Rope climb Pe 2 9 ring rows

I am struggling to complete 4x9 ring rows. I begin to struggle during round three about rep 6-7 and then the same in round four. What have any of you done to break through the plateau?

HI NIck:

-first option: add one set at the end of your training sets;

-the second option, adding one more workout in the week only fo the row.

I feel you! They’re my hardest thing to maintain, especially if I take a hiatus from them. What worked for me the first time was doing AMRAP in slow eccentric motion (fight against gravity), like a three count. Ultimately I got there but I generally still have to work hard at them.

 

Sonny

Hi Nick,

One thing that has helped me on both pushups and ring rows is to:

1) Add more volume

2) Focus on total reps per workout, not reps per set.

For example, if you have been stuck on 4x9 for a few months, 36 pushups per workout is just not enough anymore to force your body to adapt. If you think your body can handle it, I would shoot for a total rep count of 60 reps per workout instead of 36 (work up to that 60 number over a few workouts per your comfort zone). Then, in order to make that amount of reps attainable I would not worry about how many reps you do per set. I would focus on how many total reps you do in as short a time as possible. Don't be concerned with how many sets it takes. Work capacity is built by doing a lot of reps in as short a time as possible. And connective tissue is built by volume. If you have to break up the sets that's irrelevant.

To build on this example, you could do something like 5 rounds to get to 60 reps, with the requirement that you do the mobility in each round per usual. Then you just do as many reps as you can per set, keeping at least 1 rep in the tank per set (don't go to failure). Here's an example workout if you're stuck on 4x9.

Reps + IM:

10, 2, IM

9, 3, IM

8, 4, IM

6, 4, 2, IM

6, 3, 3, IM

So you've just done 60 reps in 5 sets in as little time as possible. The win here is that you've done much more volume than you would with 4x9, and you've done it as fast as possible without having to rest to make sure you can complete 12 reps in the set. It also is psychologically less wearing. Once you plateau it can lead to burnout having to struggle to make the prescribed reps per set in the workout. With this strategy you do much more work in a compressed time, and it's less likely to cause burnout.

I would argue that the prescribed workouts of 4x9, 5x15, etc. are *tests*, but are not optimal workouts once you plateau. Doing the same test over and over again is not going to help you break through plateau. You need to up the volume and do more work in a compressed time. As coach says, "consistency is more important than intensity". Doing more reps per week is one of the best ways to get there. I know it's helped me a lot. I was stuck until I remembered my prior training and put this scheme into play.

The main caveat is to add the extra volume slowly so that your connective tissue can adapt. But once you do, your body will feel like it's really being challenged to grow again, and the workouts won't feel stale anymore.

Hope this helps,

Matt

Another suggestion - add\increase rest time between sets. Use this to work up to the volume (even more relevant to go beyond it, if adding a set as Alessandro suggested), then work on shortening and eliminating the rest in the required range for the stage you're in.

A more extreme version of this - I have seen some exercise science experts claim that longer rest times between sets could even be more beneficial for increasing strength, in the extreme recommending multiple minutes between sets (sorry, I don't remember the references at the moment). Would appreciate the opinion of the experts in this forum on the matter. If you accept this approach - as the ability to work with less rest is a measure of strength (in the sense that it affects muscle endurance), the requirements (volume+tempo) become the test which you'll want to avoid until ready. In the process of strengthening you'll always prefer longer rest periods. To be clear, while I'm aware of this approach in theory, I never tried it.

BTW, note that most of what was said here is relevant to any exercise you plateau on, not only to RC PE2 (I'm not there yet myself on RC,  wouldn't want to give the impression that I'm speaking from experience that I don't have).