The cargo net looks like a free pass. Compared to the rope climb, the atlas stone carry, or the rig, it doesn’t feel like it should demand much technical thought. You grab it, you go up, you go over, you come down. Done.
Except it isn’t done — not cleanly, not quickly, not without burning more energy than necessary. The athletes who move through cargo nets efficiently know something most people don’t: this obstacle has a technique, and learning it separates the people who flow over it from the people who fight it.
Why the Cargo Net Slows People Down
The cargo net is deceptive because it responds to brute force just well enough to mask inefficiency. You can muscle your way up a net — most people do — and you’ll get over it. But you’ll arrive at the top with your forearms taxed, your heart rate elevated, and your momentum spent. Late in a long race, when you’re already managing fatigue across a dozen other obstacles, that inefficiency compounds.
The two most common mistakes are both rooted in misunderstanding how the net moves. First: athletes grip the squares of netting with their hands and pull. The net responds by swaying, bunching, and creating an unstable surface that requires constant muscular correction. Second: athletes try to climb fast by cycling their legs quickly in short steps, which concentrates weight onto a small section of net and amplifies the sway problem.
Both errors share the same root cause — treating the cargo net like a ladder instead of what it actually is.
Feet First, Always
The most important technical shift in cargo net climbing is this: drive through the feet, not the hands.
Think of the net as a wall you’re walking up, with your hands providing balance and direction rather than propulsion. Each foot placement should be deliberate — step through the square of netting so the rope sits across the ball of your foot or mid-foot, not the toe. This distributes your body weight more broadly, stabilizes the net beneath you, and allows your legs to do the work they’re built for.
Your hands, meanwhile, hold the vertical rope strands — not the horizontal cross-rope squares — at shoulder height or slightly higher. This keeps your center of mass stable and prevents the forward lean that causes the swinging and bunching that slows so many athletes down.
The movement pattern this produces looks almost like stair-climbing: weight in the feet, body upright, hands moving forward to maintain position. It’s slower-looking than the aggressive scramble most athletes instinctively attempt, but it’s consistently faster in practice — and dramatically more energy-efficient.
Reading the Net Before You Touch It
Not all cargo nets are built the same. Race organizers use different square sizes, rope diameters, and tensioning setups. A loose, heavily loaded net in a open-wave event behaves differently than a fresh, tightly rigged net early in a competitive heat. Taking three seconds at the base to assess the net before you commit to a line pays dividends.
Look for the anchor points — typically every four to six feet along the sides. The net is most stable near the anchors and most likely to swing or bag out in the center. If you have a choice, climb toward an anchor line rather than up the middle. The stability difference is significant, especially on wider nets.
Also note how the net is hung at the top. Some nets roll over a bar and angle back down on the descent side. Others crest over a ridge beam that you physically step over. Knowing which you’re dealing with before you arrive at the top prevents the hesitation — and the wasted energy — that comes with figuring it out in the moment.
The Transition at the Top
The crest of the cargo net is where the most time and energy is lost in competitive fields. Athletes who’ve climbed efficiently often go conservative here, slowing to manage the transition from vertical climbing to the descent. Some stop almost entirely to assess.
The faster approach — once you’ve done it a few times and understand the net’s behavior at the top — is to maintain forward momentum through the crest rather than stopping at it. As you approach the top, shift your hands from the vertical strands to the top rail or anchor rope. Swing one leg over and immediately commit your weight to the descent side, keeping your hands high until your feet have re-established contact with the net below the crest.
The descent itself should mirror the ascent: feet driving the movement, hands maintaining position, no rushing. The temptation to lean back and drop fast is real, but a controlled three-second descent beats a sloppy two-second descent that ends in a twisted ankle or lost footing at the base.
Training the Pattern Off-Course
Most athletes don’t have a cargo net in their training environment, which means training for this obstacle requires some translation. The physical demands of efficient net climbing are straightforward to replicate: leg drive, grip endurance, positional stability, and the ability to maintain a vertical body position while climbing.
Stair climbing with deliberate foot placement and minimal hand assistance builds the leg drive and body position. Rock climbing — bouldering specifically — develops the foot-weight distribution habit faster than almost anything else, because poor foot placement on a climbing wall is immediately and unambiguously punished. Pull-up variations and dead hangs build the grip endurance needed to hold position on the net without muscling every movement.
The one gap no gym exercise fully closes is the instability variable — the net’s movement underfoot. If you can find a cargo net to practice on, even once before your target race, the tactile experience of managing a swaying surface is worth more than any number of simulation sessions. Some training facilities and military fitness parks include cargo nets. Look for them.
A Note on Competitive Versus Open Wave Strategy
The technique described here is optimized for efficiency and consistency across the full duration of a race — it’s designed to get you over the net without spending more than you need to. In a competitive wave, there’s a secondary layer: if you’re in a pack, the cargo net is an overtaking opportunity that most athletes leave on the table.
Athletes who climb the sides near anchors rather than the congested center can gain three to five positions on a busy net without any additional effort — just by taking the line nobody else chose. In elite heats where positions are tight and obstacles are bunching competitors, that’s meaningful. It requires knowing the technique well enough to execute it at race pace without thinking about it.
Which brings the whole conversation back to where it starts: the cargo net doesn’t reward strength. It rewards preparation. The athletes who’ve thought about it before race day are the ones flowing over it while everyone else fights it.
The Bottom Line
Cargo net climbing is one of OCR’s more underestimated obstacles — not because it’s secretly brutal, but because the gap between doing it wrong and doing it right is wider than it looks. The technique is learnable, the training transfers are accessible, and the time and energy savings are real across a full race course.
Feet drive the movement. Hands maintain position. Stay near the anchors. Commit through the crest. Come down controlled. It’s not complicated. But it’s also not instinctive — and in a sport where every obstacle is a chance to either burn your reserves or bank them, that distinction is worth the work.
This article was researched with the help of AI tools and reviewed and edited by Hilton Campbell. Original reporting and quotes are our own.