Battle rope workout routines are highly underrated.
If you walk into the most generic run of the mill gym, you’ll often find the big boys crowding the weight room while everyone else is forced to retreat the land of cardio.
But what every single one of them always seems to miss is the sad and lonely battle ropes laying there motionless without a friend in the world.
The truth is there is no other piece of equipment that can provide both the conditioning and strength benefits combined better than swinging a heavy duty rope until you can no longer feel your arms.
As well as being a kill upper body conditioning tool, when used correctly it can work almost the entire body from your core, your quads, right down to your fingers and toes.
Battle Rope Workout Routines – The Benefits
Not only do battle ropes strengthen most major muscle groups. But they can also be used in unison with a variety of other great exercises such as squats, lunges, even burpees. All of which I’ll be showing you a little further down the page.
They work each arm individually, eliminating and strength imbalances while at the same time strengthening often weaker parts of the body such as the hips, forearms, even the ankles.
This helps build stability throughout the entire body which can greatly increase your performance in a variety of other exercises.
Does The Rope Size Matter?
The size and thickness of the rope will ultimately depend on your goals.
Personally, I’ve found that using a thicker rope can work wonders for your overall strength.
If this is what you’re gearing towards then I would say definitely use a thicker heavier rope.
On the other hand, a lighter, thinner rope will give you the ability to keep going for a hell of a lot longer.
Greatly increasing your conditioning and calorie burn on the process.
Increasing The Intensity
There are a few ways you can really ramp up the intensity to beyond stratospheric levels.
By simply holding a squat position while you’re working the ropes will give you an unbelievable workout in your quads as well as engaging your core, turning it into a complete full body battle rope workout.
Or to make your body work even harder. Simply position yourself closer to the anchor point of the ropes.
It may sound simple, but moving the weight of the rope within a shorter distance will require even more work almost doubling the intensity of an already draining workout.
Battle Rope Workout Routines – The Moves
Now, there are a million and one ways to swing a battle rope and I’m not going to get into detail with each and every last one of them because theirs a good chance you could die from boredom in the process.
So instead, I’m going to be giving you a breakdown of a few of my favorite moves before leaving you with a creative video I found on YouTube with lots more variations.
I’ll then be showing you some kickass workouts that I’ve personally used to take my battle rope workout routines to the next level.
So with that said…
Alternating Single Arm Waves
This is the most basic variation of the battle ropes and the one that most are familiar with.
As the name suggests, it involves moving each arm up and down individually creating a rather pretty wave pattern that will have most looking on in awe as if you were twirling the ribbon in the Olympics.
It might look easy but give it 30 seconds and you’ll slowly feel the intensity start to build up in your arms shortly before letting out a deafening howl because you simply can’t take any more.
Here it is in action…
Double Arm Waves
For this variation we’re using the exact same wave pattern, only this time you’ll be moving your arms up and down in unison creating a perfectly symmetrical wave pattern.
Unlike the rope slam which we’ll be discussing next. The aim with this battle rope workout routine is to keep a constant flow going throughout the rope.
Stop at any time and you owe me 10 burpees… (just kidding)
Anyway, here’s a video demonstration of the move…
Rope Slams
Now on paper, it would seem that this battle rope variation is exactly the same as the double arm waves.
And to be honest, in many ways it actually is.
The only real difference here, and you’ll notice when you try out each variation, is the amount of force you need to generate to make this exercise really effective.
Instead of creating a constant flow of the rope as we would for double arm waves. What we’re attempting to do here is really bring down the thunder with each and every slam we do.
We do this by raising the battle rope quite a lot higher then we did previously.
Using all of your core muscles and exploding downward with all of your speed and power. Bringing the rope down with an almighty slam.
Here’s how the pro’s do it…
Burpee Battle Ropes
This is quite a cool variation of the battle ropes that I’ve recently started playing around with whenever I do my own battle rope training.
I didn’t invent this by the way, but it’s a great little addon you can apply to any of your battle rope workout routines to really challenge your entire body while at the same time naturally increasing your overall work capacity.
