Jumping
rope is a great exercise. It can help with Weight Loss, Cardiovascular
fitness, Muscle
tone, and also helps increase bone density and eye hand co-ordination.
Weight Loss- due to the fact that you can tax all three metabolic pathways depending on how fast you exercise with it and what variations you use, you can absolutely torch stored body jumping rope.
(A word of caution: as with anything else, start slowly. Since it's a "high impact" activity, you want to give your joints, ligaments, and tendons time to adapt, so make sure you "ease into it!"
Cardiovascular fitness- again, taxing your metabolic pathways helps you be a well rounded athlete (who wouldn't want that?). More on this in a future post, but simply put, your body uses energy in one of three ways. The Phosphogenic pathway (think 100 meter dash in the olympics, getting chased by a dog, etc) uses energy very quickly in maximal efforts that you can't sustain for very long, usually within 10 seconds or less, this pathway will be depleted and your performance will dwindle dramatically.
The Glycolytic pathway (half mile sprint, swimming a lap in an Olympic sized pool, etc) generally falls into the 10 second to 2 minute range. It's a maximal effort, but one that you can "hang in there" on for a good period of time.
The Oxidative pathway (5K or half marathon walk or run, long bike ride, rowing, etc) is one that relies on oxygen to convert energy into propelling you forward!
Most people work only one of these pathways in their workouts routines. Jumping rope can help you tax all three, depending on your pace, variations, etc.
Muscle Tone- your calves and shoulders probably get the biggest benefit, but every major muscle group is being worked due to static or "isometric" contractions used to stabilize your skeleton as it bounces up and down like a pogo stick.
Bone Density- the impact of up and down motion causes "piezo-electricity" within your body, which stimulates the formation of "osteoblats", which strengthen your bones.
Eye-hand Co-ordination- try it and you'll see how much timing and rythmn it takes to "jump rope." Like anything, practice will have you jumping rope like this guy in no time (Kidding, but you get the idea).
Furthermore, its a fitness tool that is Portable and Cheap.
Portable- You can take it just about anywhere. You can throw in your car, gym bag, backpack, purse, satchel, back pocket, etc and take it pretty much anywhere. You can use it just about anywhere you can stand up (hallways, hotel rooms, parking lots, garages, driveways, etc).
Cheap -you can get one for a few bucks, and the investment is worth it! Here's what kind I use.
If you haven't been jumping rope, I hope you'll start!
