Ever since we started doing rope climbs in the gym, the biggest issue that has sprung up are that some athletes are feeling like their forearms are locking up.
If you’re doing the Sweat or Compete scales, 100% this is a logical result and it means that we just need to dial back our intensity by either not going as high and/or increasing the rest you do in between sets. Each week slowly increase height or decrease rest time and you’ll ease into this movement without risk that cramping.
But for my 10ft and 15ft legged rope climbs folks I have 1 answer for you:
You’re doing rope climbs wrong.
Womp. Womp.
And here is the golden cue that will change all that:
Rope Climbs are not pull-ups on steroids.
They are Inchworm Toes-to-Bar.
Let me explain:
The secret to having high quality rope climbs is to hit your target mark in as few pulls as possible.
The secret to this is getting your feet as high as possible every time you go for the foot lock on the rope. I mean like feet as close as you can to your hands.
Then when you wrap the feet, you step down hard with the top foot on the bottom foot, rock the knees forward, and squeeze the thighs tight around the rope. In this position you should feel very secure and like you could take a hand off with zero consequence.
If you’ve done this right, with your arms locked out like a toes-to-bar, you now have a foot hold that is 6 inches or so short of your fully extended reach height.
At 5 feet tall, that could be 6.5ish feet.
At 6ft it could be closer to 8 feet.
Take those numbers and divide them into 15ft and you’ve got a rope climb in under 2.5 pulls and 2 pulls respectively.
Meaning that you have reduced your work load, increased your efficiency, and reduced the over all load on your bicep tremendously.
If you do that exact break down you will indeed get better at rope climbs and stop worrying about the forearm lock up later in the day at work.
If you are trying to do it and you’re having trouble with a foothold, talk with your coach, schedule a 30 minute skill session with a coach, or wait for me to put out the video where we explain exactly how to do this and how I learned it very soon.
To talk with a coach today, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro