Strength training for climbers: what the trials in climbers measured, the pulls, and a week around climbing days

Strength training for climbers, in the research, is resistance work added to a climber's regular climbing, usually for the fingers, forearms and the muscles that pull, and the measure is a strength test or a climbing-related test. This page covers adults. It's about the sport; for the exercise of the same name, see mountain climbers.

The sport's demands show up in who tests stronger. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis included 960 climbers and 301 non-climbers, all aged 18 or older. Climbers had superior grip strength and forearm endurance compared with non-climbers; higher-level climbers had better finger strength, grip strength and forearm endurance than lower-level ones; and boulder climbers had greater finger strength than lead climbers.¹ Those are comparisons between groups of climbers, not proof that strength training caused the difference, so the training studies below matter more.

What the reviews and trials in climbers found

• Across 12 studies. A 2023 systematic review of controlled, pretest and posttest trials of strength training in climbing found positive effects on maximum grip strength, upper-limb strength endurance, maximum upper-limb strength and upper-limb power. The abstract gives no ages, levels or sex for the participants. It saw trends toward mixing maximum-strength training with muscle-size or endurance work, toward semispecific exercises, and toward combining static and dynamic exercise.²
• Five trials, meta-analysed. A 2023 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in active climbers pooled 110 climbers from five studies, with average ages from 23 to 30 and programs of 4 to 10 weeks: upper-body resistance training, fingerboard training, campus-board training and isometric finger training against usual climbing or training. Climbing-related test performance improved (standardized difference 0.57), as did finger strength (0.41), rate of force development (0.91) and forearm endurance (1.23). The authors concluded resistance training may be more effective than climbing alone, though only 3 of the studies met the review's high-quality threshold, 4 of the 5 meta-analysed trials were underpowered, and none was female-only.³
• Five weeks, in women. 26 female climbers who finished the study, averaging 24 years (range 19 to 32) and climbing at lower-grade to advanced levels, trained at least twice a week for five weeks. One group did ring rows and fingerboard hangs off the wall, one did bouldering on the wall, and one only kept to its usual climbing. Finger strength rose in all three groups, with only weak evidence of any difference between them; the group that only climbed improved most in the raw numbers.⁴
• Eight weeks of hangs. 26 advanced sport climbers did dead hangs on a small wooden edge twice a week for eight weeks, in three groups. Hang time on an 11 mm edge rose about 45% in the 8 doing repeated short hangs and about 34% in the 11 doing short heavy hangs; the groups didn't differ significantly from each other, and there was no group that skipped the hangs.⁵

The meta-analysis and the five-week women's trial point different ways on whether strength work beats climbing alone: the first found it helped, the second found every group, including the one that only climbed, gained finger strength, with only weak evidence of any difference between them. The trials were short and small, and the climbers were already climbing. The week below keeps both.

The pulls and hangs for climbers

The ring row and hangs come from the trials above; the rest of the list is practical.

New to the barbell? How to get stronger covers building up to heavy sets.

A week around climbing days

A practical layout, not a protocol from a trial. Two strength sessions a week fits the trials above: the women's trial trained at least twice a week and the hang trial twice.^4,5 The programs in the meta-analysis ran 4 to 10 weeks,³ so give a block that long before judging it.

Keep the strength work on days away from your hardest climbing, so you arrive at the wall fresh. Cardio and lifting covers the order and the gap between sessions.

Training for climbing at home

Practical: a pull-up bar or a pair of rings gives you pull-ups, hangs and inverted rows; add push-ups, planks and split squats. The hang trial's hangs were on a small wooden edge, and a bar hang isn't the same thing, so a bar hang's time doesn't compare with an edge hang's; the dead hang page sets out the difference. The bodyweight workout lays out a full session, and the resistance band workout adds a band for pulls.

Common questions

Does strength training improve climbing?

The studies cited here point both ways. A meta-analysis of five trials found resistance training improved climbing-related test performance more than climbing alone,³ and the 12-study review found positive effects on grip, upper-limb strength and power.² In one five-week trial in female climbers, finger strength rose in all three groups, with only weak evidence of any difference between them.⁴

How many days a week should climbers do strength training?

Twice is what two of the trials used.^4,5 A third day is a practical call, based on how fresh you are for climbing.

Do I need a hangboard?

Two of the trials trained on a fingerboard or a small edge,^4,5 but the review's trends were toward a mix of exercises, not a single tool.² The pulls in the table above need only a bar, rings or a band.

Does this apply to teenagers?

This page is for adults. The meta-analysis's climbers averaged 23 to 30 years, and the women's trial included adults aged 19 to 32; nothing here is a statement about younger climbers.^3,4

Training another pulling or leg sport? Wrestlers, swimmers, skiers and dancers each have a page.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Fitting strength days around the days you climb is a scheduling problem as much as a training one. Coaching here is general strength and fitness coaching, not climbing coaching: your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. How coaching works explains it, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: put the Tuesday pulls in next week, and keep them there for four.