Have you ever walked into a gym and seen a battle rope curled up in the corner and wonder why it is and what are some battle rope exercises you can do? First, it’s another tool in the toolbox when it comes to your conditioning. Second, it is not there to tie you in knots. Ropes were used way back by the Egyptians to pull heavy objects while building the pyramids around 4000 to 3500 BC. Talk about a back-breaking workout.
Then a gentleman named John Brookfield, an acclaimed fitness inventor, and strongman, saw the great potential of these heavy thick ropes and came up with a battle rope system to improve power and conditioning.
Since 2010 Brookfield has taught his system to athletes, professional sports teams, and fitness summits around the world. Now you can get a slice of it here. Battle ropes can give you a high-intensity, low-impact workout and they will challenge your endurance, conditioning, and grip strength all at once.
Here we’ll get into the benefits of battle rope training, five great exercises, and a HIIT workout to have you sweating and smiling in no time.
Benefits of Battle Rope Exercises
Battle ropes offer benefits for people of all fitness levels. They’re simple to set up, simple to use, require minimal instruction, and will raise your heart rate without having to go on these dull cardio machines. Here are some other fantastic benefits of incorporating battle ropes into your training.
- Improved balance and stability: When you’re performing these battle rope exercises, you’re working unilaterally, and your upper and lower body are working overtime to stabilize you to keep both your feet on the ground.
- Low impact, high intensity: Battle ropes are a tool where most of the focus is on your upper and not your lower body. The rhythmic nature of most battle rope exercises raises your heart rate without the joint impact of many other cardiovascular activities.
- Increased grip strength: Gripping the thick battle rope will improve your grip strength because the width and weight of the rope force your forearms and hands to work harder to hold onto the rope.
- Strength & conditioning: Heavy battle rope training is a unique mix of strength and cardiovascular training. Performing these exercises for time and reps with appropriate rest between sets will keep your heart rate elevated during the entire training. And you’ll be training fast twitch muscle fibers which have better strength and muscle-building potential than slow twitch muscle fibers.
Battle Rope Workout Routine
Using the 5 battle rope exercises below you can perform HIIT training at the end of your weight training to improve your conditioning and burn a little fat.
Tabata Training: Take any of the 5 exercises above and perform for 20 seconds with all-out effort and then rest for 10 seconds. Perform 6 to 8 intervals. If you’re doing more than one, rest for two to three minutes before going again.
30/30 Battle Rope Workout
Here you’ll do 30 seconds performing one battle rope exercise, the resting 30 seconds before moving to the next one. Follow this sequence for 10 minutes and then collapse.
- Power Slam 30 seconds
- Rest 30 seconds
- Bilateral wave 30 seconds
- Rest 30 seconds
- Side-To-Side Slam 30 seconds
- Rest 30 seconds
- Alternating Waves With Get-Up 30 seconds
- Rest 30 seconds
- In And Out Wave
- Rest 30 seconds
- Repeat for a total of 2 rounds and 10 minutes
5 Battle Rope Exercises To Improve Your Strength & Conditioning
Here are five simple but not easy battle rope exercise variations to improve your strength and conditioning while saving you from the boredom of the “dreadmill.”
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