Many climbers struggle with pinches, but pinches only get harder if you shy away from them. It’s easy to dismiss pinches as holds you use less frequently, especially if you mainly climb on  granite or limestone, yet the thumb is used to some degree on most holds and pinching has undoubtedly become a staple technique for indoor climbing. You’ll climb better by mastering pinches regardless of whether you think you need to, and you can’t expect to be good at pinches if you don’t practice and train for them.

Pinch Technique

If you’re struggling to use a pinch when bouldering or trying the crux of a redpoint project, try the thumb in slightly different places on the hold, it may be the case that a couple of milimeters could suddenly make the hold feel more positive. We always tend to focus on the thumb in the first instance, yet in some cases, if you change the way you position your fingers on the hold then this may make the difference between blowing off a pinch and holding it. On narrow or medium width pinches the fingers are commonly used in a half-crimped position with index, middle and ring fingers bent at 90 degrees. A variation is with the index finger straight, using a chisel grip . On larger sloping pinches the fingers will usually be in an open (dragged) position. Be creative when you climb onsight and look for clusters of pockets or combinations of pebbles that with a bit of cunning can turn into surprising pinch-grips.

The key movement technique is to do anything you can to avoid being front-on to a pinch, with hips parallel, so that you actually have to pinch it! Try to select footholds that let you get side-on and into a layback position, as this will minimize the amount of thumb strength required. This is usually achieved by stepping through and using the outside edge of your foot. When climbing tufa routes, you tend to get into this rhythm and it’s common to end up switching from one side of the pipe to the other to avoid the front-on position.

Supportive Training for Pinches

Pinch strength is a complex beast, it’s not just about being strong in the thumb, the wrists come into play and you also need strong fingers to maximize the range of gripping angles.

Bouldering and System Training

The short and simple advice for improving pinch strength, along with the associated techniques, is simply to gravitate toward problems that offer pinches of different shapes and sizes. These problems can be selected at random, but a more structured approach is is to use a System-style woody board. These boards feature holds that are grouped into uniform sets and laid out on a symmetrical grid, thus enabling you to target grip-strength for specific types of holds, such as pinches. The training can be intensive and repetitive, so do it in small doses and only once you’ve built a decent base of strength from general bouldering. When system training, the objective is not so much to do a problem, but to train the required muscles. When you train for pinches, aim to train the thumb in a range of positions by using wide, medium and narrow holds. The training can be performed with an enforced rule of keeping your hips parallel to the wall (IE: without using drop-knees or stepping through). This will force you to pinch the holds rather than using them as side-pulls, but be aware if you do this, that this is not the best technique! You are making it awkward and difficult on purpose. Apply maximum effort and rest well in between attempts to maximize quality. Calibrate the difficulty of each problem so that at first you can only-just do individual moves, then work at the problems until you can do them, then make them harder. Take good rests in between attempts in order to maximize the quality of the training. You can also perform static exercises by holding positions on the board, as if hangboarding, but using your feet. 

The Training Bible Phase 1: Conditioning

Hangboarding On Pinches

You can create your own hanging rig for pinches by screwing wooden blocks to a beam. It’s good to have a selection of different sizes (wide, medium and narrow), but the main thing is to position them close together (eg: slightly narrower than shoulder width) otherwise you will end up compressing them (squeezing inwards), as opposed to pinching with the thumb. Go carefully with this methodology as wrist strains can be common.

Pinch Blocks and Balls

Pinch-blocks suspended from ropes provide a much better alternative, seeing as you can’t compress them and they place less load on the wrists. Use similar protocols as you would use for max-hangs when hangboarding (i.e. aim to reach failure between for 6 and 12 seconds). Add weight to a weight-vest or belt to make the exercise harder over time. Pinch blocks can also be attached to weights and picked up from the ground. They are very easily made, either from wood or a handy brick or stone block, and most designs will be fairly portable and suitable for on-the-go training (you can attach them to a heavy bag if you don’t have access to weights). Pinch balls are an interesting alternative to blocks, which work in exactly the same way. The only issue is to be strict with form and to avoid curling your entire hand around them so that you’re not actually pinching.

Wrist Curls (Static & Dynamic)

The wrists are intrinsically involved in pinching. When training supportive wrist curls with dumbels, the important position is with the palm facing to the side (although you can train also train with palms up and down to develop broader, more versatile wrist strength. It is worth doing isometric (static) contractions, where you hold the wrist at 3 different angles (say for 4 – 6 secs) as well as doing standard dynamic repetitions. Don’t overdo this type of training. Do 3 or 4 sets, 2 or 3 times per week, either on rest days or after climbing.

The Training Bible Phase 7: Power Endurance