Almost any kind of workout will increase your fitness. Doing exercises on an unstable ground offers the advantage that it stabilizes your joints while putting less stress on them. So, slackline workout is great to prevent injuries but also to build up your stability after an injury.
The slackline is an amazing training device. You can do exercises in all kinds of body positions and therefore activate all kinds of different muscles. In comparison to more traditional physio devices like e.g. a wobble board, the slackline offers the advantage that you can easily change its length and tension and therefore always train at your personal limit. This leads to a maximal neuromuscular activation in every slackline workout session. At the same time, slackline fitness exercises are more challenging compared to most traditional devices and is therefore to be recommended to rather fit people.
Find out more about the physiological effects of a slackline training in the following video:
An example of a slackline workout
Pushups are one of the best known workout exercises. They strengthen your triceps, body tension, shoulder and chest muscles. Most people are able to do pushups – at least in a kneeling position. But have you ever tried to do pushups with your hands on a slackline?
Well, give it a try – it will be a fun and efficient slackline exercise.
- Try on a short and tight line.
- Once this works, increase the sage of the slackline to 50cm+.
- Now it’s time to go for 1-2m sag.
Make sure to stay active in the shoulders while doing this exercise.
The uncontrolled shaking
While doing the pushups your arms will start shaking back and forth, especially in the lowest position. These shakes are a neuromuscular reflex. If the arms are too much to the front, the body pulls them back. But the reflex overshoots and therefore a correction move to the other side gets initiated. This one overshoots again, etc.
This reflex is monosynaptic. This means, the signal goes to the spine and directly back to the muscle without a detour via brain. This also means that the reflex cannot be consciously controlled. It simply takes time until the reflex gets some fine-tuning. And while it is shaking, the workout is most intense and efficient. Therefore be happy about the shakes, even though they feel annoying to most people. This reflex also appears when standing on a slackline for the first time. Certainly you can remember how your legs were shaking when you first time stood on the line?!
Slackline Workout: Excercises
Alright, as you now understand, the positive effects of the shakes to increase your joint stability, it is time for a real slackline workout to increase your fitness. Some of the exercises require slackline skills, others do not.
In the following video you can find exercises that will have a huge benefit on your fitness. Try it 3 times within 1 week and you will already feel a huge difference!
This is the training for beginners. If you want to challenge yourself even more, go for this one:
Here we promise you burning muscles after the training. Not enough?! Well, then you’re in damn good shape! Alright, time for the absolute power fitness workout that will get you into the shape of an Olympic athlete…:
And one last one is for slackline-beginners who simply want to improve their handstand power and get ready for a press handstand:
Written By:
SLACKTIVITY Slacklines co-founder, managing partner and team athlete, Samuel Volery olds multiple highline world records (1900m – September 2019) and has a spectacular and versatile style when performing highline-shows.