You've got your big climbing muscles working now, and are ready to pull. Most of those grip trainers engage similar muscles (the ones in the forearm). Personally, I have enormous forearms - their diameter are larger than my biceps. I don't think standard grip trainers will help, because they don't train the hand positions (and muscles) that actually help you grip small holds. Hypertrophic hands and forearms are common to every professional and serious climber, but climbers are not born this way; they have made themselves become this way. Most of the climbers I personally see at my gym (for example), can be described almost as, "scrawny". It's what every other sport does. It's amazing: you get close them and they just get smaller, and smaller and you realize their jacked appearance is partly because of being very, very lean. Fine be me. Your points are well taken, but I believe there may be a theoretical justification for a climber pursuing hypertrophy of the forearm flexors. The Zlagboard comes with a built-in protocol for forearm endurance training, developed by Duncan Brown, an Australian climber and coach .The idea behind the Zlagboard Forearm Endurance Workout is to generate a severe forearm pump, targeting the anaerobic lactic energy system. Hypertrophy for Climbing Part 2: Forearms, Fingers, and The Amended Program. One thing we know works to make us stronger is bouldering. The length of the boulder problem is the key. Example would be Daniel Woods. If you're fixated at the dimensions of a body part, in terms of performance, you're looking at the wrong thing. I just use these two tried and true methods. You don't want heavy muscles, you want a high strength/weight ratio. Climbers had a significantly greater FTI compared to controls (mean difference = 2205, 95% CI= 1114-3296 and mean difference = 1716, 95% CI = 553-2880, respectively) but not between disciplines. Any reason to avoid using the fingerboard for hypertrophy? I do all the reps on one grip before moving to the next. Should I be investing more time and focus on the hangboard and other sport specific exercises? Press J to jump to the feed. You can strengthen muscle much, much faster than you can strengthen tendons. Will your muscles get bigger if you're climbing? Again, I'm aiming for 3-6 reps.  For my hypertrophic hangboard sessions, I choose 5 or so different grips based on my current climbing goals. Thanks for subscribing! Yesterday I posted Part 1 on "Hypertrophy for Climbing", and these were the two comments made within hours of the post: hey man - i dig your blog and you have some great advice, but this one threw me. Extreme strength/weight ratio. →. Is it a goal? Who knows? A great exercise for climbers and wrestlers; Do it in place of regular pull-ups; Great for forearm size and grip strength; 5. Deadlift holds. We won't be spamming you, but will be giving you the best of what we find on the internet each month, as well as what we're up to and building. No doubts. This trait, the overgrowth of tissue, is called hypertrophy, and it is not unique to Honnold. I figured Ryan Palo would be the best guy to consult about how exactly he uses hangboarding for the purpose of hypertrophy. Most climbers do not have exceptionally large forearms. Most climbers do not have exceptionally large forearms. All we can do is modify what we learn from the world of lifting, add it to the apparatus we know works, and see if we progress. ← If You Aren't Making Progress, You're Probably Making Excuses. You can be a super strong person and suck at climbing.