Aerial Training

A great way to build upper body strength is what I am going to call aerial training. It is hard and frustrating in the beginning. I remember in high school wrestling I could climb the rope all day long, no legged, no legged with two ropes one hand on each rope, even upside down. Now with an extra 30 #'s of body weight put on it isn't as easy. It is time to make my muscles adapt to the new stress that is being introduced to them.

Starting with the obvious Rope there are a lot of different diameters but the smaller you go the harder it is. You need it to be at least 15' I am lucky and have a 30' rope. Climb Climb Climb. In the beginning you will use your feet to help push you up locking the rope in between them. Then you can build your way up to no legged. Learning to climb rope is like learning to do pull ups just keep going to failure and your body will respond to the stress.

Pull ups and dips help build your climbing strength. After I cannot climb anymore I move to a series of pull ups and dips to help push my limits a little more. If your up on your pull ups do muscle ups.

Your forearms and grip should come naturally just from all the new stress your muscles are dealing with but you can still hit them with traditional weighted workouts.

Once you get strong start climbing all kinds of things, rope ladders are fun and easy to build. You can add a rope at the top of your rope that goes to another tree and shimmy across or monkey bar your way over.

Ladders are fun on an angle monkey baring your way up. You can go to the park when its unoccupied and climb all kinds of slippery poles.

Trees are fun, there is no end to the amount of material that you can climb and how hard it will work your body.