Rope Climbing Techniques

[Infinity]

I know there is great article in the articles in the archives about rope climbing; I just wanted to know about a particular technique.
Tyler, you probably know about this (and can probably do it) but I would like to know who else can do these techniques.
This first is climbing the rope regularly but hopping with you hands (instead of actually pulling your way up)
The second is hard!! It's climbing the rope upside down!! I can?t even go half way with this method of climbing!

Can anyone on this forum do either of these? Got any tips?

I think rope climbing is an awesome way to build strength!!! I believe rope climbing was actually an apparatus back in the old gymnastics days. They wanted to see who can climb the rope in the fastest time (or something like that).

[admin]

Infinity,
We have a rope in our gym, but I hardly ever do it. It rips up my hands too much.
I think it was an event in gymnastics at one point. And today, it is an acrobatic event, although I would call it "artistic rope climbing". Some performers in Cirque du Soleil do it. They can do some pretty impressive stuff!

[speedy]

Do "towel pullups". That will strengthen and condition your hands.

[Steve Low]

Yeah, I think rope climbing was eliminated as a s gymnastic event and an Olympic competition sometime in the 50s or 60s...

and high bar/pbars/rings will strengthen your hands if you do them and you'll have more fun than doing pullups on towels. I have about a millimeter of calluses on my palm.

[speedy]

But the thickness of the towels, and hanging onto them is what develops the strength. It's not always about what's fun, but what's effective. Also, grip on rings is a different grip than holding onto towels. With towel pullups you get that crushing grip that you could use to close an Ironmind #1, 2, and maybe even #3. While I do not know first hand if you can with the rings, I do not see it as a device to really develop that kind of strength; rings are really for muscle developement and conditioning in other areas.

[Paul Corfield]

I've been doing ring stuff all this year. I got a chance to have my first go on a rope a few weeks back and I whizzed up all the way to the top using arms only in an L-Sit position. I was really surprised how easy it was but I just put it down to holding onto the rings. I don't do any form of chins or pull ups either because they knacker my elbows. On the rings I mainly do front levers, skin the cats, back levers, dips etc.

Paul.

[samtwito]

Hey Dude,
This'll tell you everything you need to know about the history:
http://www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Competitive_Rope_Climbing1.html
I've also climbed ropes upside down, only like once though, and some of the skinny polevaulters at my school can do it.
Rope climbing's one of the best exercises out there.

[Steve Low]

But the thickness of the towels, and hanging onto them is what develops the strength. It's not always about what's fun, but what's effective. Also, grip on rings is a different grip than holding onto towels. With towel pullups you get that crushing grip that you could use to close an Ironmind #1, 2, and maybe even #3. While I do not know first hand if you can with the rings, I do not see it as a device to really develop that kind of strength; rings are really for muscle developement and conditioning in other areas.

On rings you can get up to 10x your bodyweight on your hands at the bottom of a swing. Grip strength is a must.

Anyway, he was talking about it ripping his hands up.. and gymnastics stuff will develop calluses faster than doing towel pullups. And they will be bigger calluses at that.

[John700]

Hi guys, this is my first post!

I am really fascinated by rope climbing, I think it is a great form of conditioning and really enjoyed reading the history of it in the link posted earlier.

I was just wondering if anyone would be kind enough to post some rope climbing training articles and drills? I have searched on Google but can't find much.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just found this cool article on T-Nation:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id ... o=0#822448

But if anyone can find more that would be awesome!

[Bobby]

If you have acess to an olympic size loading pin you can hang it from a pullup bar,and then use it for your pullups.Be sure to change the hand on top every set,feels a lot like rpeclimbing.

[JohnD]

There are some videos on youtube of rope climbing......those Czech guys may be the only ones doing it competitively. They are really impressive !