# Am I weaker than a 5 year old?



## Trick (25 Jul 2011)

This isn't the place to brag, but I suppose I should preface this with the simple statement that even by military standards, I believe my fitness level is quite high. Anyways, if I don't go to the gym on a given day (or run out of time there) I often run to the local park and do my pull-ups on the monkey bars (ha, at night so as not to be seen as a maniac...). So the other night I figured, hey, for old time's sake, why not just cross the monkey bars!

I could barely cross one gap... It felt as though my weight was ripping my arms right out. Going back yesterday the result wasn't much better. I suppose it's worth noting that this is after doing pull-ups and leg-lifts to exhaustion, but still, it doesn't even feel really like an issue of muscle fatigue, more that my shoulders just can't sustain it. This has actually really been troubling me as I currently have an application in the works and my ability to exempt the Express-Test won't mean anything if I can't even cross the monkey bars at Basic...

Anyone out there ever have similar problems? Ha, and I can't believe I'm asking this: but does anyone have any advice for the monkey bars?


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## Hammer Sandwich (25 Jul 2011)

Trick said:
			
		

> ....does anyone have any advice for the monkey bars?



Bring lots of bananas....and pick the lice of the first chimp-ette you see.

(rimshot)




Sorry....
If you're not used to them monkeybars, the muscles performing the activity aren't going to be used to it either.
just keep trying, and be consistent, and you'll be a monkey-man in no time.

(Or a damn dirty ape)


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## kawa11 (25 Jul 2011)

Trick said:
			
		

> I could barely cross one gap... It felt as though my weight was ripping my arms right out.


Any previous injuries or underlying medical condition?

As for technique, I prefer the hand-over-hand method but if you're having trouble with that...  ???

I'd suggest calling a sports therapist [or something related] and ask them for information on the muscle groups and what might actually be causing difficulty as well as methods to overcome these obstacles without causing injury.


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## AERO2012 (26 Jul 2011)

I thought the following website will help you regain your self confidence. If not, I will give you other tricks.

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How to Climb Monkey Bars

http://www.ehow.com/how_6575386_climb-monkey-bars.html

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Increase your momentum to get across faster by swinging the bottom half of your body, especially your hips, toward the direction that you want to go. Using the force of your whole body will help move you across, without necessarily forcing your arms to do all the work. Continue moving from rung to rung until you reach the opposite side of the monkey bars. If you feel comfortable enough and the height isn't too far from the ground, you can dismount by just letting go of the bars and dropping to the ground. Otherwise, when you get to the last rung, land your feet on the ladder of rungs perpendicular to the ground and, one hand at a time, grab the two vertical support poles on either side of the ladder. Climb down

Read more: How to Climb Monkey Bars | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6575386_climb-monkey-bars.html#ixzz1TELXyf9j


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## lethalLemon (26 Jul 2011)

Why worry about monkey bars when it's not a compulsory piece in order to maintain your service status? If you fail the EXPRES or the Battle Fitness Test, you _can_ be released... among other things that can get you recoursed or cut from BMQ are more your worry - crossing monkey bars on the challenge course at BMQ - is not.


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## darkskye (26 Jul 2011)

lethalLemon said:
			
		

> Why worry about monkey bars when it's not a compulsory piece in order to maintain your service status? If you fail the EXPRES or the Battle Fitness Test, you _can_ be released... among other things that can get you recoursed or cut from BMQ are more your worry - crossing monkey bars on the challenge course at BMQ - is not.



I would still recommend you work on your upper body strength, it never hurts.


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## lethalLemon (27 Jul 2011)

rezz said:
			
		

> I would still recommend you work on your upper body strength, it never hurts.



True


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## aesop081 (27 Jul 2011)

lethalLemon said:
			
		

> Why worry about monkey bars when it's not a compulsory piece in order to maintain your service status?



You haven't done too many obstacle courses i see............. :

There's more to being fit than the EXPRES test and it is not because you have to do X Y Z to keep your job that you shouldn't do W as well.


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## Sigger (27 Jul 2011)

I would suggest you do rotator cuff exercises to strengthen your shoulders and prevent your arms from falling off. I highly suggest it.


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## Trick (29 Jul 2011)

Well, at this point I can cross them well enough (ha, the hand-by-hand way...). The feeling that my arms are getting ripped out by a gorilla seems to be going away as well. I suppose with a little more practice it will be more natural. Still, you can imagine how demoralizing it can be for a man who can do 20+ pullups, 100+ pushups and all that to be defeated by the monkey bars! Even if doing them isn't *mandatory*, I'm applying as an Infantry Officer- the thought of an Infantry Officer not being able to do a children's exercise isn't all too impressive.

Sigger, any recommendations on those rotator cuff exercises? Those would probably be quite useful.


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## lethalLemon (3 Aug 2011)

CDN Aviator said:
			
		

> You haven't done too many obstacle courses i see............. :
> 
> There's more to being fit than the EXPRES test and it is not because you have to do X Y Z to keep your job that you shouldn't do W as well.



