Abstract
In recent years, climbing sports is on the rise making its Olympic debut in 2021. Physiological traits of professional rock climbers have been intensively studied, while recreational indoor climbers are less investigated, especially regarding grip strength and upper extremity proportions. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to understand what discerns the recreational climber from disparate recreational athletes. Therefore, we analyzed 50 recreational climbing (30.3 ± 12.7 years, 1.76 ± 0.09 m and 67.0 ± 14.0 kg) and 50 non-climbing athletes (26.4 ± 9.1 years, 1.78 ± 0.09 m and 73.2 ± 12.6 kg) to detect differences in their finger grip strength of seven different pinches. In addition, the upper extremity proportions were measured. Even in recreational climbers, almost all analyzed grips were stronger compared to other athletes (p < 0.05 in all but non-dominant fist, small to moderate effect sizes). Only the grip strength of the whole non-dominant hand was not significantly different (p = 0.17). Interestingly, differences between the dominant and non-dominant hand appeared to be larger in the non-climbing (all p < 0.05, all but one with small effect size) compared to the climbing cohort (pinch I/IV and pinch I/II+III+IV not different and mostly trivial). Circumference measurements showed that 10 cm below the lateral epicondyle, climbers exhibited significantly greater perimeter compared to non-climbing athletes (p < 0.05, small effect size). Our results show that recreational climbers have higher measured grip strength, but less profound differences between the dominant and non-dominant hand.
Highlights
For the climbing sport, the rise in popularity came with a rise in the number of recreational climbing athletes [1,2,3,4]
We aimed to assess whether the superior grip strength and upper extremity circumferences which were detected in elite climbers, could be found in advanced climbing athletes
The associations and differences between climbers and athletes may be due to unmeasured confounders. It has been demonstrated in previous studies, that the grip force of elite climbers exceeds the grip force of non-climbers by far
Summary
The rise in popularity came with a rise in the number of recreational climbing athletes [1,2,3,4]. Several years of climbing lead to a muscular adoption with functional prevalence of fast resistant motor units in very advanced climbing athletes and a specific physical profile, defined by high shoulder power as well as finger, hand and arm strength [6,10,11]. These studies characterize mainly elite and very advanced climbing athletes, while there is a lack of studies focusing on recreational climbers [1]. The trend of climbing sport spreading more and more into a leisure sports activity, punctuates the importance of focusing on this particular cohort, which might find itself underrepresented in current studies [12]
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