Advice on rope climbing

[john11]

Hi and thanks for reading this post

I saw a report on the tv a few months ago concerning the world arm wrestling championships and it showed one of the competitors training.

It really interested me. The guy climbed up a 15 foot rope hanging from the ceiling, in seconds. He went straight up, no struggling whatsoever, no leg assistance at all, then climbed down the rope fresh and totally unfatigued.

I've asked around the gym, but no one can do this, or even close. What kind of training routine would be involved to achieve this.

Many thanks. John.

 

[RodgerThat]

It's really not that hard it's basically just doing multiple mixed grip pull up. Grab a towel throw it over the pull up bar have one hand on the bar and the other on the towel pump out 4-6 pull ups then switch which hand is on the towel. Other then that's it's just a LB for LB strength issue if you can do 12-15 strict pull ups you should be able to climb the rope without legs

 

[john11]

Hi. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I should superset the two different hand positions for 4-6 reps, then should i drop down have a rest, then repeat.

If so how many of these supersets should i perform and how much rest in between.

My chin up count is lousy, there is no way i can do 12 strict reps, chins for me is the most stubborn body part.

Many thanks. John.

 

[RodgerThat]

Hi. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I should superset the two different hand positions for 4-6 reps, then should i drop down have a rest, then repeat.

If so how many of these supersets should i perform and how much rest in between.

My chin up count is lousy, there is no way i can do 12 strict reps, chins for me is the most stubborn body part.

Many thanks. John.

2 min breaks would be plenty and yes super set them if you can maybe start 4sets 3 and 3 then add a rep every time you do it.

 

[john11]

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

How often per week should these supersets be performed
, and how much struggle / difficulty should i put into each set

Many thanks. John.

 

[romaleos]

Wanna get good at climbing ropes? Then climb ropes. Simple as that.

Start with using leg locks then progress to leg less. There are more progressions, I'm sure there are a ton of crossfitters who have YouTube vids.

What are you training for? There are safer excercises but none of them are as cool.

 

[john11]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

I'm not particularly training for anything, it's just that i've been into exercise and fitness for years and i'm almost addicted to it - hope that doesn't sound too strong.

I'm desperatly trying to increase my chin up numbers because it's my only lift that is totally stagnant, just can't improve on it, and i've googling around trying to find more information,
also the way the guy who was training for the arm wrestling championship flew up the rope was so impressive, would give anything to be able to do that.

Have you got any advice on this, also what do you think of greasing the groove by Pavel Tsatsouline,

in his book he said he performed a set of light chins, 3-5 reps, had a minute rest, then repeated, for 45 minutes, he did this everyday taking the weekend off as a break.

I had a similar experience, because last year i moved house, and i spent all days lifting chairs, cupboards, sofas etc for about 8 hours a day, amazingly i was getting stronger from these day long workouts, even my chin up numbers were increasing

Sounds like there may be something to these ultra high volume workouts but i can't figure out what

What do you think.

Many thanks. John.

 

[romaleos]

Well your goal appears to be to acquire athletic badassery with a focus on body weight movements.

First I would recommend concentrating on your power to weight ratio. Meaning having the most strength at your lightest body weight. This translates to having the lowest possible body weight while maintaining or increasing muscle mass. Think Bruce Lee and pound for pound strength.

Ironically this is not affected by training but mainly nutrition. So start eating right and stop being a fat ass. Sub 15% is where you wanna be. If you are already there, then eat big lift big or keep up what you're doing.

Greasing the groove is basically my first statement. Only way to get something is to keep doing it. Your body will adapt. Do you have the determination to grind for it? Or are you gonna give up after a week of trying?

To me full body rope climbs are an ab workout when you master locking your feet in. You should go watch some YouTube vids if you don't know what I'm talking about. The leg less variation is more like a pull up.

If you don't have strict chin/pull-up then you should start there to develop upper body strength. There are many programs available for free online.

Good luck!

 

[Luffy]

This might help
Buy one of those pull up bars that you place on the door and every time you walk by it do pull ups,don't go to faliure,leave about 3-4 in the tank

 

[john11]

Okay, i can do that, it sounds like greasing the groove, repetition and practise, the more you practise a move the better you get at it.

I saw a few threads on the other forums, guys performing a few light chins every time they pass a door or anything with a handhold, in a day this would amount to over one hundred chins in total.

This is done monday to thursday, friday they would go to failure, weekend off to recover.

What do you think of this, i know it takes the body two weeks to adapt to a new routine so i am not going to get immediate results, it does worry me about the volume being so high, but strangely It interests me as well as I'm looking for a training routine outside of the box, different from the usual 5 exercises, 5 sets of 5 reps, once per week.


Many thanks. John.

