Are you taking part in Tough Mudder, Spartan or another obstacle course race?
You are probably aware that a mainstay feature of these races is the monkey bars! Some people do this effortlessly but if you are anything like me then you probably have found them a struggle!
Keep trying, keep failing:
I have put a lot of effort into trying to improve my upper body strength to conquer this pretty simple obstacle – I did pull-ups, lifted heavy weights and would even jump in play parks and use those monkey bars (when kids weren’t around of course) and yet it still was the most excruciating pain going across something that was a measly three metres at best.
It became something I always dreaded when I was obstacle racing as I knew I was bound to come off and have to do a penalty.
By luck, I was having a walk with the family around a local beauty spot where it had a ‘trim trail’ which I took great pleasure in showing off. Then I got to the monkey bars. I felt that old dread but as I was only messing around I thought I might as well give it a go.
Much to my surprise, I worked my way across the bars with ease first time. I wasn’t warmed up and I was probably about two stone heavier than when I last went across the bars in the peak of my OCR career.
So how did I get the strength to conquer the bars with so little effort? Continue reading “Develop a Gorilla grip and conquer the monkey bars”
