Can these heavy ropes make you light?

August 28, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

Care to cut 112 calories in a mere 10 minutes?

By simply swinging some ropes around?

(Not exactly what I meant…)

Well, while jumping rope is indeed a great way to get in your cardio and work your endurance, we’re not talking about the old playground fave. What I’m talking about, rather, is the savage, full body burn you get from slapping around a set of battle ropes in the gym. Don’t know what those are? Don’t feel ign’ant. Neither did I, until I started MMA.

Here’s a preview:

And standing still while drawing arches with these badboys is just one of the many things that you can do.

In fact, regardless of what moves you choose to do with them, they’ve been labeled one the most effective, thoroughgoing work outs that one can accomplish within a minimal 15 minutes. Why? Well, see how that dude in the image above’s in a squat position? That’s part of it. Because your legs are perpetually activated for the entirety of the exercise, you’re either in a squat position or moving them. Which means that, as you’re doing all of of this, your core is constantly toggled on as you maneuver those ropes to aid in stabilizing you (against the weight of the things you’re swinging). What’s more, your guns get next level gains of the highest order ’cause they’re being worked every time you flail them around. And, seeing as each of these cords on steroids weighs anywhere from 25 to 50 pounds, that’s no easy feat for your hands to wield.

The nice thing is, this quality of calorie blasting cardio combined with strength training applies whether you’re doing moves like burpees, jumps, or jumping jacks between swings. And you should be mixing up those moves, say the pros, as it imparts a fully body buffet of brawn.

(The types of swings you do recruit a variety’ve muscles, too.)

By dispersing your intervals of each exercise to focus on different body parts, you end up not only with the perfect all-over fat eradicator, but much more. In fact, per Men’s Health, this won’t only raise your strength for things like knocking out an opponent or looking like a knockout – it’ll also help you get the range of motion you need back here IRL when you’re doing dumb stuff over the weekend that lands you torn rotator cuff – like moving furniture or playing fetch (yes; I’ve seen it in the clinic… yes; more than once).

“Going from side to side, for example, places more emphasis on your hips and core, building total-body stability. Moving the ropes in circles improves shoulder mobility and range of motion, boosting athleticism and reducing your risk of injury. Switching among different motions in your training sessions will help you sculpt functional real-world strength.”

Intrigued? You should be. Granted, they might seem kinda daunting. (Those mofos look downright mean when they’re catapulting those cables around.) But, really, the scariest part of trying something new at the gym is feeling like a “doing it wrong” hashtag’s suspended over your head the whole time. And, after watching this series of moves, you can arrive equipped with more than a few starter exercises:

(I dig the sit-down exercises they add in there for those who can’t stand.
I double dig how the thumbnail’s supermodel-y chickbait, while the actual vid features a far more suitable dude to demo this set of exercises.)

In sum, if you’re in the market for quick weight loss options, this might just be the blubber blighting workout you’ve searched for all along. It’s quick (fifteen minutes packs a punch), it improves your endurance (if it’s good enough for MMA fighters and Olympians, it’s good enough for me), and it improves your strength game where it really counts: back in the real world.

So, don’t be a-frayed to fray the end of these massive bad boys on your next trip to the gym!