Post: #1

1) Does anyone here do this?
With or without using your feet?

2) If you can do at least 10 pull ups, should you also be able to climb a 25 foot rope?

3) Is this a good workout to include in your regimen?

Post: #2

Cool idea for a thread. I've been planning to get a place with a yard here and am looking for something where I can hang a rope. I do mostly bodyweight stuff so seems like an obvious excercise to include.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #3

I've never done it but I see the Crossfit people doing it as part of their workout.

Post: #4

I guess the special forces and military all over the world use it for training so it must be pretty good.

Post: #5

I would think it depends most on your feet grip, leg strength and balance(if climbing with feet). So you could be able to do pullups and not climb rope and vice versa. Personally I find climbing easier, especially when barefoot.

Without using feet- Thats really hard. Id liken it to being only slightly easier than one handed pullups. Id argue you would have to be able to do 40-50 pullups in a row before you can even attempt this. Or if you can do one handed pullups this should be doable.

If you enjoy it and have a spare rope handy, definitely add it your routine, especially for variety. Mark Sisson(from marksdailyapple) agrees that enjoyment is one of the most important factors of a work out. If you dont enjoy it or are on the fence, Id say you dont need to add it. Probably the typical benchpress/pullups/squats/deadlifts are more effective than this, but not by much.

Post: #6

I've rope climbed extensively due to my martial arts background (I am currently not training) the feedback I am providing is base solely on my experiences.

The rope I was suppose to climb was about 20ft high, at first even though I was able to pick my bodyweight up easily I could not climb without using my feet, MY GRIP was too weak. It takes a while for your grip to get accustomed to this your hands will cry at first but eventually you will be able to go up and down easily with your feet. The progression for us was like this:

Climb using feet until it became too easy

Climb without feet in standing position until this became too easy

Climb the rope by sitting on the floor and putting it between your legs, you were supposed to go up using only your hands and mainting your body in an L shape

Climb rope like in the previous step, except you do not stop at the bottom instead you climb down and up as many times as possible

This for me is the best grip exercise you can do, it will hurt like hell but your grip will speak for itself it also feels like you start to lose sensation in the hands after a while, I don't know if this is due to rope burns you might get

Post: #7

I usually wrap up arm and shoulder workouts with the infinite rope machine...3 x 1 minute. Great forearm burns and pumps.

Also noticed that when I started using the rope machine my pull ups increased quite a bit and my core was noticeably tighter

Post: #8

If I'm on a boat and swimming, I'll never go back using the ladder, but will always climb the anchor chain and then overboard to get back into the boat. Usually I do it quickly and without using my legs, but if it was a very high ship then maybe I'd have to use them too. It's a great exercise no matter how you look at it - and by doing it in an aquatic setting, you ensure that you won't be hurt if you make a mistake or lose strength and fall down!

Post: #9

Did it a ton in the army. Its great for back and arm development. Your hands can get pretty rough though.

Post: #10

(02-14-2015 10:01 PM)Santoro Wrote:  I usually wrap up arm and shoulder workouts with the infinite rope machine...3 x 1 minute. Great forearm burns and pumps.

I'd never heard of this machine before, but I just googled it and it looks pretty damn cool. Are you in the States? I've belonged to some very nice gyms, but have never seen one

Post: #11

Oz pretty much nailed it.

I have a 15-20ft, 3" manila rope hanging from a tree, and it's an awesome exercise.

How it matches with your pullups depends. If you have good grip strength, you should be able to get up and down a 15ft rope without your feet with a bit of practise. As others have said, for grip, upper biceps and back, it is awesome.

One exercise I particularly recommend if you have a rope hanging from a tree is jumping pullups on it. To do this, you squat, jump as high as you can, grab the rope, and do a pullup. This builds your grip very effectively and will have a very positive effect on your rope climbing. this forces the grip to contract and work very hard suddenly. Rather than a slow squeeze of climbing, it forces you to apply tremendous force immediately.

Quality exercise, extremely practical strength.

Post: #12

Was not expecting much from this thread but there's a bunch of great info here. There's an infinite rope machine at my gym, I'll have to incorporate it into my routine.

What would life be like without the RVF.. I don't want to know

Post: #13

(02-14-2015 09:15 PM)eclipse Wrote:  Without using feet- Thats really hard. Id liken it to being only slightly easier than one handed pullups. Id argue you would have to be able to do 40-50 pullups in a row before you can even attempt this. Or if you can do one handed pullups this should be doable.

40-50? That's way too much. You would have to be in 0.01 percentile to do that.

Around 20 pullups is what you need to climb a rope to a ceiling of an average school's sports hall without legs.

