A skipping rope for exercise is a simple tool that offers one of the best conditioning workouts available. It provides cardiovascular and endurance benefits and burns up to 1000 calories.
Do you remember the skipping song “Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around….teddy bear, teddy bear touch the ground”?
While skipping ropes brings to mind young girls and their sing-songs, it is often overlooked as a form of exercise for adults. However, it is one of the foundations of a boxer’s training program, and celebrity trainers often use skipping as part of a conditioning workout to help their clients lose body fat and increase their fitness levels quickly. This is why you should consider it too!
Cardiovascular and Endurance Benefits
Skipping can be a staple in everyone’s conditioning program. Not only does it provide cardiovascular endurance benefits, but it also improves coordination, agility, quickness, and footwork.
You can burn up to 1000 calories per hour skipping, and it works for all major muscle groups. It’s a great abdominal exercise, believe it or not, as the abs have to work hard to stabilize the body during jump roping.
Many other high-level athletes in professional football, basketball, and tennis use this exercise to accelerate their fitness level quickly. Hopping is one of the best plyometric exercises to build lung, leg, and upper body strength and power.
Anytime the arms are extended out in the jump rope set to position, the heart has to work faster to pump blood out to those extremities. That is why the heart beats faster than during other cardio exercises.
That combined with multiple movements (hand spinning rope, feet hopping, moving body side to side, back and forth) all happening at once, make this exercise superior to other forms of cardio.
Choosing The Right Skipping Rope
A good skipping rope can be found at almost any sporting store ranging from £10 to £25 depending on the features. Some will be just ropes with handles.
Others are hard plastic ropes with ball bearings in the handles, called speed ropes, that will allow you to sprint faster.
A weighted skipping rope has small metal rods inside the handles to tone the arms and shoulders while jumping.
The lengths of most ropes are 8-10 feet long. To determine the ideal length place one foot on the middle of the rope.
The handles should reach about armpit height. If the rope is too long, cut a couple of inches off the end of the rope until it is the appropriate length, or just tie a knot under each handle.
Beginning a Skipping Routine
Those new to skipping should plan to master the skill of skipping in general first before thinking of it as a conditioning tool.
A beginner can start with short skipping sessions several times each week, working up to jumping for 3-5 minutes three times a week.
A boxer uses skipping as a tool for conditioning, and a boxing round is 3 minutes, so 3-minute rounds are something good to strive for.
As the body gets conditioned, a workout might look like this:
1. Skip for 3 minutes
2. Rest for 60 seconds
3. Complete 5 rounds
Advanced Jump Rope Workouts
There are several options for workouts with skipping ropes. Advanced exercise enthusiasts can consider jumping for 15-20 minutes.
Jumpers can also mix circuit drills and bodyweight exercises into the skipping routine to help accelerate fitness levels quickly and burn body fat.
Did you know when you were a child that skipping was more than just fun it could be an effective exercise too? I know I didn’t!
So many things we look back and wish we knew as a child, don’t we! Who knew we would regret not knowing all the stuff which pops up in quizzes that we should remember from the 80s?
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