Jump Rope Benefits Report
Jump Rope Benefits Report
Jump Rope Benefits Report
Jump rope training is one of the best-kept secrets in fitness right now.
Not only is it easy to get started, but jumping rope supports almost any
fitness goal—fat loss, endurance, strength, and performance. You name
it, and a jump rope can help. Plus, it gets the job done anywhere.
In this post, we’ll break down the benefits of jumping rope and show you
why we (and many others) think a jump rope should be a staple in your
workout routine.
1. Burns calories
2. Improves cardiovascular health
3. Boosts bone density
4. Greater muscle activation
5. Increases agility
6. Improves coordination
7. Builds Balance
8. Has meditative qualities
9. Improves Overall Wellbeing
10. It’s fun
Quick Tip: Use the list above to jump to a more detailed breakdown of
each jump rope benefit.
Want to learn about the benefits of weighted jump ropes? Check out
this infographic .
You don’t need to chain yourself to the treadmill for an hour to get a
decent cardio workout. All you need is a few minutes of jumping rope to
get the same calorie-burning results.
Jumping rope can achieve a burn rate of up to 1,300 calories per hour of
vigorous activity, with about 0.1 calories consumed per jump. Ten
minutes of jumping rope can roughly be considered the equivalent of
running an eight-minute mile.
You can achieve some impressive results from jumping every day. Check
out some of the jump rope transformations from our community
members who take on our monthly jump rope challenge :
On that note, you can improve your cardiovascular health with only 15
minutes of jump rope a day, five times a week.
Building strong bones is another one of the many jump rope benefits.
With weighted jump ropes, you engage more muscle groups with every
swing. Here’s the difference between light ropes and weighted ropes:
The heavier the rope, the greater the resistance. And with more
resistance, you create more muscle engagement.
Jump ropes offer a complete full-body workout. A jump rope will work
your calf muscles, quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs, oblique muscles,
forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back muscles, and chest muscles.
Not only are you building strength in your lower body, but you’re also
engaging your entire upper body to control the force when you swing
the rope.
Quick footwork
Speed
Power
Agility
This benefit of jumping rope makes the exercise exceptionally useful for
cross-training if you play any sports where you need to change direction
quickly (boxing, hockey, basketball, or volleyball).
Or maybe you just want to get better at chasing your kids around. There
are jump rope benefits to help you with that too.
As you get more comfortable with the exercise, this is one of the jump
rope benefits that will extend to all areas of your life.
Building balance works hand in hand with coordination. Given that you
need to coordinate multiple areas while your whole body is in motion,
the combined movements are tasked with maintaining balance.
With consistent practice, you should find that balancing becomes easier
over time.
Some Crossrope jumpers even go so far as to say the activity feels like
therapy.
Jumping rope can be pretty tricky. We’ve already discussed how much
balance and coordination are involved, so keeping a steady pace for 30
seconds takes some work. To build up to long periods of unbroken skips,
you must keep your mind in the present moment.
When you enter a state of flow with your jump rope, everything else
that’s clouding your mind just slips away. It’s just you and your rope.
Quality of sleep
Ability to cope with stress
Mental sharpness
Self-image
Opportunities to make new friends
Productivity
But to be consistent with something, you have to actually enjoy doing it.
While everyone has a different outlook on what’s fun, we think the jump
rope offers a fun workout for a few different reasons:
The best benefits of jumping rope come from being able to utilize a
combination of light and heavy jump ropes in your workouts.
Think about how you use other training tools, like dumbbells. You don’t
just train with a single set of weights. You have different weights that
you mix and match depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
Lighter ropes are great for getting lean and improving endurance.
Heavier ropes are great for building strength and power. Together, the
combination gives you the ability to get a complete, full-body workout
wherever you go.
We designed the Crossrope Fitness System to give you this type of
workout. Clip in different weights of ropes and follow along as our app
guides you through fun workouts and challenges.
Jumping for just a few times each week can help with everything from
losing weight and building muscle, to improving heart health and
enhancing coordination.
I’ve gathered all that data, and the supporting studies, to create the most
comprehensive list of jump rope benefits available. And I’ve made sure to
cite each of my sources below, for anyone interested in learning more.
Additionally, I have included 7 helpful tips for getting the most out of your
jump rope workouts and enabling you to tap into the full potential of all 11
benefits.
Look at the following chart to see how jumping rope stacks up against
other cardiovascular exercises.
