Jumping Rope Could Improve Your Workouts

Your favorite toy or recess activity as a child might actually be an insanely good exercise for you. Jumping rope helps you target the whole body…and it’s fun!

“If you’ve done it lately, you know how much it can get your heart pumping,” says Tim Church, a professor at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “But one of the nice things about it is the intensity can really be as high as you want it to be.” You can easily control your tempo when using a jump rope. Start off by warming up with a slow pace and transition to a faster pace.

There’s a reason why so many boxers incorporate jumping rope into their workout regimen. “Boxers do it because the precise timing it requires between the feet and hands helps connect the support and lower body with the brain,” says Church. It helps synchronize your whole body and keeps you coordinated.

Studies show that young soccer player who incorporated a jump rope routine into their soccer drills improved their balance and motor coordination compared to kids who did not.

Aside from cardio and coordination, jumping rope is also great for upper body sculpting. “It can seem like all the rope spinning is coming from the wrists and hands, but there’s actually an amazing amount of work required from your upper arms and shoulders and back to control and stabilize the rope,” says Michele Olson, an adjunct professor of sports science at Huntingdon College. “Especially compared to running or other forms of cardio, it’s more a total-body workout.”

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Jumping rope is also beneficial to the bones as it helps increase density. “Anything that has some impact to it or that places a load on your bones will increase their density,” Olson says. “Jumping rope certainly has that aspect to it.” Another study revealed that women who jumped as high as they could just 10 times, three times a week for six months, increased mineral density in their legs and lower half of their spines.

(Source: Health Magazine)