Post: #14

(02-16-2015 03:07 AM)Mage Wrote:  

(02-14-2015 09:15 PM)eclipse Wrote:  Without using feet- Thats really hard. Id liken it to being only slightly easier than one handed pullups. Id argue you would have to be able to do 40-50 pullups in a row before you can even attempt this. Or if you can do one handed pullups this should be doable.

40-50? That's way too much. You would have to be in 0.01 percentile to do that.

Around 20 pullups is what you need to climb a rope to a ceiling of an average school's sports hall without legs.

My bad if my estimates are wrong.

Its just I can only do around 3-4 pullups in a row and no legs climbing definitely seems significantly out of my reach(pun slightly intended)

Post: #15

I have not tried it yet - the rope climb.

Today I did 3 sets of pull ups : 10 / 10 / 7.

Then 2 sets of chin ups: 10 / 9.

I suppose I'm ready to try the rope with feet. I am not a big fan of heights but I guess the higher I go the tighter I will hold the rope

Post: #16

Good luck!

You should be able to do it easily with feet, especially without shoes. It would be staying on the rope balanced which should be harder than pulling up(given your stats for pullups). Putting the rope in between your big and second toe and gripping should be the easiest.

I dont know how your gym/house works but you should put gymnastics padding/mattresses on the floor, for your psychological benefit if nothing else. You shouldnt feel scared of falling at all. I mean, obviously you would be scared especially if you dont like heights, but you should feel that if you think logically about it, you will be relatively safe in a fall.

And there was a piece of rock climbing advice someone told me related to this- always grip with as little strength as possible while still remaining stable. Beginner rock climbers tend to grip really hard especially when they are scared- it tires your arm muscles out unnecessarily. You likely can grip around a third as strong as gripping your hardest and still be stable. You should practise how tight you can hold when you are very low off the ground- the looser you can get it the less your muscles would tire and the safer you will be long term.

Post: #17

Sit on the floor, legs crossed, and try to climb that way.
Or climb in a straddle L-sit position.
Those are the best ways to not use legs, in my opinion.

Video somewhat related. I hope someday I can do this.

Post: #18

Dang, great thread. This is a weak spot of mine too. What muscles/exercises should we do to get build strength in this area. Obviously pullups (getting better) but what else?

Post: #19

(02-19-2015 02:14 PM)MrBig Wrote:  Dang, great thread. This is a weak spot of mine too. What muscles/exercises should we do to get build strength in this area. Obviously pullups (getting better) but what else?

Honestly, just do the exercise itself. You'll suck at it to start with, if you are weak in the relevant muscles, but you'll get better quite quickly if you keep it up. Imagine, if you didn't have the internet, how you'd approach the issue. You'd just try hard and often to be able to do it better. You'd do what everyone on the net says is over training, you'd do no periodization, you'd just skip it when you were tired an hit it hard when you felt good, and in a short space of time, you'd be good at climbing rope.

Post: #20

(02-19-2015 02:14 PM)MrBig Wrote:  Dang, great thread. This is a weak spot of mine too. What muscles/exercises should we do to get build strength in this area. Obviously pullups (getting better) but what else?

Looking for advice is how most people procrastinate doing it. Instead ask yourself how you would do it, and try it.

Post: #21

If you are already attending the gym and don't know how to start your rope climbing quest I propose a simple starter solution to get you started on the feel of it, simply grab the following:



Available universally at any gym and just throw it over the pull up bar and start doing pull ups hanging from it

Post: #22

Thank you RVF brothers.

I tried the rope climb for the first time today. I went up 3/4 of the way, on I guess what is a 20-25ft rope, and then came back down.

It is fixed at the bottom so there isn't any slack to create a brake while I climb (by looping the rope under a shoe).

I climbed barefoot with the idea of grabbing the rope between my feet. Now I need to work on my technique though because I think I was just sliding my feet and not putting them to good use.

Anyway, thanks for your help in getting me started...

Post: #23

(02-19-2015 02:14 PM)MrBig Wrote:  Dang, great thread. This is a weak spot of mine too. What muscles/exercises should we do to get build strength in this area. Obviously pullups (getting better) but what else?

Mr. Big, I built up to being able to do 3 sets of pulls ups of 10 each (usually) + a couple of sets of chin ups, among other things, before trying the rope (today).

I think the pull and chin ups definitely help but maybe what I did was overkill.

Post: #24

The most brutal workout I have ever done was rope sprints.

Basically, you sit on the ground under the rope with your legs outstretched at a 90 degree angle from your body and then sprint up the rope as fast as you can with your legs still perpendicular to your body. Obviously this means you don't use your legs at all.

I blacked out after a few sets, luckily it was once I got back to the ground.