This makes hitting your weight loss goals and achieving your “Summer
body” significantly easier. It also means you don’t need to spend nearly as
much time in the gym.
2. Improves stamina
Another benefit of jumping rope is its ability to improve stamina.
It’s why many endurance athletes incorporate jump rope into their training
regimens. Boxers, for example, will often jump rope multiple times a day.
This is what enables them to go an entire 12 rounds (36 minutes).
One study, following amateur endurance runners, found that just 2-4 jump
rope sessions per week, for 10 weeks, significantly improved their 3-km
time trial performance.
Gaining additional stamina can help you stay more focused throughout the
day, perform your daily activities at a higher level, and prevent feelings of
fatigue or exhaustion.
3. Builds muscle
Jumping rope is a great way to build muscle. And it’s a full-body workout!
When jumping rope, you’re engaging both the upper and lower body in a
way many other forms of cardio do not. This unique benefit can help shape
your body in a very short amount of time.
Obviously, the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves are the primary
muscle groups engaged. But the shoulders, back, and abdominal
muscles are also worked.
Regardless of the type of jump rope used, data suggests that jumping rope
regularly is correlated with a noticeable improvement in strength and
power.
Additionally, there are certain movements you can do with a jump rope to
target individual muscle groups more than others. See the following article
for tips on how to isolate specific muscle groups.
When you jump rope, with proper form, your shoulders are back, your
head is up, your spine erect, and your core engaged. All of which are
key to a healthy and stable posture.
With better posture, you should find yourself with less tension in your
shoulders and neck, improved circulation and digestion, less back pain, and
you may even notice yourself an inch or two taller.
That’s right, better posture can actually cause you to appear slightly taller
due to slouching less.
This can lead to a great deal of pain and in some cases injury.
5. Enhances coordination
Enhanced coordination is another amazing benefit that jumping rope
provides.
There aren’t too many cardio exercises that require the level of
coordination jumping rope requires, either.
To jump rope, you need both your hands and feet to be in sync. It requires
timing and rhythm. It’s kind of similar to rubbing your belly and patting
your head. It takes focus and hand-eye coordination.
When you start to incorporate more advanced moves into your routine it
requires even greater coordination and timing. Crossovers, double-unders,
etc., these all test your hand-eye coordination in a way that most other
forms of cardio do not.
And that was after only 8 weeks of training! Just imagine what it can do for
your coordination after months of consistent training.
This is another reason why many athletes, such as Boxers, utilize a
jump rope. The ability to use a variety of different muscles and limbs,
at the same time, is critical to their success.
6. Strengthens bones
Stronger and denser bones is another pay off from jumping rope regularly.
One study, following 176 young Chinese girls (12.23 years old), found that
one hour of jump rope training per week, over the course of about 10
months, resulted in higher levels of BMD than the control group.
In terms of overall health and wellness, a healthy heart is one of the biggest
benefits from jumping rope.
Jump Rope for Heart, or the Heart Foundation, was created more than 38
years ago to promote an active lifestyle and help fund groundbreaking
research to fight heart disease.
People who participate in rigorous activity, at least 2 days per week, have a
50% lower risk of coronary events, such as a heart attack.
8. Convenient workout
Jumping rope is one of the most convenient forms of cardio.
You can literally jump rope anywhere! I’ll often climb out of bed in the
morning and jump rope in my room. It’s a great way to get your exercise
out of the way, first thing in the morning.
One study of residents living in Georgia found that people with somewhere
to exercise, 10 minutes or less from home, were significantly more likely to
meet current recommendations for daily physical activity than those who
had to travel further than 10 minutes.
This is just one small case study highlighting the importance of
convenience. My guess is you can think of examples from your own life.
Jumping rope doesn’t require anything other than the rope itself. You
can jump rope in your home (assuming the ceiling is high enough), on
your porch, your backyard, etc.
9. Low-impact exercise
The impact on your body from jumping rope is a huge benefit, especially
for those who experience pain in their joints from running or jogging.
It’s also something many people don’t know about jumping rope.
When you jump rope, your knees are slightly bent which loads the weight
of your body onto your muscles. Not only does this help build stronger leg
muscles, but it reduces the potential damage to your joints.
Rope jumping also strengthens the muscles that support the ligaments
and tendons in the knees, ankles, and feet which greatly reduces the
risk of injury and can aid in the recovery after an injury.
