The Hongkonger, 57, who’s learned to do handstands and wants to climb a rope
Age is no obstacle for Terry Shipham, a deskbound former runner who sets himself a new physical challenge every year
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – but don’t try and tell that to Terry Shipham. Aged 57, he’s been learning a new bodyweight skill every year for the past three years. First it was a handstand, next it was a “muscle-up” (transitioning from a pull-up to a tricep dip in one fluid movement), and in the Year of the Monkey his target is particularly fitting: he’s learning to climb a rope using only his arms.
“The goal is to climb hand-over-hand up to the ceiling from a sitting position and then to come down in a controlled way – as in, not sliding. It’s much harder than I thought it would be, and I have a long way to go,” says Shipham, originally from Australia.
“Training to climb a rope with my hands is tough and provides many indirect benefits: my grip, forearms, chest, back and shoulders are all activated differently than in traditional strength training, and my posture has also improved.”
He selected the challenge together with personal trainer Jay Horley and works on it for an hour each Saturday morning at Raw Personal Training Studio in Central.
“After muscle-ups, I felt it was a logical next step in strength and conditioning. And, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to climb a rope?” says Shipham.
