Lets talk about climbing the ropes

Ive decided to add rope climbs to my regular conditioning routine(i believe my rope is about 18-20ft). My short term goal is to build up to 3 sets, up and down the rope with no break or pause at the bottom, using arms only. Long term goals would include 5 sets no pause or break and/or 10-15 sets with a 30 second to a minute break in-between.

Most of the time when people climb ropes its once or twice as a part of an overall circut routine but has anyone else used ropes as a major exercise like im planning to do? If so where you pleased with the results? I think this could drastically increase grip and upper body strength. Do you guys feel this is a worthwhile endeavour?

 

It's a good exercise to throw in... but don't focus only on doing lots of consecutive ascents/descents. In terms of developing pulling power, timing your ascents and trying to beat your best time is an excellent way to go about it. This will get you focused on doing long, smooth, and powerful pulls. Guys that can shoot up a 30ft rope in a few seconds with no legs are serious powerhouses.

Just doing climbs up and down will make you stall out quickly. Eventually you should be doing cirques and l-sit climbs, and even inverted climbs if you can. Slow negatives on the descent are a difficult twist. You have to keep in mind that the gymnasts who excel in these sorts of activities are doing a really broad range of upper body activities for strength and power, rope climbing probably being one of the most infrequent and less important skills they practice.

Here's a video of a cirque with a negative descent, a good combo for strength development.
[YT]vTIfss5oF8w[/YT]

 

Similar to a rope climb in terms of the demands, but slightly different, something I've always wanted is a peg board.

 

Thanks for the tips seriously dead, Ill make sure to implement those as well.

Kiwi, im with ya, ive been wanting a peg board for a long time.

 

I was always under the impression that peg boards were waaaaay harder. Look like tons of fun though. I'll just stick to climbing for now.

 

same

 

I always think of Hendo when I see this movie.

Idk why.

 

Peg boards are harder, but they offer similar benefits due to the fact that one arm supports while the other arm reaches, if that makes sense.

 

I wonder I training either of peg of rope climbing would help me to achieve one of my 2013 goal which is managing a one full perfect form arm chin up which each arm ( at 205 lbs bodyweight ) ???

Anyone has a take on this ?

 

It might do. What's your current weighted chin max?

 

I don't know I never do 1RM weighted chins max but I sure can do 5 pullups with +100lbs with a shoulder width grip after doing my DL training so I'd say maye 1 rep with + 120lbs

 

I think a rope would do more for your grip than a peg board.

 

The typical recommendation is to have a 3/4 BW chin up in order to do a one arm chin-up, but I don't know how valid that is. It's not too early to start doing 1 arm negatives, iso holds, or band-assisted one arm chins at your level. I know quite a few kids that can do one arm chins and have never done a weighted chin-up before.

 

Rope requires a lot of grip strength. I can climb a pole (lol) easily, but my grip gives out on a rope after about 10 feet. And I can do one arm (other hand on wrist) pull-ups for reps. So for me i think a peg board would be easier. And I need to work on my grip strength.

 

The way I started doing one arm chin/pull ups was just putting a single grip handle on a lat pull down machine and working up strength that way.

 

How many can you do now?

 

If you are talking to me, I havent done any in about 6 months, but last time I did them it was like 4-5 right handed, and 3-4 left handed. My body in an effort to cheat twisted me around when I would do them left handed. I think I may have done 6 one time with my right. That was at a time when I was doing like 27 pull ups though. I can only do about 20 now.

If you are going to try and do the other hand on the wrist thing, just put a hand grip in place of a lat bar, and do your weight+ a little on the machine. You are still using both arms really, you just learn how to pull with the one on your wrist as well as with the one on the handle. I also got a lot stronger doing pull-ups by just doing heavy weight on a lat bar with a chin up grip. Hands close facing you or wtevr.

 

If you have your arm holding your wrist, those are not actually one arm chins. Even I can do those kind of chin ups and I'm not even close to a real one-arm chin, and I'm only at about the 2/3 BW benchmark for weighted chins.

These are one arm chin-ups.
[YT]e-bjnXFxen8[/YT]

 

Yeah.. If I could not do those when I could do almost 30 pull ups, then I guess it's not going to happen. I still liked the half azz one arm pull ups I did though.

 

Not true. It just means doing more one-arm assisted reps, more one arm negatives/isos, and getting your max weighted chins to a higher level. I think anyone can achieve a one arm chin with dedication, as long as they aren't horribly overweight.

Now what this guy does... well... don't count on ever doing it!
[YT]YgCHPB56-_Q[/YT]