jump rope

is jump roping a good fat burning excercise?  is it bad for the knees?--i dont have any knee problems but i would really like to keep it that way.

thank you!

    Well jump roping is actually one of the best fat burning exercises because it works the upper body as well as the lower body.  Also as you get better conditioned you can change it up by doing different types of jumps and movements.

    Also roping is better on the knees then running, in normal jump roping you use your calves as a kind of a shock absorber landing on the balls of your.  When running your heals make contact with the ground and puts more pressure on your knees.

i usually run 4x per week 3miles each time. how much would i have to jump rope to burn about 375cals??? or shall i say how long??

The site here says:

Fast: 1148 calories per hour
Medium (Normal) : 957 calories per hour
Slow: 765 calories per hour

So going slow... 1/2 an hour would get you 375 calories (well just over 375)

Running 5mph (slow) is 765 calories per hour as well... so my guess is overall this is very comparable to running.

hi--it burns about 800 calories an hour so i guess about half an hour

Yeah for jumping rope!  It's what I originally used to drop about 35-40 lbs.  I changed up my cardio routine to cycling, rowing, and tennis for variety, but I recently returned to jumping rope for my cardio. 

Anyway, as terrier said, jumping rope is not that hard on your knees.  I have Osgood-Slaughters in my knee, and my orthapedist passed off on it, so you should be alright.  Try to have a good surface to jump on: asphault before concrete, better on hardwood/laminate gym flooring.  They also sell jump ropes that will keep count of calories burned, time, # of jumps, etc.  Only about $10-12 at Target. 

Other observations: try not to get the ropes with the plastic cyliners.  The friction wears them down pretty fast.  Worry more about your ankles than your knees.  I sometimes wear an ankle brace.  The soreness will be excrutiating after day one (like most exercises I guess).  Stick with it.  It'll definitely tone upper and lower body as well as helping your agility and footwork.  Plus, it's fun as hell!

i could not imagine jump rope for 30min. it is harder than running???

It gets easier really quickly.  The muscles you use just don't get worked-out all that often, so it takes about a week or so to work up to a full 30 mins (at least it did me).  But you can start slow by skipping rope.  Basically, you bounce twice on your foot, rotating the rope more slowly.  Hard to explain, but easier than standard two-footed, jump-per-rotation style.  I'd put the hyperlink to a video in here, but my work blocks access.  Go to YouTube, if you can though, and search for 'instructional jump rope.'  You'll find plenty of stuff.  Good luck!

Five minutes of rope jumping can knock me out!  My 6 yo could go for ages.  Ah, to be 6 years old again.

:)

Yeah, jumping rope is harder than running.  I can run on treadmill for an hour at 5.5-6 miles per hour but it is hard for me to jump 30 mins.  I can only do it with multiple breaks.

Also the caloreis discussion is a bit misleading.  It really depends a lot on your weight.  For me, fast jumping rope only burns around 600 calories per hour.  The number is not as impressive but it is high compared with treadmill.