How to Gain Contact Strength (What the science says about elite climbers)

[@guillermosanchezdionis9475]

Gold for the climbing and science fanatics out there! Looking forward to part 2!

[@coolguitarchannel]

This video is fire! Tyler is GOAT

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you so much for the feedback! Share with your friends if you can!

[@Kass157]

This is a jewel. Simple and well explained!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you so much! Share with your friends if you can!

[@flip_lange]

Thanks a lot for the video! Ican see how this contains all the fundamental info for part 2. fingers crossed ;) keep up the great work. I've had really good results with your warm-up and finger strength recommendations in the past btw. Thanks a lot for that, too.

[@Liftsmcgee]

Love to hear all of that feedback and how things have helped!

[@thetruemorg]

So I'm struck by the idea that that force velocity curve still is very valid even though you're talking about something so sports specific of grabbing a hold quickly. The strength you gain from a slow movement under heavy load creates a systemic safety. Then training a fast movement allows for that sport specific adaption. This means that the limiter is always going to be the central nervous system Is the real limiter. And again, that means that the amount of recovery (muscle metabolism but also indicators like HRV bone density etc)is the limiter on certain kind of gains probably up to genetic potential. This makes me think that if in the strength training portion of a training cycle, you were to start with a number with single hand slow twitch of 50% body weight and then over time progressively overload that would give you a very easy place to start that is measurable overtime. Once that plateaus you know it's time to change to a fast twitch stimulus continuing progressive overload. (Because I don't know enough about climbing I'm not going to Guess a methodology) but just to say that fast sport specific would continue the growth of central nervous system ability. That also means that once an athlete is at a little above 100% body weight on single arm, you probably get diminishing returns of training slow or fast which muscle or it become so sport specific like climbing and endurance wall versus very quick movements from a metabolic standpoint. TLDR: overall strength is necessary to progressively create power. The right training of sport specific muscle doesn't have the right tools and studies yet to show certain methodologies work better. Love your videos. They always make me think.

[@Mike55856]

Awesome video. Thanks for the upload.

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you for watching! Share with your friends please!

[@CrowleighMusic]

Good stuff Tyler!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Really appreciate the feedback! Share with some friends!

[@KRM862]

Highly informative and well presented, as always. Thanks.

[@Liftsmcgee]

Really appreciate that feedback! Share with your friends!

[@aaronhauptmann869]

Been looking forward to this one, thanks so much! you guys rock!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you so much for the feedback! Really appreciate it!

[@Chendadon]

Again great series! Looking forward for the tindeq training video, Thanks guys

[@homayoonf]

I like your scientific/meticulous approach, but “ How to gain contact strength “ may not be a good fit for this video, it’s rather something like “Key insIghts into the principles of rate of force in athletic performance “ . Good job, Always a fan ✋🏼🙏

[@Liftsmcgee]

Appreciate it! And yes, that title is probably more fitting but sometimes big words drown out the message. We are all guilty of that lol

[@antoniomolina3612]

The video title has to be catching and interesting

[@saint3211]

Sounds like a title for a dissertation 😅

[@openit125]

I think you could make the title even more words! 🎉

[@TristanCleveland]

Yes. Was surprised to not get what was promised.

[@HoodlumBlog]

Really informative and clear, thank you so much!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Really appreciate the feedback! Share with your friends if you can!

[@martinwolczyk891]

Fantastic video, very informative. Is there are pt 2 coming soon?

[@JussiTaka-so8xr]

Damn, so good! Thank you!

[@Liftsmcgee]

No no, thank you for watching!

[@alessandroferrara9394]

Hi guys, can t put it in words how greatfull the community should be for all your works. As sport pt I can really understand how your topics matter in our job, years spent argue all these with my athletes fighting with theme old kind of training backgrounds. Finally I m not feeling the only man on the moon anymore 😂

[@Liftsmcgee]

Really appreciate the kind words! We are on that moon with you! Haha share this with those people!

[@kylelenton]

Can you provide some information about the talon setup? Is it the 4" or 5" tension ball? And where can I find a similar base plate for the hold? Hoping to get the setup and experiment with training with it. Thanks for the info!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Probably whatever ball will fit your hands the best? The goal is to have the finger tips on and some spread between the fingers. A little bit of incut is probably nice too. The base plate is a beast fingers one I think that Tyler has? If you can’t find all that, I just tell people to flip a kettlebell upside down and attach weight to that. It’s not as versatile and the TB ball but gets the job done for training

[@momo28341]

Im amazed by your scientific precision thanks so much for sharing this with the public! Surely you could as well only sell your knowledge to national teams or privat persons which can afford it and make more money of it. I truly look up to you!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Really nice of you to say all that!

