Battle Ropes: For Cardio and Bigger Arms

Battle Ropes are Awesome

Battle ropes should be a part of any garage gym or home gym. They can be used anywhere and when done take up very little space.

Cardio

The ropes can be used on their own as a cardio option. Simply doing a 20 minute session of 30 seconds of battle ropes, with 30 seconds of rest will tear you up! Battle ropes get the heart pumping and are a fantastic option for wheelers as there is nothing in our way to wheel up to them and start pumping our arms.

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Warm Up or Finisher

My primary use of battle ropes is to use them as my warm up and finisher on any day I lift. I will do the ropes for about 5-8 minutes as a warmup and then at the end of the workout for another 5 minutes or so. As a warmup I will do 3 sets of the ropes where each wave should get to at least shoulder high. I will do the first set for around 100 waves per arm, which takes about a minute and 20 seconds. The next two sets are at 60 waves per arm for around 45 seconds each. This gets the blood pumping and I can go right into my toughest lift, which is typically my first lift. Whether that is incline benching, pull ups, dips, etc. I am more than ready after this warmup.

For a finisher, I will typically do about 2 sets of 50 waves per arm. This takes about 40 seconds. I don’t really need any more than that!

Grip Strength

A side benefit of battle ropes is the improvement to your grip strength. As you build up endurance on the ropes your grip will greatly improve. And in turn your forearms and grip will benefit greatly. I have tried a ton of things for grip, including Captains of Crush grippers (which work great by the way), and I am not sure anything tops the battle ropes.

Arm Size

I could write up an entire article or program on more effective ways to build arms than what most folks actually implement, which is typcially a ton of curls that lead to nowhere. The arms develop with tons of frequency and time under tension. You get both with Battle Ropes if you use them multiple times per week. If you start using battle ropes for 2-3 times per week, for at least 8 minutes each time you will instantly begin to see improvement in your arms.

Eliminate Boring from Workouts

To have any long term success in fitness you have to find things you actually like to do.    You have to eliminate the Boring from your routines.  I enjoy lifting so many of the lifts I do I mostly enjoy going through the progressions each week.  But I also have items that I am not a fan of, for example, I have a hand pedaled ergometer that I use inside my house for some cardio.  I hate doing it more than one or two times a week.  Even watching Netflix on my phone to get through it has lost its appeal.  An able bodied comparison are Treadmills.  Treadmills are F-ing boring, why on earth put yourself through that hell? 

Alternative Cardio

Battle ropes and Kettlebells:  One of my favorite energy circuits is to rotate between battle ropes, go directly to some kettlebell swings, then rest for x seconds.  This is one rotation and I will do 6-8 rotations depending on the amount of time I have and the weight being used for the kettlebell.  This is a hell of a lot more fun than steady state, blow your brains out cardio and can be performed by most wheelers.

Medicine Ball Toss:  This can be done with a partner.  You simply toss a medicine ball back and forth for a bit.  This can also be done against a wall if no partner is available.  The body actually works much harder than you realize when throwing the ball as it is an explosive movement.  The body also has to support a brace when catching the ball that provides more work than you feel.

Some Able Bodied specific alternatives are flipping a tire, doing some box jumps, and one of the all-time great exercises, JUMP ROPE.   Just do a circuit through two or three things, take a scheduled breath between each cycle, and go again.  Time will FLY!

People quit on their fitness routine more often than not because they get stuck in a rut of ridiculously boring exercises like treadmills and ellipticals.  Things like squats, deadlifts and presses (bench, incline, military) are staples that we mostly have to perform.  But even those have TONS of alterations that can be done if you need a mix up.  There are so many variations to energy and strength work, even for fellow wheelers, that everyone should be able to eliminate the Boring from their workouts.  And I would suggest you eliminate this boring immediately.