After a little warm up of gentle jogging on the spot and other assorted bits and bobs work into some stretches slowly and gently trying not to injure your self. The above stretch is very important for me to do properly and I take bit of time. I go on one hip at a time and exhale for a count of at least 5.
First leg is now bent other leg straight, it really makes a big difference if you do this a few times, it will also tell your spine to relax if you do it slow and smooth. If you do any of these stretches too fast or too hard your body can tighten up, which is not what we want.
Both legs locked straight and pulling a bit to try to bend and stretch a little.
This is to loosen up the hamstring and buttocks, again do both legs. Hamstrings are notoriously easy to tear, go gently! If you are a bit advanced you can try pulling down with your hamstrings and then relaxing.
This is more of a buttock stretch and will obviously help your heel hooking, but it does loosen up the buttocks more and you will find you can step higher.
Pulling to the chest or as near as you can get, is a big combo stretch which will help you raise your foot to the center more than anything else.
This may look the same but I am pushing my leg back by pulling more thus turning rotating the hip more and upwards.
This is helping stretch my back a little and parts of the calf too. Never push out on joints, notice my right hand is helping my posture but not pushing down on the joint, and don't hyper extend at the knee.
This is a bit more on the calf and ankle, stretch the calf, and do little circles with the ankle.
Pancake stretch is a favorite and an absolute must for opening your hips out. Proper turnout of the hips is very important indeed.
With out a flexible spine you will be fighting yourself and much of your strength will be waisted. This stretch is all about trunk rotation. It will help you reach holds.
And of course you have both sides to do. Don't be alarmed if one side is behind the other, just understand. For side bending and turning you might be 15% less on one side. Remember that a warm up route at the cliff is a very good idea, especially if its not just a flat wall. Grooves and cracks can be hard on your body. Be careful and good luck.
Try to push your hips foreword while pushing back with your arms.
This is about waking up my toes and foot muscles so they can pull back. There is also a muscle on the front area of the shin that helps toe hooking, in some fighting arts this muscle is very strong, and allows kicking with the shin!
