Who doesn’t love jumping rope? I do not know about you people. But, I do. As a child grew in the 90’s, I went to school where we used to play a lot of tag, hide and seek, catch, or hopscotch, which are fun, but nothing beats jumping rope. It is fun, it is simple, it is versatile, it is limitless, and timeless. You don’t need much space. You can play with any number of people, be it with only one person or two, pick any number really. You can even play it by yourself. All you need to have is a rope, any kind, as long as it is long enough for you to skip, and a flat surface. I used to thread my own rope using a lot of rubber bands. Even making the rope can be fun. You can pick colorful rubber bands to thread it with and make your own rope unique on its own. There is also no age limit to do jumping rope. It often practiced by athlete and combat sport practitioners. But, now you do question yourself, then, would it be the right practice for me?
Let us talk about the very basic one, which involves only one person to do it. There are several types of the routine you can try by yourself, including easy jump, speed step, criss-cross, side swing, double under, leg over, and many more. Here we are going to give you tips on how to do it and what you will get from choosing this activity over others.
What to prepare:
- A single rope or two, which is flexible yet pretty sturdy so it won’t break apart when you equip it.
- Go to an area that offer flat surface with a minimum of 2 times the length of your rope all around so it will give you a safe perimeter. You can do it indoor (i.e.: living room) or outdoor (i.e.: pavement field or asphalt.)
- You can start by doing light stretching to prepare your body muscle.
- Prepare a bottle of water with you.
- Take a stopwatch with you if you feel it is necessary to measure each set.
- You can start do the jumping (with your preferred method) with 30 seconds break interval in between sets or when you feel tired.
Notes: For beginner, you can start it slow and ignore the allotted time for each set and do it casually, just remember to do it within your capacity and not to over-exert yourself.
Benefits of Doing Jumping Rope
Doing jumping rope offer an abundance of benefits, especially for people who is looking forward to get fit and healthy, as well as get in shape. It is not without reason a lot of people who is into exercising includes this routine in their exercise..
- It burns a lot of calories.
If you aim to lose a few pounds, jumping rope might be your best bet. Surprisingly this simple yet engaging exercise can burn a whooping 250 calories for only 15 minutes of jumping rope. Pretty impressive, isn’t it? You need to burn 3500 calories in order to lose a pound, so doing this activity regularly every day will help you lose plenty amount of mass in a healthy manner. This activity does also produce something called EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) means that you will continue to burn more calories even after you are done doing the exercise itself.
- It’s a full body workout.
This activity will require your whole body to work out, it is not an isolated movement exercise that only demand a certain part of your body to move. When you jump all of your body move and burn calories evenly. Building the overall strength and flexibility of your body. It’s an all in one exercise.
- Sporting that abs!
Not only jumping rope is an effective way to lose a few extra pounds. But it also helps you gain and build muscles on your body, especially legs and lower body part. At first, you might feel aching sensation after your first routine, it is caused by the tearing of the muscle but by consuming protein and let it heal the muscle will go through the process of regenerating while also getting more stronger and toned.
- It is simple and cheap.
It does not require much to do this exercise. You basically just need one simple rope and a space. That is all. Yes, that is all you need to have to do the jumping rope. The equipment is rather easy to be obtained. As for space, you get all the flexibility you can do it at home, indoor, or if you opt to do it outside, then go ahead, it is all up to you, as long as you can access a flat surface.
- Doesn’t require much time.
For such big amount of calories burned in such a short period of time, I am pretty sure time will not get in the way on doing this exercise. As long as you dedicate 15 minutes a day to do it, you can maintain a healthy exercise for your body while burning your fats.
- Vast variety of tricks.
There are lots of tricks and combination of this activity. It is called a game not for nothing. You can jump with both of your feet, or try single legged jumps, or do alter one leg to another. There are lots of other combinations too, for example Criss-Cross, Side Straddle, Front-Back Cross, The James Hirst, Elephant, Toad, Inverse Toad, and many more. You can even try and find more new tricks by yourself. Mix the tricks, you definitely won’t get bored.
- Maintaining a healthy and beautiful skin.
Exercising regularly has been proven to enhance the health of the skin and make it shines beautifully. Jumping rope is one of your easy-to-access exercise that will help you maintaining the beauty of your skin by improving your blood flow, eliminates toxin by opening up your pores to excrete it. It also relieves tension, stress and keep your hormonal balance, thus resulting in a healthy skin, free of acne.
- Maintaining a healthy lymphatic system.
Lymphatic system holds a very important role In detoxifying our body from toxin and waste. Nevertheless, unlike the circulatory system it doesn’t have a pump. It counts on the movement and contraction of the muscle to circulate throughout your body. Jumping rope offers a full body muscle movement, which will aid your lymphatic system function to move around your body.
- A good cardio workout.
When doing high reps of jumping rope, this will benefits the blood flow in your body, making it much better. Moreover, the exercise build up and strengthen not only the skeletal muscle but other type of muscle as well, cardiac muscle being one of them. But before conducting this type of exercise it is important to consult your medical condition first to safely measure how rigorous the exercise you would be allowed to do or if this type of exercise is allowed at all.
- It helps keep your body warm.
Because this exercise help your blood flows better, it allows your body to be able to regulate your body temperature more effectively. It makes your metabolism takes places in a faster rate, resulting in energy and heat. A good circulatory system also mean, no more cold tips on your body!
- Improves bone density.
Believe it or not, jumping rope improves your bone density and strengthen it. According to Dr. Daniel Barry, jumping up and down is the best exercise to improve bone density. But, do consult to your physician first if you ever have fracture, injuries or other bone problems, to make sure it is safe for you to do jumping rope.
- Lessen the risk of getting foot and ankle injuries.
Jumping rope has been practiced by many athletes especially athletes who are specialized in sport that requires foot strength. It minimalized the chance of them getting hurt in the ankle and foot. This happens, due to the fact doing jumping rope strengthen the muscle around the the ankle joint in your foot. Doing jumping rope also requires you to stay on your toe, which makes your body get used to move with this kind of footing.
- Improving coordination.
Jumping rope makes you concentrate on what you are doing with your feet. Especially, by the time you practice more variety of tricks, your brain will process the information about what you are going to do with your feet and coordinate it with the motoric system. The more you practice, the more fluent your brain in coordinating your thinking process, muscle, and sensory system.
- Improves your brainpower.
It sounds surprising that this simple activity can actually make you smarter. This jumping up-and-down movement allows your brain to work on both its left and right hemisphere. Studies had proven jumping rope will improve reading skills, enhancing memory and spatial awareness, and make you more mentally alert.
- Help you stay calm.
As it requires you to focus on both your brain and your muscle at the same time to maintain the rhythm so you won’t trip, jumping rope will train you to remain calm and collected in facing and solving complex situation in a short amount of time.
I am sure, reading this, some of you will be intrigued to at least try it once, better yet continuously. With a pile of benefits it holds, it won’t hurt to try and start practicing jumping rope!