Literally the biggest obstacle you will face and an obstacle many struggle with. They vary across courses from 5 foot to Tough Mudder’s 12 foot Berlin Wall, and rely on strength and technique. Using your legs is the most important way to overcome big obstacle walls.
3 Essential Tips
- Take a run up
- Use your foot on the wall to get up and over
- Lock your arms at the top
The Run Up
- Get a good run up and use the ends of your feet (toes) to run up the wall.
- As you run up grab with two hands the top of the wall
Use Your Legs
- If the wall is high but you are able to get you leg up, using your right or left foot, swing it onto the top of the wall so it rests there.
- Use the side of your legs or feet to crawl up the wall as you’re holding on.
- Now use your leg to pull the rest of your body up (see below). These are perfect for overhanging walls.
Roll over the top
- By now you’ll be at the top of the wall, with the ledge down the middle of your body through your belly button
- Still holding onto the top of the wall (with two hands) drag yourself over the top of the wall (pushing your weight forwards) and let your body drop down the wall
- Remain holding to the top of the wall and let your feet scrape the side of the wall as you come down (this will slow the drop)
- Doing this makes the drop less from the top, as your feet will only be a few foot from the ground
Troubleshooting Tips
Q: I can’t get my hands to the top of the wall
A: Try the following: a run up and use your foot to ‘springboard’ on the wall, then grab the top. Secondly, if it’s really high often at the side you can use the wall supports to give you a little leg up.
Q: I can hold onto the top but can’t get over
A: This is going to depend on flexibility and your relative strength to your body weight but these will help. When you run up try to get as much of your body over the top of the wall from the beginning, and use this to lean over. This way your legs will follow (in see saw motion). Secondly, if the wall is too high you can crawl up the wall by holding onto the top (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckiiCmyK9QQ). Lastly, don’t forget to hook that foot over to the top and then use your legs to pull your body over.
If nothing else works, bring a mate with you to give you a leg up…
Three essential exercises
- Tricep dips - essential for the initial grab of the wall to carry your bodyweight.
- Windscreen wipers - perfect for building the core muscles giving the strength and speed to swing legs over the wall. Do numerous wall jumps and the next day you will feel the soreness on your core muscles. This is carried out by lying on your back, with your feet and legs straight together move them from one side of your body to the other.
- Pull ups - a definite exercise to improve your upper body strength. If you can only do one or two, to improve further, make the pull up last longer to build strength. So pull up to the bar and then lower yourself down in 30 seconds. This should hurt, but will build the strength. Ask a friend to hold your legs too if you’re struggling.
The Muscle Up, Wall Runs and Tic Tacs
There’s a lot that can be learnt from Parkour and here’s a video that might give you some inspiration around climbing walls.
If you’re looking to up your game then search around YouTube for videos to perfect your technique further.