Slacklining offers a number of benefits including the fact that it’s a fun activity that can be done indoors or outdoors. It works a number of core muscles and challenges your focus and concentration. It can be made more challenging by increasing the length of the slackline and with tricks that you can perform.
What is the point of slacklining and what sort of benefits can be derived? Let’s take a closer look!
What is the point of slacklining?
Slacklining is effectively a modified version of tightrope walking where the slackline is flexible but tightly fastened with some slack (hence the name) to balance on. Incorporating various muscles and mental acuity, it’s a fun but challenging activity that works both your body and brain.
While mostly done outdoors, slacklining can also be indoors so you have a choice. Setting up a slackline outside between two trees or other solid objects is the popular option. Regardless of your choice, slacklining is both a mental and physical workout in the following ways:
1. Concentration
Slacklining involves both a physical and mental workout. In particular it requires you to concentrate and pay attention to your body placement on the line and the ultimate goal which is reaching the end of the slackline.
Slacklining is somewhat similar to tightroping but is often considered more difficult due to the give – the slackness – of the slackline. Whereas a tightrope is tightly fastened and snug, a slackline will sag when you stand on it and since there is more give, requires a great deal of concentration and focus.
2. Balance
Once you are on the slackline, balance is a key skill that you will need to use throughout your journey to the end of the line. While balancing on the slackline is one of the skills that you will need to master right away, it may take some time which is why using a top line can help.
A top line is one that comes with many beginner slacklining sets and is set up over your head to hold onto for balance as you learn. Some people are against the use of a top line and feel you should go without one and simply take the falls off the line that are going to come when you are learning. Other people will benefit from the use of a top line to get their balance and then stop using it when they feel comfortable.
At the end of the day, people learn differently and have varying levels of balance, skill and motivation. If it’s taking you longer to learn how to balance on a slackline than you’d like and you don’t want to use a top line, practice with a partner who can help you climb on the line and steady you when needed.
3. Core muscles
Your core muscles are organized into two main groups:
Major core muscles: Pelvic floor muscles, transverses abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae and the diaphragm.
Minor core muscles: Latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus and trapezius.
You can see that your core muscles are therefore much more than just your abs. Many of these muscles are hidden from view but can be trained nonetheless during various exercises and movements. Popular exercises to work core muscles include the plank, situps, leg raises and the crunch among others.
Our major and minor core muscles help to stabilize our spine and must work together in unison to provide the necessary support. Slacklining calls on our core muscles and helps to activate them. If you suffer from lower back pain, poor posture, bad balance and find it difficult to stand for long periods of time, these are all symptoms of weak core muscles. Balancing on a slackline will help to activate these muscles and strengthen them over time.
Doing some of the above-mentioned exercises can also be used to strengthen your core while you’re learning how to slackline.
4. Quadriceps recruitment
The quadriceps are four muscles in the legs and are among the strongest muscles in your body. Slacklining is increasingly seen as a method of working quadriceps muscles particularly ones that have been weakened in a variety of ways including knee or hip injury, stroke and MS.
Research from Australia shows that slacklining is a positive way of recruiting the quadriceps at a significant level but in a way that makes the person feel they aren’t exerting much effort. This is particularly important in the case of people who are working their way back to health and are afraid of overexerting themselves and perhaps feeling like they may hurt themselves again.
5. Posture control and improvement
Slacklining forces you to become very aware of your posture and how you stand. Over time you will build more control over your posture as you learn how to balance and can improve the way you stand. Research has shown that while the first attempts at slacklining can be difficult due to the swing of the supporting leg, practice can reduce these vibrations leading to better postural control.
If you tend to lead with your head and lean forward when you stand or walk, it can cause neck and back problems over time. The nature of slacklining forces you to stand more upright to balance yourself and you will naturally have to compensate by pulling your head back, thus improving your posture.
One of the first things you’ll notice when slacklining is the initial difficulty you’ll likely experience when climbing on the line for the first time. Slacklining sway and feet shaking is a phenomenon that you will undoubtedly experience. This is when you put your lead foot on the slackline for the first few times (or more) and the swaying and shaking of the line makes it difficult if not impossible for you to climb onto.
This is a normal reaction and may take some practice before you can get your balance. You can help your cause by using a top line which is a securely fastened line above your head that you can hold onto to keep your balance. Think of it as temporary training wheels but for slacklining.
If the alternative is getting frustrated and giving up slacklining, it’s a smart way to get started. Then once you’ve gotten comfortable, you can lose the top line and balance yourself.
Further thoughts
Slacklining is also increasingly being used as a method of rehab and therapeutic exercise. A slackline setup even indoors is relatively easy for a physiotherapist, chiropractor or sports physician and for the patient, it’s a low impact way to incorporate a number of muscles to illicit an integration of sensory input and neuromuscular response.
Slacklining can also be used for injury prevention by improving a person’s posture, improving the muscle coordination and strengthening muscles.
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