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.

Check out Battle Ropes search Battle Ropes

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.

Plan Your Week of Training

Life happens, you will miss workouts. Work emergencies, kid functions, getting sick, etc. These things are unavoidable and out of your control. Just pick up where you left off on the next day.

But for most weeks life is normal. Or at least normal for each invidual. My normal may be very different from your normal!

WHile I do not love ultra strict training programs because they can easily get derailed, which in turn frustrates the trainee to the point of quitting. I do plan out my week. I have an idea of how many days I will strength train, how many days I will do an intense Cardio or HIIT workout. Based on what my week looks like I plan on re-arranging these workouts to fit my week.

Plan

In general, it’s good to have a plan of attack. For a normal week it can simply be setting strength training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. With cardio workouts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Take into account the various known obstacles of Weather, Work and Guests and plan around these areas ahead of time.

Weather

Check the weather for the week. Will there be days you KNOW you will not be able to do any cardio outside? Make that a gym day instead. Or if you are typically a night runner, but that day calls for PM rain, take your run in the morning. If it looks like it will be a beautiful weekend try to plan for as much outside cardio as you can for that weekend. Plan around the weather. Be congnizant of it. Yes the weather reports can be incorrect, but when the weather calls for 3-4 straight days of rain, the reports are often more accurate. Plan around this.

Work Schedule

Do you have a day, or mutliple days with long meetings ahead? Days that can typically get away from you and your typical 5pm ending time will run much later? Plan to work around this problem. Set these particular days as a rest day. Or simply do the workout you had planned that day in the morning.

Guests

If you know you will be having guests arriving at your house, plan ahead for this. If your guests are coming for a Friday-Sunday, stack your workouts Monday-Thursday.

Prioritize Training You Enjoy

Everybody should work on things that they are not very good at. Areas where you might be weak or lifts you need more reps in to get better performing. But you also must do stuff you actually enjoy.

Case in Point: Last Saturday according to the program I am working through I should have done a pressing lift with a barbell, either a Close Grip Bench Press or a Inclined Bench Press. But you know what? I didn’t effing feel like doing anything with a barbell.

I went with a High Frequency Bodyweight Exercise workout, because I realling like to do those. Pulls Ups and Dips using As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP), because I love doing those workouts.

People fall into this trap all the time on a given program. They believe the program is written in stone where many times you can simply adjust for a day and pick back up the next workout. If a program is SOOO strict that you cannot stray in any way, shape or form. AND you are not getting ready for a powerlifting competition. STRAY!!!

Good lord! We are doing this as a part of a continued journey to overrall better fitness and health. To build muscle, lose fat, get stronger, be healthier in Body, Mind and Spirit. If you are stuck in a program where you dread the upcoming workout, ALL THE TIME, get the hell off that program.

This is not to say to always avoid exercises you may not love. If you can walk, you gotta do some leg stuff. Squats, Deadlifts, Farmers Walk, etc. But please allow some flexibility into your program so you don’t begin to hate it.

We see this all the time, especially at this point in the year where so many people are jumping back into fitness due to the New Year. They get back into the gym. They are Gung Ho about it, going 4 days a week, for about a month. Nearly without fail, so many people get on a program they begin to dread. Well, who would want to do something long term that makes them miserable?

This Monday I picked right back up with the Barbell lift I needed to do Saturday, No big deal. I am still on track, and probably better for it as I was refreshed and not beaten up from the Saturday lift. As I’ve stated numerous times on this site, High Frequency Bodyweight Training is KING for the majority of us who are not utilizing anabolic help. I never feel like crap after a session of Pull Ups and Dips. Never.

This applies to all fitness endeavors. If you have a cardio day coming up, and you HATE cardio, for the love of god find alternative cardio methods. If all you do for Cardio is a treadmill, and you hate it, use a Rower. Use a Ski Erg. Do a Spin Class. Do a lightweight circuit workout. Find something different. Even if you don’t love the alternative, change in itself can be worth it and refreshing. Fitness is not a one time thing, it is a lifetime thing. Incorporate things you like WAY more than things you hate. If you are on a program that is way too strict, find a new program. I will help you find a new program, but for the love of god do not quit because you dread a particular workout.

Do More Cardio.... Terrible Advice

I came across another terrible internet article today on Yahoo.  These articles are so dangerous to training and nutrition novices because they send people down an unsustainable path.  The article promotes the same, tired advice to lose fat by upping your cardio while cutting calories.  The basis is that there are 3500 calories in one pound of fat, therefore to lose X pounds of fat you need to burn off X multiplied by 3500.  Then goes on to explain how many calories various types of cardio will burn off per hour.  You can't really out-math your bodyfat.  Your body will adapt faster than you will be able to lose all the fat you want to in this manner which renders this approach futile in the long run.

Do this much cardio to lose weight!

