Shaking: arm position and rhythm
Shaking a hand with the arm hanging low beside the body brings oxygen back faster than resting it near the hold. Switching hands every few seconds shares the recovery between both arms.
In plain words
When you shake out, where your arm is matters. Let it hang down by your side, below your heart, and loosely shake the hand. Blood gets back into the forearm faster that way than when the hand stays up near the hold. Then swap: hold with the rested hand and shake the other one. A few seconds per hand, swapped regularly, keeps both forearms recovering. If you rest one arm for a long time, the other one is gripping and draining the whole time.
Memory hookLow and loose, then swap.
Where and how to shake
Arm low, not by the hold
Why low beats high, and what shaking adds, is explained with an interactive model on arm position on a rest. In a lab test with climbers, shaking the hand beside the body during the pauses between grips let them keep going 22 % longer than resting the hand over the hold, and their forearm oxygen came back 32 % faster.
Rhythm
a common starting point is 5–10 s per hand, then adjust to how the arms feel.
the holding arm only recovers if its grip is low enough to let blood through.
it helps you relax the grip.
See it
Turn Shake with the arm hanging low off and on, and compare the curves. Then try different seconds per hand.
The evidence
Numbers from adults only.
- Measured Shaking the forearm beside the body gave 22 % longer repeated-grip test time, 28 % more force-time integral and 32 % faster re-oxygenation than keeping the hand over the hold. Baláš et al. 2016: 22 adult rock climbers, repeated grips at 60 % of maximum to failure. Eur J Sport Sci 16(7):764–772.
- Measured In the same study, the ratio of repeated-grip time to continuous-grip time was 2.02 for sport climbers, 1.74 for boulderers and 1.25 for lower-grade climbers. Climbers used to long routes recovered more in short pauses.
- Measured Half recovery of forearm oxygen took about 8 s (elite), 47 s (intermediate) and 95 s (non-climbers) after a sustained hold. Fryer et al. 2015: 38 adult men. J Strength Cond Res 29(6):1633–1639.
- Coaching practice Swapping hands every 5–10 s and breathing out slowly are common advice. The best rhythm hasn't been measured.
Model assumptions
The forearm model is described on Why resting works. Shaking with the arm low refills 1.32 times faster than shaking with the hand by the hold, taken from the 32 % faster re-oxygenation above. The study explorer shows published values only.
Try it
Common mistakes
let the arm hang low beside the body.
the other arm is draining the whole time.
the shake should be loose. Tense shaking keeps the forearm working.
the holding arm recovers too, but only if its grip is light.