The other day my brother showed me an exercise tool he was excited to try out to enhance his climbing. Besides having a fun name, Power Fingers also outlines a great concept to utilize in our Analogous Learning process.
“The PowerFingers
$30 | THEPOWERFINGERS.COM |
The PowerFingers are elasticized forearm extensor trainers that feature individual finger loops and come in five different resistance levels. As with most other grip trainers, they can be used for addressing muscular imbalances, base conditioning, injury prevention and rehabilitation. However, these rigs seem to have magical powers when it comes to strengthening, which in my opinion makes them the most important supportive grip-training device. The big difference is that most other extensor trainers don’t work individual fingers and offer low resistance levels, meaning they can only be used for conditioning. With PowerFingers, you can stack them up for high resistance, enabling strength sets of one to eight reps.
The background here is that it isn’t possible to develop the forearm flexors (or any muscle) to their full strength potential if the antagonist (opposition) muscle is disproportionately weak. So by using the Powerfingers to strengthen the extensors, you can indirectly facilitate further strengthening of the flexors. I suggest a minimum of three sessions a week, either on rest days or when resting between climbs. Hold contractions for three to four seconds, and do two or three sets of 10 to 15 reps to warm up, then go for four or five sets of four to six reps, to failure. Many climbers who use PowerFingers are reporting increases in finger strength and reduced susceptibility to injury, and I highly recommend these devices.
This article originally appeared in Rock and Ice issue 239 (January 2017).”
There is probably an inexhaustible amount of connections to be made with this concept of antagonist muscles. The most obvious are similar applications to all other forms of muscle exercise and the health/structural benefits within. However, we can see this concept across the board.
Through my own experience as well as the personal accounts of others, I’ve encountered this concept in the practicing of many artistic activities. In playing a musical instrument for example, I’ve noticed two opposing types of practice that support each other; Repetitive Drilling, and Creative Expression.
Repetitive Drilling, is the more structured form. An example would be learning a scale on the guitar. While doing this exercise, one focuses on accuracy and correct form. You simply play up and down the scale trying to hit each note with maximum efficiency. You may change up the pattern of going up and down the scale to practice a wider variety of movement, but the practice is still highly structured and focused. In the beginning stages you typically start very slow to ensure that you are practicing consistent rhythm as well. This builds strength, muscle memory, coordination, agility, and caulous development.
When practicing creative expression, the rules slacken or go out the window. Here the focus is on exploring different sounds and methods, experimenting with them, and practicing an openness to yourself and your expression. It’s a practice of being in tune with yourself, exploring your relationship with creating music, and a process of finding new reference points that bring a better understanding of music and facilitate more accurate creative expression. While practicing this way, you may explore playing over other music or improvising on your own, experiment with holding on to notes for various lengths, hitting notes outside of the scale, playing slower or faster, exploring the emotional response to stringing different notes together, or even trying different methods of holding the guitar and hitting the strings.
Like the antagonist muscle practice of Power Fingers, these are two sides of the same practice of musical expression. Repetitive drilling, provides the strength, agility and skill for your body to better perform the necessary movements for accurate expression; while creative expression connects the various lessons of drilling, loosens physical, mental, and emotional rigidity, practices being in tune with the flow of emotion to expression, and can also bring to light different possible repetitive drills that exist and can be utilized.
One of the beauties of utilizing this concept is that often, if you become tired or unmotivated to continue one type of practice, switching to the other form often reinvigorates motivation and provides a resting/healing period from the particular type of stress in the opposing practice. This in turn enables us spend more time practicing with less mental and physical stress. Yet another reason to not push yourself to the point of hating something that you practice, you can simply change it up.
I’ve also used this concept in knife throwing. Anyone I teach, I encourage to learn to throw with both hands. This provides resting periods for muscles and joints, develops muscles more evenly (especially important for the back) and also has this effect of building off one another. The right and left side will actually teach each other different lessons on throwing, body position and focus, thus the benefit is a multiple effect and not just the sum of practicing both sides… it’s also more fun to throw with both hands, a benefit not to be overlooked.
Where are some areas where you’ve utilized the concept of antagonist muscles already and/or recognized it’s effect? What are some areas where being aware of this concept might open you up to different types of practice?
Also practice identifying Analogous Learning concepts yourself. What are some other connectable concepts you can identify from the description of Power Fingers and their benefits? Gotta love the name.