How to Use Battle Ropes
Table of Contents
What Are Battle Ropes
Battle ropes are exactly as they sound. They are literal ropes that are used for various exercises to achieve a total body workout. Battle ropes can come in different lengths and thicknesses. Before purchasing a battle rope be sure that you know which type of rope is appropriate for your abilities! Remember that the longer the battle rope is, the more force will be required to move them.
How to Use Battle Ropes
Battle ropes are super simple to use and set up. Once you have your battle rope, find some kind of anchor to place the mid-point of the rope around. This could be a lamppost outside, or around one of the posts of a squat rack. Whatever you use as your anchor, make sure that it will not topple over!
There are also anchor strap kits that you can purchase for your battle rope. These are not necessary to perform the exercise, however, depending on your choice of anchor, they can be useful to help attach the rope to larger immobile objects.
Once you have anchored your battle rope, lay it down on the floor in front of your anchor to ensure that you have enough room to perform the exercise. Hold one end of the rope in each hand and you are ready to perform any battle rope exercise!
About the Battle Ropes
If you’ve ever googled around on the internet and watched a couple or more gym videos, then you’ve probably seen a hunkered-down dude going wild on two long lengths of rope in a training montage, swinging them in all sorts of directions while they pull their meanest “tough guy” face. In fact, battle ropes are not just a common sighting in gym videos, but many movies have also incorporated them in their “becoming a hero” montages, with the clips of the protagonist using battle ropes while some energetic music plays (we’re not quite sure if Rocky did it, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all if he did).
And so, this may lead you to wonder, how exactly is flailing a couple of ropes around going to help me? Ropes are light, they are not heavy like iron, so wouldn’t I be better off just lifting weights and doing crunches?
Well, it turns out battle ropes can help you a whole lot! Although battle ropes (sometimes called battling ropes or heavy ropes) can be considered one of the newer fitness trends that have started to hit gyms from all over the country, the idea and workout itself is are not new. As a matter of fact, battle ropes have been used as a training tool for athletes such as football players and mixed martial artists for a long time now.
Battle ropes were pioneered by strongman John Brookfield who used them in a variety of ways. This resulted in a high-intensity battle ropes workout that’s fairly easy to learn.
What Do Battle Ropes Do
Well, first off, battle ropes are a sure-fire way to give yourself a high-intensity workout that can easily affect your entire body in ways more than one. That’s because unlike the static and repetitive movement of lifting metal weights up and down, using battle ropes gives you a workout that is ever-changing and dynamic in movement, while also letting you know if you’re doing the techniques properly.
And because they’re essentially just ropes, you can basically do anything you want with them! That means that the ropes can be dragged, slammed, or even whipped. However, the most popular technique that’s used with battling ropes is by shaking them up and down simultaneously, causing them to move in waves.
By doing this, you are basically giving your body a full workout, affecting the muscles in your back, glutes, abs, and of course, your arms. To take it even a notch higher, you can even throw in some squats, lunges, and jumps in there too. The versatility of battle ropes will allow you to perform multiple workouts with numerous progressions and variations!
Proper Use and Different Styles on How to Use a Battle Rope
Battle ropes won’t be helping you much if you don’t understand how to use them properly. With battle ropes, it’s important to take in their various lengths and widths, as how thick and long they are will decide how much impact they’ll give on your body. The longer the rope, the more force you need to exert, and the closer you are to its anchor, the more resistance you’ll be making.
Three of the Most Popular Methods You Can Use on Battle Ropes
Battle Rope Slams
Incredibly aggressive, this battle rope method primarily focuses on the force you exert to go down on the ground.
Battle Rope Whip
The battle rope whip is symmetrical and focuses on putting the direction of force towards the rope’s anchor.
Battle Rope Waves
Battle rope waves are an alternating pattern. This is the most common pattern and puts the direction of force towards the anchor simultaneously.
Battle Ropes Hand Grips
When doing the workout, there are also two battle rope handgrips you can utilize, namely the overhand, also called the handshake, and the underhand, which is also called as the microphone.
Battle Ropes at Home
Battle ropes are not just for the gym, they can be used anywhere! If you are going to use battle ropes at home, keep in mind you will need a fair amount of space to perform the exercise as the rope will need to be extended away from the anchor. If you don’t have enough free space at home, (or are worried about scaring the neighbours downstairs) try taking your battle ropes outside to a park! There are many pieces of equipment that you can anchor your battle rope to in a playground, or even the lampposts that line the walkways!
Battle Rope Exercises
There are many battle rope exercises that you can try! We described the most popular battle rope exercises above. Remember that they include the battle rope wave, battle rope whip and battle rope slam.
You can spice up your battle rope exercise by adding in squats, lateral side to side squat, split stance squats and more! Remember that you can change the directions of your hands to provide variety in your battle rope exercise. For example, the rope does not need to move up and down for each exercise, it can also move side to side!
Battle Ropes Workout
There are so many battle rope workouts that you can try. Especially due to the varying intensities that you can perform battle ropes with. We suggest mastering the battle rope wave to start, and then branching out into additional battle rope exercises.
A sample battle rope workout includes,
Battle rope alternating wave
Battle rope jumping power slam
Battle rope squat wave
Battle rope jumping jack wave
Battle rope in and out waves
Perform each exercise for 45 seconds and take a 15 second rest for 5 sets. If this was too easy for you, increase the work time and adjust your rest! If you are just starting out, try 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest.
Benefits of Incorporating Battle Ropes in Your Workout
Versatility
As you can see, battle ropes are versatile in such a way that you can easily train with them anywhere! All you need is some rope and a wide open space, and you’re literally all set. Not only are battle ropes versatile in terms of where you can perform your workout, they are also versatile in the sense that you can perform multiple styles and intensities of workouts.
Helps Develop and Strengthen Mental Stability and Toughness
One of the key attributes to becoming a great athlete is to develop mental toughness, which essentially gives you the push you need to overcome obstacles that are not physical. Your mind is literally in a battlefield during sport and activity, and developing the strength to maintain it will do wonders for you, pushing you to keep going even when your arms are crying for help and your lungs are burning.
Low Impact Training
Another key benefit to using battle ropes is that since all of the stress and force is rendered onto your muscular system, all of your joints experience minimal stress, decreasing the risk of injury. Even though battle ropes have a low impact on your joints, they will still give an insane amount of results if done consistently.
Develops Functional Fitness
Due to the intensity of the actions you have to do to perform it, battle ropes will train your whole body. This means that while you’re slowly getting fit, the benefits you earn from it are also useful. This includes getting a stronger grip, as well as developing a high amount of muscular and cardiovascular endurance, which will help keep you healthy even as you age.
Unilateral Balance
One of the biggest benefits that you can get from battle ropes is unilateral balance, meaning that both sides of your body will move in the same way. Each hand is holding its own rope. So the change of muscular imbalance is reduced.
They’re Fun!
Although not that big of a benefit, simply having fun with a workout you’re doing can go a long way. That’s because simply lifting barbells can get boring, while battle ropes help keep your more engaged.
Final Thoughts on the Battle Ropes
As far back as 3500 B.C., rope has been used by man to help assist in daily activities, and life has improved so much because of it. Nowadays however, its prominence has reached many fields and disciplines, having the ability to help improve a human both physically and mentally.
So what are you waiting for? Get into position, hold that rope firmly, and start blasting away!
