So…it’s been awhile, about five weeks to be exact…and no posts!  I apologize.  There has definitely been a lot going on.  One thing that comes to mind is this:

Yep, I'm from Pittsburgh.

Another is this:

This guy has been sleeping in my living room.

Now, I know these are mere excuses…there’s plenty of busy people out there blogging, but having the best job in the world, with the worst possible hours, a friend in town who enjoys partying to the point of giving himself comb-overs before “bed,” and refusing to skip my precious workouts to tell you to workout doesn’t leave room for much spare time.  It’s definitely not for the lack of ideas to write about; I think of about 30 subjects a day, usually at least one an hour.  During pretty much ever session throughout the day I witness somebody doing something ridiculous, with horrendous form, or rude at the gym and I think — “I should write about that,” and now that the hardest part is under way (sitting down in front of the computer), here we go.  Last night, just like many nights at my gym there was almost a scuffle — you may be thinking, well where do you work?  This is actually an upscale place, full of so called “educated” folk, who just so happen to be stressed to the gills and misguided when it comes to fitness.  So, what was this almost fight about?  A girl?  A towel?  Some sweat on a bench?  No — brace yourself; the…triceps rope!

"Triceps Rope" !!!

That’s right folks, the almighty “triceps rope thingy.”   See, the problem is we only have one of these downstairs at my gym.  Scoff, only one!  That is a shitty gym then!  This rope attachment has the potential to be used for many great exercises, but it rarely is.  It usually just plays the role of  “triceps rope thingy” and people do this:

Now, this exercise isn’t horrible, but it gets way too much attention.  In my opinion, if you start your workout with this exercise you’re blowing it.  If you make this a high priority in your workouts you’re blowing it, if you fight over this attachment– blowing it, if you use 30 different (or two for that matter) grips and handles you’re blowing it,  if you stare at yourself in the mirror like this guy while doing countless push-downs, you are blowing it.  Ah, yes, I do like to rant.  The sad part is that this attachment is quite valuable, and there are a lot of good exercises you can do with it, but first you will have to steal it from the person doing any of the aforementioned pointless crap.  Alright, now that you’ve secured the rope attachment, what do you do with it?  Hold on a second I forgot about this one:

I seriously hate this one, please stop it.  This puppy is way worse then the first.  Without getting into the whole you’re going to hurt your back/spinal flexion ain’t good for ya/scientific reasoning behind this.   Take a look at this:

Your sitting posture at work.

You at the gym.

Stop it.

Ok, finally…what should be done with this thing?  Here are my three favorite moves:

The Face Pull:

A great move for addressing posture and shoulder health.

1.  Attach the rope to a cable/pulley station at the level of your eyes or higher.  A lat pull-down station will also work.

2. Grab the rope with an underhand grip, palms facing each other, and thumbs towards you.

3. Now, step back, and push your chest up and out, pull the rope towards your eyes, maintaining a “big” chest, splitting the rope before your face, finishing with hands outside of your ears.

4. The finished position should have…oh wait, I forgot about youtube.  Watch this, and stick with the second version (bike grip):

The Pull-Through:

Another great one for posture, only this time we are addressing the hips, and once again the posterior of the body.  Hint: most people’s posture is messed up due to hunching over a desk all day and only training the muscles they see in the mirror aka the anterior of the body.

To Perform the Pull-Through:
1. Attach the rope to a low cable station (the lowest you can find).

2. Straddle the rope facing away from the weight stack, pick-up said rope with palms facing each other and thumbs away from the body, now waddle away from the weight stack a couple steps: now the fun begins.

3. Hinge at the hips and bend forward,  maintaining a neutral spine.

4. Go to the level your hips can accommodate, this means as low as you can go with0ut sacrificing back position (neutral spine).

5. Return to the start by driving your hips forward and squeezing your glutes.  At the finish you should squeeze your shoulder blades and glutes together.

The Cable Chop

Notice two of these moves address the posterior of the body and help to undo the years of too much benching, sitting at work, and only exercising the things you see in the mirror. The third addresses the “core” without putting your back in to said position.  If the rope is available use it, if not move on, or tell the person using it that your exercises are way better than his/hers.  The idea behind the Cable Chop is to train the body to resist rotation.  So, during this move nothing should move except the arms.

1. Attach rope to high position on cable column, grab rope an kneel on the ground.  Kneel tall, shoulders back, chest up.

2. From the tall kneeling position raise arms up towards the cable column, and then pull down to opposite hip.  Nothing moves, but the arms.

3. Watch video of Tony below.  He demonstrates two versions.

4. I need to get a video camera.  Thanks Tony.

Now that you know some new moves,  head to the gym and give ‘em a try. The best idea to insure total control of the rope would be to create a circuit out of the three:

1. Pull Throughs

2. Face Pulls

3. Cable  Chops

Actually you might get some sneers for hogging the rope like that.  Instead, let everyone work in and enjoy that wonderful rope.  If someone is not willing to give it up, just walk away, and go beat up the guy doing curls in the squat rack.