You’re in one of two groups when it comes to climbing crimps; you either hate or love them. Whichever side you fall into, we can agree that crimping is a necessary skill to climb all sorts of boulders.
For some, crimps are the only grip type a climber will use. For others, they’ll avoid crimps like they’re the plague.
The problem with loving or hating crimps, which many climbers can attest to, is that they tend to focus on their strengths. A crimp-lover will seek out climbs with mostly crimps, while a pinch/sloper-lover will avoid crimpy climbs at all costs.
This will create fundamental weaknesses in your climbing. Take it from me; I love crimps. I avoided climbs with pinches for years because I was terrible at them. That’s also why I plateaued and couldn’t seem to climb harder.
If you never practice something, how can you expect to be better at it? Follow along, and I’ll explain how to get better at climbing crimps.
What is a crimp?
Before getting better at climbing crimps, you must understand what a crimp is and how to use it. Hard crimping will require you to practice the three different types of crimps so you can flawlessly execute each one.
‘Crimp’ is a noun and umbrella term that describes the type of hold found in climbing where you can only fit the first pad of your fingers or so on a hold (or less). Crimp climbing requires excellent finger strength to perform efficiently.
‘Crimping’ or ‘to crimp’ is a verb that describes using a crimp. Further, ‘crimpy’ is an adjective that describes a route or boulder problem. I know, climbers and their lingo, right?
Crimps can be different shapes and sizes, such as slopey, in-cut, or flat. They can also be credit card-thin (known as credit cards), 20mm wide, and anything in between. There’s no standard for what a crimp is, so you’ll want to train on whichever feels right for you.
Types of crimps
1. Open-hand crimp (AKA 3-finger drag)
The open-hand crimp is used on slightly easier terrain when you want to conserve energy.
Using your pinkie engages more muscles in your forearm and back, so this grip type uses less energy and is great for long endurance climbs.
Your little finger will hang off the hold while your index, middle, and ring fingers grab it.
This grip is less active than a half-crimp and relies more on friction and tension than your pulley muscles.
2. Half crimp
The half crimp grip has the most applications in climbing. If possible, the thumb rests next to the index finger or onto the hold.
To perform a half crimp, a climber’s index, middle, and ring fingers are bent at a 90-degree angle while the pinkie is straight (simply because it is shorter).
3. Full crimp
While many climbers have become injured while full crimping, overuse and not listening to their bodies are likely to blame. More on this below!
To perform a full crimp, do a half crimp, then wrap the thumb on top of your index finger. This closes the hand shape, allowing you to generate more force when crimping.
Obsession Climbing has a great YouTube video demonstrating these three grip types.
Check it out for detailed instructions on improving your crimping technique.
Is full crimping bad?
Contrary to popular belief, full crimping in and of itself is okay. Yes, many climbers have gotten injured while full crimping. Many weight-lifters have gotten injured from deadlifting, too.
The issue with full crimping is that, unlike a half-crimp, the ‘fail-safe’ in your body won’t react. This fail-safe is when your half-crimp is compromised, and you fall into an open-hand grip. With full crimping, your thumb locks a half-crimp into place and doesn’t allow it to fail.
Climbers don’t simply get injured from full crimping; they get injured because they aren’t listening to their bodies.
Climbing crimps is incredibly stressful on your tendons and ligaments, so you should also take extra precautions to climb injury-free.
How to crimp harder
I know this is what you’re looking for, so I won’t make you wait any longer. Want to get better at climbing crimps? You probably already know the first tip, but I’ll give it to you anyway.
Climb more crimps!
Simple, I know. But you’ll never get better at something if you avoid it! Start by picking out some crimpy climbs at the gym. Don’t worry about climbing three grades below your max to do this; you must start somewhere.
Find a crimpy problem and do some laps on it. This will help you get your body used to using only your fingertips.
Try climbing something crimpy during every gym session to help strengthen your fingers.
Hangboard workouts
If you already have some pretty strong fingers, hangboarding, AKA “fingerboarding,” is a great way to improve your crimp strength. You can perform hangboard workouts with your own fingerboard, but most gyms will have a few that you can use.
Check out the hangboards in our shop if you’re interested in purchasing your own hangboard!
Strengthening your fingers is a sure way to improve at climbing crimps.
Check out this article in our training guides to learn more about finger strengthening and some exercises to perform.
Understand how to effectively use crimps
More than just using each crimp technique is needed to climb harder. While it helps, understanding the nuances of crimping will help you crimp harder.
Lattice Training has an excellent video with three tips for climbing crimps better. Coach Maddy Cope explains that when we’re moving above a crimp, we should push down on it when we’re above it.
Maddy’s next tip involves using cross-body tension to help reach the next hold. Instead of always keeping both feet on the wall, remove your lower foot to help you keep your balance when you go for the next one.
Maddy’s last tip is to treat moving your hips as a climbing move. We often think that moving each hand or foot constitutes a climbing move.
Instead, treat your hips as a separate move to help climb harder crimps.
For a detailed look at these tips, check out this video by Lattice Training over on YouTube.
Use your thumb!
Unless you’re full crimping, your thumb isn’t really doing much. Instead, if a hold allows it, wrap your thumb around the side or on top of it. This subtle move could be the difference between sending your project.
The thumb catch is an excellent way to add your thumb strength to the mix without the extra force of full crimping.
The best holds to use a thumb catch are small side-pull crimps when your thumb is already in the proper orientation.
How long does it take to crimp harder?
Fingers are made up of tendons and ligaments. Strengthening them is different from working out a specific muscle like the biceps. These little connectors, unfortunately and fortunately, take a long time to strengthen.
Unfortunately, because we all want to see gains immediately. Fortunately, because once your fingers are strong, it takes a lot to lose that strength.
Your fingers will remain strong far after you’ve stopped climbing. But that will never happen, right?
Hard crimp requires consistency
Get better at climbing crimps by staying consistent. A single session isn’t going to make you crimp harder overnight. If you stick to a 6-week hangboard session, you will notice better crimp strength.
Do you shy away from crimps? Or are you simply looking for ways to crimp harder?
Use these tips and let us know in the comments if they helped!
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