Breaking Beta | The Science of Climbing

Does Hangboard Training Increase Pinch Strength?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss another study seeking to determine if there’s really a best way to train on a hangboard:
Hangboard Training in Advanced Climbers: A Randomized Controlled Trial
authored by Saskia Mundry, Gino Steinmetz, Dominik Saul, Elizabeth J Atkinson, Arndt F. Shilling, and Volker Schoffl; published in Scientific Reports in 2021.
They’ll attempt to determine whether or not there’s evidence that hangboarding can help you train more than just your crimping skills. Tune in to find out if this study dives deeper into the debate between Added Weight or Minimum Edge, or if it just dives off the deep end altogether.
 
*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:From Episode 1:  The Effects of Two Maximum Grip Strength Training Methods Using the Same Effort Duration and Different Edge Depth on Grip Endurance in Elite Climbers  authored by Eva Lopez Rivera and Juan Jose Gonzales-Badillo; published in Sports Technology, 2012. 
International Rock Climbing Research Association (IRCA), Reporting Grades in Climbing Research, Climbing Grade Conversion Chart
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share!And then please tell all of your friends who spend their warmup time telling you that your hangboarding is only going to carry over to that one rare four-finger flat edge on a rock climb, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Can We Minimize Tendon Injury and Return More Quickly to Climbing?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss another study examining a type of injury commonly seen in climbers:
Minimizing Injury and Maximizing Return to Play: Lessons from Engineered Ligaments
authored by Keith Baar, published in Sports Medicine (Springer Nature) in 2017.
They’ll attempt to determine whether or not there’s much we can do to help prevent tendon injuries and speed up recovery time when they do occur. Tune in to find out if that friend who swears their collagen supplements are the key to their fingers of steel is actually on to something, or totally full of it.
 
*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:
Stress Relaxation and Targeted Nutrition to Treat Patellar Tendinopathy  authored by Keith Baar, published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2018.
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share!And tell all of your friends who keep telling you that you should rest every single one of your tendon tweaks until they're gone, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

How Does 30 Years of Climbing Affect Our Shoulders?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss a topic that every climber has to consider during their career - shoulder health - as examined in the study:
Impact of 30 Years High-Level Rock Climbing on the Shoulder: an Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of 31 Climbers
authored by Silvan Beeler, MD, Torten Pastor, MD, Benjamin Fritz, MD, Lukas Filli, MD, Andreas Schweizer, MD, and Karl Weiser, MD; published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery in 2021.
They’ll attempt to determine whether or not we are truly trashing our shoulders more than others, and if so, what kind of impact this damage could have on our climbing performance. Tune in to find out if every iron-cross move is a potential trip to the operating room, or if there’s a good chance our shoulders just might be able to withstand the wear and tear.
 
*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:Physiological Bone Responses in the Fingers After More Than 10 Years of High-Level Sport Climbing: Analysis of Cortical Parameters authored by Frederik Hahn, MD, Matthias Erschbaumer, MD, Philipp Allenspach, MSc, Kaspar Rufibach, PhD, and Andreas Schweizer, MD; published in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 2012.
Ep. 153 of the Power Company Climbing Podcast: Pain Science for Climbers with Dr. Natasha Barnes
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your weak-shouldered friends who insist that every shouldery move is going to result in surgery, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Is Flexibility a Good Metric for Climbers?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss a study that might finally reveal why there are so many former gymnasts who can crush:
Flexibility Assessment and the Role of Flexibility as a Determinant of Performance in Rock Climbing
authored by Nick Draper, Simon Brent, Gavin Blackwell, and Chris Hodgson; published in the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport in 2009.
They’ll attempt to determine whether or not a climber’s flexibility is a good indicator of their climbing performance and, moreover, if a climber’s flexibility is even something we can accurately measure. Tune in to find out if all that twisty pretzel stuff Adam Ondra does with his knees is actually doing something, or just for show.
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who keep preaching to you that unless you do those tactical frog stretches, you'll never climb harder, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Does Stretching Result in Power Loss?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss a hotly-debated topic - not just in the climbing world but the greater athletic community:
Acute Effects of Static Stretching on Muscle Strength and Power: An Attempt to Clarify Previous Caveats
authored by Helmi Chaabene, David Behm, Yassine Negra, and Urs Granacher; published in Frontiers in Physiology in 2019.
They’ll attempt to determine whether or not stretching in your warmup is what’s costing you that last bit of power you need to send the proj, or if it’s exactly what you need in order to execute that heel-hook-next-to-your-ear crux move without pulling a hammy. Tune in to find out what data on the topic is legit, and what might be a bit of a...well, you know.
 
