When working out at home or building a home gym, one of the biggest factors you’ll face is trying to find space to fit all of the equipment you want. One of the more versatile pieces of gym kit is a battle rope. These are relatively easy to store and only require space during use.
The difficulty of using battle ropes at home though is where can you set them up and more importantly, how can you anchor (install) them so that they stay in a fixed position during use. Most people won’t have a dedicated battle rope station as you find at commercial gyms.
How to anchor battle ropes at home?
To anchor battle ropes at home, you can use a dedicated battle rope anchor. These can be drilled into a wall or bolted into the floor and offer a stable and secure anchor point for your battle rope. You can also loop them around a weighted product like a power rack or bench for a DIY anchor point.
Anchoring your battle ropes correctly will quite literally be the difference between having an effective workout or one where your efforts are wasted due to lost tension through poor anchoring. Therefore, in this article, I’ll run you through how to anchor battle ropes and what some of the best options are.
Battle Ropes – the Basics
Battle ropes might not be the most traditional piece of equipment when it comes to strength and conditioning, but when it comes to burning fat or building lean mass you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more effective exercise to incorporate into your home gym setup. Perhaps more importantly, they offer a solid cardio workout that doesn’t require very much equipment.
Created by John Brookfield in his backyard, the battling ropes system is one of the most exciting and intense workouts you can do with minimal equipment and provides an extremely versatile exercise that will improve strength, speed, power, and even mental endurance.
If you’ve done even a minute on the battle ropes in your life, you know that the full-body exercise is an excellent HIIT exercise that’s also low impact and easy on your joints.
It is hard to describe just how versatile battle ropes are. Below are just a few examples of movements you can use to work out different areas of your body:
- Jumping Power Slams – this will work out your entire body, guaranteed
- Jumping Jacks – Shoulders, core, obliques
- Wide Circles – Back, arms, and grip strength
- Alternating Waves – Shoulders, arms back (add jumps to work out core, glutes, and legs)
Ultimately you want to be able to use as many movements as you can. The aim of the game when it comes to setting up, or anchoring, your battle ropes at home is mobility.
To get the full range of motion in every exercise on the battle ropes you need to maximize rope mobility. At the same time, to reduce the risk of damage to the anchor point and the ropes themselves, aim for minimal movement at the anchor point.
Finding the right balance will also greatly benefit your workouts – too much movement at the anchor point will disperse all the force you’re exerting with your own energy. With such an intense conditioning workout, you’re going to want to maximize efficiency as much as you can to make the most out of the set.
What Equipment do You Need to Anchor Battle Ropes
Anchoring your rope at home will depend entirely on the rope you’ve purchased. Some ropes come with their own anchors included, which are perfect for beginners. Simply follow the instructions provided and make sure to secure it safely to your anchor point. If you’re looking for a more DIY approach, however, all you really need are:
- Tough, durable rope – weight, length, and width are all down to preference and ability
- Grip – wrap the ends of the rope in rubber sleeves or electrical tape, your hands will thank you for it
- Anchor point – this can come in many forms, explained below
How to Anchor Battle Ropes
No matter how heavy a rope you’re using in your workouts, anchoring it beforehand is always the best option. Remember you’re going to get the most returns from making the biggest movements without wasting energy by allowing movement at the anchor point (which you need to stay stable to transfer force).
The easiest option used by a lot of people is simply to thread the rope through something heavy – if you have a squat rack or a bench, for example, you can tether the rope around a strut. There are however some downsides to this course of action. Not only is there more room for the rope to move around at this point, but the edges of the rack will also, over time, wear down your rope and reduce the longevity of your equipment.
This simple method of threading your rope through something heavy can be quite useful in other situations.
If you own a heavy kettlebell or multiple lighter kettlebells, for example, you can thread the rope through the handles of this makeshift anchor. It’s hard to say how heavy an anchor you’ll need as it depends on your own power and movements so make sure you give it a test before going all out on the ropes.
These are of course DIY approaches though and if you want to really secure your battle ropes at home or outside, it’s best to look into dedicated battle rope anchor products.
Battle Ropes – Straps, Anchors and Stations
These three pieces of equipment aren’t essential to your battle rope setup but are definitely recommended to increase the safety of your workouts and the lifespan of your rope, especially if you’ve invested in a good quality rope.
Installing an anchor station is a semi-permanent inclusion to your home gym, and does require being bolted into a wall or floor, but if you’re able to install an anchor station at home you will absolutely feel the benefit in your workouts.
One good option is the Femor Battle Rope Anchor. This can be wall, ground, or even ceiling-mounted giving you a variety of anchoring options and it’s heavy-duty enough for any battle rope attachment.
There are also anchor stations and anchor points that will attach to your power rack and these can serve as an additional use when anchoring resistance bands as well or you can simply wrap the ropes around your power rack if you have a horizontal attachment close to the ground level.
Anchor straps are one of the best additions you can make to your battle ropes to really elevate them to the next level.
Fastening a strap to whichever anchor point you have chosen will greatly increase the lifespan of your rope – the force that would otherwise be rubbing against your rope and damaging the fibers is instead spread out across the strap, which is much more affordable to replace over time.
A Battle Rope Anchor Strap is a more inexpensive and versatile option that does not require a permanent installation and is ideal for those that need a more flexible solution.
How Do You Hook up Battle Ropes at Home
There’s no reason you can’t set up your battle ropes inside, but if you do it’s even more crucial you make sure to anchor the ropes securely and make sure that your ropes won’t cause any damage in every moment you might be making.
If you need a more visual idea of how to set up and anchor your battle ropes, I’ve included a quick video below that shows how a battle rope can be set up without any dedicated products.
This can be replicated around any solid structure within the home but as mentioned a few times earlier, you’d need to make sure the base is 100% stable and will keep the battle ropes anchored during use. If you don’t have something solid, it’s much easier to purchase a dedicated anchor point for a more permanent solution.
Final Thoughts
How you anchor your battle ropes will be different for each individual depending on the space you have and equipment at your disposal. If possible, I’d always recommend getting a dedication anchor point if one did not come with your battle ropes already.
These can be easily secured in place and will allow you to use battle ropes safely and effectively. If you don’t want to take this option, there are still some methods you can use to anchor your battle ropes but these will have varying degrees of success.
Wrapping them around a power rack is going to be the next best alternative as they will stay within your workout space and will be secured in place. You can also secure them to a heavy object or structure in your house but you’d need to make sure it can handle the external force so that you don’t damage anything.
For this reason, it’s best to opt for an anchoring product that is designed specifically for this purpose and will give you the stability and functionality that you’d find when using battle ropes in a gym.
