Rope Climbing For Strength and Development

Rope climbing has always been one of the "unsung" exercises of strength development. In terms of building incredible grip and upper-back strength, few exercises can compare to rope climbing. As documented by David Willoughby, William "The Scottish Herculese" Bankier, for example, used a 10 minute rope-climbing workout to develop his incredible bicep strength.

Rope Climbing

And keep in mind that the training of many of the old-time physical culturists originally stemmed from gymnastics in which rope climbing has always been very popular.

Here's a look at the only book that I know of written specifically on rope climbing techniques. The Rope Ladder, Knotted Rope, Inclined Rope, Vertical Rope, Double Ropes, Traveling Ropes and Rope Swinging are discussed.

Just as today, a quality 3-strand manila climbing rope was preffered. In competitive rope climbing, the goal was to make it up a 20 foot rope as quickly as possible. The "finish line" was a round, black, wooden disc known as a tambourine. The record for climbing a 20 foot rope is an incredible 2.8 seconds!

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