As you progress through your climbing journey you will invariably come across toe-hooks. Initially you may find that the beta forces you to use one, but once you unlock their full power you will likely find yourself voluntarily using them. Often as a way to rest and release your hand for a break, or to release your hand so you can chalk up. However, your rest will be cut short if your body is not primed and ready to do said toe-hook. Often we just think it’s a matter of “kick the leg out and bend the ankle” so the top of our shoe makes contact with a hold or an arete. What we often forget is that whilst we’re right to give loads of love to warming up our fingers and wrists, we should be giving the same sort of care to our ankles, calves, and the rest of the chain that makes a toe-hook possible and useful. A toe-hook isn’t just one action, it’s a chain of multiple joints and muscles working in a particular order. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “we’re as strong as our weakest link” then you should be able to make the connection as to why ignoring one part in this toe-hook chain negates any preparation we make in the rest of the chain.

What a Toe Hook Actually Requires

Hip Flexion Strength

Hip flexion allows us to get our knee up nearer to our chest, and consequently our foot. This is directly useful for something like a high step or a rock over. It is still important in a toe-hook too though. Imagine we’re on an overhang roof and want to toe-hook a hold out to our side around thigh level. We need our hip flexors to be able to move in this side-directional way. The hip flexors are further used here because they help us to keep the foot in place even under load. Without this, we’d lose tension as soon as we let go of the hand that is supporting as the toe-hook is not strong enough to keep the same tension that the hand has released.

Trunk / Core Stability

No matter how good our lower body is, if we have a weak core then it’s game over for our toe-hook game. As soon as our core sags uncontrolably we introduce a twisting motion down our legs and eventually our feet. If we’ve just locked in the perfect (but maybe precarious) toe-hook and we suddenly twist the foot then it may slip and off the wall we come.

Ankle Dorsiflexion

Our ankles are paramount to a solid toe-hook. When locking in a toe-hook we often through our foot up with our ankles at a 90 degree angle and then create tension. However, if our ankles (specificially dorsiflexion) are not strong enough to keep this tension then we wont be on the wall for long. Ankle Dorsiflexion is when the ankle bends to allow the foot and toes to come up towards the shins. Compare this to plantarflexion where we point our toes down away from the shin. This allows us to keep the toes engaged and positioned correctly.

Quick Sanity Check

Do any of these sound familiar:

• You can place the toe, but can’t use it
• Your foot slips even on good holds
• Your knee collapses inward
• You cut loose as soon as you weight the hook
• Toe hooks feel inconsistent rather than solid

If so then it’s likely your overlooking 1 or more of the above areas. What most climbers do instead of specific focus is to just climb “loads of easy warm up problems” with no real direction or attention paid to what they’re trying to achieve. Warming up isn’t just a better or looking busy. Next time you warm up, make sure you focus on each of the areas above – and not just the ones you enjoy! (we’re all guilty of doing the exercises we want to do, not the ones we should do)