[@momo28341]

​@@Liftsmcgee I have been thinking more about this since im fascinated by the topic. And i have the idea to conduct a small amateur study about this myself. Im working as a trainer for kids in a bouldering gym and in one of my courses are two pairs of "identical" twins which are 8 years old. Also i own a tindeq progressor200. So i could measure the effects of different training interventions and compare the outcomes in a fairly objective and reliable way. (Provided everyone fine with their participation.) If you have any interest or time for that i´d be happy to discuss the study design/method with a professional, so hit me up.

[@momo28341]

@@Liftsmcgee ​I have been thinking more about this since im fascinated by the topic. And i have the idea to conduct a small amateur study about this myself. Im working as a trainer for kids in a bouldering gym and in one of my courses are two pairs of "identical" twins which are 8 years old. Also i own a tindeq progressor200. So i could measure the effects of different training interventions and compare the outcomes in a fairly objective and reliable way. (Provided everyone fine with their participation.) If you have any interest or time for that i´d be happy to discuss the study design/method with a professional, so hit me up.

[@tonytaverrite9244]

Thank you Doc!

[@BiggFanDDD]

Time to put force plates on the Moonboard!!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Now that would be sickkkkk

[@daanschone1548]

I'd argue that holding a hold for 10-15 sec is more important than contact strenght. Otherwise you can only catch and immediately let go.

[@nikolaskarolides2577]

Is there any application for overloading powerful exercises for strength adaptations? Like explosive pull-ups with a weight vest, then later get rid of the weight. Or would it just be best to do weighted pull-ups then later explosive pull-ups?

[@Liftsmcgee]

5:38 there is the graph known as the force velocity curve. Doing heavy weighted pull-ups (maybe 1-3 Rep Max) would exist at the top left and doing a big dyno with your feet helping may exist towards the bottom right. Everything else would exist somewhere between the two. Simply, one needs to make sure their “strength training” gets pretty close to the top left to be “truly strength work” and then one has to identify the velocity of their sport, style, move, etc . On that line and make sure they work at that speed or a little faster to training the body to “turn it on” at that speed. Weighted pull-ups “done fast” isn’t “bad” but: where does it exist on the curve? What is the goal of that point of the curve? Is that goal lining up with your intention? There is some power to be gained from middle curve but as long as you appreciate the other ends too of “quality speed” and “quality strength”

[@flipsspillow]

Great video an analyisis of the topic. But please change your light setting to have the light over your head instead of under while filming. It creates a creepy look otherwise.

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you for the video and lighting feedback!

[@brianwallace8608]

So in theory, if you have a lumbrical injury, would you possibly have less contact strength available? Even if there’s no pain in the position?

[@raymondfoo9045]

Been using metacarp edge without insert and just pull as hard as I can while anchoring on my foot with cord. It works so well and I can tell my finger strength has improved. Unfortunately I pulled my lumbrical on my ring finger side (was chill climbing on my previously sent problem but unexpectedly cut feet), now my ring finger can't even lift up my bottle although it is a low grade 1/2 strain. Any idea to recover it?

[@drewjarrell2667]

how interesting!

[@Liftsmcgee]

Thank you!

[@brothersoulshine]

Very informative but it would be much appreciated by everyone else in the world if you could use sensible units.

[@Liftsmcgee]

Could you clarify? All feedback is helpful to us!

[@brothersoulshine]

@@Liftsmcgee Only people in the US understand pounds. It's much less distracting if you present your work in kg. Cheers

[@Liftsmcgee]

Makes sense! Tried to to include kg and lbs (and newtons) in most of it. But a few sections may have only included pounds. Noted for next time, thanks!

[@johnwesely]

@@brothersoulshineit’s not hard to understand pounds. Even Americans can do it.

[@kylezindel314]

Am I dumb or did he list kegs and lbs

[@Sepp2009]

this doesn't answer the question in the title

[@Liftsmcgee]

Perhaps the “fundamentals” of contact strength, but the goal wasn’t to detail all of the exercises just yet. Understanding the principles behind velocity training is the most important part of gaining contact strength. Everything else is just a modality. This video teaches begins to teach you how to fish. We’ll be “giving away” the fish in a future video.

[@Sepp2009]

@@Liftsmcgee let's see if I become a fisherman then