How should beginners prepare for rock climbing and how should they practice finger strength?

Rock climbing is a challenging sport that requires you to rely on your own strength, especially the strength of your fingers, to climb little by little. If you want to learn rock climbing, in addition to improving your physical fitness, you also need to practice your finger strength. So how should a novice rock climber prepare?

How to prepare for rock climbing

The first and most fundamental point is that you must have a certain physical foundation, and you must have exercised regularly in the past and have good physical fitness. If you are a novice and have no physical foundation, I advise you not to get started with rock climbing as it is very dangerous.

The second thing is to carry out targeted training. Rock climbing does not rely solely on arm and leg strength, it involves a wide range of aspects and requires the coordination of muscles and joints of the whole body.

The first thing to do is to train your finger strength, grip and wrist strength. Common training equipment includes hand grippers. You can train several times a day for about 30 minutes each time. You can also practice wrist flexion with dumbbells, which can also train your lower arm strength. Spread your five fingers, then hold them tightly, repeat this exercise, and practice your grip strength. This is a simple training method that is very effective. If you stick to it every day, I believe you will see a big change.

Finally, it is important to learn some knowledge about rock climbing, some precautions, and some details of the preparation work. Keeping them in mind will be of great help to you, helping you reduce unnecessary risks and enjoy the joy of the sport.

How to practice finger strength in rock climbing

Everyone has different climbing abilities, and finger strength training should be done after a certain level of climbing is achieved, otherwise it is easy to get injured. Secondly, climbers can also get finger strength training from simple climbing.

The most effective way to train finger strength is to do fingerboard hanging training. Fingerboard hanging can only be performed when the climber's fingers are healthy. During training, novices or climbers with injured fingers should stop training immediately if they feel any abnormal sensation.

Before practicing fingerboarding, you should warm up thoroughly, such as doing simple boulder climbing for 30 minutes. If you don't have the conditions to do climbing training, you can do jogging, push-ups and other warm-ups to promote blood circulation. Adequate warm-up can gradually increase the weight on the fingers and joints, which can effectively prevent finger injuries.

Before hanging, you can do a few pull-ups or hang for 10-15 seconds on the horizontal bar or the large point on the fingerboard to fully activate your fingers. In the training arrangement, first do a relatively simple and long hang, and then do a short and difficult hang. Each time you can do this exercise for 10-15 minutes.

In addition, you can make a plan and record the amount of training each time. This way you can control the difficulty and amount of training. After a cycle of finger strength training, you can stop and take a proper rest.

The health of your fingers is very important. For safety reasons, it is recommended to seek training from a professional rock climbing coach.

Can girls do rock climbing?

From a physiological perspective, girls have certain advantages in terms of flexibility, balance and toughness.

However, women's disadvantage is also strength. In simple terms, rock climbing is a fixed-point climbing sport, which requires athletes to have great muscle strength to overcome their body weight and climb upward. Women's muscles are not well developed and their glycogen content is less than that of men, so female climbers are at a disadvantage in terms of strength. However, it can also be improved through strength training.

However, women who want to take up rock climbing have to consider several things first: first, long-term rock climbing will cause calluses on the hands; second, toenails and fingernails need to be trimmed shorter, which will affect manicures; third, muscle growth, because the use of strength is crucial in rock climbing.

It should be noted that women's absolute strength grows fastest between the ages of 13 and 14, and their strength is greatest between the ages of 20 and 23. Women also need to arrange exercise according to their age and physical condition during training.