Of all the things you probably learned in school, the rope climb and calculus are up there in things you didn’t think would return to your life in adulthood.
While calculus still alludes most of us for daily use, the tools learned to problem solve are useful everyday in our jobs and relationships. Which is really all things in school and training are…methods of teaching us how to problem solve and apply things we learn from the situations we are put in.
We can really apply this idea to most movements in CrossFit, but today, we are gonna apply The Rope Climb to every day life.
You Can Do This.
The first and most apparent lesson from the rope climb, above all other movements, is the ability to overcome fear.
Every CrossFit gym in America has to pay a little bit extra on their insurance if they have climbing ropes in their gym. After all, it’s no secret that these things can be dangerous.
To perform an Athlete/Rx Rope Climb, you have to start on the ground and then use a combination of tying the rope around your food and climbing your arms up to touch a target that’s 15 feet above the ground (putting your feet 8ft+ in the air)!
Not an easy feat. And, for many of us, a terrifying feat.
Which is probably the most satisfying part of the whole achievement getting your first rope climb, conquering your fears!
In practice, you are in control every step of the way with the rope climb and your body is very alert when you perform this movement, making you hyper aware of how much energy you have left in your forearms (ever had that “nope” feeling at the top when you’re so close to the top?).
It is up to you to focus on your technique, coordination, and strength to get to the top to overcome your fears. Once you do that, your boss would probably call you a “calculated risk taker” no?
Coordination
The other major lesson that can be learned from the rope climb is how to apply your whole arsenal of muscles to make the movement more efficient!
After all, the movements in CrossFit should prepare you for life! We don’t sit there and focus on using our biceps to get an ice chest into the back of our car, we use our whole body, starting from the legs!
The Rope Climb, at first, seems like it’s just repeating pull-ups until you get to the top and you are done. Just brute strength will get you to the top and that’s all you need!
While it can be the answer to getting to the top, brute strength will not get you through a workout with 10 of these. In fact, it’ll get insanely dangerous as your muscles wear out OR you just won’t be able to complete any reps past about 4 or 5 legless climbs if you’re the average compete athlete.
In order to do this movements more efficiently you actually have to learn to do a knee raise and how to stomp a rope in between your feet. If you can do that, then you don’t even have to have a strict pull-up to get a rope climb.
The number of pulls you take to get to the top are the measure of how strong your technique is, to a point! If you have knee raises and a good foot hold, it will take ya about 4-5 pulls to get to the top! (Much better than the 12-14 pulls it takes to go legless!)
If you work on your Toe-to-Bar strength, then you can get those pulls down to 2-3!
It’s Fun!
Being able to know how use the tools available at your disposal to overcome your fears is a trait we admire in every action hero that I can think of.
Iron Man builds his first suit out of spare missile parts in a cave.
Arnold* uses twigs and mud to defeat an alien that’s on safari.
* (you don’t care about that actual character’s name either)
You name an action hero, they overcome long odds all the time.
The Rope Climb? Well it’s a controlled way that we can feel like an action hero for a bit!
We apply our skill and strength to overcome a tough situation. The act of doing that fills us with joy and that’s really the best part.
After all, that’s why I enjoy it! Sure it can give you strong lats, biceps, and core muscles. But, nothing beats how awesome it feels to climb that rope for the first time.
If you want to see what it feels like to be a real life action hero, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro and talk to a coach today!