maratoolRope Climb
How to do the rope climb
- Grab the rope with both hands above your head. Pull down on the rope as you take a small jump.
- Wrap the rope around one leg, using your feet to pinch the rope. Reach up as high as possible with your arms, gripping the rope tightly.
- Release the rope from your feet as you pull yourself up with your arms, bringing your knees towards your chest.
- Resecure your feet on the rope, and then stand up to take another high hold on the rope. Continue until you reach the top of the rope.
- To lower yourself, loosen the grip of your feet on the rope as you slide down using a hand over hand motion.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the latissimus dorsi, which pulls the upper arm down and back toward the ribcage.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from.
The shoulders take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:LatsBicepsForearmsMiddle backShoulders
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
These train the lats too, using equipment this one does not:
- Rope Straight-Arm Pulldowncable
- Upright Band Rowsbody only + band
- Bent Arm Pulloverbarbell + bench
- Catch and Overhead Throwmedicine ball
- Latissimus Dorsi-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 45 lats exercises in this database, 14 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.