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Short torso, long ass legs. How do body proportions affect climbing ability?
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Hey y'all, I am a very new climber, but I've grown up around a climbing community and all my friends are climbers so I am familiar with the techniques and challenges..... BUT When I go out with my friends I feel flat out SILLY. It's not just my inexperience (that's to be expected), but I swear to Gorignak that my physical proportions are making it way harder for me to climb a route than it is for my peers of similar weight and height. I have a really short torso and proportionately long legs, so this is my theory as to why I am awkward on most routes. Additionally, I have very low base flexibility. Even in the fittest shape of my life, in highschool as a cross country runner, I stretched every day and could barely touch my toes after a full season of competition. I have long arms, long legs, but a really short torso and I'm convinced that's why I just can't make the moves I see my peers make. I mostly want to know... is there anyone else out there who has these proportions? Did you find it was a weakness or a strength? Is it just a matter of flexibility? Please tell me I'm not crazy for feeling so awkward and like my body is getting in my own way!!!! I want to love climbing but my body has too much leg and too little torso, help! P.S. I have not seen another female or male climber with my proportions... if you can think of someone, please share. Thank you! - Hay |
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I don’t think that relatively long legs/long arms with short torso are particularly disadvantageous. Sure, better flexibility would be good, and you should try to work on it, but at the end of the day we all have our own bodies to work with, and no one else’s. It just Sounds like you are new and awkward. It takes time to figure out how to make the moves work for your body type. As an anecdote, I often climb with two ladies who are very close to me in size, but we have different proportions. One lady is about an inch taller than me, but has much shorter arms. Like, -3 ape ndex. I’m closer to +1. The other girl is my height, but lighter. First woman has exceptional hip flexibility, as a former dancer. The other one is hyper-flexible in her spine, but not so much in hip flexibility. I lost a lot of flexibility after a surgery, and am worse than both of them. We all boulder the same grade. But we climb very differently. On most problems it just doesn’t matter. We either all do it the same way, or we all find something different to make it work, and it still feels about right for the grade, regardless. Occasionally we find a problem that suits one of us more than the other two. Where one person thinks that the problem is easy, other the other two think it’s hard/impossible. But those are rare. |
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Long legs are not necessarily a negative. I have very long legs too, but I have been doing movement focused sports for a long time, so I don't feel awkward about my movement. Just keep climbing and you'll figure your body mechanics out. |
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Short person here. I often use it as an excuse, but I'm an inch taller than Lynn Hill, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
Lena chita wrote: Beautifully said. |
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My breasts get in the way. I hope to get a reduction someday. Yoga can probably help you improve your flexibility. You can be in really good shape from a sport, but stretching to prevent injury for cross country isn't going to result in a huge increase in flexibility since that's not the purpose/focus. I don't know much about the different types of yoga, but some are more geared toward increasingly flexibility than others. I took a yoga flow class in college and it definitely increased my flexibility. Apparently Yin yoga would also be a good option. There are videos on YouTube if you don't want to take a class. |
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Actually, a very short torso with disproportionately long legs should give you some significant benefits. For example, you should have better reach when stemming, overhead heel hooking or other heel/toe weirdness than someone with shorter legs, while still being able to climb in a small box. Now, if your arms are also disproportionately long, you are completely set. |
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sounds like maybe some footwork could help, watch Ondra from the waist down, I try to imitate him when I'm warming up. He is like a spider monkey, his legs are so active and he has mega flexible and open hips. I've climbed with taller and shorter and learned from both. Sounds like you have the tools (long limbs) but don't know how to use them to their full advantage yet (strength, flexibility, technique, control through a wide range of motion). But anything you want to do you can get there; patience, curiosity, and don't be afraid to find your own beta. You don't really have to do the same moves as your peers. I climb with my bf who is taller and stronger and will flag more, but I will heel or toe hook literally anything. If he tried to imitate my moves it would be comical. |
