Workouts to avoid chicken-winging

Hello, 

Recently, I got back into sport after a long stint primarily bouldering. Quickly, my partner noticed I was chicken winging pretty hard and told me it can lead to injury if it persists. 

I am now focusing on preventing this by not pushing grade and focusing on my technique until I feel more comfortable. I am quickly discovering that behind technique, I need to improve my back strength in combo with technique. 

Does anyone have suggestions on what I can work on specifically to strengthen these muscles? As a side note I have a rock prodigy at home I can use, but also know heavy hang board use can be dangerous used incorrectly. 

Thank you

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the chicken wing occurs when you get pumped and can't contract your forearms as well. Your body compensates by raising the elbows which allows you to maintain force through the fingertips despite diminishing forearm power. The trade off is it's harder to pull through the holds and it puts a lot of stress on the fingers and joints. 

If I had to guess, I'd say you're just lacking endurance after your stint away from sport climbing. After bouldering, I doubt you're lacking power or strength. Rather than focusing on redpointing, it might be wise to take a month or two climbing many easier routes to get more volume and build your endurance back up before trying to push your limits.

- Will

Or take up ugly offwidths?

According to your partner, was it happening constantly, or only in particular instances, such as when you were clipping or tired? Will O's response is probably on the right track. If you have been bouldering regularly then ultimate strength is a very unlikely culprit. Endurance and technique as governed by headgame are probably key factors.

You might try finger roll with a heavy dumbbell. I primarily boulder these days but I have incorporated the finger roll as an exercise that nicely complements hangboarding and board bouldering. It induces a pump that feels just like sport climbing.

Sounds like weak rotator cuff (supraspinatus i think) and upper back muscles. I'm guessing bouldering strengthened all your other muscles except these. How's your posture?

Ts ,Is and Ys and exterior rotator cuff exercises would probably be the way to go.

Edit: i might be misinterpreting your chicken winging btw...

Old lady H wrote:

Or take up ugly offwidths?

I was going to say “stop climbing offwidths.”

Doing push ups and pull ups while keeping your elbows close to your torso will help. While climbing easier routes focus on engaging your back and not your neck. Keep your elbows low and close. This happens when getting pumped yes, but your form, tension, ability to compress, lock off, etc are all failing with your fingers. I also do bench, military press, isometric planks at different angles all focusing on “packing” my shoulder complex, relaxing my neck, focusing on good tight form with my elbows tracking correctly in good form. Heavy weight training has helped my ability to keep good form while pumped. But I am a stronger climber than I am a lifter. So a lot of work there to be done for me.   

Practice engage your core and shoulders more, I just started working on this and it gave me a lot more control.

This is all helpful advise! Thank you very much. 

To answer the questions about when it occurs, it's normally top of a route when I get pumped. I am actually very aware of it happening but I simply can't correct my form due to fatigue.

I'm thinking weak lats are the problem. The pumped-ness is probably just coincidental with it happening on strenuous routes. I think many climbers don't really know how to do pull-ups in an efficient form, doing more of a pull-down/press-down, even on steeper terrain. Basically we use our biceps too much, not our backs/shoulders

From Eric Horst's Article "Training the Wrist Stabilizers"

Now you know why fatiguing climbers lift their elbows into the chicken-wing position—it puts their wrist into a position that enables their pumped forearms to grip a little longer. Done chronically, however, such chicken winging stresses the extensor muscles and puts added stress on the tendon pulleys in the fingers. The result can be gradual onset of lateral epicondylitis and/or finger tendon problems.

The training “fix,” then, is to dedicate a modest amount of time to training the finger/wrist extensor muscles.

I guess there is actually training to be done with this. You can see the full article and recommended exercises here.

-Will

Thank you, that's super helpful. My roommate used to climb competitively and I talked to them, they suggested I also focus on climbing some easier grades for a little and pay attention to the direction of my wrist from each hold. Keep my wrist in line with my hand has certainly helped the last few sessions. Just putting this out there in case others stumble across this thread with the same issue. 

I have read all about the dangers of chicken winging. Then again I have also been told to never train closed crimp positions.

While the concept with this is understood, I don’t think there is a reason not to train something that happens so naturally while climbing.

I remember watching George Squibb crushing 5.13 onsight back in the early 2000’s. He was always the master at the chicken wing, the guy could pimp a nickel and get a rest. I like to notice when I start doing it, but if I am midcrux and sending I’m winging it for sure!

The legendary, sadly late Patrick Edlinger often used what looks like the chicken-wing, but mostly when Gastoning or pulling really high, off a tight pocket or crimp below armpit level - where you pretty much have to bring the elbow behind the plane of your chest. Even advanced climbers may not have the power to hang on at all in those positions, and I expect what might look like "inferior technique," or weak musculature, was in fact the most efficient position in such extreme climbs.