Battling Rope Exercises to Sculpt Your Physique
More and more gyms are starting to designate training “ropes” for athletes and people looking to improve fitness. Fitness ropes are an excellent fitness tool that are increasing in popularity for great reasons: they provide a killer workout and are a lot of fun. You’ll see amazing results in muscular endurance, cardiovascular conditioning, and fat burning. The art of ‘battling rope’ was pioneered by John Brookfield, a strongman known for ripping 60 decks of cards in half in 60 seconds. Brookfield trained with battle ropes by maneuvering them in a variety of both linear and circular motions to create a peak heart rate in an athlete. Battle ropes are commonly used as a high intensity interval training (HIIT) tool to develop an athlete’s power, explosiveness, as well as their anaerobic and aerobic endurance. Ever wondered just how demanding many calories can be burned by battling ropes? A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research offers some interesting insight. Eleven recreationally active subjects worked a pair of 25 foot long ropes for 10 minutes. Each interval consisted of 15 seconds of double arm waves followed by 45 seconds of rest. Researchers took all kinds of metabolic measurements before and after the exercise in order to determine its effect.The results were significant. Peak heart rates reached almost 180 beats per minute. Peak blood lactate reached almost 12mmol per liter. Estimated calories burned was 111.6. That’s 11 calories per minute! That’s similar to other high intensity exercises like sprinting or biking. These parameters would classify battle ropes as a “vigorous intensity” exercise by the American College of Sports Medicine standards.
Fountaine CJ, Schmidt BJ. Metabolic Cost of Rope Training. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Apr;29(4):889-893.