No but I had the opportunity to run the RMC Course one year through some friends and family there and several times at one up at CFB Edmonton. I'm not your strongest kid on the block, I'm short and scrawny but I can clear a course no problem (and I have trouble lifting 24kg boxes full of liquor when I go to work every night).


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## aesop081 (3 Aug 2011)

lethalLemon said:
			
		

> No but I had the opportunity to run the RMC Course one year through some friends and family there and several times at one up at CFB Edmonton. I'm not your strongest kid on the block, I'm short and scrawny but I can clear a course no problem (and I have trouble lifting 24kg boxes full of liquor when I go to work every night).



This has nothing to do with your comment. For reference, here is what you said :



> Why worry about monkey bars when it's not a compulsory piece in order to maintain your service status?



What is compulsory is what is *tested*. An individual should very much work other areas of fitness in order to be fit for the job. Doing the minimum ( what is compulsory) gets you exactly that in return, the minimum. "Minimum soldiers" don't get anywhere.

Not too long ago, in a land, far, far away, called CFB Chilliwack, there was an outdoor concrete gym. This gym had a set of monkey bars that, while not required to "maintain your service status", would attract you enough staff attention if you were unsuccessful, to make you request to have your "service status" terminated.


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## lethalLemon (3 Aug 2011)

CDN Aviator said:
			
		

> This has nothing to do with your comment. For reference, here is what you said :
> 
> What is compulsory is what is *tested*. An individual should very much work other areas of fitness in order to be fit for the job. Doing the minimum ( what is compulsory) gets you exactly that in return, the minimum. "Minimum soldiers" don't get anywhere.
> 
> Not too long ago, in a land, far, far away, called CFB Chilliwack, there was an outdoor concrete gym. This gym had a set of monkey bars that, while not required to "maintain your service status", would attract you enough staff attention if you were unsuccessful, to make you request to have your "service status" terminated.



Okay, but that was then. It has everything to do with it as you replied with:



> CDN Aviator said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## aesop081 (3 Aug 2011)

lethalLemon said:
			
		

> Okay, but that was then.



Don't worry kid, reality is going to hit you in the face soon enough.


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## lethalLemon (3 Aug 2011)

CDN Aviator said:
			
		

> Don't worry kid, reality is going to hit you in the face soon enough.



Good, I hope it does, I love learning and expanding my mind.


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## AERO2012 (4 Aug 2011)

lethalLemon said:
			
		

> Good, I hope it does, I love learning and expanding my mind.



My knowledge in Neuroscience is somewhat limited but I can say, with complete confidence, that your brain is functioning according to the _Garbage In, Garbage Out _ principle.


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## Sigger (4 Aug 2011)

Trick said:
			
		

> Sigger, any recommendations on those rotator cuff exercises? Those would probably be quite useful.



I was given these same exercises from Base physio: http://www.aafp.org/afp/980215ap/980215a.html

Before I went to basic trg I trained for pushups chin-ups and running. However I did not strengthen my rotator cuff muscles, so I hurt my shoulders with all the pushups I was doing during my stay at the Mega. Ironically I injured them navigating monkey bars at the obstacle confidence course in Borden. 

That is why I suggest these exercises.


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## Canadianflesh (5 Aug 2011)

Sigger said:
			
		

> I was given these same exercises from Base physio: http://www.aafp.org/afp/980215ap/980215a.html
> 
> Before I went to basic trg I trained for pushups chin-ups and running. However I did not strengthen my rotator cuff muscles, so I hurt my shoulders with all the pushups I was doing during my stay at the Mega. Ironically I injured them navigating monkey bars at the obstacle confidence course in Borden.
> 
> That is why I suggest these exercises.


Thank-you for the rotator cups exercises. I noticed that I have gotten some weird sharp pains in my shoulders after doing my push-up and pull-up workouts. I always wondered what I was getting the pains from, even though it does not affect my ability to do my workouts.


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## Nemo888 (5 Aug 2011)

We have these offset 30° horizontal free spinning wheel monkey bars at our neighborhood park. They are painful to the point of cruelty and I climb like a monkey. I can grab a rope in each hand and climb to the top.


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## Sigger (5 Aug 2011)

Canadianflesh said:
			
		

> I noticed that I have gotten some weird sharp pains in my shoulders after doing my push-up and pull-up workouts.



Take note that my suggestion does not take the place of a specialist. If you have pain in your shoulders after a work out, it would be a good idea to have them looked at before it gets worse.


