Nowadays you can easily spend thousands of dollars (or whatever your local currency is) on the latest home fitness equipment, or if you prefer going to a gym or a health club, there is an ongoing monthly membership fee that you need to pay just to stay in shape and improve your fitness.
However there are certain items that you can purchase that will give you the same kind of benefits at a fraction of the cost.
Resistance bands are one such example because these can be used to perform various different stretches and strength building exercises, but another one that I want to discuss today is the jump rope, or the skipping rope as we refer to it as in the UK.
Many people will have used a jump rope back when they were at school just for fun, but as this article will hopefully demonstrate, there are numerous reasons why you should consider using a jump rope as part of a workout routine.
Here are some of the key benfits of a jump rope workout:
Burn Calories and Lose Weight
One of the most obvious benefits is that it can help you to lose weight. This is quite a demanding form of exercise, as you will discover for yourself once you start doing it, and subsequently it will burn a lot of calories in quite a short period of time.
A 30-minute workout, such as the one featured below, is extremely challenging and very effective, but you don’t necessarily need to jump/skip for as long as 30 minutes because even a 15 minute workout can burn 200-300 calories. So if you can repeat this routine two or three times a week, this will help you to burn more calories and lose more weight.
Improve Cardiovascular Health
Any high intensity workout that burns lots of calories in short bursts can help to improve your heart health and reduce the chances of developing caardiovascular disease, and jump rope workouts certainly fall into this category. This will get the heart pumping blood faster, improving overall blood flow, whilst also increasing lung capacity too.
Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing
In this day and age many of us are struggling with various issues, whether it’s financial or emotional problems, for example. However a jump rope workout is a great way to forget about any of these problems temporarily, reduce stress levels and improve your overall mood as the body releases endorphins.
Develop Your Coordination
Some people are naturally quite clumsy and cumbersome, but if you start skipping regularly, you will find that this particular exercise will really help you to improve your overall coordination because it can be only be performed successfully if your hands and feet are working together, and this will inevitably get better with practice.
Strengthen and Tone Muscles
I have already featured a jump workout routine that targets your abs on this website, but it’s not just your abs that you will help to develop. This form of exercise will also help you to develop your arms and legs and improve your overall muscle tone.
Improve Stamina
If you start skipping regularly, you will naturally find that your overall stamina levels will improve. The more you perform this exercise, the longer that you will be able to perform this routine in future as your fitness level improves. This is beneficial in itself, but it also means that you will be able to incorporate other workouts into your schedule too without feeling exhausted.
Improve Posture
One of the most overlooked benefits of skipping is that it will indirectly improve your posture when performed regularly. That’s because skipping will not only tone and strengthen your core abdominal muscles, but it will also force you to stand tall and maintain a good posture when you do this exercise correctly.
Can Be Performed Anywhere
A jump rope is lightweight and portable and will obviously take up very little storage space in your home. Furthermore for a small investment of $10-$15, you can easily perform one of these highly effective jump rope routines in pretty much any room of the house, or in any outdoor space if you prefer.
Variety and Availability of Workouts
YouTube has made it easy for anyone to keep fit and lose weight at home because there are literally thousands of workout routines that are available at a click of a button, and this is true of jump rope workouts too. Just a simple search will reveal lots of different routines that are suitable for both beginners and more seasoned fitness fanatics. Indeed the beauty of these workouts is that it is very easy to burn more calories just by exercising for longer, jumping higher or increasing the speed and intensity, for instance.
Fun to Perform to Music
Any type of workout that can be performed to music is beneficial because it keeps you motivated to continue, helps you exercise in rhythm and makes your routines more enjoyable and less tedious. Jumping rope to your favorite dance tune, for example, will certainly make exercise sessions more fun.
Final Thoughts
While it is true that jumping rope won’t help you achieve all of your fitness and muscle building goals, it will help you burn some excess body fat, develop a leaner, more toned body and strengthen your bones. Plus it will also improve your stamina and endurance, and your overall fitness level, whilst also improving your caardiovascular health.
So it is amazing how much you can benefit from this one simple piece of equipment, and a relatively easy to perform jump rope workout routine.
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