Skipping
 

Hi to all you fitness buffs out there.
I just wanted to know the benefits of skipping as a stand alone exercise? Can you lose serious weight this way? Whats the best way to go about doing this?
My program is:100 skips then some weight training,then 100 skips,then weights or pushups etc
I do this until I've done about 600 skips.i usually have about 30sec break after each set of skips before starting with the weights.

Is this workout good enough or should i up the intensity/number of skips?
I'm not looking to have big bulging muscles,I just want a well toned upper and lower body,and get rid of the fat thats developed around my waist. I'm not overweight,just a little around the middle :)

Thanks in advance for all you guys advice aswell as the avice in the other threads :thumbsup:

It's not as good as other more common forms of endurance exercise, because you're constantly taking breaks. If you did skipping straight for 20 minutes or so, it would be fine. The way you do it in intervals though, you're going to get massive forearms and calves, but you likely won't lose much fat.

I advise skipping as a great workout, but would advise you to incorporate a run or some other kind of cardio into your routines. I do alot of skipping in my kickboxing classes. Its benefits towards general fitness, speedy feet and a good leg workout are well known. And, its not just your calves that you are working. You should alter your styles of skipping to workout different areas, and really push yourself. Some good routines include lifting your knees high between skips (sprinting), doing two rotations per one jump and moving backward and fowards. You also will find that when doing it correctly your forearms will get a mean workout too. My other tip, is to do skipping to loud music, it can really help you along when it gets really painful.
As i said though, id incorporate some other excercise with it though.

Skipping is a better muscle builder than a cardio exercise. To loose fat you need to do something continuous for 20-45 minutes to keep you heartrate above 80%. Thats not condusive to skipping.

You could encorporate skipping with interval sprints. Skip for 60 seconds, sprint for 60 seconds. Rest 60 seconds. During the resting period your heartrate will still stay high. Do this for 20-30 minutes and you will love the results.

Doing short intervals of cardio between weight sets keeps your heart rate pretty high during your entire workout, which means you're gonna use more calories. Taking three 10 minute cardio intervals during a workout will burn just as many calories one 30 minute session.

No you dont. You just have to burn more calories than you take in. What you are referring to is when your body runs out of its stored glycogen and reverts to burning fat for energy, which usually happens after about an hour of high intensity exercise. And while it may sound great ("sweet, all I have to do is work out for an hour and then im burning pure fat!"), it doesnt really work that way. Its also known as bonking, and its not a fun thing. It isnt a smooth switch over, and burning the fat for fuel is much less efficient than the glycogen--its slower, and you have a dramatic energy crash. Thats why long distance runners and cyclists eat something during their workout--it gets the blood sugar back up and lets you keep going.

In short, there is no magic number to losing weight. Its a simple equation: if calories in < calories out (burned), you lose weight.