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## Romanmaz (5 Aug 2011)

Trick said:
			
		

> This isn't the place to brag, but I suppose I should preface this with the simple statement that even by military standards, I believe my fitness level is quite high. Anyways, if I don't go to the gym on a given day (or run out of time there) I often run to the local park and do my pull-ups on the monkey bars (ha, at night so as not to be seen as a maniac...). So the other night I figured, hey, for old time's sake, why not just cross the monkey bars!
> 
> I could barely cross one gap... It felt as though my weight was ripping my arms right out. Going back yesterday the result wasn't much better. I suppose it's worth noting that this is after doing pull-ups and leg-lifts to exhaustion, but still, it doesn't even feel really like an issue of muscle fatigue, more that my shoulders just can't sustain it. This has actually really been troubling me as I currently have an application in the works and my ability to exempt the Express-Test won't mean anything if I can't even cross the monkey bars at Basic...
> 
> Anyone out there ever have similar problems? Ha, and I can't believe I'm asking this: but does anyone have any advice for the monkey bars?


I'm just going to toss this out there. Are you keeping your elbows locked out when you're crossing the monkey bars?  Have you ever tried keeping a slight bend in your elbows to take some stress off your shoulder joint and transfer it to your biceps/lats? If you can seriously do 20 proper pullups then you should have the proper endurance necessary to do this. Obviously you should still strengthen your rotator cuff muscles, although, I'd recommend cables or a band instead of the exercises linked above as they will keep constant tension throughout the movement. :2c:


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## Sigger (8 Aug 2011)

Romanmaz said:
			
		

> I'd recommend cables or a band instead of the exercises linked above as they will keep constant tension throughout the movement. :2c:



Agreed. I forgot about the physio elastic. I did find better results with that.


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## FlyingDutchman (8 Sep 2011)

If you do them slow, they can be quite hard, but fast where you are barely holding on while swinging you might have it easier.  5 year olds are lighter, and are more flexible then the slightly above average person, which helps.  My five year old can do them, but for some reason he can't do a push up to save his life.  (I'm not making him do them, he was imitating me.)


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## Biggoals2bdone (10 Sep 2011)

I have to ask since I RARELY see people do chin-ups and push-ups properly, and logically by you being able to do 20+ chin-ups your body should be used to holding your weight.  Are you doing full dead hang pull ups, by full I mean full arm extension (aka ARMS STRAIGHT, then bar to chin or chest)


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## FoverF (10 Sep 2011)

Funny you should mention that...

I just so happened to discover the very same thing by chance today.

And I also have no (or very little) problem doing 20 full extension chin-ups, or rope-climbing, etc, so I was actually quite surprised... and embarrased... my wife was watching...

But I very quickly discovered what Romanmaz said.

Just bend your arms a bit (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees), and then you can carry on as you would have when you were 5 years old. 

It's still easy to do monkey bars, you just can't hang limp from one hand and swing around anymore without risking injuring your shoulder.


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## jklaus (16 Feb 2012)

Trick said:
			
		

> This isn't the place to brag, but I suppose I should preface this with the simple statement that even by military standards, I believe my fitness level is quite high. Anyways, if I don't go to the gym on a given day (or run out of time there) I often run to the local park and do my pull-ups on the monkey bars (ha, at night so as not to be seen as a maniac...). So the other night I figured, hey, for old time's sake, why not just cross the monkey bars!
> 
> I could barely cross one gap... It felt as though my weight was ripping my arms right out.



you make it sound like your in great shape, and sound like a gym fanatic.
monkey bars being your defeat sounds a little odd,
if you can do 100+ push ups (assuming they are good military form, straight arm extension) & chin ups, I don't see how you would not notice if there was any pre-existing rotator cuff injuries... 
my first piece of advice is *ask you'r doctor!* tell him about the discomfort and pain, he will know more than anyone here (no offense to anyone here, haha!)
2nd. start doing forward grip chinups with PROPER form, ( if you already are, excellent! ) this is the best grip to cross any monkey bar.

the pain in your shoulders is most likely a deltoid or rotator cuff injury, but it could also be from improper training such as not fully extending on your chin ups. tips on the monkey bar is keep your arms at a slight bend, get a small swing in your body going, and twist the hips while reaching for then next bar. (the small bend in your arms will ensure you are not hanging the weight of your body on your unflexed shoulders (bad bad), the swing will create forward momentum, and the hip twist will 1. bring your shoulder closer to the next bar making your reaching distance shorter 2. ensure that your arm will be swinging out to the side of your body not backwards. your shoulders are not meant to rotate past the top of your head, especially not while holding weight.)

again, when i train with friends and family i can't stress enough. Form is EVERYTHING, watching kids in my Police classes who claimed they could do ridiculous amounts of push ups try to complete even 20 pushups is just painful, you can't help but feel for the guys who train the wrong way and are never told proper form.

P.S in no way am I assuming you are not doing proper form, I hope you are training to the best of your ability's and what ever is causing the pain subsides and you are able to achieve your goal! 

For rotator cuff injuries this video helped me ALOT when I injured mine in the gym
-   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgEmJdDQzg

Best of luck to you in the future, 
Bye for now!

-Justin


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