Jump rope, also known as Jumping rope or skipping rope, is a great full body exercise and a great effective cardio option for calorie burning. It is extremely effective in burning fat especially in your core.
- Primary muscles: Legs; glutes, hamstrings and calves
- Secondary muscles: Abs, arms, back, shoulders
- Equipment: Jump rope
The Jump Rope — Skipping Rope exercise helps you to build stamina, improve lung capacity, tone calves and your core. Therefore, it burns many calories in a short period of time. For an average-sized person, jump rope – skipping rope can burn more than 10 calories in just one minute.
Benefits of Jump Rope — Skipping Rope
Jump Rope — Skipping Rope is excellent for cardio work; It improves both your metabolic fitness, health and cardiovascular fitness. The intensity is moderate to high, resulting in greater fitness and health benefits than low intensity activities. And yet the effect on your joints is relatively small (compared to running, for example), but sufficient for an effective ‘bone workout’ and prevention of osteoporosis.
The Jump Rope — Skipping Rope is also great for fat burning, because you burn calories as fast as you can from your average jogging program, and it doesn’t seem as hard as jogging. Even if you are overweight, it is quite difficult to jog.
If you have too much body fat to jump rope, the best activity may not be, because the more you weigh, the greater the impact and jumping can feel uncomfortable, even if you don’t jump too much. If so, start with low-impact activities like walking and Nordic walking and maybe work some crosstrainer cardio machines.
Some other advantages of Jump Rope — Skipping Rope:
- Increase in energy expenditure
- Strong heart
- Increased lung capacity (strong muscles)
- Improved cardiovascular system (more capillaries)
- Better metabolism
- Better body structure
- Low body fat mass
Steps of Jump Rope — Skipping Rope
- Start holding the “jump rope” with feet hip distance apart, while keeping the hands at your hip level.
- Your arms stretched to the sides.
- Circle the hands like you are swinging a jump rope and hop over it to jump rope in place.
Tip: You can perform regular jumps—make sure to jump over the rope by alternating your feet—or switch your things-up by doing the high knee jumps (bending your knees up toward the core by engaging your abs), cross country jumps (feet stay close to the ground; your one foot in front, one slightly behind, and jump to switch), or double unders (one jump for every 2 full rotations of the jump rope).
Techniques
For better Jump Rope (Skipping Rope), focus on the following important information on each area, when you are doing this exercise:
1. Stand tall
- Stand tall; erect, upright, posture, and your torso relaxed, keep neck in neutral and look straight forward.
- Do not put your head forward or look down at your feet as this impairs the posture and workout.
2. Shoulders relaxed
Do not contract the neck or shoulders. Keep your shoulder blades in neutral position.
3. Arms relaxed
Let your arms hang low and relaxed, slightly bend the elbow, 45 degrees, and close to your sides.
4. Hands around hips or waistline
Keep your hands around your hips or waistline and a slightly out from your sides. Your hand position also depends on the length of your rope you have. Adjust position or change rope and hold handles firmly with a comfortable grip.
5. Using wrists to turn the rope
- The rope jumping swing should be generated primarily by your wrists moving in a small circular motion (approximately 2 inches).
- The swing should seem effortless. Avoid using the shoulders and arms, do not do any excessive movements.
6. Landing softly
- Land softly on the balls of the feet. Do not make any noise while you are jumping and landing; it keeps the impact down.
- In general: Jump on the balls of the feet, especially for speed work. However, for longer sessions, vary your steps and use your toe-ball heel (super-smooth roll) landings to absorb the impact evenly across your feet. If you are always on the toes, your calves are working constantly and it is hard on your muscles and joints.
7. Slightly bending and extending: Keep knees and feet aligned and knees soft
Pay attention during your jumping jacks and scissors or jumping lunges; keep your knees and feet aligned, and avoid twisting your knees. Do not lock your knees during the jumping or hopping.
8. Jump low
- In general and for speed do not jump too high, keep it low, 1/4-1/2 inches or ½-1½ cm off the ground, and relaxed. Keep your movements small for most of the time, especially during speed work.
- For variation you may jump higher and mix different jumping heights, e.g; with double swings or without swings.
