Foundation rope climb?

Hey guys! So this week I checked if I had all the required equipment for foundation before actually buying it. Here's the only two things missing: stall bars and rope.

Starting with the stall bars, how important is it? If it's only required for stuff like leg raises, I have a pretty strong core and can do them perfectly with no swing already, so could I go through the four foundation without stall bars? For what other purposes are they used in foundation?

For the rope, I've looked everywhere but there is not a single rope near where I live, no gymnastic gym nothing. But I was thinking about it, could the rope be substitued for OAC? When I will get to F4 where the rope is actually used, could I substitute the exercises that require the rope for OAC exercises? Will it give me the same or at least most of the benefits that I would get from the rope?

Buying foundation + handstand + a pair of rings is already hard for me, so no way I could afford to build my own stall bars or rope and support... Plus there is absolutely no space at my house and it's my parents house so I can't build stuff in it.

Thank you.

Stall bars: these are handy, but replicable early on. You can probably make it through F1&2 with some clever substitutions. When you get to the SL SE's, they become hard to substitute though. A very good replacement would be a ladder in a local playground: they tend to be very strong and suitable for performing levers on.

Rope: this is not needed at all until F4. I wouldn't worry about looking for substitutions until you're somewhere in F3.

I saw a video of a forum member having tied a ladder to a tree to use as stall bars. Cool set-up and looks like it works alright.
Stall bars are pretty much necessary for some of the mobility/stretching, at least it works way better than single bars. You can get through a lot of the F1 stuff and iron out a lot of your deficits without it though.

so stall bars are necessary for the mobility? what about the exercices progressions? could one go though the exercices in foundation without the stall bars?

and for the rope, like I said I know its only in like F4, but I don't want to get there and then be like oh I can't finish it there's no rope... When I do something I go to the end of it, so I want to plan all the required equiment. Could the rope be substituted for OAC ?

hype said:

so stall bars are necessary for the mobility? what about the exercices progressions? could one go though the exercices in foundation without the stall bars?

 

and for the rope, like I said I know its only in like F4, but I don't want to get there and then be like oh I can't finish it there's no rope... When I do something I go to the end of it, so I want to plan all the required equiment. Could the rope be substituted for OAC ?

The side lever specific exercises require stall bars or a very good substitute. 

You could start working on OACs after finishing RC/F3, but then you wouldn't be following Foundation, so you couldn't really say you'd gone to the end of it. You would get a lot of the benefits of climbing rope, but there's a reason that Coach selected rope climbs as the final movement rather than OAC's - in practice, they are more effective for building strength and preparing the elbows for rings training.

Also keep in mind that it's likely to take 2-4 years before you reach the point where you need this equipment. In that time, any manner of things might change. You might get a job, or find a place to work out that has stall bars/a rope, or make some friends who also want that equipment. Life circumstances may prevent you from working out before you reach that point, or you may find that your real passion is olympic lifting and decide to quite bodyweight exercises. The point is, it's not a good decision to say "well, I'm not 100% certain that I'll have access to the equipment I need several years down the road, so I'm not even going to start". Even if you only finish F3, that's still a huge accomplishment, and you'll be much stronger and more fit than you would be if you hadn't done it. 

Yeah, and just finishing F1 will likely leave you with enormous improvements in your posture, injury-proofing, gymnastic shapes and base strength.

Joshua Slocum said:

The side lever specific exercises require stall bars or a very good substitute. 

 

You could start working on OACs after finishing RC/F3, but then you wouldn't be following Foundation, so you couldn't really say you'd gone to the end of it. You would get a lot of the benefits of climbing rope, but there's a reason that Coach selected rope climbs as the final movement rather than OAC's - in practice, they are more effective for building strength and preparing the elbows for rings training.

 

Also keep in mind that it's likely to take 2-4 years before you reach the point where you need this equipment. In that time, any manner of things might change. You might get a job, or find a place to work out that has stall bars/a rope, or make some friends who also want that equipment. Life circumstances may prevent you from working out before you reach that point, or you may find that your real passion is olympic lifting and decide to quite bodyweight exercises. The point is, it's not a good decision to say "well, I'm not 100% certain that I'll have access to the equipment I need several years down the road, so I'm not even going to start". Even if you only finish F3, that's still a huge accomplishment, and you'll be much stronger and more fit than you would be if you hadn't done it. 

hmm okay I see... Thank you for answering, and yeah you are right. I guess I'll have to figure it out when I get there... And besides, I'll probably work OAC after my foundation work if it allows it

The first 3/4 Foundations are essentially exactly what you should do in preparation for OAC training, so there's no need to put any additional work on top.

As a bonus, Dan found that he learned OAC "for free" as a result of mastering rope climbs, so you may find that you don't need any dedicated work at all.

Joshua Slocum said:

As a bonus, Dan found that he learned OAC "for free" as a result of mastering rope climbs, so you may find that you don't need any dedicated work at all.

Well, that would be even better xD