INTRODUCTION: Rock climbing requires repeated fatiguing actions from the finger flexors when progressing through a sport route. All-out critical force (CF) testing has been successfully used to assess climbers resistance to fatigue [1]. Previous evidence explored the CF and energy store component (W`) parameters as indicators of the aerobic isometric work threshold and anaerobic isometric work capacity, and positively related them to climbing performance [1]. The aim of our study was to explore the force fatigue dynamics of the finger flexors during an all-out CF test while comparing climbers and non-climbers. METHODS: Twnety advanced-to-elite climbers [2] and 16 non-climbers were recruited. A flat wooden climbing hold (20 mm deep) attached to a force gauge was used to test finger flexors all-out CF using a half-crimp grip. The all-out CF test comprised 30 maximum contractions with a work:rest ratio of 7:3 s. The filtered data (Butterworth low-pass filter, 4th order, 10 Hz cut-off frequency) from the 5 central seconds of each contraction were used to compute the contraction mean value. The mean force values were fitted with an exponential regression model and then, a bi-segmental lineal regression model was used to characterize a fast fatigue phase and a slow fatigue phase. The following variables were computed: (1) maximum mean isometric force value (MIF ); (2) the CF level as the mean of the last 6 contractions; (3) the W` as the integral above CF; (4) slopes of the fast (slope1) and (5) the slow (slope2) fatigue phasesdefined by the two regression lines ; and (6) the x-coordinate (repetition number, Xint) and (7) y-coordinate (Fint) of the intersection between the two regression lines. All variables except Xint were expressed as % of body weight (BW) . T-tests or U-Mann Whitney were used to test differences between climbers and non-climbers. Level of significance was set at alpha = 0.05 RESULTS: Although climbers showed significant slight differences in BW% force decrements during slope1 (2.0%) and slope2 (0.6%) than non-climbers (1.4% and 0.2%), it seems that dynamic of force-fatigue followed similar trends . On the other hand, climbers presented significant greater BW % MIF, CF, W`, and Fint than non-climbers. At the same time, climbers showed a slightly latter Xint than non-climbers. CONCLUSION: These results evidenced that sport-related adaptations allow climbers to exert greater maximum isometric forces and maintain greater forces under fatiguing conditions. The greater initial force found and the similar fatigue trend between groups causes climbers to present greater force at the end of the test (CF), larger anaerobic work capacity (W`), and a greater force value when the force depletion slows down (Fint). Characterizing slope1, slope2, and Fint along with the CF value and W`, could provide further insight in climbing training-related adaptations.
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