The max strength test

The max strength test measures the hardest you can pull with each hand. It is the first test to take: the app’s own message says to start with it.

How to start a test, choose your hold and find old results is on Take a test. This page is what is special to this test.

What you do

• The test covers both hands: you pull as hard as you can with your left hand, then with your right hand.
• The briefing shows how long each pull lasts. Follow the timer.
• You choose one edge for your left hand and one for your right hand.

The briefing lists every pull under Overview before you start.

Use a medium edge, about as deep as one fingerpad. That is what the app recommends, in the note of the Max strength field in Settings. Then keep the same edge for every test.

Right after the test

The app shows Max Strength Results:

• PEAK · LEFT and PEAK · RIGHT: the highest force of your pulls with that hand, in your unit.
• BEST RFD: how fast your force went up at the start of your fastest pull. If the app could not measure it, this number is not shown. See What each test measures.
• A line that compares you with your grade: Strong for your grade, About right for your grade or Room to grow for your grade. It shows only if the app knows your boulder grade. It uses the body weight on file, or else the weight measured before this test.

In the Test tab

The tile shows the latest result of your stronger hand, and a bar for each hand: L and R. Under the number, a line compares you with your grade: Strong for your grade, Typical for your grade or Building toward your grade. The app needs your grade and your body weight for it. Without them, the tile asks first for your body weight, then for your grade.

• Your grade. You give it in the first questions of the app, on the plan page, or in Settings with Redo the onboarding.
• Your body weight. You cannot type it. It is the weight the plate measured when you first set up the plate in the app.

The section (tap the tile) shows, for each hand:

• FORCE CURVE: your force during the pull, left in blue and right in orange.
• MAX FORCE: the top of that curve.
• RFD 200MS: the speed of the start of the pull. Swipe that tile to see RISE TIME: the seconds your force took to go from almost nothing to almost its top.
• STABILITY: how much your force moved while you held it near its top, in your unit. The colour says if that is small for your force: green is steady, amber is in between, red is unsteady.

If one hand has no result, its place says No left test or No right test. Tap it to start the test.

The “Max strength” value in Settings is separate

Settings has a field called Max strength, under Physical Profile. Workouts that ask for a share of your max use this field for the whole hand. Workouts on one finger use your finger strength test for that finger, and estimate from this field until you have tested it. The workout shows what each rep asks, for example “60% of your pinky”.

A test does not fill it in. After a max strength test, type your result there yourself: Profile, then Settings, then go down to Max strength. The field is for one hand. If it is empty, those workouts use the weight the plate measures before the session instead. The only other way in is the Open Test: at the end of one, its summary (Which pulls were tests?) lets you say which pull was your one-hand max.

How often

The Test tab asks you to test again when your result is more than 28 days old. Testing more often than that is fine, but test on a day when you are rested: a tired pull gives a low number.