So here’s what you’re going to do…
You’re going to perform anywhere from a 3-5 seconds interval of any of the above battle rope variations followed by one single burpee.
That’s it.
Now, I could go on forever giving you variation after variation but for the sake of your sanity and to stop you growing old before you finish this post I’ll just leave you with this quick video of a ton of other variations before we move on to some of the workouts.
Take a look at this…
Battle Rope Workout Routines – The Workouts
Now for the fun part…
Below you’re going to experience the best of the best battle rope workout routines the will rob you of every last ounce of sweat blood and tears leaving nothing left in the tank.
Workout 1: Tabata
This is a popular but very short interval routine that’s much harder than it looks.
It’s only 4 minutes long but I promise that every single second will leave take you one step closer to losing your sh*t.
Here’s how it’s gonna go down…
- 20 Seconds: Battle Ropes
- 10 Seconds Rest
- Repeat x8
Total Workout Time: 4 Minutes
Now there are no hard and fast rules about which variation you can use with this workout. I would, however, try to stick to just one variation as this will work the same set of muscles to complete exhaustion which is exactly what you want.
You may find that changing rope variations midway through the Tabata will allow certain muscles to relax while you start working on others.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t mix it up during your workout. Just that it will make for a much easier workout given the 4-minute timeframe.
Here’s how its done in the big leagues…
Workout 2: 30/30 Intervals
This is another basic battle rope workout. The only difference is the intervals you’re going to be using.
Now, it’s over twice as long as the Tabata interval workout and just as difficult.
Here’s how to do it…
- 30 Seconds: Battle Ropes
- 30 Seconds: Rest
- Repeat x10
Total Workout Time: 10 Minutes
Because this is a significantly longer workout than the first Tabata we discussed. I recommend incorporating different variations with each and every interval you perform.
So for instance, you could perform…
- 30 Seconds: Alternating Single Arm Waves
- 30 Seconds: Rest
- 30 Seconds: Rope Slams
- 30 Seconds: Rest
- Repeat x5
Switching exercises every interval isn’t essential but you may find that you are unable to continue working at your maximum capability throughout the full 10 minutes if you simply stick to one variation.
Switching between 2, 3, or even 4 variations will allow you to keep the momentum going throughout the entire workout giving you an overall better workout.
Mixing It Up
As well as the intense intervals above, it’s also a good idea to bix a few other exercises in with your battle rope workouts to test the limits of what you’re really capable of.
Here are a few of my personal favorites…
Workout 3: Burpee Mixers
Like the name suggests, for this workout mix up, you’re going to be adding some burpees into your interval training to really spice things up.
Here how to get your heart racing with this exhausting interval.
- 30 Seconds: Battle Ropes (Any Variation)
- 30 Seconds: Burpees
- 60 Seconds: Rest
- Repeat x5
Total Workout Time: 10 Minutes
Since both of these moves are full-body conditioning workouts, you’re going to feel like the wind literally being sucked from your lungs with each and every rep you perform.
And no matter how fit you think you are. You’re still going to find this one tough.
Workout 4: The Battle Rope Farmer
This a great little workout finisher for complete strength and conditioning.
Here’s how to do it…
- 30 Seconds: Battle Ropes (Any Variation)
- 30 Seconds: Farmers Walks
- 60 Seconds: Rest
- Repeat x5
Total Workout Time: 10 Minutes
This workout is great for pre-exhausting your muscles. Making at all the more difficult to perform the farmers walks with full intensity.
Just a word of warning though! Don’t go too heavy on the farmers walks the first time you try this workout. After the first few rounds, it really does become physically and mentally draining. Making it quite dangerous to walk with extremely heavy weight in each hand.
Here’s a demo of how to perform farmers walk in case you don’t know how…
Wrapping Things Up
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to battle rope workouts routines. I could literally go on forever giving you hundreds of different workouts to take on.
But I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
If you have any ideas, useful insights or simply want to share your own battle rope workouts routines, then please feel to do so in the comments below…
