Jumping Rope
 

I've been seeing more and more recommendations for skipping or jumping rope as a way to lose weigh, seemingly about 400cal for 30minutes at a good pace.

Now for a silly question, would just jumping on the spot sans rope or jumping jacks be equivalent, or is the moving of the rope an important factor?

I did a few workouts with a friend of mine who is a kickboxer, and he had me jumping rope a lot. I was AMAZED at how quickly I was winded and pooped out (well, I was way out of shape too). He had one that was weighted too, filled with water or gel or something. I think its the combo of the timing, arm movement and jumping that makes it work as well as it does. I doubt that simply jumping in place would be quite as beneficial.

Yeah, the rope has weight and I don't get nearly as tired (or really, tired at all) when I do jumping jacks as when I skip rope. It's harder the faster you go because the rope wants to get out of control... and you're not even making big jumps when you get good at it. Plus, I tend to pound the ground a lot harder doing jumping jacks than when I'm skipping rope (probably to compensate for the missing resistance from the rope) and that really kills the joints.

Just get a rope. It's not that expensive and the results will be much better. Now that you brought it up, I think I'm going to start jump-roping again, too! :thumbsup:

I tried to start jumping rope but I am hopelessly uncoordinated.

I can understand the feeling because I never learned how to enter a double-dutch situation successfully and I'm not sure I ever will. I do remember this process from when I learned as a child:

Start by jumping at a steady pace, slowly, with little "pumps" in between for pacing. The "pumps" are like toe lifts basically, so that you can keep up a rhythm even though you're only actually jumping once per second (or maybe a touch faster - the idea is to feel bouncy, so the pace will be whatever makes you feel most bouncy). Do this while holding the rope behind you, with your hands at your sides. Then when you feel settled into your pace, you can concentrate on trying to spin the rope fast enough for it to pass under your feet.

This doesn't work for everyone of course. It just never seems to feel natural to some. I've seen my old dojo brothers try just getting through a fixed number of them by concentrating a whole lot. If you can only get through 3 jumps, stop at three jumps and then reset and start over for another 3 jumps... and repeat. When three jumps feels more comfortable, make it 5. I don't know how successful that method is, but I did see some improvement.

Practice makes perfect. I used to hate physical sessions just because they made us jump rope. Which isn't so bad until they made us do doubles.

Damn bastard kids who could do consecutive triples.... damn showoffs :lol:

Jump rope is not a viable option for me, apparently I'm too retarded, and cant do it.

Kids are like that. The good thing is when you get older you can outspend them.

:lol:

I would think jump roping would be great for scuplting the abs as well, specificaly the lower portion.. Anyone know what specific muscle areas would benifit?

Besides the obvious cardio benefit, I've noticed that my calves and forearms can KILL after jumping rope. I felt it in my quads last time I did it, too, but they were already sore from biking, so they probably get worked less. It also works the core - my back and abs always seem to get tired the longer I skip.