Day 132: Jump Rope and Burpees!

I admit, I have been a skeptic when it comes to jump rope. My wife’s trainer assured her that it was one of the best cardio exercises you can do.  “If you have 20 minutes to exercise,” she said, “jump rope.”  The goal is to jump to a set number like try to do 300 jumps. 

A little research on the internet backs up this claim.  Medicine.net was one of the first articles to pop up.  It’s title, Skip Rope, Not Your Workout.  It turns out that jump rope is a low impact high intensity workout.  It is easier on your knees and feet than jogging and really ramps up your heart rate.  Think about it, we usually associate jump rope with little girls, but professional boxers’ jump rope as part of their training routine in preparation for fights.  Not only do you get a killer cardio workout but it greatly improves your concentration and hand/eye coordination. 

Bodybuilding.com has an article by Dr. Sara Solomon about jump rope espousing the same benefits.  In it she gives beginner tips for starting to jump rope, for instance, the proper way to determine your rope length is to step in the center of the rope and pull the handles up the side of your body.  The handles should not go past your arm pits.  Also the shorter the rope the faster you jump it.  She recommends a 20 minute jump rope routine in circuits.  If you’re unfamiliar with circuits that is where you perform a cardio exercise followed quickly by another exercise, like pushups, and back to cardio.  Repeat for a number of minutes.

WebMD.com has an article that calls Jump Rope one of the best cardio exercises you can do to prevent heart attack and stroke.  It also helps women fight osteoporosis by building bone density.  They say that what makes jump rope so good for you is that you use the body’s natural shock absorbers by staying high on your toes versus running where you strike with your heel.   

In addition to jump rope we also did one legged Burpees.  I had always called them a squat thrust that is what we had to do as far back as elementary school.  I always hated them.  I found out there is a difference between a squat thrust and burpee.  A burpee has a jump at the end.  That’s it.  They seem easy but I can assure you after a couple you will find it starting to get hard getting yourself off the floor.  We did a modified burpee where you go from face down to a plank, to pushup, to one legged jump. 

In the end we wound up doing close to an hour long workout.  It was exhausting and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the end. After all my research and experience now with jump rope I am going to incorporate it more into my weekly routine. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 300+ Jumps while jumping rope (I lost count) and a full body work out

Kelly: Jump rope (a lot, we jumped for 30 minutes) and a full body work out.