Rope Squats Do Squat

Almost through the second cycle of "undulating periodisation," where workouts move from high-rep/low-weight to low-rep/high-weight through roughly two weeks.

I've been able to raise the stakes a bit with the recent addition of a 40-pound weight vest -- and BTW, I will never buy fitness equipment again without first searching craigslist thoroughly. Got that vest brand-new, out-of-the-box for $65. You'd pay twice that at Dick's. This has been an especial help in the lower-body exercises; it's very hard to build leg muscles with just bodyweight exercises, I find.

One thing I've learned is that one of my invented exercises, "rope squats," has got to go. I wanted to practice using my legs in rope climbs, since many contestants on Ninja Warrior seem to forget to use their legs on the final stage. And there's a reliable technique for locking the rope with your feet and then squatting up to advance yourself, so you don't have to rely exclusively on your already-tired arms. So how did it go?

Well, I've mastered the lock. I can jump onto a rope and whip that rope around my leg in a flash. And I can press up from that lock, then grab and hike my legs up to a higher position on the rope. But as for doing reps of squats from that position? A waste of time.

First off, when you do reps in that position you get serious rope burn on your leg with each rep. I work out in shorts, but I wouldn't want to see what this exercise would do to any pair of sweatpants.

Second, anytime I do exercises hanging from the rope I involuntarily rotate, something like Foucault's Pendulum, for those of you who read too much. But when that happens during these "rope squats," I spend so much time trying to steady myself that there's little time to focus on lifting with the legs. Basically, I'm using my arms more than I would be in an actual rope climb!

Third, there isn't much point to the exercise. Once you know how to lock the rope with your feet, there's not much more to practice in lower-body technique. I dont' even think that your legs could get tired in a 50-foot rope climb, at least no more than in climbing a 50-foot flight of stairs or a 50-foot ladder.

The challenge is that in this kind of workout, where you need four different exercises for upper-and lower-body, I'm now stuck for a lower-body exercise in the appropriate range. PArt of me thinks that it's time to man up and buy some decent plyo boxes. Jumping, vertically and horizontally, is the real valuable lower-body skill for Ninja Warrior, and there's no better way to improve jumping than with plyometrics. But decent plyo boxes can easily run you $100 each, even for lower heights. So I may first invest in that plyometrics book whose name and author I can't remember now (is it linked on the blog page? It will be) and see what he's got that doesn't involve plyo boxes. Then I'll ask Santa for a couple of additions to the home gym. But not before I check Craigslist.