Photo via Charles Dawley, Flickr CC
You may not always have a 30 or 60 minutes, but I’ll bet you can find 15 minutes to get that blood flowing. A basic jump rope can save you when you’re in a time crunch and help you in a variety of ways. It’s cheap, portable, and it has a whole bunch of benefits. I even included a workout to get you going!
Get a rope that fits you:
1. Adjust the rope by holding the handles and stepping onto the center of the rope.
2. Shorten the rope so the handles reach your armpits.
Jumping rope does take some time and skill, so for those of you who trip up on the rope, as we all do, it’s time to improve your coordination. Fix your eyes on something straight ahead and get into a rhythm; it should help.
Your 15 Minute Workout:
Perform each of the exercises for 90 seconds.
Try your best to move from each exercise to the next, with little to no rest in-between.
For added strength and difficulty add weights to your strength moves.
Make sure you are medically cleared to exercise.
1. Cardio: Jump Rope Skip
2. Strength: Squats
3. Cardio: Jump Rope High Knee
4. Strength: Alternating Lunges
5. Cardio: Jump Rope Side to Side Hops
6. Strength: Sit Ups
7. Cardio: Jump Rope Single Leg Bounce 10x Each Leg Back & Fourth
8. Strength: Glute Bridge
9. Cardio: Jump Rope Double Bounce With Both Feet
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10. Strength: Push Ups
For the actual jump rope portion of the workout, "the main muscles that you're working are your calves but you activate a lot more muscle than you may think," says Brian Peeler, NASM-CPT and trainer on Bravo's hit reality show Workout. "You're also using your shoulders—particularly your rear deltoids—as well as your abs, quads, hamstrings. Pretty much every muscle is firing when doing this exercise to keep your body stable."
When you jump rope at a moderate to high pace you’re able to burn approximately 10-15 calories a minute! If that’s not enough to get you motivated, here are some other fun facts about our good ol’ childhood play thing. (We used to think this was fun, and you can feel that way again!)
You can benefit with this exercise by having the opportunity to improve your coordination. Work on a variety of ways to get over the rope. Begin at a more moderate pace then increase your quickness as your get into your own rhythm. With that, your agility and footwork will improve. The more you perform these skills the more your cardiovascular endurance will increase, which will make jumping rope more fun and rewarding. Due to jumping rope being both mentally and physically involved, it’s a great way to escape. Pay attention to your breathing, jump style, the ropes rotation, fixating your eyes, rhythm, and just get lost in improving your own abilities.
Go ahead and grab a rope, jump indoors, outdoors, or throw it in your travel bag; just get moving. No pigtails required, well unless, of course, you’d like to.
For more workouts please visit: www.FreeFitnessVideo.com
Resources: Shape Magazine, quote from Brian Peeler
