Climbing, roping, straps and legs

Following my normal recent habit, I walked into Ultimate Fitness and started off on rope. It really is a ridiculously effective exercise, working a whole lot of your body in very little space, rain or shine. I got a few minutes of warmup in before SFF strolled over to get me started on today’s festivities.

Today I had a choice. I was doing a mountain climber regression and could do either a minute of mill running or rope between sets. I chose rope only because honestly I think the mill is bad for my knees and ankles, and rope is actually fairly fun (while also being exhausting). The way the regression went was 1 minute of rope, then 90 climbers, minute of rope, 80 climbers, minute of rope… you see where I’m going here right? All the way down. Total cardio blast, halfway through I was sweating like a beast. This kind of back and forth is also good for working on your rope form. After you’ve done a few minutes of it, you start really focusing on efficiency. You’ve got many more minutes left and you start really thinking about how you’re swinging it, how high you’re jumping, etc.

Since I didn’t drop dead at the end of that, SFF moved me to TRX. I run a lot so we don’t usually do a ton of leg work that isn’t a full body movement. So we decided to do a squat/hamstring series. The first one was a one footed squat holding the TRX straps while the other foot is held out flexed in front of me. 10X each foot. You’re supposed to go as low as possible, but with my knees I stuck to 90 degrees. It was plenty.

The hamstring version had me laying on my back, one foot in the straps. The other leg was straight up. Using my hamstring, I pulled my foot in towards my butt, hips up. 10x each leg. Brutal.

One more round of that, and we were on to abs. At least that’s what SFF said. The first movement seemed like torture more than anything else. You lay on your stomach on the ground, one foot through both TRX straps. You do a pushup and pull the free foot to your chest and back out, dropping back to your stomach. You do another pushup and this time pull your foot under you and stand up. That’s a rep. 6X each foot. I was seriously ready to give up state secrets after that one. Man, super ouch.

The next movement started in a plank with both feet in the straps. You pull your knees in to your chest, but off to the side. 6x each side.

One more time through the torture, then again with the knees and we were done.

It should be said that the squat/hamstrings were a torture I brought on myself. I mentioned to SFF that I felt like my hamstrings needed some work. Even the best trainers aren’t psychic. SFF knew I’m very body aware, and it is very rare to see anyone that’s hamstring dominant (and my knee trouble originally came from quad dominance). So she dropped me into that series. It was probably one of the hardest combos I’ve done yet, which is good. It means I’m weak there and need to work on it.

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