UKC

Mobility is a huge weakness of mine and this is especially noticeable when bouldering.  I'm terrible at high feet, hand and foot matches, keeping my hips into the wall and so on.  I'm into my 50's and have injuries from back in my 20's (from from mountain bike downhill, BMX, snowboarding and so on).

There's another thread where a few of you have written about making slow but continuous progress over time by stretching.  My experience has been that I've only ever made a little progress and then the progress has stopped.  For instance, last year I did 10 to 15 mins a day, twice a day, 6 days a week, for 8 months.  It helped but not as much as I'd like.

Has anyone found the same and subsequently found a way to break through the plateau?

Yoga in a class.

Yes. Don’t stop after only eight months! Also look into various weighted stretches, pulling yourself into position, using yoga blocks to raise yourself to get more range of motion, doing strength exercises to improve flexibility, etc. But mostly, keep on doing it. I’m 50 and more flexible than ever, but it really does require a lot of time (for me at least).

you could also try mobilisation before each climbing session. I don't know what they are all called but i'm sure there will be experienced climbers performing these rituals before starting bouldering at youyr gym. Mobilisations are intended to warm up the tendons so that they stretch further. I am a similar age to you and I find them useful in reaching max flexibility in advance of trying hard routes. Do not however stetch before climbing as that increases the likelihood of injury.

I am a desk bound dad in his early forties who falls into the comparatively cash rich/time poor. Following Youtube videos and generic yoga classes did little to help climbing specific weaknesses and was slow progress.

I decided to throw cash at it and got some individual sessions with a flexibility coach. I enjoyed them so much and saw an improvement in my climbing so bought some more. I have not turned into a super bendy heel above head type climber but my flexibility has improved, to the extent it has improved my movement (I see feet I would never had used, can keep two feet on when I would have had to drop one, can drive of the lower foot etc.) as well as my body position (to quote a climbing friend, "Nick, you've stopped sticking your a**e out all the time).

Why did this work for me when yoga classes/videos didn't:

• Motivation - I'd paid for something so definitely stuck to it
• Focus - It focused on my particular issues - we could work on the low hanging fruit which led to quicker gains which intern maintained my motivation. Not all "tight hips" are caused by the same issues!
• Strength - The "plan" allowed both increase in range, followed by improving/increasing strength in the new range of motion, meaning that I could actually use the new found flexibility
• Difficulty - As it was personalized to me, the difficulty was always at the right level. Some of the exercises at the start felt like I was barely moving into the stretch and instantly could feel it working
• Progression - I didn't have to decide when it was time to up the intensity, not know how to up the intensity./change to a different exercise and compared to a yoga class, where I felt I was just doing the same/similar thing week in week out, that appealed.

The other benefits are I can sit on the floor more comfortably with my kids, my lower back suffers less, my knee issues form running have all but near gone away as my hip imbalances are disappearing etc. I generally feel like my body functions better!

Out of interest, when you were doing these stretches, how much time do you think you spent actually stretching each individual muscle? Did you spread yourself thin as it were, or concentrate more intensively on a few areas? 

At the moment I'm concentrating all my efforts on improving my shoulder mobility (which is terrible) just to try and see some more progress. 

how did you go about finding a suitable flexibilty coach? This is missing from my climbing programme and I'd benefit from a pro's input.

I’ve tried this, a lot.  A couple of classes, follow along stuff on YouTube, Crimpd App, and yoga apps.  There are so many positions I just can’t do, so I find these useless/demoralising for me.

I already do this and it definitely helps me climb better and reduce the risk of injury.

I was seriously wondering about trying this.  Thanks.

Typically, hold a position for 30 secs, the onto the next position and so on.  Some exercises have had me holding a position for 90 seconds.  I read up plenty on the science behind how much time to put in and what I’ve tried has only helped a little.

She offered a climber specific group course at the wall that I could not make (Saturday so clashed with my daughters football) but was told it was good so I approached her to see if she had any availability. Did a taster, I was impressed and it went from there.

Have you looked at workarounds that help you with difficult positions? For example, I wasn’t getting anywhere with the pancake stretch (legs splayed out and then bending forwards from the hips). I did some research and found that sitting up on yoga blocks and then pulling myself into position using the bottom of the sofa meant I could get a really deep stretch. I’ve gone from barely being able to lean forward to getting my chest about seven or eight inches from the ground (on a good day). Just by getting some help from gravity (the blocks) and pulling on the sofa I could work up to something I was miles off before. Again, there is plenty of help for these techniques in YouTube or Instagram, it’s just a case of experimenting a bit. 

My experience is that if I want to increase flexibility in a certain position, then I have to really work at that position. Maybe do three or four bouts of 30 seconds or more. But I won’t do this every day as it’s quite a strain, so I swap exercises in and out over the course of a week. 

Apologies if I missed this question amongst the replies. Do you practice both static and dynamic stretching or just one?

I have but maybe not as much as I should.  I find mucking around with props awkward to do in time.  Videos, apps and classes tend to move faster than I can keep up.  However, I’ll give it another go.  Thanks.

Typically static when specifically only working mobility.  And dynamic when warming up, prior to actually climbing.

