rope jumping

anyone do that???

how is that on helping weight loss?

its a pretty good cardio exercise...however its hard to keep doing it for 30+ minutes...which is a good time for cardio exercise.

Yep, it is EXTREMELY hard to keep it up for 30 mins...i'm dying out!

I do 15-30 minutes three times a week.  It burns a lot of calories, so if I know I'm going somewhere where I'll eat a lot (picnic, etc), I'll do some extra before I go.  I just put the game on, and jump while I watch.  (Remove light bulbs before jumping indoors!)

In the beginning it was really difficult, I kept tripping over the rope and I couldn't keep it up very long.  I have one of those beaded ropes, which I guess is actually better, but it's really painful when it slams into your toes!  But I refused to quit because it was freaking jump rope, something I did all the time as a kid.

I started by setting a stopwatch and jumping as much as I could in 20 minutes, subtracting the time I spent catching my breath.  After a lot of practice I could jump almost continuously and I stopped tangling myself up most of the time.

What I do now is set the timer for 15 minutes, and jump in sets of 200.  One easy, one medium, one as fast as I can, two medium, and one easy.  I usually don't quite finish the last set before the timer goes off.  The speed change is not much (you can only go so slow), but it keeps it interesting.  If I'm doing 30 minutes, I take a break before repeating the sequence, mostly because my floor is made of concrete and my ankles need a chance to rest.

I think it's been helpful to me; it's not the only exercise I do, but it's really convenient because it's a tough workout you can do in a short time, and you only need a $3 piece of equipment (mine came free in a cereal box!).  I definitely recommend trying it!

Thanks miaokitty!.

I'll be adding some jumping rope tomorrow!!. I'll follow your routine :)

Now if you REALLY want to challenge yourself I suggest the "double jump" where you jump and bring the rope around twice before your feet hit the ground.  It is tough but an AMAZING way to tone your arms and of course increase heart rate.  Just hearing the rope whizzing around that fast pumps me up.

(I was the "double jump" queen on my college volleyball team back in the day...quite a feat!!! hahahahhaa)

Ahem...and one thing I wish someone had told me:  make sure to use the facilities first regardless if you really feel the urge or not.  Yeah, don't ask.  Lol

I played division III basketball and we used to jump rope all the time-  it quickens your feet which can indirectly help with other activities like running.  Some other suggestions for jumping rope to "switch things up" would be:

-jumping one one foot for an extended amount of time or for a certain number of jumps... (like right foot for 1 minute, then left foot for 1 minute)- TOTAL calf burner :-)

-jumping forward and then backwards (using a line drawn on the floor helps you do this, you just jump over the line and then behind it, over the line then behind it, etc etc)

-jumping horizontally (the jumping left-jumping right movement kind of resembles skiing)

-double jumping (someone mentioned this before, and its a fun kind of challenge & really gets your heart rate going)

ALSO- if you really like jumping rope, what we did on our team was alternate between all of these and we made a CD that would change  after each minute reminding us to switch.  Hope that helps!