We introduce novel equations, in the spirit of rough path theory, that parametrize level sets of intrinsically regular maps on the Heisenberg group with values in R². These equations can be seen as a sub-Riemannian counterpart to classical ODEs arising from the implicit function theorem. We show that they enjoy all the natural well-posedness properties, thus allowing for a ‘good calculus’ on nonsmooth level sets. We apply these results to prove an area formula for the intrinsic measure of level sets, along with the corresponding coarea formula.