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I'm envious of your long legs and arms!!!! I have a long torso and short legs & arms. -1 ape index. You need to work on strength - your body is great the way it is! |
Frank Stein wrote: Long legs are a problem when hand-holds and foot-holds are close together, because you're all scrunched up and your center of gravity is pushed away from the rock. I'm 6'1" with 34" inseams, which helps when it comes to reaching above overhangs, but it's more difficult for my legs to follow. Evolution has provided us with an excellent example of an anthropoid build that's adapted to climbing. Here's how it compares to a human. Obviously the arms are very long, but note the leg proportions.  |
Hayley Knouff wrote: I am 5’6” with a 32” inseam. Very long legs and short torso. I think it makes me an awesome crack climber. Stretch more, flexibility is more important than proportions. I’m not some supreme climber though, just started climbing .12b at the gym my onsight grade is 11a/b |
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I have a short torso, long legs, and noodle arms. There are pros and cons. I have a longer reach but i get all scrunched for some moves and it's hard to get into a good position when I need to push off of a foot hold that's too close to my body. Balance and flexibility help me. Yeah, yoga is a great compliment to climbing and the transitions between poses will help you learn how to move ur body efficiently on the wall... and there are other things that help. Maybe you are good at remembering routes, or ur strong, u prob have great endurance from being a runner... All that plays in. Everyone has their strengths. You will eventually find your style. It helped me to not be rigid and compare myself to experienced climbers. I like to watch other women climbing. I have to do a lot of hip in swively moves where male climbers typically use power and climb more squared up. Also I pay attention to the people who are having the most fun. Really that's what it's all about. Just loving the sport and letting it teach you. |
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Hi Hayley, You're RIGHT! I totally agree. I have the same problem being relatively tall (175 cm) and having long limbs but not much torso :). I think that our body proportions my be helpful only when it comes to a reach. I have a tremendous problem climbing steep overhangs and roofs though, as it's vary hard to keep a tension when your body consists mainly of legs. My ass is a breaking point, and just pulls me down. I think it's physics - when you hang a plank from a roof, which is short and wide, it won't break. But a long and thin one with a center moved towards one side is much more likely to break. Another thing is having my knees in front of my face on certain routs, or standing up demo a full one-leg squat. Anyway, I get frustrated because I see how much effort I need to put into moves, which come easy for other people, and some moves feel simply impossible. I know, some people will just say: get stronger and improve my technique... |
Martin le Roux wrote: I think this is some pretty clear evidence that short legs relative to height is better. Look up skeletons of other climbing primates such as monkeys, orangutans, etc. and you'll see that their legs are much shorter relative to their height compared to humans. People on this thread who say they'd take longer legs might be answering the question as simply "would you like longer legs" but the question is really "would shifting your pelvis down a bit help your climbing?" and I think for the average human the answer is yes. I'm 6'2" and my legs are long for my height and anecdotally I often watch people with much shorter legs gracefully lift them up from a hanging position to place them on a foothold, in a way that would require a much much greater effort from me, and place much greater demands on core muscles. I think that's the key here - you use your core to get/keep your legs up, and with less leg and more core, this is easier. Obviously it depends on the style of the climb and I think I benefit from my proportions on slab. Anyway this bit's all anecdotal but I think the evidence coming from the relative position of the hip joints in climbing primates is quite compelling.  |
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I am 6’ with a 32” inseam, and thus have slightly short legs proportionately. I think it gives me an advantage, so to the extent you feel like your long legs make thing harder for you when climbing sometimes, I’d probably agree. (I also note that if you have really long legs, not being able to touch your toes doesn’t mean you have bellow average flexibility, necessarily, just that you have longer to reach.) But as another poster wisely said, you only have your own body so you’ll have to learn to adapt, probably by using different beta than your friends. (One thing to think about is how you’ll probably need to use lower feet, and how having a tight core is super important to making those stretched-out moves—might be worth some extra attention to the extent you train.)
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