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 Whipping, slamming, dragging and drumming the long, anchored ropes
have long been used in training for sports like football, but
fitness experts said they have now gone mainstream in gyms as an
efficient workout routine.
“It’s a little like running with the upper body,” said Jonathan
Ross, spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. “It’s not
just using different muscles but training muscles in different
ways.”
The Washington, D.C. area-based trainer and author of the book “Abs
Revealed,” said a ropes workout engages the mind as well as the body
with what he calls the grace of the wave.
“The ropes show you how you’re moving,” he explained. “You see the
physical manifestation of the body movement as you watch the ropes.
If you do them well, your body is moving well.”
Posture and coordination are inherent elements of the workout, Ross
said.
Battle rope workouts also pack a calorie-burning cardio punch.
A study published in the April 2015 Journal of Strength &
Conditioning Research showed that a 10-minute bout of rope training
resulted in high heart rates and enough energy expenditure to
increase cardio respiratory fitness.
Crunch, the national chain of fitness centers, has built a group
fitness class around battle ropes.
“It’s great core training. The abs, back, and glutes (muscles of the
buttocks) are all engaged,” said Donna Cyrus, senior vice president
of programming at Crunch. “Obviously there’s toning to the upper
body and it burns a lot of calories.”
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Rope classes typically include a warm-up segment followed by teams
competing to see who can keep the wave, or movement of the rope,
going the longest time.
Ross said battle ropes, which come in various diameters and lengths,
require shoulder mobility and stability, so people dealing with
shoulder issues should use them with caution.
“The longer the rope, the more challenging because you have to
generate more force,” he said. “You want to see that move travel all
the way down to that anchor point."
Another mistake, he added, is pulling the ropes too tight.
“You can’t make a wave if the rope is tight,” he said.
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Marguerita Choy)
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