Your arms are dead by your sides, you are stuffed from all the running let alone the climbing/crawling/pushing/pulling, there is mud coming out of your ears, what is the last thing you want to do right now? Probably climb over a 3 metre high set of walls. Berlin Walls to be exact. How on Earth are you going to overcome this obstacle? Read on and you’ll find out!
Obstacle: Berlin Walls
Objective: Climb up and over the 2 (sometimes more) sets of Berlin Walls, approximately 3 metres tall.
Difficulty: Physical - 9/10 | Mental - 6/10
Just looking up at that first wall can be very daunting. 3 metres looks a lot more like 10 metres when standing right underneath the first wall. And even once you get up and are sitting on top of the obstacle, it is quite scary contemplating jumping down the other side! You need to be mentally strong for this challenge, though not as much as for something like Electric Eel or the likes of those kind of obstacles.
Physically it is a very big obstacle to get over. The walls are more than 1 and a half times the average male. Most people won’t be able to reach the top just from jumping, and it is said on the Tough Mudder website
Objective: Climb up and over the 2 (sometimes more) sets of Berlin Walls, approximately 3 metres tall.
Difficulty: Physical - 9/10 | Mental - 6/10
Just looking up at that first wall can be very daunting. 3 metres looks a lot more like 10 metres when standing right underneath the first wall. And even once you get up and are sitting on top of the obstacle, it is quite scary contemplating jumping down the other side! You need to be mentally strong for this challenge, though not as much as for something like Electric Eel or the likes of those kind of obstacles.
Physically it is a very big obstacle to get over. The walls are more than 1 and a half times the average male. Most people won’t be able to reach the top just from jumping, and it is said on the Tough Mudder website
that 80% of participants need help (camaraderie) getting over these walls! This obstacle is what Tough Mudder is really all about – helping out your fellow Mudders to overcome the obstacle and their fears.
How to Complete: Even though I know I will never be able to pull it off, every time I try a running start, and jump off the wall to reach the top. Sometimes I’ve gotten my fingertips to the top, but have never successfully gotten myself over by myself yet. Yet!
At most of the events, there is a piece of wood jutting out from the wall, an inch or two wide, about half a metre off the ground. This is here to use as a boost to help reach the top. Alternatively, get a mate to give you a boost so that you can reach the top of the wall with both hands. Either step on their shoulder, or in their clasped hands. When you do reach the top, you need to pull yourself up, using your arms and your legs to push off the wall. Swing a leg over the top, and push up as hard as you can until you are sitting on top of the first Berlin Wall.
Now, climbing down the other side is tricky. You could jump straight off, but the 3 metre fall could do quite a bit of damage to your ankles and knees, so is not recommended. The way I find the easiest, and pain free, is while sitting with both legs hanging off the top of the wall, place both hands on one side of your body, fingers facing behind the wall. Slowly, keeping your arms straight, push your body off the wall, so that you are hanging off the edge, with your waist at about the top of the wall. Slowly lower yourself down till you are hanging about a metre off the ground. It is easy to just drop down now, and not very bad for your joints.
If you are really nervous about climbing down, you can lower yourself down, then have a mate standing underneath you, and you can place your feet on their shoulders/hands, and they can help you down. Camaraderie at its best!
Training: This obstacle is a killer. You will need to do quite a bit of training to overcome it easily. The Berlin Walls use a lot of different muscle groups, but especially the upper body muscle groups – arms, chest, and back.
Pull-ups are fantastic for this obstacle. I've said it before, and I'll most likely say it again - buy a pull up bar that fits on your door frame at home. Also none of that wussy chin to bar stuff, I want to see chest to bar. That’s how you get the workout nice deep and strong!
We've worked on the pull, now lets move to the push – push-ups. If you are training for a Tough Mudder, then you obviously are doing many push-ups each week. If you haven't got these in your workout program, then what are you doing? Put them in straight away! Try different varieties of push-ups. Wide grip, narrow grip, diamond grip - there are plenty of options that all workout different parts of your arms and chest.
Dips will also help with this challenge. If you are new to dips, you can start with both arms on the edge of a chair, or your bed, and your feet on the ground. Lower yourself as low as you can, and back up again. Gradually increase this till your feet are level with your hands, and then eventually you can throw some weight plates on your thighs for a killer work out.
For your legs, squat jumps can't hurt your training for the Berlin Walls. They will get your ankles more prepared for the landing when climbing down the walls, and the squats will build up your leg muscles, which will make it easier to push through your legs to boost yourself over the wall.
