Battle Ropes are Awesome

Battle ropes should be a part of any garage gym or home gym. They can be used anywhere and when done take up very little space.

Cardio

The ropes can be used on their own as a cardio option. Simply doing a 20 minute session of 30 seconds of battle ropes, with 30 seconds of rest will tear you up! Battle ropes get the heart pumping and are a fantastic option for wheelers as there is nothing in our way to wheel up to them and start pumping our arms.

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Warm Up or Finisher

My primary use of battle ropes is to use them as my warm up and finisher on any day I lift. I will do the ropes for about 5-8 minutes as a warmup and then at the end of the workout for another 5 minutes or so. As a warmup I will do 3 sets of the ropes where each wave should get to at least shoulder high. I will do the first set for around 100 waves per arm, which takes about a minute and 20 seconds. The next two sets are at 60 waves per arm for around 45 seconds each. This gets the blood pumping and I can go right into my toughest lift, which is typically my first lift. Whether that is incline benching, pull ups, dips, etc. I am more than ready after this warmup.

For a finisher, I will typically do about 2 sets of 50 waves per arm. This takes about 40 seconds. I don’t really need any more than that!

Grip Strength

A side benefit of battle ropes is the improvement to your grip strength. As you build up endurance on the ropes your grip will greatly improve. And in turn your forearms and grip will benefit greatly. I have tried a ton of things for grip, including Captains of Crush grippers (which work great by the way), and I am not sure anything tops the battle ropes.

Arm Size

I could write up an entire article or program on more effective ways to build arms than what most folks actually implement, which is typcially a ton of curls that lead to nowhere. The arms develop with tons of frequency and time under tension. You get both with Battle Ropes if you use them multiple times per week. If you start using battle ropes for 2-3 times per week, for at least 8 minutes each time you will instantly begin to see improvement in your arms.

Concept 2 SkiErg

I just received my Concept 2 SkiErg this week. And after only a couple days I am addicted. The cardio options for wheelers can be a bit limited. I’ve mentioned in other posts that Handcycling is among the best options out there, which I participate heavily. But after that the options get limited in a hurry. We can just simply wheel, which is akin to walking or jogging. To step that up a notch, we can wheel up hills, which is a fantastic workout. But to be honest, as pure cardio options these are extremely boring. I take my dogs for a walk or walk to the beach with my wife as a recreational active recovery activity. It is not a hardcore energy system enhancer. We can also use indoor Hand Peddled Bikes but a lot of these are junk. And really good ones cost way too much for not having any competitive benefit, which I drill into below. We can do Battle Ropes which I find to be among the very best low cost option out there, but again, there is no competitive aspect to these so monotony can set in.

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Why The SkiErg?

As mentioned above, the options for cardio for wheelers is extremely limited as most are geared towards the use of one’s legs. Rowing can be utilized by wheelers, but you are pulling hard against your gravity and nearly pulling yourself out of your wheelchair. The range of motion is also extremely limited with the rowers as they are geared towards pushing off with your legs and then performing the pull. So the rower can work, but its not ideal, in my opinion.

The SkiErg lets you use gravity in your favor as you pull down and a bit behind you. There is no risk whatsoever of pulling yourself out of the chair. And the SkiErg is meant to primarily target the upper body, which is ideal for wheelers. I had been looking at the SkiErgs for a while but never pulled the trigger as I had never had the opportunity to try one out. However a Private Facebook Group I am a part of, Virtual Peers for Paras and Quads, had made a post about adding a SkiErg to their gym. Based on Erik Kondo’s recommendation, plus supporting recommendations for numerous group members, I bit the bullet and ordered one.

Competitive Benefit

One amazing benefit of the SkiErg is you can get plugged into the Concept2 challenges and training log. You can create a profile and begin recording workouts in your log. You can then select workouts you want ranked and they will then get ranked. Whats even better is there already exists Adaptive divisions so you are competing against peers and not against able bodied crossfit all stars. This is an AWESOME benefit for wheelers as there is nothing really like this out there beyond actual handcycle races.

Wheeler Recommended

I will provide more info and a review in the future once I have had a few weeks on the machine. But for wheelers I would already highly recommend. The workout variety is great and the competitive aspect is a nice wrinkle. I have no idea if I am any good at it yet but I don’t really care. My time is hovering around 3:14 per 500 meters, but hopefully will go down as time goes on. I just completed a 5000meter workout and feel amazing. A similar “runners high” that I get from going outside on my handcycle.

Purchase a Ski Erg

If you are interested in a Concept 2 SkiErg, shop now at Rogue Below!

Battle Ropes: For Cardio and Bigger Arms