Climbing-specific finger flexor performance and forearm muscle oxygenation in elite male and female sport climbers

Abstract

Climbing performance relies to a great extent on the performance of the finger flexor muscles. Only a few studies investigated this performance in top class climbers and only one study compared gender-specific differences. This study investigated the climbing-specific finger flexor strength and endurance and related muscular oxygenation in 12 elite female and male climbers and 12 non-climbers. After the assessment of maximum voluntary finger flexor contraction (MVC), two isometric finger flexor endurance tests were performed at 40% MVC until exhaustion. A continuous isometric test was followed by an intermittent isometric test (10 s contraction, 3 s rest). Changes in oxygenation of finger flexor muscles were recorded using near infrared spectroscopy. MVC and strength-to-weight ratio were greater in climbers than non-climbers (P = 0.003; P < 0.001) and greater in men than women (P < 0.001; P = 0.002). Time to task failure for the intermittent test and the force-time integrals for the continuous and the intermittent test were also significantly greater in climbers (P = 0.030; P = 0.027; P = 0.005). During the intermittent test, re-oxygenation of the working muscles was faster in climbers (P < 0.05) without gender-specific differences. Close correlations were demonstrated between the best on-sight climbing performance and strength-to-weight ratio (r (2) = 0.946, P < 0.001) only in female climbers. The superior intermittent finger flexor endurance of climbers over non-climbers may be explained by the faster re-oxygenation of the finger flexor muscles during the short rest phases.

Estimation of hand and wrist muscle capacities in rock climbers

“…The many years of climbing practice, therefore, seem to have increased the finger flexors capacities by almost 40 %. This result was obviously expected given the numerous studies which demonstrated significant higher performances of climbers when grasping fingertip holds (Watts and Drobish 1998;Mermier et al 1997;Cutts and Bollen 1985;Grant et al 2003;Philippe et al 2012). Nevertheless, this study brought new information by quantifying this improvement at the muscle level.…”

“…However, additional subjects and one non-climber female sample should be tested to confirm this trend. One interesting point is that normalizing the moment-generating capacities with the body mass of each individual, as it is generally done to highlight the performance of climbers (Philippe et al 2012), does not change the results significantly.…”

“…In particular, because their practice requires the use of small-depth holds, climbers can generate higher force intensities at the fingertips than non-climbers (Grant et al 2003;Quaine et al 2003). Climbers are also able to maintain high levels of fingertip forces over longer periods than non-trained individuals; mainly thanks to an increase in their forearm muscles' vascularisation Philippe et al 2012). In contrast to these capabilities, several studies observed that climbers do not necessarily present higher performances during non-climbing tasks such as handgrip exercises where the forces are applied on the entire surface of the finger pad, and during full power-grip tasks (Cutts and Bollen 1985;Ferguson and Brown 1997).…”

Forearm muscle oxidative capacity index predicts sport rock-climbing performance

“…In accordance with previous research (Philippe et al 2011;Schweizer and Hudek 2011) the FDP was assessed as it has been deemed to be the most important finger flexor for rock climbing performance. Although previous research has shown that different sections of a muscle have different deoxygenation responses (Koga et al 2007), the authors of the current study have made every attempt to ensure consistent probe placement between participants.…”

“…Rock climbing performance has been suggested to be dependent on the endurance characteristics of the forearm skeletal muscles (Watts et al 1993), particularly the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) as it bends the distal joint of fingers 2, 3, 4 and 5 (used in the open crimp position) (Philippe et al 2011). In turn, the endurance of the FDP would be expected to be dependent on the ability to (i) deliver and (ii) use oxygen (Fryer et al 2015b).…”