Why Train With Ropes?
Filed Under: Fat Loss
Filed Under: Fat Loss
The short and simple reason is that it can help you lose fat while spending less time exercising!
When you do various movements with the ropes for 20-30 seconds you elevate your heart rate significantly. It is a very simple way to do interval training, which is great for fat loss. Many of my clients are breathing heavy at the end of their set, often letting out a big “Whoo” because of the hard effort involved.
When you realize that intense effort and increased oxygen intake are vital to your results, there are many different ways to accomplish this. I like to do cardio strength training because it is a time efficient method for increasing fitness and fat loss.
I have my clients do various resistance exercises to build lean muscle tissue and rope training accompanies these exercises quite nicely. This way you can increase your metabolism and burn calories after you have stopped training.
Typically in an aerobics class or during a treadmill session you are working at 60-75% of your max HR, which is low to moderate intensity. After you are done your metabolism returns to where it was previously, in as little as 10 or 15 minutes.
An elite endurance athlete who works at a higher intensity will have a greater “afterburn effect,” but the average healthclub member usually doesn’t work as intensely. So when you understand that burning more calories is about intensity, you seek exercises that will really get your heart racing.
Obviously, this is assuming you are healthy, injury free and accustomed to exercise. There are numerous patterns that can be done with the ropes and variety is important for keeping your body from getting stale, but also your MIND from getting stale.
Let’s face it. There’s a reason that health clubs have all those TV’s in front of the treadmills and ellipticals – to keep your mind off of all the endless repetition going on. Ropes on the other hand require you to focus on what you are doing and that is elevating your heart rate.
If you’re a busy person like most of us, than training with ropes and doing resistance training in the same session will allow you to lose weight without spending two hours at the gym. Sounds like a winner for both me and my clients!
Ropes also allow you to get a cardiovascular effect without the pounding on your joints.
Many people seem to forget that you can get cardio training from doing interval work, where you exercise for 20-30 seconds, rest and then repeat, keeping your HR up in the process.
For example, last Saturday I did my workout after the clients had left. I decided to get my HR monitor out to see how many calories I would burn. I used the sandbags, TRX suspension trainer and a barbell, going from an upper body exercise to a lower body movement or opposing upper body movement, keeping my rest periods very short.
I used the ropes a few times to finish off the workout and stopped the monitor at 40 minutes. In forty minutes I burned 552 calories and had an average HR of 77%, which qualifies as cardio activity, with a peak heart rate of 95%, which is pretty intense!
Now, I obviously am used to this type of training and wouldn’t start someone with that much intensity, but I think you get the point – I definitely got my cardio and strength training done in a single session, leaving my metabolism elevated for several hours afterwards.
I spent the next 20 minutes stretching, cleaning and getting the studio ready for Monday’s clients, while re-starting the HR monitor to see what was going on. I burned an additional 216 calories, with my heart rate at an average of 68%, still qualifying as cardio.
I think you get the point that intense training can create an “afterburn effect” that is due partly to the increased oxygen consumption. Heavy breathing is definitely acceptable in your workouts.
Training with ropes is also a great stress reliever – after beating the floor intensely for 20 seconds or more, you tend to forget what you were stressed about. The alternating upper-cut pattern is also a healthy way to “punch” your particular individual stressor, if you wish.
Besides, with about two thirds of adults being overweight, can it really hurt to take some different approaches?
Get moving!
Brian Morgan
