Topic Guide
What Is Grip strength?
Grip strength is a subject covered in depth across 1 podcast episode in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Grip strength
Functional strength
Functional strength refers to strength that is directly applicable to specific real-world tasks or athletic movements, as opposed to isolated muscle strength. This episode highlights how a climber's functional strength for scaling rock faces is vastly different from what a standard grip strength meter measures.
Crack climbing
A specialized rock climbing technique where climbers insert their fingers, hands, or other body parts into natural rock cracks and torque them to create friction and leverage for ascent. Alex Honnold describes how this technique physically alters his fingers and involves significant pain, despite providing a sense of security.
What Experts Say About Grip strength
- 1.Alex Honnold, a free solo climber, does not possess the world's greatest grip strength when measured by conventional grip strength meters.
- 2.Climbing strength is highly specific, involving finger torque in cracks and lifting heavy loads on small edges, rather than the static grip measured by a standard device.
- 3.Honnold scored modestly on a grip strength meter (e.g., 46.5, 43.5, 50.5) compared to the host's higher scores (e.g., 62, 63).
- 4.Honnold's functional climbing strength is better demonstrated by his ability to lift 135 lbs off the ground using a 20mm edge.
- 5.Crack climbing involves inserting fingers into a crack and torquing them, which despite good technique, "still hurts" and feels like "crushing your bones into a crack."
- 6.Years of climbing abuse have physically changed Honnold's hands, leading to wider fingers and enlarged connective tissue from side-to-side pulling.