How to Use the Battle Rope to Exercise
The battle rope is a training method that uses thick and heavy ropes. The exercises we do when we use the battle rope are quite intense and engage many muscle groups. Meanwhile, these exercises are great for cardiovascular training and have some great benefits for the body.
These ropes weight around 14 kilograms. One benefit is that you don’t need previous training in order to use the battle ropes. You grab on to the ends with your hands and then make waves and circles by moving your arms. And so, try using the battle rope for an intensive workout to work your arms and core.
This continued movement burns calories and body fat, however, it doesn’t’ affect your muscle mass. Furthermore, this exercise has a low impact on your joints and engages different muscle groups. Additionally, it’s a great way to gain cardiovascular resistance.
How to use the battle rope
First, start out by standing with your knees flexed and with your hands holding each end of the rope. Then, position your arms shoulder-width apart and tilt your torso slightly forward with your back straight. Make sure you maintain this posture during the complete exercise.
The basic movement implies moving the arms to make waves with the rope. Additionally, you can also make circles, move your arms on the ground, or combine it with other exercises. And so, we recommend combining it with squats, lunges and other motions to work on the legs.
And so, these movements increase muscular strength and resistance. Additionally, they also require a high cardiovascular effort.
Use the battle rope to work on different muscle groups
With the battle rope, you can work out many muscle groups. Aside from the arms and shoulder, the legs also have to withstand some stress here. Additionally, lumbar muscles also take part in this exercise, along with the abs, pelvic muscles, glutes, and core muscles.
The muscles in the back and abs contract in order to maintain your balance and an appropriate posture. Therefore, in every repetition, your glutes, quads, and femoral muscles activate as well.
Basic movements
Creating waves is the most basic movement with this exercise. In order to do this, bend your elbows at 90 degrees, raise and lower your arms to create the waves continuously. You could also alternate the arms to create alternating waves.
Another alternative to this exercise is to create the motion from your elbows and not your shoulders. This is the short wave since it creates smaller waves.
You could also perform the “slams”. As their name suggests, you must slam the rope hard against the floor. And so, the arms start out high above the head holding the ends of the battle rope. Then, you lower your arms quickly and slam the rope hard against the floor.
It’s important to maintain the right posture when performing these exercises. If so, you’ll work on your arms, shoulders, back, and abs at the same time and quite efficiently.
On the other hand, we have the lateral wave, which you do by opening the arms and closing them repetitively. However, make sure that when you’re performing this exercise, you don’t bring your hands completely together. And so, the key is to move your arms at different heights so that the waves don’t cross.
Finally, we have the shoulder circles, which consists of small circular motions with the arms. You can perform them inward or outward in its different versions.
The benefits when you use the battle rope
You can increase muscular traction and aerobic capacity since you activate your cardiovascular system and breathing. And so, just about 30 minutes of this exercise can burn between 300 and 500 calories. Then, you can burn just about the same calories than when you’re using the static bike.
Likewise, this exercise is a low-impact activity for your joints. Thus, it’s a great routine to avoid muscle, joint, and ligament injuries. Additionally, you can use the battle rope indoors or outdoors and doesn’t require complex installations. All you need is the rope and a firm post.
Strength and balance
When you use the battle rope to work out, you increase your strength, balance, coordination and aerobic capacity. And so, it’s great for swimmers because it increases breathing capacity and improves cardio performance. Additionally, rowers will gain great coordination with their arms.
Other athletes also include the battle rope in their training routines, such as football players and boxers.
Lastly, we recommend you use the battle rope to improve your balance. This amazing exercise can work on many muscle groups, especially if you vary the routines to include the lower and upper body. Furthermore, the cardiovascular effort you’ll do when practicing it will help you burn more calories.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Calatayud, J., Martin, F., Colado, J. C., Benítez, J. C., Jakobsen, M. D., & Andersen, L. L. (2015). Muscle activity during unilateral vs. bilateral battle rope exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(10), 2854–2859. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000963
- Chen, W.-H., Wu, H.-J., Lo, S.-L., Chen, H., Yang, W.-W., Huang, C.-F., & Liu, C. (2018). Eight-Week Battle Rope Training Improves Multiple Physical Fitness Dimensions and Shooting Accuracy in Collegiate Basketball Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 1. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002601
- Antony MUma Maheswri DrAPalanisamy, B. (2015). Effect of Battle Rope Training on Selected Physical and Physiological Variables Among College Level Athletes. INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X.
