Rope Trick

A busy weekend kept me away from the blog, but it didn't keep me from working out. It's Monday morning now, and the "recovery" week of running is over. But I'm still running only three days a week, so it's not like I'm in danger of burnout. I've consistently noticed that I run faster when RunKeeper isn't giving me pace updates, so I'll see how that goes through a week of "real" workouts. As of this morning's easy 3-miler, so far, so good.

The bodyweight workouts are getting easier, and less interesting. Guess I'm at a point where adaptation sets in after about three weeks. That squares with what I've read. For those who haven't read, adaptation is just that; your body adapts to the stress of the latest workout, meaning that your gains from that workout will taper, as will your interest in doing it again. Alternating workouts during the week definitely helps, but all the same I'm looking forward to changing it up in a couple of weeks. After this week I'll have a "recovery" week of lifting, when I'll do I'm not sure what. But I'm definitely looking forward to the next phase.

That's because of the rope climb I just installed.

Any fan of Ninja Warrior (which starts July 31, I remind you) could see that training has to involve rope climbing. Seems like at least a half-dozen obstacles every season involve climbing on or jumping to or from ropes, including of course the Final Stage. But unless you're in a middle-school gym class it's not easy to find a rope to climb in our workouts. On the Internet, however, there's a big subculture for old-school workouts like rope climbing and kettlebells, and naturally plenty of sites from which to buy everything you need.

I've got an 11-foot ceiling in my garage, so I got from neptunebarbell.com a 12-foot climbing rope complete with a metal hanging loop on one end and a plastic "boot" on the other. I then got a specially designed "wood beam clamp" on Opentip.com. Found both to have the lowest prices thanks to Google Shopping. In all, though, they probably set me back close to $200. Times like this I wonder if I'm really saving any money by not joining a gym. But you can't find a climbing rope at Planet Fitness.

Setting up the rope took maybe a half-hour. I spent most of that half-hour, though, in my attic on the almost-hottest day of the year. Pretty simple to cut out the sheetrock in the ceiling, drill holes in the joist, and bolt the clamp at ceiling-height. Did I mention I had to buy a half-inch drill bit, too?

So the rope's up, but really I only have about three feet to climb from the highest point I can reach on the rope from standing. And so far the only use it's gotten is by my daughter and her friend, who immediately tied a knot at the end and used it as a swing. But in the next phase I hope to use the rope for most exercises. I figure that every exercise should incorporate core and grip work, and there should be plenty of rope exercises. I might have to invent some for my circumstances, but there are plenty of websites about rope climbing for fitness, which I'll link to in the sidebar.