What is a gaston?

Most holds you pull towards your body. A gaston is the awkward exception: a hold you push away from yourself, sideways, with your elbow out and your thumb pointing down, as though you are trying to prise apart a pair of lift doors. It feels weird and weak the first time, and then you realise how often it is the only thing that works.

A grip that pushes, not pulls

A gaston is defined by direction. Your hand is on a vertical or near-vertical edge, the kind of side-pull you would normally lean away from, but instead of pulling it towards you, you push outwards against it. Thumb down, fingers pointing roughly towards your own midline, elbow flared out to the side.

Compare it to a side-pull and the difference is clear. With a side-pull you hang off the edge and lean your body the opposite way, using your weight against the hold. With a gaston you are pressing into the hold, generating outward force from your shoulder and arm. It is the same edge, used in opposite directions. The gaston is the one where your arm is doing the harder, more isolating job.

The name, fittingly, comes from climbing history. It is widely attributed to the French climber Gaston Rébuffat, and the move is sometimes still called a "comici" or simply a "shoulder press" depending on who you ask. The lift-door image is the one that sticks though, because that pushing-apart motion is exactly what your two hands often end up doing.

When the gaston appears

You reach for a gaston when the hold faces the wrong way to pull on it. The classic situation is a vertical edge sitting on the inside of where your body is, so pulling it towards you would just drag you sideways off the wall. Pushing it lets you stabilise and move past it instead.

Common moments a gaston shows up:

• A vertical edge between your hands that you press against to hold your body in place while you reach with the other hand.
• A hold positioned slightly behind you on a steep wall, where pulling would barn-door you off and pushing keeps you pinned.
• Sequences where two opposing holds let you press outwards with both hands at once, locking your body into a stable, compression-style position.

Setters love a gaston because it forces a specific body shape and stops people from using their preferred, stronger pulling muscles. On a board climb you will often spot one where a hold is oriented so the only sensible way to engage it is to press.

How to make it work

Gastons feel weak because they load your shoulder and the smaller stabilising muscles rather than the big pulling chain of your back and biceps. There is no getting around the fact that they ask for shoulder strength and good positioning. But technique makes a huge difference.

Keep your elbow out and up, roughly in line with the hold, so the force runs cleanly from your hand through your shoulder. Engage your shoulder before you commit your weight, a loose, relaxed shoulder will collapse the moment you load it. Then use your feet aggressively. The more weight you can keep on your feet, the less the gaston has to hold, and a good high foot or a flagged leg often turns a desperate press into a comfortable one.

Body tension ties it all together. A gaston works best when your whole body is taut and braced, so the push at your hand is supported by tension running through your core down to your feet. Go limp and the position falls apart.

So the next time you find an edge facing the wrong way and your instinct to pull is getting you nowhere, try pushing. Thumb down, elbow out, press it like a lift door. The gaston is unglamorous and a little uncomfortable, but it unsticks sequences that nothing else will.