Ropes are excellent tools to train with. I started off with a rope, 7 meters in length and 35 mm in diameter, only to hang it onto the branch of one of the trees on the edge of the forest near my house. Although rope climbing is an excellent way to train the whole body, the possibilities to train with the rope are not merely limited to climbing only.

Tara Scott is one of the prime reasons I first became interested in training with ropes, along with her mentor Dr. Rocannon MacGregor . Their blogs Coach Tara and Primal Nature Play are a must read for people interested in natural training – although I am not a dedicated follower of their ideas, they are a inspiration. Look out for posts about rope training. As for the rope training itself, I got into gears after a workshop with Dominik Feischl, whose blog is also highly recommended for all readers who understand German.

Versatility

Ropes can be used in various forms. While they pose a great tool to climb up to (with or without the help of the legs), they also create incredible ballistic and gravitational forces when swung or moved otherwise using momentum. The rope is a training utility that renders training fun while staying extremely effective nontheless – regardless of how you train using the rope, it always turns out to be great investment in your whole body development!

The following exercises are some few out of the vast pool of those possible.

Rope climbing

Rope climbing is the most obvious choice available. Just find yourself something to hang the rope on to, fasten it and start the climbing fun! In contrast to what most people think, ropes do not have to be hung high above ground level to become an effective tool for climbing. Interval climbs of short ropes are a tremendous exercise to strengthen your grip and pulling power – just try to sustain three to four rounds on a rope of approximately 2 meters height – good luck!

Short Rope Climbing – GMX Video

Seilklettern – GMX Video

Rope Pull-Ups

The rope challenges your grip strength – if you easily do a set of pull-ups on a normal pull-up bar you will find a set of pull-ups on the rope to be a hard task to do at first but you will gradually adapt to the more challenging grip on the rope. The less the diameter of the rope, the harder the task. I recommend ropes with diameters between 25 and 35 mm, the thicker, the easier – I am still sticking to the thickest one.

Power Rope

The power rope is an exercise which is very much fun to watch from the side – the rope lining is spinning like a helix, something you do not notice too much when doing the exercise yourself. Hold your upper arms firm and work the forearms only with this exercise. If you can go on 30 seconds without fatiguing: Congratulations! – this exercise is much harder than it looks like and very well suited to be done in circuits. Highly recommended!

In addition to the health benefits I noticed that this exercise works like a magnet when done outdoors and with people nearby. It just looks so much fun that everyone wants to have a try – and quickly find out that it is very challenging in nature!

Power Rope – GMX Video

Rope Swings

Want to feel just like a cowboy? Then do so. Take an appropiate part of the rope and swing it above your head – the longer the rope piece is, the larger the gravitational force working against you. You will feel it everywhere in your body that it has to work hard in order to sustain its stability.

Short Rope Swings

For the short rope swings you will need a shorter rope, length up to five meters. Like with the normal rope swings, swing the rope around above your head – switching hands. The advantage of this exercise is that you can vary the swing gradually in height as you go by – from above head height down to waist height – just be sure not to touch the ground with the rope. Progress with increasing the rope’s length.

Coach Tara writes about this exercise in this blog article. Be sure to read it thoroughly!

Rope Pulling/Dragging

To utilize the rope further, attach an object of varying weight and size to one end of the rope and then go about either pulling the object towards yourself with the power of your muscles or dragging the object along for either a distance or time. With both pulls and drags, you can incorporate intervals of pulling/dragging and sprinting on the other end of the rope’s reach. Three to four rounds and you should be more than well done!

—

The rope is one of the exercise utilities I was most surprised to get to know better. Normally I used to climb up the rope as the only exercise I would do but since I took the rope with me on a weekend camp with my group of teenagers I found out that the usages of a rope are tremendously versatile. I will incorporate this great training tool further in my nature trainings and am sure that both the fun and effectivity of my workouts will increase thereby.

Profit from training with ropes as well – go and purchase one. For European customers, the Seilerei Sammt is a great place to go to – places for purchases from that States will follow.

Have fun doing so!

Live the fun,
Simon

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