760 scale

Subjects were weighed in shorts and t-shirts without shoes to the nearest 0.1 kg using a Seca 760 scale (Seca GmbH, Hamburg, Germany) and height was measured without shoes to the nearest 0.5 cm using a Seca 213 stadiometer (Seca GmbH). Although finger strength was unlikely to have an impact on whether athletes would follow the best solution (i.e., see design of the bouldering task sections for further details), handheld grip strength, which consists of a valid and reliable method for assessing sport-specific finger strength [31 (link)], was determined using a calibrated Smedley Spring dynamometer (Saehan; Gyeonggi-do, KR) to provide additional information about the participants’ physical capabilities. The maximum pressure applied without the use of the thumb to enable a sport-specific test implementation and the grip span was adjusted to reach the phalanx distalis of the ring finger [14 (link)]. Subjects had to perform three attempts with the dominant hand, gradually applying maximal pressure for two seconds. The highest score of three attempts was recorded with a standardized rest period of one minute between efforts.