[Munkii]

Today i was told by my coach that my strength is good, my technique is good but i really need to train my flexibility.

Does anyone know of any stretches/excercises that will help climbing related flexibility? Routines that you already do or have heard about?

I will be very gratefull for any suggestions.

thanks MUNKII

[Paul B]

await feehallys flexi madness over on beastmaker.co.uk you don't get anymore bendy than the champ.

If you're too psyched to wait then what he told me to do was to think back to the stretches you were shown at school and do them, hold each one for 30 secs 3 times and do about 15mins worth every day. After warming up or a hot shower/bath.
enjoy?

[milksnake]

yeah, flexibility is a real issue for me too. recently i've started to strech whilst actually climbing, stuff like grabbing your foot and putting onto the highest high step i can and then holding it for about 30 second before rocking over or just holding really wide bridges, silly toe and heel hooks and any other climbing related contortionism i can think of. not sure if this is a good method or not but its working well and i havn't pulled anything yet.... prolly best to ask your coach tho. 

[Munkii]

await feehallys flexi madness over on beastmaker.co.uk you don't get anymore bendy than the champ.

If you're too psyched to wait then what he told me to do was to think back to the stretches you were shown at school and do them, hold each one for 30 secs 3 times and do about 15mins worth every day. After warming up or a hot shower/bath.
enjoy?

o.k. thanks.

i'll start the stretches now until the beastmaker thing comes out and then i'll start that.

yeah, flexibility is a real issue for me too. recently i've started to strech whilst actually climbing, stuff like grabbing your foot and putting onto the highest high step i can and then holding it for about 30 second before rocking over or just holding really wide bridges, silly toe and heel hooks and any other climbing related contortionism i can think of. not sure if this is a good method or not but its working well and i havn't pulled anything yet.... prolly best to ask your coach tho. 

sounds like a logical method, but the time i spend at the wall or the crag i want to spend climbing. it has to be stuff i can do at home.

[mrjonathanr]

Go find youself a yoga class, ideally Astanga beginner's if you like a challenge.

[reeve]

I think that merely being passively flexible is only part of the issue. To accurately place your foot on a hold say will take a fair bit of strength too. If you're bending over to touch your toes for instance, you've got a lot of gravity pulling you down, aiding you, however when you're trying to do the same stretch but to put your leg above your head you're going to be relying much more on your ability to move the joint yourself. Which is much more akin to what you do in yoga, so basically 

[Clart]

  also, yoga is the shit. I found it not only helps me get in to positions where I can maximise the force through my feet but also stay in contorted positions with more comfort. Also good for trunk and shoulder girdle flexibility; stops you walking round like a valleys rhoid boy.

[St Hubbins]

also, yoga is the shit. I found it not only helps me get in to positions where I can maximise the force through my feet but also stay in contorted positions with more comfort. Also good for trunk and shoulder girdle flexibility; stops you walking round like a valleys rhoid boy.

Second this.
6 months ago i bought 'yoga for climbers' and i was no more flexible than any other at the wall. Now i seem to have jedi skills in flexibility, and roof problems are easier.

[Munkii]

also, yoga is the shit. I found it not only helps me get in to positions where I can maximise the force through my feet but also stay in contorted positions with more comfort. Also good for trunk and shoulder girdle flexibility; stops you walking round like a valleys rhoid boy.

Second this.
6 months ago i bought 'yoga for climbers' and i was no more flexible than any other at the wall. Now i seem to have jedi skills in flexibility, and roof problems are easier.

so did yoga for climbers help you or not? what is it? a book? ???

[slackline]

so did yoga for climbers help you or not? what is it? a book? ???

     <----Click on this and see what you find.



(And as you're clearly too lazy to spend a few seconds resarching things yourself, its a DVD and reviewed here)

[Munkii]

thanks for the exact link. but as you saw on google there were 2,530 links, how am i supposed to know which one it is by someon telling me that they bought "yoga for climbers"?

thanks anyway.

[robertostallioni]

http://www.climbing.com/print/reviews/yoga_for_climbers_review/
Let me know when you want your arse wiping

[slackline]

thanks for the exact link. but as you saw on google there were 2,530 links, how am i supposed to know which one it is by someon telling me that they bought "yoga for climbers"?

thanks anyway.

Simple trial and error, Google is pretty accurate, the top few hits tend to be the most relevant, check them all out, if there is consensus between them, bingo!  If not then you waste the time it takes to post to the forum asking the question on looking a bit harder.

Its not the first time you've asked trivial questions that you could have spent a few seconds searching for the answer yourself, and unfortunately I doubt it will be the last.

I realise you probably think I'm an arsehole for saying this, but at the end of the day you've got the answer that you wanted so you can't complain, and I've had a minutes distraction from work.

[GCW]

Today i was told by my coach that my strength is good, my technique is good but i really need to train my flexibility.

What kinda crappy coach do you have that can't show you stretches?  Get your money back.

[robertostallioni]

You got good fingers champ, but yer flexi-mi-bility is the pits. You're a bum!

[galpinos]

Right having had a chap laugh at me trying to get my foot up on Ron's Reach (I actually think it was Dense, he was called Lee as was trying the Ace/Joker) I've realised I've got the fleibilty to get my foot up but not the strength/ability/not quite sure what to actually lift my foot up.

Anyone got any good stretches/exercises to help this?

[chriss]

I know two ladies that have been into yoga for years & to call them flexy would be a huge understatement, but they struggle to use it for all it's worth as they lack muscle strength. I would assume it's because they have only been climbing a few years, but have been into yoga most of their lives, would some gymnastic stuff be more usefull as they as strong as fuck with it.

[St Hubbins]

Yeah its the dvd.

Its worth getting for those evenings when you can't get out. Its 2 x 28 minute sessions. First is easier, second has some bloody awkward things which had me crashing round the bedroom like a nutter.

[RedFox]

I've realised I've got the fleibilty to get my foot up but not the strength/ability/not quite sure what to actually lift my foot up.

Anyone got any good stretches/exercises to help this?

Try Pavel Tsatsouline's "Relax into Stretch" book.  If I remember rightly it has plenty on active/passive flexibility.  You might want to "borrow" a pdf copy rather than buying it though...

[Clart]

Re: doing yoga from a vid. I would say that this ok for a bit a of a stretch but you need to be careful. The idea is that you keep other muscles engaged while doing the stretches in order to protect the joints. This is something you'll get from a class but not necessarily from a vid. As someone earlier mentioned, go for the Ashtanga, I sweat my tits off during a sesh and some of the ab work is killer (and I can hold a front lever for 5+ secs without too much bother).

Another method of stretching, which is often used in martial arts, is dynamic stretches. Stretching Scientifically, by Tony Kurtz, goes to town on this and he claims he'll have you doing box splits in a few months. Like most people I got the book but didn't follow it religiously so can't do them, he talks a lot of sense though (don't be put off by the gay cover):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stretching-Scientifically-Guide-Flexibility-Training/dp/0940149451/ref=pd_ys_iyr13

[St Hubbins]

the cover is a bit "Van Damme"

[Clart]

the cover is a bit "Van Damme"

Yup, it gets even better inside. People who have successfully used the book to do the splits have taken photos of themselves spread across various objects and sent them in, a box split testimonial. None of them top the cheese of holding aloft a small child whilst spread, as ably demonstrated by Mr Kurtz on the cover, though. 

[Paul B]

there's a tribue to the splits on youtube, maybe someone will oblige and post it as I currently can't.

[Jaspersharpe]

This one?



 

[lagerstarfish]

I thought someone was about to post a link to www.Naked-Gymnast.com , which would have been most inappropriate (and very NSFW).