This approach can work on the very short term if people go about it very slowly, by only seeking at most a 2 pound deficit.  Even that is often too much as the body will adapt and begin slowing down the metabolism.  The primary problem with this approach is people NEVER do this slowly.  THey think
"So if I do enough cardio to burn 7000 calories AND restrict calories below a few hundred below my maintenance level, I can lose 5+ pounds of fat a week."  

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS SHIT!!!!

Body Adaptation

The body instantly adapts to too large a deficit.  Fat loss over the long term does not work this way.  This is the exact type of advice that put WAY too many people in TOO heavy of a diet restriction along with way too much cardio piled on.  To lose fat by calculating according to this approach always leads to people restricting too many calories to get into a calorie deficit.  They may get results the first time by restricting calories plus doing 3 sessions of cardio a week.

Then some of that weight comes back so they restrict the calories a little bit more while now doing 4 days of cardio.  This cycle will continue on and on over the years until this unfortunate soul is now only taking in 1200 calories per day, OR LESS!! While doing 5 days, OR MORE, of cardio.  Over the course of a few years this will always result in a person being very unhappy with their physique as the metabolism will all but shut down.

THe best advice possible... Eat a calorie amount equal to the average of  your recommended maintenance calorie count for your target weight and your current weight, split the difference.  YOur target maintenance weight may call for 2000 calories per day, while your current weight maintenance is 2500 calories.  Try not to go below 2200 calories.

Do not attempt to out diet your fat loss.  It will not work long term.  Increase your weight training to 3-4 high intensity sessions per week.  Make sure you are eating near maintenance levels.  Still do some cardio, but not as a device to outpace your calorie intake.  Use cardio as a device to improve overall cardiovascular health, which it still an important piece of overall health.

Simple Cardio Guide

Here is a very simple guide.  Unless you are training for a marathon, your cardio per week should be below 2 hours.  For a lot of folks who weight train, 2-3 20 minutes sessions per week will do it.  If you are doing 5 hours of cardio per week in the hope of losing fat, prepare to be very disappointed.

Eat real food, do not restrict too aggressively and hit the weight room a few times a week.  Any article that promotes some version of this statement is an article worth reading.

Cardio Sucks! Two Fixes

Cardio sucks but if you have any goals related to health and looking good you gotta do it.  The term "cardio" itself instantly gives me images of zombies at a big box gym chain monotonously walking on a treadmill like a hamster stuck on a wheel.  I cannot think of a more joyless activity as steady state cardio done time after time in the gym.  This boring, zombie-like workout is a reason why so many people quit their self-made workout program.  They keep the membership but no longer go because they have turned working out into a chore.

Cardio has obvious benefits as periods of elevated heart rate are required for basic cardiovascular health.  If you are a long time weightlifter your joints must have some blood flow that is NOT related to pushing massing weights.  The human body was made to move around, to run, sprint or jump.  Not to sit in front of a tv or computer for every waking second of your life so having movement in your life is certainly a must.

Fix 1:  Kill Cardio Term

First, kill the term Cardio and replace with Energy system work and it instantly seems better and more useful.  Go even further with High Intensity Intervals Training, (HIIT) and not only does it sound better that boring cardio, it actually sounds challenging and fun!  These workouts are far from monotonous and provide plenty of variety and a change in the word association may provide a subconscious boost.

Fix 2:  Make it  Competitive

Making energy work fun can be a game changer.  Add some competition to compete against yourself, a training partner or a group.  Getting more specific, crossfit style workouts where you mix in multiple exercises in circuit fashion while racing against time are a TON more entertaining than straight cardio.  Going to a gym to get a treadmill for a set amount of time becomes a boring punishment over time that makes you want to jump off a cliff.  It's boring, who wants to purposely do something boring?  One big reason Crossfit has taken off is it has taken a typical housewife off of a treadmill, put a barbell in their hands where they lift it over their head and pound it to the ground when done.  It is difficult to not feel awesome after such a workout.  These types of workouts just make you feel better!

For wheelchair lifters I I would focus on some bodyweight exercises as the primary options.  By having a challenge in front of you, say a combination of Dips and Pull Ups with a goal of hitting 100 total pull ups and 200 total dips for a 300 total in a targeted amount of minutes.  The first time you attempt this cycle it takes you 25 minutes, track it.  The next time you attempt this workout your goal is to beat 25 minutes.  Bodyweight Pull UPs and Dips are just two examples of bodyweight exercises that can be used for a circuit style energy session.  Pushups are another item that can be used.  Add in battle ropes or kettle ball swings.  The options are endless on what you can rotate in.  

The key to keeping this more of an Energy workout versus a Strength workout is to keep any lift well below a 50% of a max.  In other words, the exercise should be something you can at least do 20 reps of. Mix in a couple of exercises in rotating fashion with a goal set of total reps in each, time yourself, then beat it next time.  Again, not rocket science but the variety will be a ton more enjoyable than any steady state cardio and this enjoyment will lead to better results.