*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode:
Factors Affecting Force Loss with Prolonged Stretching authored by David Behm and Duane C. Button; published in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 2001.
Stretching the Way We Think About Athletes, TEDx Talk by Dr. David Behm
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who spend their warm up time telling you that you should stop doing any stretching in your warm up that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Is Finger Pulp the Key to Crimping?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss the study that led to climbers everywhere both blaming and training their fingertip pulp:
Measuring Lifting Forces in Rock Climbing: Effect of Hold Size and Fingertip Structure
authored by Roger Bourne, Mark Halaki, Benedicte Vanwanseele, and Jillian Clarke; published in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics in 2011.
They’ll attempt to determine if just how meaty your tips are can actually help or hurt your climbing. And if so, is there even anything you can really do about it? Tune in to find out if it really does boil down to just the tips.
 
*Additional studies/resources mentioned in this episode: Force response of the fingertip pulp to repeated compression—Effects of loading rate, loading angle and anthropometry authored by Elaine R.Serina, C.D. Mote Jr., and David Rempel; published in the Journal of Biomechanics, 1997.
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all of your friends who are constantly telling you that you're only good at crimping because of your tiny fingers, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Is This the Best Hangboard Protocol?

In this episode, Kris and Paul discuss what might be the most popular study in all of climbing:
The Effects of Two Maximum Grip Strength Training Methods Using the Same Effort Duration and Different Edge Depth on Grip Endurance in Elite Climbers
authored by Eva Lopez Rivera and Juan Jose Gonzales-Badillo; published in Sports Technology in 2012. 
They’ll try to determine whether this study provides evidence for one hangboard protocol to rule them all, or if folks have just been misinterpreting the data. Tune in to see who wins in the finger strength battle between Minimum Edge Depth and Maximum Added Weight!
 
New episodes drop on Wednesdays. Make sure you’re subscribed, leave us a review, and share! And please tell all your friends who are constantly telling you that their hang protocol is the number one best protocol, that you have the perfect podcast for them.
 
Breaking Beta is brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning, and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective. Find full episode transcripts, citations, and more at our website.
Follow Kris and Breaking Beta on Instagram 
Follow Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram 
Check out both of our Kettlebells for Climbers ebooks!
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at our Community + Knowledge Hub.
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.

Introducing Breaking Beta | The Science of Climbing Podcast

Is it possible to make research and science both more fun - and frankly - more useful for coaches and climbers?
That’s what we needed to answer. Now that we’re a few episodes into recording this podcast, I can honestly answer YES. It takes a lot of work, but yes. Our goal is to do that work for you.
In this podcast, coaches Paul Corsaro and Kris Hampton are getting together in the lab weekly to look at the body of research - both climbing specific and more general sports science - that is often cited by climbers on their quest to improve. We’ll take each study, break it into it’s components, explain it in a way that doesn’t make your eyes glaze over, and then discuss what we find useful and as well as the ways in which these studies are so wildly misinterpreted by damn near every one of us.
Season 1 of Breaking Beta drops on Wednesday, December 8th. Every week for 10 weeks we’ll be getting deep into finger strength, tendon health, creatine, flexibility, climbing specific injury, and more. What the research says, what it doesn’t, and how you’ve been getting it all wrong.
Make sure you’re subscribed, hit the follow button on Spotify, and tell your friends to tell a friend. Particularly that one friend who is always citing his wild misinterpretation of the research. Tell him you’ve got the perfect podcast for him.
Brought to you by Power Company Climbing and Crux Conditioning.
Find Kris and our main Breaking Beta content on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/powercompanyclimbing/
Find Paul and Crux Conditioning on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cruxconditioning/
Get transcripts, citations, and more at https://www.powercompanyclimbing.com/breakingbeta
If you have questions, comments, or want to suggest a paper we should cover, find us at https://community.powercompanyclimbing.com
Our music is from legendary South Dakota band Rifflord.
Breaking Beta is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective.