If your local gym has a battle rope, chances are it is probably just gathering dust in the corner. But this ingenious fitness gear could help you lose belly fat, get stronger, fitter, healthier, improve conditioning and target every muscle on your body.
While swinging ropes up and down may sound easy, these ropes are different from what you can get at a home retailer. They are thicker, heavier, and longer, which makes them perfect for your next workout.
What Makes the Battle Rope Unique?
Battle ropes, also referred to as heavy ropes, are fitness training equipment that unfortunately does not get used very often. You can adapt drills and exercises to your workout routine and get the most out of it.
These ropes come in different width, weights and lengths.
- Length: 30, 40, or 50 feet (0.9, 1.2, or 1.5 metre)
- Thickness: 1.5, 2, or 2.5 inches (3.8, 5, or 6.3 centimetre)
- Weight: 16-29 pounds (7.2 to 13 kilos)
If you are considering getting a battle rope for your home gym, remember that the rope needs to be anchored in the middle. This way, a 50-feet rope becomes a 25-feet rope in each hand, so you will need around 30 feet of space to use it safely.
How to Begin Working Out With A Battle Rope?
As mentioned earlier, you want to make sure your battle rope is anchored at the middle point, so that the length of the rope on each hand is the same.
Note: you don’t need to permanently anchor your rope to a place. You can use a kettlebell or some other fitness gear to hold the rope in place, but make sure it is heavy enough that it will not move around while you are performing the exercises.
Before beginning any battle rope workout, you need to tighten the rope to its maximum. Hold both ends of the rope on your hands and walk backwards until the rope is tight. Then take one step forward to loosen up the rope. This should be the starting position for most exercises.
Positioning is also important when using this equipment. Unless written otherwise, your feet should be shoulder-width, knees slightly bent, and with a slight forward lean.
Battle Rope Exercises for Beginners
Double Wave
Single-Arm Wave
Slams
Side to Side Waves
Circles
How Long Should Your Battle Rope Workout Last?
Exercises with the rope should not take too long. For most cases, an exercise should be done for a maximum of 30 seconds with at least one-minute rest – if you are a beginner, you should rest longer.
However, if you are doing a specific workout, for example, to burn fat of HIIT located at the bottom of the page, you will have less time to rest between exercises.
Muscles Worked
The beauty of using battle rope workouts for your training routine is that you can adapt it to target a specific muscle group that you want. Primarily, as you will be holding the rope with your hands, the battle rope is an upper body exercise, but you can use it to target your core, lower body and even increase your endurance.
Benefits of The Battle Rope
Explosive Power
Using this fitness gear will increase the amount of power your body can produce in a short amount of time. This will translate well to other sports that require explosiveness such as basketball, soccer or running.
Full Body Workout
You can use the rope to target any muscle group in your body. Jumping jacks will work on your conditioning, Russian twists will target your abs, lunges will hit your legs. These are some exercises that you can perform with a battle rope.
Improve Coordination and Stability
Usually, you will be working your arms independently so it is your core, glutes and legs job to make sure you are stable to perform the correct movements.
Lose Weight AND Build Muscle
Battle ropes are a strength-based and cardiovascular exercise, meaning you will build muscle while burning calories.
It can vary how many calories you burn depending on which exercise you choose to do and how hard you work for it. Simple single-arm waves can burn up to 10 calories per minute, which puts it on the list of top calorie-burning exercises.
Efficient Workouts
In order to get the most out of your workouts with this equipment, you don’t need to spend hours in the gym. For the most part, a training routine would last no more than 10 minutes.
Perfect for HIIT
High-intensity training interval demands that you do 100% of what you are capable of all the time with little rest in between.
A normal HIIT workout is already difficult in itself, but add battle ropes to the equation and you will feel like a train ran over you. Your metabolism will skyrocket.
High Intensity, Low Impact
Although extremely demanding on your muscles, battle rope drills are easy on your joints so you will reap the rewards of building muscle without risking injuries.
Advanced Battle Rope Exercises
There are numerous variations of battle rope exercises. The beginner options you’ve seen before can all be done while kneeling down, which already changes the muscle group you are targeting.
Check out a few more exercises if you want to increase the difficulty of your battle rope game.
Battle Rope Workouts
Fat Burning Workout
- 3 rounds
- 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
- Single-arm wave
- Double wave
- Shoulder circles
- Side to side wave
Conditioning Workout
- 6 rounds
- 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
- Jump slam
- Single-arm alternating wave with squat
- Alternating wave with side lunges
- Circles
- Low to high chop
- Kneel-to-stand wave
- Rest 2 minutes before doing the next round
Perform each exercise once and rest 2 minutes after the kneel-to-stand wave exercise. Repeat 5 times.
HIIT Workout
- 3 rounds
- 45 seconds on, 15 seconds off
- Plank alternating slam
- Battle rope Russian Twist
- Rainbow slam
Lower Body Workout
- 3 rounds
- 20 seconds on, 30 seconds off
- Alternating waves with squat
- Alternating waves with reverse lunges
- Alternating waves with side step
- Alternating waves with Cossack squat
- Arm waves with squat jumps
Upper Body Workout
As many reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
- 10 push-ups
- 20 side to side waves
- 10 thrusters
Full Body Workout
- 4 rounds
- 35-40 seconds on, 30 seconds off
- Alternating waves
- Jumping double wave
- Bent-over fly
- Jumping jack waves
- Burpee to double wave*
- Standing Russian twists
* For the burpees, you should begin with 5 double waves and one burpee, followed by 4 double waves and 1 burpee all the way down. Then begin ascending again one double wave at a time until you do 5 double waves.
Read More: 8 Important Yet Neglected Muscles and How to Strengthen Them
image sources
- Pro Battle Rope: Scott Webb / Unsplash
