Heavy ropes (also known as battle ropes or training ropes) are essentially 60-200 foot long extra thick ropes. This training tool involves the lower body, core, and upper body. Typically these exercises are done for periods of time (for example, for thirty seconds). For that reason these are commonly used as metabolic conditioning tools.
Heavy ropes make a great warm-up. Due to their total body nature, they’ll warm up most of the muscles and joints, elevate heart rate, raise a sweat, and burn a few calories. Plus, exercises can be modified somewhat to emphasize the upper body more or the lower body more, depending upon the nature of the workout that will follow.
For example, the slam exercise can be performed as a total body exercise or as an exercise which emphasizes the upper body. To emphasize the entire body, get into an athletic stance, holding a rope in each hand at the side of your body. From this position quickly stand up, as you stand up lift the ropes up with straight arms until your arms are parallel to the floor. From this position, quickly move into a quarter squat while slamming the ropes down towards the ground. Repeat this in a rhythmic movement.
To use the slams focusing on the upper body, move into an athletic position while holding the ropes at each side of your body. While maintaining the athletic position, move both arms up until they are parallel to the ground. Quickly reverse directions and slam the ropes towards the ground only using your upper body.
This type of simple modification can be done with two-handed slams, one-handed slams, and waves. The table below shows some heavy ropes exercises that you can use to focus on a total body warm-up or an upper body warm-up.
| Total body exercises | Upper body exercises |
| Jumping jacksTwo-handed slamsOne-handed slams
Waves Slams while performing a lunge Slams while backpedaling Slams while shuffling right/left One-legged slams (one-handed or two-handed) Unstable slams (one-handed or two-handed) Woodchoppers Oblique woodchoppers |
Two-handed slamsOne-handed slamsWaves
Arm circles, clockwise Arm circles, counter-clockwise Twists One-legged slams (one-handed or two-handed) Unstable slams (one-handed or two-handed) |
Table One: Sample heavy ropes exercise for the upper body and total body.
With the above in mind, below are some examples of how these exercises can be incorporated into an athlete’s warm-up. In the first example, the athlete is using going to be performing a total body workout. In the second example, the athlete will be performing a workout primarily focused on the upper body.
Workout #1:
Warm-up:
Heavy ropes circuit (perform each exercise for 20 seconds, repeat circuit three times): jumping jacks, two-handed slams, woodchoppers
Mobility exercises, 5-10 minutes
Snatch complex (snatch shrugs, snatch upright rows, muscle snatch, overhead squat; perform each five times): repeat complex three times
Power snatch; 3xbar, 3×40 kg, 3×50 kg, 3×60 kg
Workout:
Power snatch, 3x3x70kg
Snatch pulls, 3x6x80 kg
Back squats, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x100 kg, 1x2x130 kg, 3x6x160 kg
Romanian deadlifts, 3x6x100 kg
Bench press, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x70 kg, 3x8x80 kg
Bent-over rows, 3x8x80 kg
Military press, 3x6x60 kg
Workout #2:
Warm-up:
Heavy ropes circuit (perform each exercise for 20 seconds, repeat circuit three times): two-handed slams, arm circles clockwise, arm circles counter-clockwise
Mobility exercises, 5-10 minutes
Shoulder prehab exercises, 5-10 minutes
Bench press: 1x4xbar, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x75 kg, 1x4x90 kg
Workout:
Bench press, 3x8x105 kg
Floor press, 3x8x75 kg
Pull-ups, 3xMax
One-arm dumbbell rows, 3x8x40 kg
Military press, 3x8x80 kg
In both examples, the heavy ropes serves several valuable functions. First, they replace doing cardio as warm-up. This is because they involve large muscle groups, moving rhythmically, increase heart rate, and increase the athlete’s temperature. Second, unlike cardio they do this in an athletic manner that comes closer to resembling sports activities. Third, unlike cardio they provide some work to the core which has to stabilize and link everything together. Finally, this can also be a new and interesting challenging which will keep the warm-up from being boring!
Now, what about in a team setting? Often we won’t have enough heavy ropes for the entire team to use at one time. This means incorporating the heavy ropes into a circuit-style warm-up. For example, we can incorporate heavy ropes, kettlebells, jump ropes, and bodyweight exercises into a warm-up to prepare for both sample workouts.
Warm-up:
Circuit (perform each exercise for 20 seconds, repeat circuit three times): kettlebell swing, heavy rope jumping jacks, bear crawl, jump rope
Mobility exercises, 5-10 minutes
Snatch complex (snatch shrugs, snatch upright rows, muscle snatch, overhead squat; perform each five times): repeat complex three times
Power snatch; 3xbar, 3×40 kg, 3×50 kg, 3×60 kg
Workout:
Power snatch, 3x3x70kg
Snatch pulls, 3x6x80 kg
Back squats, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x100 kg, 1x2x130 kg, 3x6x160 kg
Romanian deadlifts, 3x6x100 kg
Bench press, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x70 kg, 3x8x80 kg
Bent-over rows, 3x8x80 kg
Military press, 3x6x60 kg
Workout #2:
Warm-up:
Circuit (perform each exercise for 20 seconds, repeat circuit three times): heavy rope two-handed slams, jump rope, one arm kettlebell swings, bear crawls, push-ups
Mobility exercises, 5-10 minutes
Shoulder prehab exercises, 5-10 minutes
Bench press: 1x4xbar, 1x4x60 kg, 1x4x75 kg, 1x4x90 kg
Workout:
Bench press, 3x8x105 kg
Floor press, 3x8x75 kg
Pull-ups, 3xMax
One-arm dumbbell rows, 3x8x40 kg
Military press, 3x8x80 kg
In a large team setting it’s unlikely that you’ll have enough heavy ropes for every member of the team. They can still be used effectively if you can spread the athletes out using different types of equipment and a circuit-style warm up. In a one-on-one setting this will be as much of an issue.
Revised July 23, 2024