This sounds similar to what I'm trying. Trying to combine the 'little and often' static stretching with a smaller number of more intense exercises, two or three times a week, performed more with a reps and sets sort of approach. 

No worries. Yeah I can’t follow along for something new or hard, I tend to just do my own thing and take my time. Here’s a good account for this sort of thing:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ck8rBRQq3zU/?igshid=YjVjNjZkNmFjNg==

Do you apply static stretching after climbing? This has great value. If you consider climbing activity will expand and contract your hamstrings to varying degrees, where the contraction is often more intentional than the retraction, which is somewhat passive and less controlled. This can have the effect of shortening the muscles (extreme examples will have you experience muscle soreness).

Practicing static stretching after your climb will have the effect of returning muscle to its pre-climb state. Not doing this may be a reason or perhaps part of the reason why you find progress hard to come by. Food for thought if nothing else.

I've stretched regularly since a young age and find my dynamic stretching, pre-climb routine requires extending if I avoid post session static stretching from a previous session (climbing or otherwise). Anecdotally, static stretching when at home a few hours after climbing seems to achieve an equivalent positive effect to stretching immediately after a session. I'm 55, for reference.

I’m not sure you’d call it stretching exactly, more like reaching for a pint of muscle relaxant.

I'm a 60 year old climber and yoga teacher, specialising in yoga for climbers and yoga for older adults.

If you haven't done so already, consider asking a good sports physio to check whether your limitations are skeletal or soft tissue. If skeletal (e.g. arthritis), the benefits of stretching will be less noticeable 

However, assuming your limitations are soft tissue related, here are some recommendations:

- Find a form of stretching you enjoy (eg yoga or pilates) or at least fits in with your lifestyle. This will help you stick with it in the long term. (After 15 years regular yoga my flexibility is still gradually increasing.)

- Make sure you are holding your stretches for long enough. 30 secs is a minimum for a good developmental stretch. Consider yin yoga, where supported stretches are held for a few minutes (not everyone's cup of tea, but can be more appealing after a tiring day!)

- Consider PNF stretching, a specialised stretching technique which suppresses reflex inhibitions. A session with a personal trainer can be useful to understand this technique, but once you've got the hang of it, you can do it on your own. 

For more ideas, my website https://verticalyoga.org/ has several pages on yoga for older climbers, and I'm planning to add more shortly. 

As a follow up to my previous post... 

I don't teach regular yoga for climbers sessions, as most of my work is with health charities. However, I've got a charity fundraiser running from late Nov to early Jan, offering personalised on-line yoga sessions in exchange for a donation to my JustGiving page. PM me if you'd like more details 🙂

I do this workout twice a week focused on hip flexibility and strength. Initially it's really difficult but over time it becomes more comfortable to do. I saw noticeable gains after 6 weeks or so. 

https://youtu.be/4TyHJ5dyXp0?si=BaUgPpLCAXwLORmf 

It’s a long term project. Also you have to find the right class.

Just completed it…I was OK until she got to the Cossack squats… I think I’ve found an area I need to work on 😀

That's a good shout.  This is something I don't do.  Usually I'm desperate to get home and to eat for England!

My view is that refuelling after exercise is probably more important. It’s easy to fit in a little stretching after dinner/before bed, in the morning or at lunch (if you wfh). Maybe after a short bouldering session or fingerboarding but not anything which went on for a while (at least for me, I want to get home, eat and think about bed).

has anyone got a view on whether Yoga is sufficient or would a climber benefit more from specific stretching regime?

I am a convert to a mix of different sorts of yoga and pilates. That is for my whole lifestyle though rather than being specific to climbing. My body is much more pain free.

You probably could get more bang for your buck by concentrating on specifics that impact climbing. The difficulty comes in isolating what those are. The body is an interconnected mass, stretching or strengthening something can affect other muscles throughout your body. Perhaps a yoga coach with climbing expertise might help. I did like the link earlier in the thread.

No particular view. It probably depends what you’re trying to do, how quickly you want to do it and your current level. For me, follow along online classes don’t really work and I can’t attend in-person classes, but for others they are really motivating. There are clearly super flexible yoga experts and similarly bendy people approaching it from a more strength/conditioning/working out angle. What matters imho is doing it, and doing it over a fairly long time period. 

Hi, who did you go to? Thanks.

I heard great things about yoga for ages and always put it off, but I thought I'd give it a crack recently.  I would honestly give it a try if you've not already. I have a serious knee issue which also gives me a really tight/painful hip, yoga has helped massively, way more than the exercises my physio gave me I rekon. Depending on the type of yoga too it can be seriously hard, you get a proper good workout!

I've been doing yoga on and off - mostly on - for 20 years. If your objective is flexibility, it is important to find a class that matches that aim. A lot of classes, especially general ones in gyms, include a lot of breathing and semi-mediation exercises. You may or may not value those but they won't make you flexible. At the moment I am finding a "stretch" class taught by a yoga instructor is better for me than her "yoga" classes.

A word of warning. Some alpha-type males have a tendency to try yoga classes and attempt to match woman who have been doing it for years. This is a classic way to hurt yourself. Take it slowly, improvement will come.