Heavy rope training (or rope battling) was developed for combat sports like mixed martial arts and football, but it has been making its way into even the most basic of gyms and can be used as a powerful tool in your workout. Using a heavy rope for training is a great way to shake up your current routine and test the muscles in a different way that can push you right through any plateaus you might be dealing with.
Not only can training with a heavy rope increase your strength, endurance, and power, but it can also raise your heart rate really quickly so you can actually get a pretty great workout doing it. Many gyms these days have heavy ropes that you can use, but you can also create your own setup right in your yard with some rope and a tree or other secure item like a pole. The best type of rope to use in manila rope which is strong and durable. You can also have a person hold the rope in the center if they are strong enough to withstand the workout you’ll be doing with it.
As for the workouts you can do with the rope, most of these will focus on the arms, shoulders, back, and abs, but really they will work the entire body. All of the different exercises that you can do will involve swinging your arms in some manner, whether it’s whipping the rope up and down or swinging it side to side.
This workout can be a lot more challenging than it sounds so don’t be surprised if you need to work up to the interval lengths that you want to accomplish. Start by doing three different sets of 30 second intervals with 45 seconds of rest in between each, and then you can build from there.
One exercise that you can do is called the wave, where you do an up and down motion with both arms at the same time which will create a wave like formation in the rope. The alternating wave is the same idea but with alternating which arm is up at any given time. The slam involves pulling both sides of the rope up above the head and then slamming them both down with full force onto the ground.
This can also be done with alternating arms with a little more coordination. With the grappler throw you will pivot your body side to side as you throw the ropes down which should create some sort of a wave movement and really works the core. The around the world is another move where you create big circles with both ends of the rope at the same time.
With any exercise pay attention to the signs that your body is giving you and don’t do anything that might risk injury.
I’ve seen people do this looks so tough
Seems like a really powerful way to work the body, I’m going to give this a go if I can set it up in my yard
I’m sort of surprised that a rope can give you that good of a workout but I guess that makes sense with the force or whatever
Battle ropes are great for exercise, but I was hoping to learn more about if you should do them on weight days, or when you do cardio. Also, it would be nice to know a recommended frequency. Muscles take at least 48 hours to repair themselves, but does this exercise interrupt that process?
Having a hard time finding answers to these questions.