How to gain flexibility and climb like Ondra

Talking about flexibility and that the top Japanese boulderers stretch four hours a day, we have asked Klaus Isele, MSc D.O. Physiotherapeut and Osteopath of the Austria National Climbing Team and Adam Ondra, for some advice. Adam has been stretching systematically since he was a kid and is probably the top climber with most flexibility, which is part of his success. The picture is taken during the stretching preparation just some minutes before Ondra did the world's first 9c, Silence in Flatanger. "If it’s the case that you always fall off your slab project just because your hips can’t stay close enough to the wall stretching exercises could maybe help. If you do proper stretching you might achieve your goals faster and better. Bodyweight and stretching have something in common. You might not have the perfect bodyweight for climbing. Nature puts you somewhere but with some effort you can gain or loose some kilograms. What I still monitor is that some climbers believe that it is enough to stretch for 40 seconds in order to get “longer” = forget it. You need to hold a stretching position for two minutes (I often recommend three times the same position with that holding time). That works! To really gain length you have to repeat it every day. Your results will be visible after approximately 14 days. Afterwards depending on what you want to achieve keep going. If you’ve forgotten to stretch one day, you are thrown back for about four days, especially at the beginning. The so called hysteresis phenomenon is the base of this, if you want you can say that it is the “supercompensation” of stretching. Conclusion: There is no wrong or right stretching, it just depends on what you wanna achieve with it. If you prepare yourself for climbing it might be sufficient for you to stretch for 30 seconds. But if you are really interested in gaining length in some muscular areas then you need to work on every section for two minutes in every stretching position."