Test — Strength Battery: What It Is

Full session

1. 1. What the Strength Battery IS It is not one test — it's a set of FOUR validated benchmark tests that together describe your strength more honestly than any single number. The 'Strength Battery' log mode collects all four; this card tells you what each one is and points you to its full how-to card. Run them across two short home days, not all at once.
2. 2. Max Hang 20 mm — maximum finger strength A 7-second added-load hang on a 20 mm edge, half-crimp, both hands. The single strongest published predictor of climbing grade (Eva López, peer-reviewed). See the 'Test — Max Hang 20 mm' card for the full protocol.
3. 3. Critical Force 4-min — sustainable finger capacity A 4-minute all-out intermittent hang (7 s on / 3 s off), bodyweight — measures how much work your forearms can sustain when pacing runs out (Giles et al., peer-reviewed). See 'Test — Critical Force 4-min'. It gets grim in the middle; that plateau is the measurement.
4. 4. Weighted Pull 5RM — upper-body pulling strength The heaviest load you can do 5 strict pull-ups with — the published secondary grade signal (Anderson & Anderson). See 'Test — Weighted Pull 5RM'.
5. 5. Continuous Hang — grip endurance One single continuous bodyweight hang to failure, in seconds — the simplest instrument in the set. See 'Test — Continuous Hang'.
6. 6. How to use it You do NOT need all four to get value — the app reads whatever you log and says so honestly ('based on N tests'). Pick the sub-tests you have the gear and appetite for. Pair the two neural tests (Max Hang + Weighted Pull) on one fresh day and the two capacity tests (Critical Force + Continuous Hang) on another, 48h apart and clear of hard finger work.
7. 7. Is the battery for you yet? The sub-tests involve maximal finger and pulling loads — for climbers with 2+ years of consistent climbing and healthy fingers. Newer climbers: skip the battery; your strength is still being built fastest by climbing itself.
8. 8. Log your results Training → benchmarks → Strength Battery mode opens the four-test sub-form — log whichever sub-tests you ran.