Climbing-specific finger flexor performance and forearm muscle oxygenation in elite male and female sport climbers

• Published in: European journal of applied physiology Vol. 112; no. 8; pp. 2839 - 2847
• Main Authors: Philippe, Marc, Wegst, Daniel, Müller, Tom, Raschner, Christian, Burtscher, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.08.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Body Weight; Case-Control Studies; Climbing; Endurance; Exercise; Exercise Test; Female; Fingers; Forearm; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender differences; Human Physiology; Humans; Isometric Contraction; Male; Metabolism; Mountaineering; Muscle Strength; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine; Original Article; Oxygen Consumption; Physical Endurance; Physiology; Sex Factors; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; Spectrum analysis; Sports Medicine; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Vertebrates: body movement. Posture. Locomotion. Flight. Swimming. Physical exercise. Rest. Sports; Women; Young Adult; Isometric; Endurance; Oxygenation; Strength; Climbing; Finger flexor muscles; Human; Finger; Male; Sport; Forearm; Flexor muscle; Female; Performance
• ISSN: 1439-6319; 1439-6327
• DOI: 10.1007/s00421-011-2260-1

Climbing performance relies to a great extent on the performance of the finger flexor muscles. Only a few studies investigated this performance in top class climbers and only one study compared gender-specific differences. This study investigated the climbing-specific finger flexor strength and endurance and related muscular oxygenation in 12 elite female and male climbers and 12 non-climbers. After the assessment of maximum voluntary finger flexor contraction (MVC), two isometric finger flexor endurance tests were performed at 40% MVC until exhaustion. A continuous isometric test was followed by an intermittent isometric test (10 s contraction, 3 s rest). Changes in oxygenation of finger flexor muscles were recorded using near infrared spectroscopy. MVC and strength-to-weight ratio were greater in climbers than non-climbers ( P  = 0.003; P  < 0.001) and greater in men than women ( P  < 0.001; P  = 0.002). Time to task failure for the intermittent test and the force-time integrals for the continuous and the intermittent test were also significantly greater in climbers ( P  = 0.030; P  = 0.027; P  = 0.005). During the intermittent test, re-oxygenation of the working muscles was faster in climbers ( P  < 0.05) without gender-specific differences. Close correlations were demonstrated between the best on-sight climbing performance and strength-to-weight ratio ( r 2  = 0.946, P  < 0.001) only in female climbers. The superior intermittent finger flexor endurance of climbers over non-climbers may be explained by the faster re-oxygenation of the finger flexor muscles during the short rest phases.