

Ken

climbing friend,

yes, working your antagonizer it does nothing, except make your body appear even more sexier.

I don't think the OP needs arm strength for what she's doing.

That said, it's absolutely helpful for many climbers to develop a modicum of upper body strength outside of just climbing, especially when one gets into steeper terrain and/or bouldering. Scapular pullup (vertical control) and wide grip pullup (lateral control) are especially good for injury prevention.

As for the "antagonizer" thing, climbing movement is varied enough that many climbing "antagonizers" are still used/useful in different style of climbing. Triceps? crucial for mantel & when making longer moves. Forearm extensors? very much engaged for steep climbing or long lock-offs (and if too tight, will deter your fingers from engaging in closed-grip position). Chest? definitely used in twist lock & compression. Etc, etc.

I think wall press is useful for it.

And that's pretty much it.

Trevor West wrote:

Keep in mind that climbing is about an intense workout. Every movement up or down puts the whole body to work. But if you say that you don't have power in your arms, weight lifting and indoor training climbing worked for me. I read in other forums that people also consume supplements to increase their strength, which I consider wrong. The best supplements are good sleep and high protein foods. Be aware that some supplements are still in the research process, as you can read here rats.army and do not necessarily have long-term positive effects.

sleep is #1

for best sleep hygiene maybe consider

no blue light after sunset use blu blocker glasses

don't eat 3 hours before bedtime

black out bedroom

keep bedroom cool temperature 

use earplugs if it's not quiet in bedroom

get on and stay on a circadian rhythm same bedtime and wakey wakey time each day

supplements help and the best is gorilla dream

https://gorillamind.com/products/gorilla-dream?_pos=1&_psq=drea&_ss=e&_v=1.0