Is this hold a rest? The go-or-stay decision
A hold is a rest if your forearms recover on it, and that depends on how hard you have to grip it. On a good hold, staying pays for a long time. On a poor one it stops paying almost at once, and the right move is to go.
In plain words
Not every big-looking hold is a rest. What counts is whether you can hold it lightly. If you can, the holding arm gets blood too, and both arms recover. If you have to grip hard, the holding arm drains while the other arm shakes, and you go nowhere. So when you reach a possible rest, ask yourself: am I getting better? If yes, stay and keep swapping hands. If you've stopped improving, leave, even if you don't feel fresh.
Memory hookGetting better? Stay. Flat? Go.
The decision
-
Settle in for a few secondsSettle
Find the best body position: straight arm, hips in, a leg rest if there is one.
-
How lightly can you hold it?Test
If you can loosen the grip and still hang on, it's a rest. If you can't, it's a pause at best.
-
Shake each hand in turn, arm lowShake
Swap every few seconds.
-
Is it still getting better?Check
Compare each round with the last.
-
Flat, or the clock says goGo
Leave now, while you still have what you recovered.
Why the answer depends on the grip
On a rest one hand holds while the other shakes. The holding hand gets less blood the harder it grips, and none at all once the grip is hard enough to squeeze the vessels shut. Below that point both hands recover. Above it, the holding hand's loss can cancel the shaking hand's gain. Better body position, a leg rest or a lighter grip can turn a poor rest into a good one.
See it
Try every rest-hold setting and read the verdict under the chart. Then lower the refill half-time.
The evidence
Numbers from adults only.
- Measured Forearm blood flow is cut off at roughly 45–75 % of maximum grip force (Barnes 1980, Ergonomics 23(4):351–357, cited by MacLeod et al. 2007).
- Measured Faster-recovering climbers have more to gain from short rests: half recovery took about 8 s in elite climbers and 47 s in intermediate climbers after a sustained hold. Fryer et al. 2015: 38 adult men. J Strength Cond Res 29(6):1633–1639.
- Model The levels off verdict comes from the forearm model, not from a measurement on a real rest.
- Coaching practice The settle, test, shake, check sequence above is common teaching.
Model assumptions
See Why resting works. The verdict uses the weaker arm: if both arms pass 80 % it reports when; otherwise it reports the level where recovery flattens and roughly when it got there.
Try it
How long to rest, and when to leave, and when to rest: before the pump.
Common mistakes
judge it by how lightly you can hold it.
if it isn't paying, go.
on a jug, recovery can keep paying for a minute or more.
the same hold can become a rest with a drop knee or hips in.