Better Kneebars

Rest and unlock hard sequences with a solid kneebar

One of the most useful moves in climbing, the kneebar is when you wedge your foot, lower leg, and top of your knee between two rock surfaces. It can provide a much-needed rest or set you up for the next tricky sequence without using a lot of energy, and a good kneebar can be found on vertical and horizontal terrain. Below we’ve compiled suggestions for subtle nuances in technique, pressure, and body position from kneebar queen Heather Weidner, who has used these methods to send 5.13s and 5.14s throughout the West.

The blocky crag of Jailhouse in Sonora may be the most kneebar intensive crag in the US. Jordan Cannon works his way up Fugitive (5.13a)

Finding and Setting Up

A successful kneebar relies on the tension created from pressing down on a foothold with your toes, which in turn pushes the top of the knee/bottom of the thigh into another hold. The foothold can be anything from a barely there smear to a big ledge, but the thigh-side hold must have enough surface area to provide substantial grip against the larger, less dexterous knee. Of course, the length of your leg will affect how much effort is required, and if you can simply slot your leg in the space between holds, of if you’ll need to flex your calf and press up into it.

The best kneebar allows the climber to drop both hands and hang upside down, especially if you can get both knees in there. Other times the knee will be barely pressed into the rock, which is more of a knee scum, which will remove some of the weight from the climber’s hands, providing a slight rest or setting the climber up for the next move.

“Kneebars are going to be slightly different for everyone, and it takes a while—just like any skill—to find potential kneebars,” says Weidner. Experimenting with different footholds, knee position, foot angles, hip height, and using the opposite leg can make kneebars transform from seemingly impossible to incredibly solid. To gain more length, you can always point your toes. To shorten the length, try dropping the heel if the foothold is good enough. In extreme situations, you might be able to stack your feet or place your hand between your knee and the rock to make it work, but both situations can make the next move more difficult.

“I look for flat surfaces at a variety of angles. Whether or not a kneebar is possible depends largely if there is a toe that is available to push against this surface. Kneebars can be vertical, horizontal, over your head, and anything in between.” Practice makes perfect, so continue experimenting to figure out what works.

Alex Honnold kneebars in pants on Tommy Lee (5.13b) at Jailhouse.

Resting, Moving, and Exiting

Kneebars provide two different opportunities: resting and moving. To rest, the climber should flex her calf muscle and push hard into the kneebar. While this may create a leg pump and work the core, it will refresh swollen forearms. In some cases, the climber needs only to sag their hips and slot their thigh in the kneebar, similar to how a nut slots into a constriction. Kneebarring can be a game of sacrificing strength in one part of the body for recovery in another part.  “It takes practice to be able to relax in a kneebar, just like it does shaking out on hand holds. Focus on applying just enough force from your toe to your thigh to stay in, just like you would hang on your hands but not release your grip,” says Weidner.

To move, flag your opposite, non-kneebar leg against the wall. This offers counterpressure to the kneebar, so your body weight has somewhere to go when you release the kneebar. Placing the opposite foot on a foothold can help improve a kneebar and can help you reach holds out of reach. While in the kneebar, use the opposite foor to move your hips higher. This will help you reach higher holds.

Whether you’re climbing or resting, you will need to exit the kneebar eventually, which can be hardest part. “Moving out of a KB often involves a lot of core,” says Weidner.  “It depends on the body position, but often coming out of a kneebar rest, I tighten my core and make sure I know exactly where my feet need to go to avoid having my whole body swing out.” Flex the abdominal muscles, toe in hard on whatever footholds are there, and pull hard on your hands. Walking the feet to higher footholds can reduce cutting. This requires significant core tension, and pulling up a little on the hands can help keep your midsection tight and reduce the swing.

Alex Puccio grimaces glides the kneebar on Koyaanisqatsi (V11) in Boulder Canyon

Proper Attire

Because you will be relying on friction between your knee and the rock, what you wear can affect your performance. Different kneebars require different types of equipment.

Bare skin - For basic kneebars, shorts or a bare leg can work but exposed skin can be shredded. For intermediate kneebars, use thicker denim pants to save the leg. Unfortunately, bare skin and pants lack the friction necessary for harder kneebarring. For advanced kneebars wear a kneepad on bare skin. Wearing a pad over pants makes the pad slide so wear shorts or pants you can fold above the kneepad. “I recommend wearing stretchy capris that you can pull up your thighs or shorts. If it’s cold, leg-warmers work well with this method and you look like a rock star,” said professional climber and kneebar master Heather Weidner.

Kneepad – The developers of the blocky terrain at California’s Jailhouse Rock are credited with first using sticky rubber kneepads in the early 1990s. These sticky rubber-covered kneepads actually go over the lower thigh (slightly above the knee), and they come in two basic varieties: strap-ons and sleeves. Strap-on pads have adjustable buckles and easy on-easy off, so they’re great for bouldering. Sleeves, often made of neoprene, are lighter and offer more sensitivity because of the thinner design; these feel more like a second skin and are excellent for highly technical knee trickery. However, it is harder to customize fit with a sleeve, so it is helpful to duct-tape or use spray adhesive to keep them in place.

“If you want to attempt a technical kneebar—meaning one that is not super obvious or engulfs your entire leg—you need to think of the pad as being a part of your leg. It can’t move at all,” says Weidner.  “As soon as it slips a few millimeters, it is not going to work for the tricky bars and scums.” To keep the pad from moving, pull on the kneepad so the bottom edge sits just above the top of the knee. Make at least two continuous wraps of duct tape around the pad and then around the leg. When it’s hot and you’re sweaty, duct tape might not be enough. In that case, try spray adhesive (like Tuf Skin) directly on the skin on the pad, and then use duct-tape. Taking the pad off can be quite painful, especially if you have hairy legs, so consider shaving your leg in the area.

This article first appeared in Climbing 350