 

[Luffy]

I really don't care how much in a day I do just do them and don't overthink about this

 

[weighted chinup]

Do what coach romaleos advised.

Specific adaptation > imposed demand. You need to do it to get better at it, and greasing the groove is probably the most effective approach here, most people going into something like this won't be able to fully perform or do the whole movement completely starting out so frequent grinding and practicing will be ideal here.

There will certainly be some benefit and carryover from improving your chin-up and pull-up, but never enough to get you proficient at the movement without practicing it - a lot.

I don't think I can climb a rope, and I got my weighted chinups up to 100lbs @ 215lb bw for 4x3. You need to do something in order to get better at it, the carryover from other things will never be enough. SAID principle always applies.

 

[Ozzy619]

Well your goal appears to be to acquire athletic badassery with a focus on body weight movements.

First I would recommend concentrating on your power to weight ratio. Meaning having the most strength at your lightest body weight. This translates to having the lowest possible body weight while maintaining or increasing muscle mass. Think Bruce Lee and pound for pound strength.

Ironically this is not affected by training but mainly nutrition. So start eating right and stop being a fat ass. Sub 15% is where you wanna be. If you are already there, then eat big lift big or keep up what you're doing.

Greasing the groove is basically my first statement. Only way to get something is to keep doing it. Your body will adapt. Do you have the determination to grind for it? Or are you gonna give up after a week of trying?

To me full body rope climbs are an ab workout when you master locking your feet in. You should go watch some YouTube vids if you don't know what I'm talking about. The leg less variation is more like a pull up.

If you don't have strict chin/pull-up then you should start there to develop upper body strength. There are many programs available for free online.

Good luck!

This is absolutely solid. Back in the day when I could climb a rope like a bad ass it was because my strength was above par for my body weight. I can still do it now but it takes alot longer and I'm tired afterwards. I used to be able to do wall pegs too, those were a bit harder. I can't do them anymore at all.

 

[romaleos]

Do what coach romaleos advised.

Specific adaptation > imposed demand. You need to do it to get better at it, and greasing the groove is probably the most effective approach here, most people going into something like this won't be able to fully perform or do the whole movement completely starting out so frequent grinding and practicing will be ideal here.

There will certainly be some benefit and carryover from improving your chin-up and pull-up, but never enough to get you proficient at the movement without practicing it - a lot.

I don't think I can climb a rope, and I got my weighted chinups up to 100lbs @ 215lb bw for 4x3. You need to do something in order to get better at it, the carryover from other things will never be enough. SAID principle always applies.

I totally agree about the carry over from chins/pull-ups. And that there isn't much when it comes to rope climbs. I am just making a ton of assumptions based on what little I know of the athlete in this thread. One being that he doesn't even have proficient pull-ups so best to start there. Kinda like someone who wants to do muscle ups but can't even do a body weight dip. They wouldn't start on rings but instead on a fixed dip station with rubber band assist.

I'm just preaching to the preacher preaching to the choir bro. I hear you loud and clear.

Love,

romaleos aka "weighted pistols"

 

[weighted chinup]

I totally agree about the carry over from chins/pull-ups. And that there isn't much when it comes to rope climbs. I am just making a ton of assumptions based on what little I know of the athlete in this thread. One being that he doesn't even have proficient pull-ups so best to start there. Kinda like someone who wants to do muscle ups but can't even do a body weight dip. They wouldn't start on rings but instead on a fixed dip station with rubber band assist.

I'm just preaching to the preacher preaching to the choir bro. I hear you loud and clear.

Love,

romaleos aka "weighted pistols"

For sure. I agree with all the recommendations you laid out, even the need to work on pull-ups, I just wanted to mention to him the importance of specificity in training for any specific goal or movement. I know you know this, but I think for a lot of folks there is still a decent amount of misunderstanding about how much carryover we get from doing assistance work to help achieve a certain goal, at least in the fitness mainstream.

Improving chin-up and pull-up strength is something I can recommend to just about anyone, I can never get enough personally. No disagreements here.

 

[john11]

Hi. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

Could i get a few specific details. For greasing the groove i read the pavel tsatsoline book and he said to do 3-5 light reps, approximatly one minute rest, then repeat, amounting to 45 minutes of work, so possibly 45 sets in total within that 45 minutes.

On the forums people are varying this up a little and doing chins every time they pass a door or chin bar, all day, so the percieviable difference is increased rest period between sets.

Which do you think is the better option.

I'm thinking of doing a set of dips with each set of chins, hopefully some chest development may occur along side. And is 45 sets a day a good figure to go by, or should i do more.

I really don't mind putting the hard work in and have got one of those removable chin up bars clamped into the door frame at work.

Many thanks. John.

 

[Luffy]

Just do them every time you walk through the door that helped me
Your arms will get bigger and lats, you do them with dead hang and from there go up