Brian’s little brother, Eric, is kind of a badass when it comes to hidden workouts. He’s an eagle scout who has been pretty into backpacking for a while now and gets his jollies off of “being prepared” for whatever in the wilderness. A couple of years ago he followed Brian’s footsteps and entered the indoor climbing scene. Since then he’s developed (along with gigantic shoulders) interest in a lot of the outdoor “alternative” activities that tend to be popular in the climbing community. I got to reap the benefits of his explorations over the holiday weekend in the form of a free slacklining lesson.
Slacklining, for those of you who don’t frequent climbing gyms, hippie music festivals or alternative fitness demonstrations, is kind of like tightrope walking with hairy armpits. Typically the slack line is strung between two trees, giving the activity kind of an earthy feel—especially when those trees are in a lightly forested area of Lake Tahoe. Here's Eric giving a demonstration of how it should be done:
As a rookie, you’ll see that my slacklining attempts are short lived and heavily assisted, so it’s a good thing I didn’t try to be like this guy and set my rope up a billion feet off the ground.
Teetering on the edge of disaster
Slacklining is SUPERFUN!
I know it looks like I’m not doing much in my pictures, but believe it or not, the next day my legs were ridiculously shaky. My quads were sore in what felt like a really similar region to where I usually ache after a day of skiing. I didn’t commit to a very long slacklining session, but Eric swears when you do the pain in your legs is most definitely rivaled by a burning core which is easy to believe since your body is in a constant state of micro-adjustment while on the slackline. I was impressed that only about 30 minutes of this slacklining business was able to give me such a decent workout, especially since I was laughing half the time!
The downside to the slacklining workout? Well, it was pretty hard on my knees. As any of my clients will tell you, I’m not a fan of putting knees in an acute angle and the whole “mounting” process necessary to get on the slackline without someone holding your hands makes that a requirement. Because you’re only lifting your own body weight, it’s not too heinous of a request, but it does create a bit of wear and tear and my knees definitely felt the strain after I’d done my long run the next day. Take home message? Give your knees some time to recover when you’re new at slacklining before you dive into other activities that are demanding to that joint.
The second drawback is actually correctable with some foresight. Because we all have a “happy” side, or a arm/leg that has better balance and coordination, it is easy to favor half of your body when doing a challenging, task-based workout (in this case, the task is don’t fall on your face). This can create unbalanced results. The temptation to keep trying to mount the slackline on your “happy” side is pretty intense, especially when you feel yourself getting “so close!” to getting it right. If you’re using slacklining as a method of conditioning, count and time your attempts to make sure your right and left sides get equal time in the limelight. You may see slower progress initially, but in the long run your joints will thank you and you may even end up more skilled than your less ambidextrous slacklining friends!
Finally, be careful when you slackline. I was lucky enough to have someone who was practiced enough to know how to keep me from killing myself. Try to find a veteran who is willing to give you some hands (or foot!) on tips, and when you fall, avoid catching your feet on the slackline and rolling down a hill face first into your mountain cabin. (Yes, Brian, that was for you.)
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