Bodyweight If you could only practice just ONE bodyweight exercise, what would it be?

[Lotto]

Well I tried the L sit rope climb today. Extraordinarily hard. I attempted it on my break. 11mm arborist climbing rope. I struggled to get the technique to even advance a couple of pulls. I then doubled the rope up to provide more hand grip purchase, still struggled. I added knots thinking I could pull on them, made it easier, but felt I couldn't get my body to "fire" in all the correct directions at once.
I then cheated to see if I could get a feel for it and used an ascender device, got up to around 6 feet and then manually descended, that was very difficult to do with any sort of form and control. Zero grace unfortunately. After that I was drained and still had half a shift to complete. Huge respect to anyone who has the raw strength and technique dialled in for this exercise. It is a lot harder than I imagined, especially the technique that must be required. Will I attempt again, think I'd want to try it with a rope that has the dimensions of a "battle rope" and coarse in texture for extra grip and purchase.

 

[bluejeff]

Well I tried the L sit rope climb today. Extraordinarily hard. I attempted it on my break. 11mm arborist climbing rope. I struggled to get the technique to even advance a couple of pulls. I then doubled the rope up to provide more hand grip purchase, still struggled. I added knots thinking I could pull on them, made it easier, but felt I couldn't get my body to "fire" in all the correct directions at once.
I then cheated to see if I could get a feel for it and used an ascender device, got up to around 6 feet and then manually descended, that was very difficult to do with any sort of form and control. Zero grace unfortunately. After that I was drained and still had half a shift to complete. Huge respect to anyone who has the raw strength and technique dialled in for this exercise. It is a lot harder than I imagined, especially the technique that must be required. Will I attempt again, think I'd want to try it with a rope that has the dimensions of a "battle rope" and coarse in texture for extra grip and purchase.

Are you trying strict L-sit (in which case your legs will be off-center, to one side of the rope) or straddled? While any legless rope climb requires a great amount of strength (esp grip strength) and coordination, it’s also a bit more about technique than you may expect. You are right that the diameter of a battle rope is best. For an 11mm diameter rope (I’m assuming that’s the diameter?) you would have to be some kind of mutant IMO to climb that without using your legs.

 

[offwidth]

Well I tried the L sit rope climb today. Extraordinarily hard. I attempted it on my break. 11mm arborist climbing rope. I struggled to get the technique to even advance a couple of pulls. I then doubled the rope up to provide more hand grip purchase, still struggled. I added knots thinking I could pull on them, made it easier, but felt I couldn't get my body to "fire" in all the correct directions at once.
I then cheated to see if I could get a feel for it and used an ascender device, got up to around 6 feet and then manually descended, that was very difficult to do with any sort of form and control. Zero grace unfortunately. After that I was drained and still had half a shift to complete. Huge respect to anyone who has the raw strength and technique dialled in for this exercise. It is a lot harder than I imagined, especially the technique that must be required. Will I attempt again, think I'd want to try it with a rope that has the dimensions of a "battle rope" and coarse in texture for extra grip and purchase.

Yeah for sure an 11mm rope is not the rope to use (or is used) for hand over hand climbing. It’s hard enough to ascend those using jumars…

 

[Lotto]

Are you trying strict L-sit (in which case your legs will be off-center, to one side of the rope) or straddled?

I attempted both. Straddling was ever so slightly easier. Yup, technique I realise now a major factor.

Yeah for sure an 11mm rope is not the rope to use (or is used) for hand over hand climbing. It’s hard enough to ascend those using jumars…

That was my thoughts at the end. Unfortunately I've no access to thicker ropes.
A worthwhile half hour spent though.

 

[Period]

Well I tried the L sit rope climb today. Extraordinarily hard. I attempted it on my break. 11mm arborist climbing rope. I struggled to get the technique to even advance a couple of pulls. I then doubled the rope up to provide more hand grip purchase, still struggled. I added knots thinking I could pull on them, made it easier, but felt I couldn't get my body to "fire" in all the correct directions at once.
I then cheated to see if I could get a feel for it and used an ascender device, got up to around 6 feet and then manually descended, that was very difficult to do with any sort of form and control. Zero grace unfortunately. After that I was drained and still had half a shift to complete. Huge respect to anyone who has the raw strength and technique dialled in for this exercise. It is a lot harder than I imagined, especially the technique that must be required. Will I attempt again, think I'd want to try it with a rope that has the dimensions of a "battle rope" and coarse in texture for extra grip and purchase.

Well, as we say, if it was easy, it would be called soccer (or any ball game of your choice) The way we do it is with a very slight straddle, rope passing between the legs (gymnasts sometimes climb with the legs on one sides, I've never seen a wrestler do it). If you get very tired, you can cheat a bit by pressing the legs together on the way down during the last rep, slowing the descent a bit. Also, you can easily swing the legs in position for a rope climb with the legs if things get really hairy. I personally think the adrenaline build-up as the set progresses is a plus, since it teaches you to deal with performing in slightly uncomfortable situations, but maybe that's just me.

As for equipment, the best choice is a dedicated rope for rope climbing, hemp or manila, usually 1 1/2 inches thick (though some people use ropes up to 3", especially some backwater gyms in Russia that usually produce very good wrestlers). The second best choice is a "Judo rope", basically a long sleeve made from Gi fabric. Traditional nylon ropes (like most battle ropes) are third, and I wouldn't really recommend woven ropes. If you have to improvise, the only way to come up with something remotely passable is to take multiple lengths of thinner rope, fold or better yet braid it to the desired thickness and then wrap it entirely in Hockey tape or something similar, unless they are hemp or manila ropes. If you use woven nylon ropes, chalk heavily. Knots aren't ideal in my opinion, as they dictate the length of the reach, plus you have to slow down when climbing, which is a minus in my book, as it interferes with the goals of the exercise.
If you don't have a high ceiling or lack cash for a good rope, get a 2-2.5 m one and hang it from a normal ceiling or pull-up bar. With L-sit climbs, that leaves you quite a bit of room to exercise, and will only mean you have to climb more lengths in a row (which, funny enough, is slightly harder than climbing the same distance on a longer rope, since you have to build up momentum more often).

 

[Mayukh Sen]

THE ONE ARM HINDU PUSH UP.


This guy increased my pull ups from 2 to friggin 17 reps and all I did was this and one arm one leg push ups and bicep curls till failure.



It is as bang for buck an exercise can ever get.



The one arm one leg push up is also amazing but hard to do till failure for multiple sets. Sometimes that becomes important at certain stages of your mesocycle to keep doing them set after set to exhaust the target muscle properly.

 

[CMHoward]

Full lock-out, slow, chin over the bar pull-ups.

 

[kvorion]

I'd go with bodyweight rows on gymnastics rings. Infinite progression possibilities.