Stretching is the most productive training

Many of us have trained 10+ hours a week for several years. This means you are rather close to your muscular maximum performance. At the same time, only minutes are spent on stretching, suggesting that you relatively easy can make good progress here. The best climber in the world, Adam Ondra is probably also the most flexible out of all male top climbers, which is a result of having stretched several hours a week since he was a teenager, pictured. The Japanese, who have developed to the best competition climbers in the world, are known for stretching a couple of hours a day.

Here is what Klaus Isele, MSc D.O. Physiotherapeutic and Osteopath and who has been the trainer for the Austria National Climbing Team and Adam Ondra, told us in 2018. "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."