When you jump rope, you’re jumping on the balls of your feet. And
often you’ll alternate between feet, jumping on one foot and then the
other. This movement trains your ability to distribute your weight
evenly and remain upright and steady.
With a strong center of balance not only are you less likely to slip and
fall, but the odds of sustaining an injury if you fall becomes reduced as
well.
And it only takes a few minutes of jumping rope each day to help develop
your balance.
It only costs $20 or $30 for a solid jump rope, and that’s a one-time
cost. Whereas a gym membership is likely to cost you that same
amount, every month. Or more!
Everywhere you look there’s someone trying to sell you a new workout plan
or a new “game-changing” piece of exercise equipment. The truth is you
don’t need any of that.
I’ve personally learned the hard way and tried tons of different supplements
and training programs.
Here is a chart showing the typical fees and membership costs for some of
the most popular gyms in the United States.
Related Questions
That’s the bare minimum. However, if you were to perform aerobic exercise
daily, like jumping rope, those benefits would be amplified greatly.
Look at the following article for more information and tips on Jumping
Rope Everyday.
If you’re new to jumping rope, it’s usually best to start out slow. Try
jumping for a couple days your first week. Depending on how you feel
towards the end of the week, increase the number of days you jump the
following week.
Do this every week until you reach your goal of jumping rope daily.
That’s not to say jumping rope isn’t a good exercise for burning belly fat. It
absolutely is!
By burning 500 calories per day, I’m able to eat around 2500 calories and
still end each day with about a 500-calorie deficit.
Consistently hitting this calorie deficit ensures I’m able to lose weight (burn
fat). Overtime, that weight loss will show in the reduction of belly fat.
Regardless of how much you jump rope or how little you eat, weight loss
takes time, especially when targeting the midsection. Be patient and by
consistent.
Jumping rope has been shown to benefit the brain in a variety of ways.
Jumping rope regularly seems to increase the production of new
neurons and neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus, benefiting
cognitive function. This is particularly true for an aged brain with
neurodegenerative disorders that are associated with cognitive
decline.
The release of these brain chemicals will have feeling more awake and
attentive, elevate your mood, and increase your ability to retain
information. As you can imagine, all of these can have a profound effect on
your life.
7. A jump ropes is the only piece of home cardio equipment you really
need. And all you need for space is the ability to safely swing the rope
without hitting any furniture or knick-knacks.
Start simple, with the conventional jump on two feet for 1 minute.
Keep alternating the feet, then graduate to one foot to work on the
individual calf muscles for another 1 minute.
Use heavier ropes for strength and muscular development. Here are
the best jump ropes for cardio.
2. IMPROVES BALANCE, MOTOR SKILLS, AND COORDINATION
According to a study involving 24 young athletes, jumping rope enhances
general motor coordination and balance. It coordinates the feet, hands,
wrists, shoulders, eyes and spine work, which amplified with everyday
practice.
12 soccer players in the study jumped rope during training while the other
12 did the normal soccer drills. After 8 weeks, they took physical tasks to
assess unilateral dynamic lower limb balance and motor skills.
Those who jumped rope outperformed those who had not. Jumping rope
thus increases motor skills and balance over time.
Being a low-impact exercise, you absorb much less impact than when
running. You jump just a few inches from the ground on a regular drill. This
reduces stress and strain on the hips, feet, ankle, and knees.
Jumping in the right posture reduces the impact on the problem areas such
as the knees and ankles. Landing on both feet with knees bent distributes
pressure evenly.
Good posture when jumping rope aligns your body from the head to the
toes. It pulls the shoulders back and aligns the spine. Maintaining this
posture while jumping 20 minutes a day promotes the right posture and
corrects slouches. Thus, you look taller.
As you may know, good posture is important for all workouts, as it prevents
lower back pain.
Final Word
Jumping rope offers extraordinary benefits, especially when done
consistently. And you only need 20 minutes to enjoy all the above benefits.
This means you can stay in shape no matter how busy you are.
You and I know that doing the same exercise repeatedly for long leads to
boredom. Therefore, you should combine jumping rope with these 28
home workouts to burn fat and build muscle shockingly fast.
10 Jump Rope Benefits: The Unique Results of Jump Rope Training
(crossrope.com)
12 Amazing Benefits of Jumping Rope for 20 Minutes Every Day - Flab Fix