When you think of jump roping, you might think of the activity you did during recess as a kid, or the mandatory warm-up coach made you do when you were on a sports team in high school. No matter what memories the term conjures up in your mind, you’ve probably never thought about it as a legitimate activity to include in a fitness routine. However, I’m here to tell you that if you’re looking to get fit, it can be a great idea to start jump roping again.
Jump roping is underrated because as easy as it might seem, there are a plenty of benefits that come with doing it routinely for extended periods of time. In this post, I’ll dive into some of the primary reasons why it’s the ultimate workout.
Effective for Losing Weight
In my post Cardio Workouts and Weight Loss, I mention that different types of cardio exert different levels of intensity on the body. Jogging on a treadmill, spinning on an elliptical, and many other common forms of cardio you see at the gym are considered low-intensity. These are the most inefficient exercises you can do, because you need to spend lots of time, at least 30 minutes or more, doing these in order to burn a relatively decent number of calories.
In contrast, jump roping is a high-intensity exercise, which makes it an ideal workout for losing weight. You’ll burn calories at a high rate, which means you can burn more calories in less time than if you were to do those other aforementioned exercises. With just 15 minutes of jump roping, you can burn as many as 150-250 calories, which is nearly as much as you would burn from a light half-hour jog. In the end, no one is looking to spend more time at the gym, so cutting the amount of time you spend doing cardio in half can be extremely valuable.
Great for Building Muscle
Jump roping isn’t just a great exercise for cardio and weight-loss purposes, it’s actually a strength-building exercise too. It might not seem like you’re doing any heavy lifting when jump roping, but over the course of an entire workout, the exercise really places a high degree of tension on your muscles. Most obviously, jump roping is very effective for building lower body strength; it builds up muscles in your legs, such as your quads and calves.
In addition to that, however, jump roping also improves your upper body strength. The perpetual swinging of the rope continuously works your shoulders and arms and can significantly strengthen these muscles over time. It’s also a nice core exercise, because the core is engaged throughout the duration of the exercise in order to stabilize yourself while jumping.
You might be skeptical now, but try it out for yourself. Within minutes, you’ll begin to feel the burn in various muscle groups, and you’ll likely experience muscle soreness in the days after your first few sessions.
Accessible to Anyone
Apart from the physical benefits associated with jump roping, a huge advantage of jump ropes is that they’re far more accessible than many other forms of cardio.
Other exercises require you to buy expensive treadmills and stationary bikes, or at least pay a gym to use theirs. Even if you prefer to run or bike outdoors, weather is still something you have to take into consideration. However, none of these restrictions apply to jump roping; jump ropes are very affordable, and if you have enough space in your home or garage, you can use them whenever you want. The ease of accessibility alone makes jump roping a much more appealing option to many people, and makes it an exercise people are more likely to stick to over the long-run.
Easy to Progress in Difficulty
As you integrate jump roping into your routine and become better at it, there are various ways to progress the movement to continue pushing your body. Once you can do the regular two-legged hops in your sleep, you can advance to jumping on one leg, crossing the ropes, doing double-unders, and performing other more complex moves. Gradually increasing the difficulty of your routine will allow you to continue improving your cardiovascular health, as well as introduce other benefits such as working on your balance and agility.
For strength-building purposes, you can also upgrade to using weighted jump ropes. They might not seem that much heavier than regular ropes at first, but there’s a big difference in the resistance training capability they provide. Even if you’re pretty comfortable using a regular jump rope, you might find yourself unable to use a weighted rope for more than a minute before tiring out. Therefore, once you’re at the point where your muscles seem accustomed to jump roping, moving onto a weighted rope is a fantastic way to continue making them stronger.
With all the different ways that you can keep jump roping challenging, this also makes it more fun than other forms of cardio. Wanting to learn and master new moves can make you more motivated to be consistent with the exercise, and although it can be grueling, the fun it brings may outweigh the burden of it being a workout. It could turn out to be something you want to do every day, rather than something you feel like you have to do.
The Perfect Package
While jump roping might popularly be viewed as just a fun hobby, its potential as a real form of exercise is often underestimated and underappreciated. With excellent health benefits, little necessary equipment, and an element of fun that’s hard to come by in most other stationary exercises, there’s not much else you could ask for. In my opinion, it’s honestly one of the best cardio workouts you can do, no matter how far along you are in your fitness journey.
