REF-610 · Saul, Steinmetz, Lehmann & Schilling, 2019 · Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, · Paper
Hand/forearm strength & endurance, long hang times and low body fat
Not a special body type — mark successful climbers; fingerboard and eccentric-concentric finger-flexor training push the red-point grade
Key Findings
Search of Medline, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar to September 2018, covering physiological, biomechanical and psychological characteristics plus training and recovery strategies.
Anthropometry: low skinfold thickness, low body fat and large forearm volume were traits of successful climbers; a large bone-to-tip pulp also helps.
Forearm/hand: well-trained forearm flexors with high aerobic capacity (local, in the forearm) gave an efficient style; hand-grip strength and endurance, postural stability and optimised kinematics were favourable. Elite climbers had long finger-hang and bent-arm hang times.
Psychology: an "iceberg profile" was typical.
Training: constant fingerboard training and dynamic eccentric-concentric training of the finger flexors helped push the red-point grade, followed by active recovery.
Conclusion: an efficient style — perpetual focus and accuracy, high speed, low exhaustion via adaptation to repeated isometric work — plus hand/forearm strength-endurance and low body fat make the ascent easier.
Practical Application
The review's finding: what separates successful climbers is hand and forearm strength and endurance (long finger and bent-arm hangs, aerobically well-trained forearm flexors), low body fat and large forearm volume, and an efficient, focused style — so finger-flexor strength-endurance is the primary trainable determinant, and fingerboard plus eccentric-concentric finger work is the review's named method.
Track hang capacity (finger-hang and bent-arm hang time, or added-weight dead-hang normalised to body mass) as the headline metric (the normalised variant is the base's own practice, not from this paper).
Pursue leanness only insofar as it improves strength-to-mass — never at the expense of finger strength or health (RED-S risk; not from this paper).
Follow constant finger training with active recovery, as the review recommends.
Limitations
Underlying studies mostly small, cross-sectional, correlational (association not causation); heterogeneous grip-measurement methods; Google Scholar in the search adds grey-literature noise.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from A: systematic review without meta-analysis of mostly small cross-sectional studies, not controlled trials
Content correction 2026-09-27
"Whole-body VO₂max and flexibility were weak/inconsistent" and "no distinctive climber somatotype" removed: not in the abstract (which reports forearm-local aerobic capacity, large forearm volume and low body fat as favourable).
Added the abstract's training findings (fingerboard, eccentric-concentric finger-flexor training, active recovery), hang-time and psychological-profile findings. Level A -> B+ (SR without meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies); Tier "mixed" -> Tier 1-4.