Rope climbing is a great exercise for fighters, possibly the best overall upper body exercise for grapplers (though Rocky Marciano apparently was a fan, too). It mimics gripfighting, seizing and immediately pulling, total body tension, etc. Plus, when climbing rope, you always pull towards your center of gravity (belly button) rather than towards the shoulders like in pull-ups; just like you do when grappling. The height adds a bit of spice, simulating the adrenaline. No other training tool does exactly the same in my experience. In the words of Dan Gable: "I would hate to wrestle another wrestler who climbs a lot of rope." Needless to say, I love it, and have climbed many a mile of rope.
As for difficulty, it depends on how you climb.
First of all, some variations of rope climbing are more difficult than others. In my opinion, two ropes is actually the easiest of the legless variations, because you can technically climb without bending the arms at all, just tilting the shoulders side to side; plus, you can throw the body upwards with parallel grips if you want, while with one rope, you always have a staggered grip. It's therefore the variation closest to pull-ups, and the variation where you lean back the least, meaning it's the easiest on the core. The main drawback or mental block in this style is that you can't just wrap the legs around the rope in case you get tired, you need to swing to one of the ropes first. Yet, i continue hearing from people being super impressed by this - I must conclude they either didn't try it, or have little experience climbing rope. Standard single rope climbing with kicking the legs in the air is next (you see this style in rope climbing competitions); then, we have holding the legs stiff, legs held out in L-sit, upside-down climbing, and (for the freaks only) one handed climbing. If any variation is too easy, just add weight. I have held medicine balls between the legs, even a wrestling dummy at some point. I have seen one guy tie a dummy to his waist using a 5 m resistance band (similar to a Dopa); haven't tried that yet - I currently don't have access to a rope and a dummy in the same place - but I bet it's fun. A martial arts beld and weight plates is more convenient, though.
Then, it's about HOW you climb. Often, beginners climb with very short reaches (one or two hand widths apart), which turns climbing into more of a grip exercise and takes stress away from the arms and back. That's like doing quarter pull-ups. Advanced climbers usually do long reaches, at least forearm length apart, ideally the length of the whole arm. Sitting starts makes things harder, because you need to build up momentum first; a strict standing start (lifting the legs) is medium, a jumbing start the easiest. Ideally, you want to go up fast and down slowly; this way, it becomes both a power and a strength exercise.
I should also point out that climbing only one length of rope in the standard style is hardly advanced, rather it may separate beginners from intermediate. Iaskevich wrote that in the Soviet Union, national team members had to be able to climb a 5 m rope five times in a row without using the legs, regardless of weight class (!). That's a serious goal for most people. The lightweights and middleweights are usually the best climbers, and the best I have met so far is my former Greco coach (formerly German Bundesliga, incidentally a teammate of Joel Romeiro in Nurnberg). He wrestled at 68 kg, and was able to climb up and down an 8 m rope 15 times in a row, in an L-sit the whole time.
As for volume, apparently competitive rope climbers recommend climbing a mile of rope per week. That's 200 lengths of an 8 m rope, or 267 lengths of a 6 m rope. So at least 40 lengths of rope daily if you climb 5 days per week. Good luck getting to that level. Me, I usually limited myself to 10 lengths tops after wrestling practice.
As for difficulty, it depends on how you climb.
First of all, some variations of rope climbing are more difficult than others. In my opinion, two ropes is actually the easiest of the legless variations, because you can technically climb without bending the arms at all, just tilting the shoulders side to side; plus, you can throw the body upwards with parallel grips if you want, while with one rope, you always have a staggered grip. It's therefore the variation closest to pull-ups, and the variation where you lean back the least, meaning it's the easiest on the core. The main drawback or mental block in this style is that you can't just wrap the legs around the rope in case you get tired, you need to swing to one of the ropes first. Yet, i continue hearing from people being super impressed by this - I must conclude they either didn't try it, or have little experience climbing rope. Standard single rope climbing with kicking the legs in the air is next (you see this style in rope climbing competitions); then, we have holding the legs stiff, legs held out in L-sit, upside-down climbing, and (for the freaks only) one handed climbing. If any variation is too easy, just add weight. I have held medicine balls between the legs, even a wrestling dummy at some point. I have seen one guy tie a dummy to his waist using a 5 m resistance band (similar to a Dopa); haven't tried that yet - I currently don't have access to a rope and a dummy in the same place - but I bet it's fun. A martial arts beld and weight plates is more convenient, though.
Then, it's about HOW you climb. Often, beginners climb with very short reaches (one or two hand widths apart), which turns climbing into more of a grip exercise and takes stress away from the arms and back. That's like doing quarter pull-ups. Advanced climbers usually do long reaches, at least forearm length apart, ideally the length of the whole arm. Sitting starts makes things harder, because you need to build up momentum first; a strict standing start (lifting the legs) is medium, a jumbing start the easiest. Ideally, you want to go up fast and down slowly; this way, it becomes both a power and a strength exercise.
I should also point out that climbing only one length of rope in the standard style is hardly advanced, rather it may separate beginners from intermediate. Iaskevich wrote that in the Soviet Union, national team members had to be able to climb a 5 m rope five times in a row without using the legs, regardless of weight class (!). That's a serious goal for most people. The lightweights and middleweights are usually the best climbers, and the best I have met so far is my former Greco coach (formerly German Bundesliga, incidentally a teammate of Joel Romeiro in Nurnberg). He wrestled at 68 kg, and was able to climb up and down an 8 m rope 15 times in a row, in an L-sit the whole time.
As for volume, apparently competitive rope climbers recommend climbing a mile of rope per week. That's 200 lengths of an 8 m rope, or 267 lengths of a 6 m rope. So at least 40 lengths of rope daily if you climb 5 days per week. Good luck getting to that level. Me, I usually limited myself to 10 lengths tops after wrestling practice.
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