Friday 10 April 2015

Fingers: Training them in three phases - Strength > Power > Power Endurance...


There's obviously a few ways to strengthen your fingers for rock climbing. At Reach, we break it down into three phases:
  • Strength
  • Dynamic Power
  • Power Endurance
The main focus is to wait until you have an appropriate level of static finger strength before converting it to dynamic power and finally power endurance. 

Ruth Jenkins (Stunt Woman &
first UK female to climb 8b),
pulling on tiny holds, Pyrenees, 2011
Ruth's partner told me a few weeks ago that Ruth went out and worked the moves on an 8c in the first session having not climbed for a long time. Some people (like Ruth, and her son!) have an amazing strength to weight ratio and some people (like me!) have to work harder at it.

Bouldering in Spanish Pyrenees
pulling on bigger holds than Mrs J!
We are running a 3 week online training programme in English and Spanish beginning Monday the 27th of April for £35.

If you want to join and see a marked improvement in finger strength gains using our framework then please contact markmcgowan01@gmail.com before the 25th of April.

Referrals from clients:



"...This training season I decided to get all the help I can to speed up my improvement. I needed guidance to work towards my goals in long term. I also needed more vision and opinions about my exercises and weak links. I am glad I can share my training with Mark..." (Ville Mustonen, Finland)


" I met Mark in Glen Nevis on his return to climbing to check out some lines he had in mind for me, I wasn't really training at this point but after a day or two talking and training with him I had a much more structured idea of what to do to improve and I did" (Kev Shields)