Date

5-2021

Department

School of Health Sciences

Degree

Master of Science in Human Performance (MS)

Chair

Andy Bosak

Keywords

Rock Climbing, Hangboard, Fingerboard, Recovery

Disciplines

Sports Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether static stretching, dynamic shakes, or repeated contractions would promote the greatest retention in performance in hangboard training within a given period of time. Five volunteer intermediate climbers from the Liberty University rock climbing team were instructed to suspend themselves from a 20mm ledge on a hangboard until voluntary failure while time was recorded. After failure, subjects performed one of three different recovery methods and a control in randomized order for two minutes in alternating fifteen-second intervals. Upon finishing recovery, subjects would hang from the same ledge and have their time recorded again. All subjects performed all recovery methods over the course of the semester. A multi variant repeated-measures ANOVA and one-way ANOVA compared total time of hang before and after between groups and hang time Δ between groups respectively. Unfortunately, statistical power was too weak to find any significant differences between groups (p=1). Significant differences were found between pre and post-hang times (p<0.001) with subjects hanging 5.2 seconds longer on average during the first hang. The study should be repeated with modifications to the study population, these being: open the study to climbers outside the team and its staff, increase the amount of experience needed, and have a pre-test to ensure climbers can hang for at least twenty seconds.

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