EP 267: Keith Baar & Natalie Gilmore — The Secret to Strong & Healthy Fingers, & Exciting New Science

Dr. Keith Baar is a leading expert in tendon and ligament engineering and repair. Natalie Gilmore is a PhD student focused on climbing-specific research. We talked about the results of their recent retrospective study, exciting new science, why “Abrahangs” improve force transfer, why progressively overloading them is a bad idea, protocols for finger health and strength, and more.

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/keith-and-natalie

Nuggets:

(00:00:00) – Intro

(00:03:03) – Keith’s background

(00:10:05) – Natalie’s background

(00:13:08) – The “Abrahangs” retrospective study

(00:17:56) – Natalie’s experience with “Abrahangs”

(00:18:52) – The limitations of a retrospective

(00:22:41) – Exciting new studies

(00:32:09) – What’s happening with “Abrahangs”?

(00:41:33) – Is there a “best” protocol?

(00:46:40) – Balancing tendon health & stiffness

(00:57:00) – Recommendations

(01:06:03) – A cautionary tale

(01:08:36) – Low-jerk isometrics

(01:13:46) – Can “Abrahangs” increase training capacity?

(01:15:42) – Summary

(01:16:19) – Keith & Natalie’s dream studies

(01:19:25) – Wrap up