Have you ever walked into a gym and seen a battle rope coiled up in the corner and wondered why that 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 down. The ropes were used a long time ago by the egyptians to pull heavy objects while building the pyramids around 4000 to 3500 BC. talk about a exhausting workout.
Then a gentleman named John Brookfield, an acclaimed fitness inventor and strongman, saw the great potential of these thick, heavy ropes and devised a battle rope system for improve power and conditioning.
Since 2010, Brookfield has taught its 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 will challenge your endurance, conditioning and grip strength suddenly.
Here we’ll cover the benefits of battle rope training, five great exercises, and a HIIT workout to get you sweating and smiling in no time.
Benefits of Battle Rope Exercises
Battle ropes offer benefits for people of all fitness levels. They’re easy to set up, easy to use, require minimal instruction, and will get your heart rate up without having to use these boring cardio machines. Here are some other fantastic benefits of incorporating battle ropes into your training.
- Improved balance and stability: When you perform these battle rope exercises, you’re working unilaterally, with your upper and lower body working overtime to stabilize you and keep both feet on the ground.
- Low impact, high intensity: Battle ropes are a tool where most of the focus is on the upper body and not the lower body. The rhythmic nature of most battle rope exercises gets your heart rate up without the conjoined impact of many other cardio activities.
- Increased grip strength: Grasping the thick battle rope will improve your grip strength because the width and weight of the rope forces your forearms and hands to work harder to hold onto the rope.
- Strength and Conditioning: Heavy Battle Rope Training is a unique combination of cardio and strength training. Performing these exercises for time and reps with adequate rest between sets will keep your heart rate elevated throughout your workout. And you’ll be training fast-twitch muscle fibers that 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 do a HIIT workout at the end of your weight training to improve your conditioning and burn some fat.
Tabata Workout: Do any of the 5 exercises above and perform for 20 seconds at maximum effort and then rest for 10 seconds. Perform 6 to 8 intervals. If you are doing more than one, rest for two to three minutes before doing it again.
Battle Rope Training 30/30
Here you will do 30 seconds performing a battle rope exercise, resting 30 seconds before moving on to the next one. Follow this sequence for 10 minutes and then collapse.
- power blow 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
- two-sided wave 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
- side to side hit 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
- Alternate Waves with Get-Up 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
- wave in and out
- rest 30 seconds
- Repeat for a total of 2 rounds and 10 minutes.
5 Battle Rope Exercises to Improve Your Strength and Conditioning
Here are five simple but not easy battle rope exercise variations to improve your strength and conditioning while saving you from “treadmill” boredom.
