Maybe you have seen them at the
gym —
heavy coils of rope anchored at the middle to a post or the floor. They may
look like they were brought up from a dungeon or off the deck of a boat, but
they are called “battle ropes” — and they are an effective and safe tool for
strength training.
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Despite their daunting name and appearance, you do
not have to be a contestant on “American Ninja Warrior” to use them. While
battle ropes have long been popular with elite athletes, they are also an
excellent tool for beginners who want to build strength and cardiovascular
health without being too hard on their bodies.
Lauren Weinhold, a personal trainer and yoga
instructor in
Columbia, Maryland, uses battle ropes with clients who are
martial arts competitors and 70-year-olds with double knee replacements. “Not
everyone wants to — or can — run miles on the treadmill,” said Weinhold. But
with battle ropes, you can get much of running’s cardiovascular punch without
hammering your joints.
That versatility is what drew Jesse Grund, a
personal trainer in Orlando, Florida, to the tool, which he credits with
sparking his interest in fitness. “If I was on a deserted island and I could
only pick one piece of exercise equipment, I’d take the battle rope,” he said.
How do you use battle ropes?
In the classic battle ropes pose, you grasp the ends of each rope,
shaking them rhythmically up and down — either together or alternating one side
at a time — to send waves along the rope’s length to the anchor point. But
there are endless variations on this basic theme.
Two beginners can
work in tandem, each grabbing a rope end, and create waves together. At the
Training Lab, a strength and conditioning gym in Manhattan, instructors tie
battle ropes to weighted fitness sleds — platforms that can be dragged for
resistance training — and the students pull the sleds toward themselves,
working back, legs, core, and arm muscles. Another way to use them is to add
some resistance to jumping jacks by doing them while grasping the ends of an
anchored rope.
What do they do for
you?
Many people find their first battle ropes sessions challenging — their
arms tremble with exertion and effort, the ropes tangle together, the waves
stutter and peter out.
“You’re trying to
create power output in a new way with your upper body, your lower body, your
core, and the ropes — and there’s a lot of coordination to that,” said Aaron
Guyett, a coach and education director at Living.fit, a site that offers battle
rope and conditioning classes online.
Once mastered,
however, battle rope workouts are an intense, whole-body exercise that builds
muscle and improves cardiovascular fitness. Studies show there are potential
gains in core strength, endurance, and how efficiently your body consumes
oxygen. And while your shoulders, arms and hands are the obvious parts in
motion, your core and legs must work to keep you stable as your upper body
generates power.
Unlike traditional
weight lifting, battle ropes also allow rapid changes in direction while
maintaining high speeds, which trains your muscles to react quickly. Think of
it like a sprint, where the lower body can suddenly change directions in
mid-run, said Chiang Liu, a sports scientist at the University of Taipei in
Taiwan.
“This explosive
power is why battle ropes training is so popular for athletes,” he said.
According to his group’s research, an eight-week battle rope regimen with a
small sample of college basketball players in Taiwan translated to faster
passes, more accurate shots, and increased agility. That power has also
improved Maurice Allen’s golf game. Allen, a two-time World Long Drive
champion, said battle ropes had dramatically increased his club speed.
“In golf, I’m
holding my body in place while my arms are moving; I need to recruit strength
from a stable position,” Allen said. “Battle ropes allow me to work on
stability and strength at the same time.”
For a person who
exercises a few days a week, battle ropes can build fast twitch power that can
be useful in everyday life. “When we duck to avoid a flying ball, grab a
runaway shopping cart, or catch ourselves before we fall, we’re using the
fast-twitch muscles battle ropes target,” Weinhold said.
And as one of the
few upper-body exercises — kettlebells are another — that have cardiovascular
benefits, battle ropes are ideal for people recovering from lower limb injuries
such as stress fractures or torn Achilles tendons. Since having a knee
replacement, Susie Mabie, 66, a retired nurse in Orange County,
California, has
been picking up the ropes more frequently to maintain her endurance while she
heals. “I sit doing the battle ropes, but I’m still able to get a great
workout,” Mabie said.
How do you get started?
Because of the physical and mental demands of battle ropes, many people
use them in a high-intensity interval training fashion — short bursts of moving
the rope full tilt, interspersed with periods of rest. At the beginning, aim
for moderate effort — elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat — and a
one-to-three work-rest ratio, following every 10 seconds of activity with 30
seconds of rest. As you improve, shorten the rest time until you hit a
one-to-one work-rest ratio — for example, 30 seconds of activity and 30 seconds
of recuperation. Start with four to six of these intervals and then increase.
When the ropes hit
the ground, the resounding echo can be loud. Natalie Orozco, 39, an advertising
executive in
Manhattan, finds this aspect strangely satisfying. “It’s been
cathartic to slam the battle ropes during a workout when I’ve had a
particularly challenging day at work,” she said.
It is best to get
guidance at first from a personal trainer or in a class. If you go looking for
trainers online, look for credentials, such as CPT, for certified personal
trainer, after their names.
But you can also
buy your own battle ropes and start at home. Weinhold takes hers to the park,
looping them around a tree or a telephone pole, or uses them in her garage. Ropes
come in different lengths (nine, 12, and 15 meter) and widths (3.5 to 5cm in
diameter), but Guyett prefers the longer ones, because they are more adaptable.
The 15m, 3.5cm
ropes are the go-to, he said, “from the strongest strongman to the absolute
beginner, because you can always tie it off shorter”. Whether with a trainer,
at the gym, or in your backyard, there are two basic moves that are good for
beginners.
Alternating waves
Grab the ends of the ropes — one in each hand — and hold them in front of
you at about hip level and shoulder width apart. Make sure there is sufficient
slack in the ropes by taking two to three steps forward toward the anchor
point. Guyett suggested a firm but relaxed hold. Think about gripping your pet
hamster. You do not want it to escape, but you also do not want to crush it, he
said.
Stand tall with
your knees and hips slightly bent, your torso tilted forward, your back
straight and your core muscles engaged. With battle ropes, the chances for
injury are low compared with other strength training regimens, but bad form
slashes the exercise’s effectiveness. The ropes can only push back as hard as
you push them. Begin the exercise by raising one arm up and bringing it down to
create a vertical wave. Alternate sides — as one arm goes up, the other comes
down — to generate this move’s signature patterns. Be sure the ropes contain
waves the entire time you are moving them.
Lateral waves
It is not crucial to master different moves, though other motions work
slightly different muscles. Lateral waves work the shoulders, core, and hips
through their twisting motion.
Start in the same
stance you did for alternating waves. With both hands, sweep the ropes together
from side to side, rotating your torso slightly while keeping your arms straight
and your hips square. The waves should look like sinuous snakes, slithering in
unison. Intensify the exercise by forming larger waves and stepping closer to
the anchor point, which increases the weight you have to lift.
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