Monday 26 March 2012

Battling rope drills 101

Battle rope drills, quite simply one of the cheapest, most exciting and productive conditioning tools available on the market today. What are they? quite simply a long piece of thick heavy rope. In this blog post I’m going to briefly cover their benefits, the most common exercises and how I incorporate them into my training. I’ve seen many sports people incorporating them into their workouts, but particularly fighters such as MMA. Even top movie star Jason Statham claims to use them as part of this workout routine when getting in shape for a movie role. He swears by them due to their functionality crossover into real life fighting, strength and endurance situations.  

First off let’s look at what they can be used for. They require the whole body to execute most exercises, but focus most heavily on the core, back, shoulders and arms. They give a great cardio workout, working the heart and lungs as well as a strength building workout for your upper body. Some exercises and programmes using battling drills are very intense, so they will help build mental and physical work capacity, but be prepared to feel some nausea!
Here are some common drills, all of which are demonstrated in the video below:
·         Double waves
·         Alternating waves
·         Slams
·         Jumping jacks
·         Alternating waves with a walk
·         Side to sides

I personally like to use battling rope drills on two certain occasions. Firstly I would use them as part of a cardio workout if I’m looking to improve general fitness or get shredded for a photoshoot. When I do this I like to use an interval style protocol. Such as 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest. The second time I would use them is at the end of a weights workout as a finisher. They make a great finisher to a back or shoulders workout to build work capacity. On a final note, they're great fun and would recommend anyone to try them!