Shorty Beta Project Part 1/4: Where it helps to be mobile

Let's dive in to where it helps to be mobile as a shorter climber and the priority begins at the hips.

Here I an completing a high step move on a boulder problem. I used a kick start technique to generate some momentum into the position using my the left foot on the mats and my hands matched on the starting hold.

Quite simply holds are going to be further away for us as shorter climbers as our levers (arms and legs) are often shorter. A comfortable step up motion for our taller friends may be a high step at our extreme ranges of hip mobility.

A big part of navigating sequences with reachy moves is clever footwork with getting your feet higher so you can step up effectively and reach the next hold. There are many reasons why hip mobility may be restricted so I will provide general ideas on where to get started on however this may not necessarily work for every climber but hopefully it provides some direction.

I always like to incorporate an element of hip mobility during my warm ups especially if I'm climbing on a slab that day. Some of my favourite drills pre climb would be:

1. Hip CARs and lateral lunges

Hip CARs

These come in many forms and here are a few variations on the hip CARs. CARs is an acronym for controlled articular rotations and they can be completed at any joint.

Think of these as the WD40 for the hips. Every joint, not just the hips benefits from being taken through it full comfortable range of movement regularly. Climbing Involves a lot of intricate hip movements in all planes as we not only high step, but drop knee or stem and often would be working through a great range of motion much like in ballet or gymnastics which also place a great emphasis on hip mobility.

I like to superset this with the lateral lunge and alternate between the two in my warm up off the wall!

A really important distinction to make here is that mobility does not equal flexibility. One can be really flexible and be able to sit deeply into this lateral lunge position or the 90 90s but still lack mobility meaning they are not able to actively control this range of motion and generate movement from there.

Mobility is the range of motion which is useable and in which you have developed strength in hence the important cue of controlling the full range of motion with these Cossack lunges and not simply sitting into the hip when you reach the bottom or not relying on momentum to transition between positions during the hip CARs for instance.

If the above are not too challenging you could also look into incorporating some leg lifts and rotations with an extended/ bent knee to level up manouvering around a box!

2. Glute bridges & Hip thrusts

This replicates that hip thrusting motion of getting our hips into the wall and works on ensuring we have good range of motion into hip extension. Without this it's not unusual to be getting a constant tightness through the front of the hips as we are often over utilising the muscles here to compensate for a lack of gluteal strength. This tightness will often further restrict our range of motion at the hips.

Double leg is a great place to start but single leg is ideal once the control is there with many options and variations from here!

3. 4 point series into bird dog and leg extensions

An now if we consider the deeper hip rotators this is where some of these movements come in from 4 point.

A tip with these is to ensure the hips stay level throughout the movement. Too often I see climbers aiming for height or using momentum at the expense of focusing on good control around the hip region.

By no means is this an exhaustive list as hip mobility restrictions can arise from a number of different factors but it's just to give you some ideas.

Not only is this helpful for shorter climbers but for climbing performance in general. The closer you can get your hips to the wall the less energy you will need to expend pulling with your arms. From a shorter climber perspective however the mobility needs to be there to enable you to get your feet up really high and also more importantly the ability to generate movement from these end range positions to step up.

Now next up we look into where it helps to focus on your strength work in the gym as a shorter climber!