Abseiling

Abseiling is the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope. Abseiling mainly involves the lower limb muscles When waking down the rock face or pushing off and returning to the rock face there is strong contraction of hip and knee extensor muscles such as gluteus maximus and the quadriceps, ankle plantar flexor muscles such as gastrocnemius and soleus and toe flexor muscles. Shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger muscles are involved in controlling the rope.

During abseiling the body remains straight and is leaning backwards in an almost horizontal position. The anterior muscles of the body have to work against gravity with a sustained isometric contraction. For example the muscles of the anterior cervical spine contract against gravity to maintain the head in the same plane as the rest of body. In addition to head and neck flexion abseiling also requires active thoracic, lumbar and hip flexion.

Abseiling

Weekly stretching program for abseiling
weekly_stretching