FAQs About Rock Climbing & YBells

How Long Does Grip Strength Take to Build?

Firm grip and finger strength are essential when rock climbing or bouldering. Whether you're new to the sport or have been climbing for years, building your grip strength will always benefit your climbs. Remember that you want to safely train your finger grip strength to avoid injury.

A novice climber can take 12 months of continuous training to bring their grip strength to their climbing level. Remember that your fingers don't have muscles, which means that you won't see the same gains in your finger strength as you would your forearms or even your hands.

Grip strength is more critical than finger strength in beginner climbing grades. But as you progress your overall upper-body strength and climbing skills, you'll see improvements in your grip and finger strength.

What Should my Grip Strength Be?

Grip strength measures the health of the muscles in your hands and forearms. It's measured in weight units by squeezing a Jamar Analogue Hand Dynamometer (AKA: dynamometer) three times in each hand.

The average grip strength for men is about 72.6 lb / 32.9 kg and around 44 lb / 20 kg for women. A 2020 study on the grip strength of recreational climbers found that the average grip strength for rock climbers is 125.4 lb / 56.90 kg for men and 73 lb / 33.15 kg for women.

The "ideal" grip strength ultimately depends on your fitness goals. If you want to be a better athlete or strength trainer, you may want to consider adding grip and finger strength exercises into your workout routine. If you're planning to take up rock climbing or bouldering, you should give these grip strength exercises a go.

Do You Need Upper Body Strength to Rock Climb?

Rock climbing requires full-body muscle strength because your entire body needs to hold tension to keep you from falling off the rock wall.

Looking specifically at upper body strength, you'll want to focus on your forearms, biceps, lats, rhomboids, and anterior delts.

Forearms: Your forearm flexors help you control your grip so you can open and close your hands around holds.

Biceps: You'll rely heavily on your bicep strength to hang on the rock wall.

Latissimus Dorsi: You'll engage your lats when pulling your body up the wall.

Rhomboids: Your rhomboids retract your shoulder blades, and you'll engage them when holding your body close to the wall.

Anterior Deltoid: You'll need delt strength to make large reaches as your make your way up the wall.

Where Can I Find YBell Exercises?

The YBell Fitness App and YBell YouTube Channel are great for YBell exercises and pod-style workouts created by our creator and founder, Az. Our YBell Instagram and YBell Facebook pages are great for workout inspiration created by our worldwide community of strength trainers and workout enthusiasts.

See for yourself why the YBell is considered the best alternative to traditional fitness tools like dumbbells, kettlebells, med balls, and push-up stands.

Can YBells Be Used to Improve Mobility?

YBell is a multifunctional 4-in-1 fitness tool that can be used as a dumbbell, kettlebell, double-grip med ball, and push-up stand. Its unique shape and award-winning multi-handled design offer new layers of challenge to your mobility training. YBells offer variety, allowing you to increase or decrease t to pass-through, or YBell narrow stance swing.

For those new to mobility training, we’ve got YBell-specific mobility exercises for you, too! For example, halos are traditionally performed with kettlebells and are great for your shoulder and upper back mobility. However, using a multi-handled YBell can turn the halo into compound movements, like YBell cross halos or drop lunge cross halos.

Can YBells Be Used for HIIT?

Yes, YBells are excellent for HIIT training and functional training movements. The main benefit of utilising YBells for HIIT-based workouts is the ability to execute numerous exercises that would typically require multiple pieces of equipment. By using a YBell, you won’t need to switch out equipment, which means faster, more efficient workouts.

Rather than needing a pair of dumbbells for bicep curls, a pair of kettlebells to do swings, a double grip medicine ball to do squats, and a set of push-up stands to do renegade rows, you can do all of these movements and so many more with a single pair of YBells.

Aaron "Az" Laurence, Co-Founder, YBell Fitness

As a certified personal trainer and the inventor of the YBell, Aaron "Az" Laurence loves motivating people to become better versions of themselves. He enjoys designing challenging workouts for himself that he can use with his clients.

Az developed the YBell to replace the multiple pieces of equipment he was using in his group training sessions. He enjoys seeing his clients' reactions when they realise they only have to change grips on their YBells to change equipment. And he loves being able to dial up the intensity of their workouts with just one training tool.

Seeing clients progress both physically and mentally as a result of training fuels his passion for the fitness industry.