Workout Wave of the Future

My arms are killing me! I always thought that playing on rope swings was just downright fun, but I never realized it’s a killer workout too. Such are the joys of mistakenly growing up and then fighting your way back to childhood.

I spent the weekend playing at Krauss Springs just west of Austin and finally got up the nerve to play on the swing.

I spent most of Saturday watching little kids scramble up the large rock to jubilantly throw themselves off into oblivion with the help of a worn piece of rope and happily splash into the water, disappear for a seconds, emerge laughing, and then repeat all over again. That should have drawn me straight to this simply divine invention, but the much heavier and much more awkward splashes of folks from my group turned me into a big chicken. Granted folks from my group had indulged in some vodka before hand (never recommended, but I let it slide since Russians were among us and the water was deep) and one was sporting a bandaged wrist, but still…it looked kind of painful. I had visions of myself stepping off the boulder with thoughts of elegance in my head and instead of effortlessly flying through the air before doing a triple double twist back-flip, my lack of arm muscles would leave me slipping down the rope ending in a very un-elegant belly flop.

Thank goodness for Marisa. Sunday before the crowds had gathered to laugh at my rope swinging skills we headed down to the water to give it a go. On her second try (EVER) on a rope swing she pulled off a half back flip into a dive, legs together, toes pointed, beautiful. Thus, she cemented herself forever more as my personal super hero and beacon of hope for all of us heading towards our 30s and beyond.

My skills leave much to be desired, but I did avoid the dreaded sliding belly flop move that I thought I’d become famous for. I compensated for my lack of any recognizable arm muscles by quickly wrapping my legs around the rope, plunking my body weight on a very hard knot, and hanging on for dear life. Luckily I remembered to let go before I smashed back into the rock. I may not have perfected the back dive (yet), but I can do a mean twist and I got the most important skill down…scrambling back up the rock to give it another go, again and again and again.