9. Start with slow
- Initially, when performing your first rope jumps, and when warming up, take it easy. Start with slow easy jogging or hopping, whatever it is the easiest for you. Spend a couple of minutes; raising your heart rate, get your blood and oxygen flowing, and raise your body temperature, as this makes all work easier and improves your performance.
- When you warm, pick up the pace, and maybe range of motion, depending on your moves.
10. Keeping the rhythm
- You may jump rope with or without music, this can help you keep your rhythm and is very motivating, if you find the right music for you and with the right tempo, not too slow and not too fast.
- Tip: For mixed moves, 140 BPM, beats per minute.
- Listen to the rope touching the ground and make that sound into an evenly paced rhythm.
- To make certain you keep an even rhythm, complete the same number of jumps every minute, for e.g. 120.
11. Timing
- Rope jumping success depends on timing, it is a motor skill, coordination, and can be learned. Over time you may train the brain and motor system to analyze and react to your rope position and speed.
- Initially some exercisers find Jump Rope, or Skipping Rope, challenging, but it is only natural: When Jump Rope is new to you, you do not have the necessary technique and timing and coordination, that leads to tripping up.
- And of course it is frustrating, luckily jumping like a pro is just a matter of practice.
- Most things – including Jump Rope — Skipping Rope – It can be mastered, if you start with a slower tempo. So take it slow and easy and pick up your pace, when you are ready.
FIT training recommendation and volume guidance
| F: | Frequency (How many times per week) |
| I: | Intensity; load and speed (How hard per training session) |
| T: | Time (How long per training session) |
You can design your workout by set and repeat (volume) – some jump ropes can count your swings and say the number out loud – or time, duration.
Jump Rope — Skipping Rope Volume Guidelines
Some general guidelines for weekly volume are given below. There can be some individual differences depending on your body weight and if you are used to weight lifting activities like running, jumping and dancing. However, it is wise to start in small amounts and progress with caution – this is to avoid overuse injuries that are difficult to get rid of.
| Exerciser level | Volume |
|---|---|
| Novice: | Begin with 1 to 2 minutes. 3 to 5 times a week. Work up to 3 to 5 minutes per workout in 3 to 6 months. |
| Beginner: | Begin with 3 to 5 minutes. 3 to 5 times a week. Work up to 5 to 10 minutes per workout in 3 to 6 months. |
| Intermediate: | Begin with 5 minutes. 3 to 5 times a week. Work up to 10 to 15 minutes per workout in 2 to 4 months. |
| Advanced: | Begin with 5 to 10 minutes. 3 to 5 times a week. Work up to 15 to 30 minutes per workout in 2 to 4 months. |
3 to 5 times per week is a general guideline for cardiovascular workouts. You can combine various cardio workouts for good results, e.g. One week: rope jumping, cycling, rope jumping, rowing, running, resting.
Example of Repetiton Guidelines
Start with 5 to 10 jumps per set initially for a total of 10 sets per training session. Jump for 5 minutes and rest as you needed between each set. Gradually increase the repetition volume from 10 to 25 reps for each set as time and jumping ability improve.
Keep all the parameters in mind and get maximum results and avoid overtraining or undertraining.
Safety and Precautions
Jump Rope — Skipping Rope is a safe activity with no risk of injury. You may get a small whip of rope from time to time, but that’s all. However, overuse injury, calf sprain is possible and should be avoided. Following precautions should be taken in mind while doing this full body exercise:
- To continue the fun of this exercise, start with caution and move slowly. Even if the impact is not as high during running, as you leap just an inch from the ground, it is still stressful, if you do it too quickly. So: Initially start with at least 3-5 minutes of rope jumping, maybe just 30 seconds and a pause and then again. Slowly build your training volume using small increment techniques.
- It must be nice to jump rope. You should not experience any kind of pain or extreme fatigue. Listen to your body, take a break if you needed. Build strength and stamina over time.
- Initially choose a soft surface and wear good workout shoes.
- Do not jump on your heel, as it is very hard on your heel and knees – an unnecessary change.
- Don’t hop on the same, equal, leg for extended periods. There are a maximum of 8 repetitions for general fitness.
- Don’t constantly jump on the balls of your feet, ‘bounce’ and unload, reduce weight, reduce impact.
- Do not perform exactly the same jumping movement, e.g. Jumping Jack, for a long time. It can be done, but it is harder and more exhausting. 8–16 consecutive repeats are recommended for general fitness.
