Enough Rope to Hang Myself
It arrived last night. 20-something feet of 1 1/2 inch thick climbing rope with a big eye spliced in one end for easy loopthrough. After a dozen attempts, I got it up and over the beams in my loft’s ceiling. So now, I’ve got a sixteen foot climbing distance.
First off, I put knots every 20 inches for now. Because there’s no way I’m strong enough to master climbing *and* that leg-based shimmy thing that they teach marines. But even with them, it’s just amazing!
Climbing rope worked my shoulders, my chest, my back, my abs, my legs, and my glute. Because, unless I’m doing it *really* wrong, it’s this whole system. You take a firm hold up high. You get your feet onto the first knot and push yourself up as straight as you can. Grab higher, and then support all your weight on the rope by your arms until you can wrap your feet onto the next highest knot.
It took a few tries to get to the ceiling. On the first few attempts, I just couldn’t figure out how to let go with my legs, but stay attached with my arms. But then, I made one really good ascent, and grabbed the beams 16 feet above my floor. I contemplated briefly moving from the rope to the beam, but then reality set in, and I’d have felt pretty stupid needing help back down. I’m a little bigger than a kitten.
But pain?
Man, I could really feel it all this morning. My front deltoids (shoulder area) hurt more than anything, but it subsided after a little stretching and also after my first warmup set of benching at the gym.
Oh, and do you want to try something different than your average curls? If you’re able to curl a pretty decent amount of weight, try one-arm curling a barbell. Either olympic size or the smaller ones. It’s amazing, because the balance elements make the curl even harder still. But I could see where this would help the climbing stuff I’m trying to build towards.
I’m trying to think of another post like the last two I did, because they seemed well-received, and because they’re fun to think about. Any questions I can try answering in a similar fashion?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.
