Rope climb in hotel rooms

How would this be done?

I'm thinking of getting one of those pullup bars to put in the door and hanging rings from that. However, I can't find any that are small enough to fit in my carry on (has to be less than 18").

All you need is a dowel that you pass through your rings straps; then you put the dowel over the outside of the door, with the ring straps going over the door.

When you close the door, the rings will be secured by the dowel being pulled by the straps against the frame and the door, and nicely hang on the inside, a la TRX.

(don't forget the DND so housekeeping does not suddenly open your door while you are hanging. You may also want to use some sort of protective sleeve for your straps)

Thanks for the reply. How would I do the rope climb exercises with the door closed? I thought I would need to have my body half in and out of the doorway. 

I was going to use the bathroom door not the main door haha. Good point though.

which RC progressions are you working on?

Matthew said:

Thanks for the reply. How would I do the rope climb exercises with the door closed?  (...)

HAHA... no idea!

Maybe do some row variation when you are traveling

I will be travelling extensively in the following months but won't have room for rings etc with luggage weight restrictions. I am on RCpe4 and possibly 5 while in there. Anyone have suggestions? or can refer me to a peevious thread.

Also Is actual TRX 'things' or a pullup bar/door frame useful ring substitutes for the above rowing PEs?

Perfect! Those should both be very amenable to fred's suggestions. If you make them long they will come away from the door nicely to be at the right height for your elevated rows and bulgarian rows. I would think TRX style straps would work very well for these exercises as well. You also might see if the hotel has a gym, as you could hang your straps from a squat machine or pull up bar if they have them. Oftentimes the swimming pool area will have rafters you could drape them over as well. Just don't try to hang them off the shower curtain rod!!

I will certainly be staying in hostels and backpacking so nooks and crannies should be a plenty. Shame my nice wooden rings are heavy. Is it worth buying a TRX thing? Is it comparable to rings in terms of difficulty/form required for rows?

MT Nordic said:

Just don't try to hang them off the shower curtain rod!!

And if you don't take his advice... Film it and post it! So we can um, check your form.

Steve Maxwell once wrote a pretty good blogpost about this, try searching for it. One solution was draping a towel around the doorknobs on both sides of an open door, and do rows holding on to each end of the towel - Personally, I'd be worried about unhinging the doors. The other, and much better, suggestion was to use the hotel's stairwell, where there is usually a railing or space between steps that you can affix the ring straps to. Since everyone uses the elevator, the stairwell are often totally empty.

I feel your pain, hotel gyms are often extremely crappy. Once in Sweden, the only solution to getting a minimal amount of pulling work done was holding a tuck front lever from the handles of a treadmill. The lady on the treadmill next to me stared defiantly straight ahead, probably thinking 'That's not how you use that!'

Unfortunately RC is the hardest to do while travelling. While TRX might be more travel friendly, I'd only consider mastery if you the sets/reps on rings. In my opinion TRX makes the movement somewhat easier due to both straps being connected whereas on rings each is independent.

James Hall said:

I will certainly be staying in hostels and backpacking so nooks and crannies should be a plenty. Shame my nice wooden rings are heavy. Is it worth buying a TRX thing? Is it comparable to rings in terms of difficulty/form required for rows?

TRX is like a watered down version of rings.  Okayish, but not comparable to the real thing.

sPL IM is tough while traveling also. I would do what you can do with whats available. Stairs seem like a good idea.

Bipocni said:

TRX is like a watered down version of rings.  Okayish, but not comparable to the real thing.

Good to know