I have a test were I need to climb a 20 ft rope with 20 extra pounds on me; how can I prepare myself for climbing rope, if I dont have a rope to climb? What type of exercises will help me? Do towel chins have any carry over?
Thanks
Will42
Yes to towel chins. Yes to farmer’s walking, plate pinching and any grip strengthing. Work a lot of vertical pulling while weighted and hammer curls. Fat Bar deads and benching and stuff would be extremely good if you can do that. Also, dead hangs from a towel or a regular chinup bar too. I hate to say it, but nix the squatting for a while and just use deads as your major lower body lift. Focus on pulling. Bicep and grip strength is at a premium along with lats.
Do mostly thick towel pullups. Use 2 towels, 1 towel with your hands one above the other and rotate set to set, heavy holds in the locked position and from a hang etc. Get your body used to a heavier load then the 20 pounds as well as your test weight. Good luck!
climbing rope is all legs and getting a tight lock with your feet. i would say technique is more important than anything else. if you can do one pull up, you have enough upperbody strength since its a static hold while you get your knees to your chest and get a good lock with your feet in.
[quote]windmill85 wrote:
climbing rope is all legs and getting a tight lock with your feet. i would say technique is more important than anything else. if you can do one pull up, you have enough upperbody strength since its a static hold while you get your knees to your chest and get a good lock with your feet in. [/quote]
I think you can’t use your feet on these tests, but I guess I wouldn’t know. Otherwise, it’s good advice. Do you have to do just one rep or multiple reps or are you timed?
Do you know the stand and brake technique? It’s how the Marines do it. I’ll try to find a link for you. Basicily, you wrap the rope inside your leg and you kinda push down on the other leg like you are “Braking” while pulling yourself up. This is how i first made it to the top of the rope. Good luck!
[quote]t3h_Squirr3l wrote:
Yes to towel chins. Yes to farmer’s walking, plate pinching and any grip strengthing. Work a lot of vertical pulling while weighted and hammer curls.
Fat Bar deads and benching and stuff would be extremely good if you can do that. Also, dead hangs from a towel or a regular chinup bar too. I hate to say it, but nix the squatting for a while and just use deads as your major lower body lift. Focus on pulling. Bicep and grip strength is at a premium along with lats. [/quote]
These exercises all look good.
Gotta say one thing tho. Firstly, at primary school, aged 5 yrs old, a fair few of the kids could climb a rope 20 ft. So if your training hard and relativley strong i would of thought even with 20 pounds of weight this should be an easy thing to do!
I could be wrong though, cos i cant say i’ve done it since i was 5.
I’m not sure how this particular test will be set up but when I think of climbing rope, I think of climbing it using upper body only.
Climbing rope is definitely more advanced than just doing a single pullup. In fact, climbing rope (especially a thick one w/out using your legs at all) is one of the best things you can do for upper body strength and grip.
I don’t have access to a thick rope but definitely incorporate thick towel pullups in my training, weighted towel pullups, etc.
Ross Enamait has a cool video clip where he’s climbing a thick rope (w/no legs) wearing a weighted vest.
[quote]jackson44 wrote:
Do you know the stand and brake technique? It’s how the Marines do it. I’ll try to find a link for you. Basicily, you wrap the rope inside your leg and you kinda push down on the other leg like you are “Braking” while pulling yourself up. This is how i first made it to the top of the rope. Good luck! [/quote]
Take the line and run it between your legs and around one leg so that it drapes over your foot. Raise the foot that the rope drapes over, so that the upper leg is parallel to the ground.
Grab the rope with both hands slightly above head height and take your weight off the other foot (the one on the ground). Place this foot on top of the rope where it drapes over your foot, and press down until it supports your weight. Then straighten your legs.
Keep doing this over and over, and you will ascend the rope. This technique works a lot better than trying to pinch the rope between the edges of the soles of your boots.
Pull-ups. Lots and lots of pull-ups. Once you can do about 12, add weight. Climbing rope is all about technique and using your feet, however, if you can do 20 good pullups you should be able to climb the rope no problem.