Cutting Some Slack

Lucas Parker has quite the training setup at his house – logs for flipping, a 20’ rope climb, stones for lifting, heavy jugs for carrying, and a sled for pulling. In addition, strung between a large tree and a stake pounded into the ground, is a slackline. While the first 5 implements listed are challenging, the slackline requires a whole new skillset – and one that I am sorely lacking in.

It looks pretty easy when Lucas is on it – he can walk with ease, do 90* turns, pistol squats etc. Not so easy in practice though as I can barely (at the moment) stand on it for a seconds at a time. Of course, this indicates to me that there is a gap in my fitness… and being a bit obsessive about my “CrossFitness”, it was imperative that I pick up my own slackline to fill that gap.

I ordered two direct from Gibbon (THE standard in slacklines) – one for use in the area around my work, and one at home so that I can get a balance fix whenever tempted. All I need are two sturdy trees (or other similar anchor points), a good attitude, and a relatively soft landing area.

Over the next weeks and months, I’ll be setting out to utilize the slackline whenever possible. The primary focus will be to develop a new level of dynamic balance with the secondary goal of having some fun times. With this in mind, slacklining will fit well on my rest days when I need some motion with different characteristics than my usual training activities. It will also be a great way to get outside and enjoy the summer weather.

I’ll write some updates as I go to document my progress, it should be a fun experiment!