So here's the deal guys, there's gonna be a tug-of-war competition in my school's annual Athletics Day. So, obviously me wanting to win, what sort of routine could I do to build up the strength needed? Will start going to the gym every Friday and I have a set of dumbbells and a pullup bar at home. What kind of exercises could I work into my routine to effectively build up strength in a short amount of time? I have like.. 5 months. Will await your replies

use ur own body weight

push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, chest dips,bench dip.

btw, jus 1 trip to the gym weekly isn't going to help

Since you're competing in a tug-of-war, which is a pulling event, I'd suggest you focus on your back muscles. Do pull ups, barbell/dumbbell rows, etc.

hmmm...i may b wrong...
but i dun think it's advisable to jus focus training on a specific part.
will lead to inbalance n other problems.

chest n back go well together, jus like bicep n tricep.

think of it as a full package

Yes harris is correct. Focus on rows, pulling movements, more to both back and bicep exercises. Training for his school's tug of war competition for Atlethics day won't lead to muscle imbalance. Your legs also got to be planted firmly into the ground for this one. Some squats might be of help.

So I'm thinking of dead lifts, back squats, barbell rows and pull-ups. Watcha think?

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/vid...?v=462024769411

any pulling exercise shown in this video, imo.

LOL! Wonder who's car I'm gonna hijack..

What bout these? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9VYx7ATR8s&feature=channel

Yes they are decent exercises to do. Try also Seated Cable Rows as they kind of simulate the movement, maybe you could change it to the rope handle. Just my opinion.

thx Will take it for a test run tmr.

Law of SAID.

Wonder why no one's suggested this. To get better at tug-of-war, the best thing to do is... tug-of-war.

Tie a rope around a tree and try to pull the tree down, using absolutely all the force you can muster for 10 seconds, then rest 30 seconds, then go again for 10 seconds. Here you'll be developing the exact skill of pulling on a rope, which is not the same as pulling on a barbell. You could also try pulling a car from its front bumper with a rope, if the car were in neutral with someone occasionally tapping the brake. This might be more of a hassle to set up, but would be even better.

The videos posted may have shown something similar to this. They wont load on my laptop so I dont know.

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Added on January 6, 2011, 9:20 pmOh and if you got 4 people on your team or something, you could just split into 2 groups of 2 and tug-of-war against each other. That would give all of you the skill of actually doing it against a human opponent.

This post has been edited by Kasey Brown: Jan 6 2011, 09:20 PM

You beat me to it.

video i posted has the car pulling thing

nice.
if u can't find a tree, try the car...

... cant find a tree?

... IN MALAYSIA???

Dude this island is basically TREES. That's it. The ocean stops for a while and it's TREE TREE TREE for a while before it's ocean again. I'm looking outside now and they're everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!! If trees were guns we'd rule the world. Plus monkeys would repeatedly shoot themselves by accident. They're like "what kind of forest is this anyway all it is is guns!" Never seen a banana growing from a gun. Not unless it were a banana gun! Is that a gun that only shoots bananas? Those bananas better watch out! Oh wait I meant a gun where if you pull the trigger only bananas come out. Monkeys would love that!!! But wait how would we rule the world then? I mean bananas are one thing but you'll need far more than tasty fruit if we're to start running the world. One does not simply WALK into Mordor! I wonder if there's trees in Mordor... probably wouldn't matter. No point in having trees if you cant even walk around. Why cant you walk into Mordor anyway? Is the police tape around the whole thing? Maybe you just need a special pass. Cant go in there unless you have a banana gun... it works like a passport for Mordor. So we can go there whenever we want! They'll even stamp your hand so if you go out you can walk back in. YOU cant walk into Mordor, but we can! We paid the cover charge, AND brought our banana guns!

... what were we talking about again?

ya, u can find trees almost everywhere.
but findin 1 in a proper place to train.

and...west malaysia is not an island

no need to get so excited or jump on any1 who suggest something different or mod ur ideas

This post has been edited by ijnek: Jan 7 2011, 04:47 PM

if you're this free to write this you should be close to replying ken by now

Good Post

Nice try, but I replied to him 3 times already.

Pretending I didn't reply doesn't change that.

I was the asst. manager for my dept's tug-of-war team for 2009. The team has been champion for my ministry's sports carnival for like 3-4 years running & when they go outside to compete they're always up there with the best as well. The coach is from PDRM & was part of the Malaysian coaching team for a while. For my short stint as asst. manager, I was able to see that tug-of-war is actually a highly technical sport, if U rely on brute strength alone, chances are U'll be easily beaten by the more technical team.

Although upper body strength plays a big part, 70% of the training for our team involves lower body & core strength. Most of the movement involved in tug-of-war is lower body movement, not upper body. If U try to pull the rope using Ur hands then Ur making a mighty big mistake. The upper body is used to hold the rope & stabilize the whole team. Movement is achieved by leaning backwards & leg movements.

Focus 60-70% of Ur workout on lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges), 20% on upper body (more if U dun already have a sufficiently strong upper body), then do core & grip exercises like farmers walk. Better still, do strongman workouts (tire flips, sled pull, farmers walk).. Of course U'd have to do exercises with the rope itself, but that shud be done with the whole team, in order to sync Ur movements, etc.

Good luck.

nice try? i wasn't trying to do anything. i aint got no beef with ya kasey, just that posts like that are really sarcastic and annoying. the replies you gave to ken hardly warranted DAYS of research and honestly i was hoping for more. so whos pretending what now?

- Car/heavy sled/heavy tyres pulling with a rope
- Backwards car/heavy sled dragging <--- this is probably as close to tug-of-war as can be.
- deadlifts
- rope pull ups
- rope climbing
- farmer's walk <-- someone suggested it, and it's a good addition.
- tug of war