And finally, what could be better than some real world specific training? Get out of your gym/house, and go climb over your front fence, or find a wall near you and climb up and over it many times.
Our take: After destroying my shoulder back in February, I had to skip this obstacle at the last 2 Mudders this year. I have, however, completed it at both events in 2013.
I like this obstacle. It combines the fear factor, strength and camaraderie – everything that Tough Mudder is really all about. I wasn’t able to climb over unaided unfortunately - I had to get a boost from some mates, but for the remaining Tough Mudder events this year I will be (hopefully) flying over by myself. Just got to make sure I follow the training advice written above!
How to Complete: Even though I know I will never be able to pull it off, every time I try a running start, and jump off the wall to reach the top. Sometimes I’ve gotten my fingertips to the top, but have never successfully gotten myself over by myself yet. Yet!
At most of the events, there is a piece of wood jutting out from the wall, an inch or two wide, about half a metre off the ground. This is here to use as a boost to help reach the top. Alternatively, get a mate to give you a boost so that you can reach the top of the wall with both hands. Either step on their shoulder, or in their clasped hands. When you do reach the top, you need to pull yourself up, using your arms and your legs to push off the wall. Swing a leg over the top, and push up as hard as you can until you are sitting on top of the first Berlin Wall.
Now, climbing down the other side is tricky. You could jump straight off, but the 3 metre fall could do quite a bit of damage to your ankles and knees, so is not recommended. The way I find the easiest, and pain free, is while sitting with both legs hanging off the top of the wall, place both hands on one side of your body, fingers facing behind the wall. Slowly, keeping your arms straight, push your body off the wall, so that you are hanging off the edge, with your waist at about the top of the wall. Slowly lower yourself down till you are hanging about a metre off the ground. It is easy to just drop down now, and not very bad for your joints.
If you are really nervous about climbing down, you can lower yourself down, then have a mate standing underneath you, and you can place your feet on their shoulders/hands, and they can help you down. Camaraderie at its best!
Training: This obstacle is a killer. You will need to do quite a bit of training to overcome it easily. The Berlin Walls use a lot of different muscle groups, but especially the upper body muscle groups – arms, chest, and back.
Pull-ups are fantastic for this obstacle. I've said it before, and I'll most likely say it again - buy a pull up bar that fits on your door frame at home. Also none of that wussy chin to bar stuff, I want to see chest to bar. That’s how you get the workout nice deep and strong!
We've worked on the pull, now lets move to the push – push-ups. If you are training for a Tough Mudder, then you obviously are doing many push-ups each week. If you haven't got these in your workout program, then what are you doing? Put them in straight away! Try different varieties of push-ups. Wide grip, narrow grip, diamond grip - there are plenty of options that all workout different parts of your arms and chest.
Dips will also help with this challenge. If you are new to dips, you can start with both arms on the edge of a chair, or your bed, and your feet on the ground. Lower yourself as low as you can, and back up again. Gradually increase this till your feet are level with your hands, and then eventually you can throw some weight plates on your thighs for a killer work out.
For your legs, squat jumps can't hurt your training for the Berlin Walls. They will get your ankles more prepared for the landing when climbing down the walls, and the squats will build up your leg muscles, which will make it easier to push through your legs to boost yourself over the wall.
And finally, what could be better than some real world specific training? Get out of your gym/house, and go climb over your front fence, or find a wall near you and climb up and over it many times.
Our take: After destroying my shoulder back in February, I had to skip this obstacle at the last 2 Mudders this year. I have, however, completed it at both events in 2013.
I like this obstacle. It combines the fear factor, strength and camaraderie – everything that Tough Mudder is really all about. I wasn’t able to climb over unaided unfortunately - I had to get a boost from some mates, but for the remaining Tough Mudder events this year I will be (hopefully) flying over by myself. Just got to make sure I follow the training advice written above!
How are you with heights? How did you go getting over the Berlin Walls at your last event? Tell us your story on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments down below. We always love hearing from you guys!
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Now drop and give me 10 close grip push-ups, 10 far grip push-ups and 10 diamond push-ups!
#TMTour2014
Also, don't forget to subscribe to the RSS Feed to never miss a post, and check out our Flickr account with loads of on course photos.
Now drop and give me 10 close grip push-ups, 10 far grip push-ups and 10 diamond push-ups!
#TMTour2014