The Benefits of Skipping Rope. Jumping Rope vs. Running, Walking and Cycling.

This article is brought to you by today’s Fitness Flash Deal!

How long has it been since you used a jump rope? Even your most recent memories are likely to be from your school days. We believe that including skipping rope cardio into your home workout sessions will restore the same level of enjoyment. By utilising jump ropes for physical exercise and cardio, you can make significant improvements to your lower and upper body. Skipping burns more calories than almost any other form of exercise, is portable and can be done literally anywhere, and thanks to our product engineers here at BodyRock, we have developed what we believe is the best fitness skipping rope on the market at a price that makes skipping accessible for everyone.

Let’s breakdown the advantages of having a skipping rope in your workout routines for both your health and weight loss.

Advantages Of Skipping Rope

Many professional athletes swear by jumping rope as a cardio exercise. Jumping rope on a regular basis can improve your capacity and stamina while toning your calves, legs and thighs and tightening your core. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Jumping rope is good for your heart.
When it comes to raising your heart rate, skipping rope is the best cardio you can get. High-intensity skipping rope workouts have been proven to strengthen your heart and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Jumping Rope Can Help You Stay Balanced and Improve Coordination. 
When discussing the advantages of skipping, it's important to remember that any skipping rope workout requires a modest amount of balance and coordination. Skipping on a regular basis will help you progress in your ability to not just skip, but provide you improved balance and coordination in your daily activities.

Mental Focus can be improved by jumping rope.
Skipping rope improves concentration and mental focus because it improves balance and coordination. Jump rope has a special potential to grow the brain's left and right hemispheres. It will help you become more alert, improve your memory, and, most importantly, improve your concentration.

Jumping rope can help you gain strength and reduce fatigue.
Jumping rope is a great technique to increase your overall endurance and improve the muscles you use while running jogging or hiking without putting as much stress on your joints. Skipping rope helps to improve endurance, which means that you will have more energy in your tank for movement throughout the day. More movement has cascading effects on your overall daily calorie burn and weight loss. 

Mental Health Benefits from Jumping Rope
Anxiety and depression can be reduced by skipping rope even at a moderate level of intensity. Exercising improves blood flow to the body and brain. Skipping can help you feel better by producing endorphins, a hormone that has been shown to help with depression. The good news is that skipping unlocks these benefits even at a slower pace. 

Jumping Rope Can Help You Build Bone Strength
Because skipping is a weight-bearing exercise, it can help you maintain bone density and avoid bone disorders. It also lowers the risk of getting osteoporosis. 

Jumping Rope Can Brighten Your Skin - A Natural ‘Glow Up’
Skipping rope increases heart rate and blood circulation throughout the body. This activity aids in the rapid release of toxins, resulting in a beautiful complexion! One of the greatest glows you can receive is after a workout!

Weight Loss Advantages of Skipping Rope
If you want to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time, the skipping rope is by far one of the best pieces of gear that you can invest in. As you will discover below, skipping beats out running, walking and cycling for burning calories. YES, our newly engineered skipping rope burns more calories than a Peloton Bike, fancy treadmill, or any of the other extremely expensive high-tech fitness machines that have come out in the last few years - and it fits into your bag! 

Skipping reduces Belly Fat.
Jumping rope has been proven to to excelerate body fat reduction, particularly around the belly and ‘love handle’ areas. 

Jump Rope Exercise Tips.  
There are a few things you should consider before picking up your skipping rope and getting started. It’s important to begin with a warm-up session, just like you would with any other workout.

Keep your feet together, toes pointed up, and land lightly while jumping to generate momentum and consistency. Keep your jumping height as low as possible while ensuring that your knees bend naturally.

Types Of Skipping Workout Sessions

Skipping exercises are excellent full-body workouts for developing agility, stamina, and coordination. It's also a terrific method to get a short workout in the comfort of your own home.

If you hate Running or Jogging…

While many of us prefer running or jogging to any other form of exercise, skipping rope easily beats both of them. Runners have a cyclical stride in which they either land with one leg absorbing the impact or launch off with the other leg's force.

Skipping, on the other hand, allows for a period of support in the natural stride - step and hop on one leg, step and hop on the other leg, and repeat. Even a brief instant of support with one or both legs reduces the force applied to the ground as the feet land. Bottom line is that skipping, when compared to running, is very low impact and won’t be as hard on your joints. 

Furthermore, research have shown that skipping burns more calories. Skippers expend 30% more energy than runners. That’s 30% more calories burned, for a lot less wear and tear on the body. Given the numerous health benefits of skipping rope, here are 5 high-intensity jump rope routines to incorporate into your everyday workout routine.

Different Skipping Exercises. 

The amount of different types of skips are almost limitless, as the more practiced you become at skipping rope, the more combinations of skips that you can try. When you are first starting back at Skipping, start with just the basic overhead skip that you remember doing as a kid. Once you have this basic movement down, you can start to experiment with new moves. Remember, that you don’t need to go beyond the basic overhead skip to unlock all of the benefits that skipping rope provides. That’s why jumping rope for fitness is such a powerful tool - it’s perfect for all fitness levels including the beginner. 

Jumping Jacks
Jumping jack exercises are well-known and excellent for working up a sweat. Instead of leaping straight, you'll be doing jacks with your jump rope.

One Leg Hops
Instead of skipping with both legs, you'll take the benefits of skipping rope to the next level by skipping on one leg at a time, as the exercise name suggests. Land softly on your foot, engage your core muscles, and go slowly if necessary.

Highs Knees
You only need to add a jump rope to your standard high knees  for this exercise variation. This variant takes two beginner-level workouts and amps them up! It's great for quickly raising your heart rate.

Skip to the side
This one may appear to be mild, but it is a terrific way to add variety to your workout. Jump from side to side rather than straight up and down.

Skipping Precautions
Whether it's indoors or out, jump on a level surface. A hard floor is ideal since it provides additional bounce and reduces the amount of strain on your knees. Jumping on a carpet or concrete floor might cause your rope to bounce, forcing you to jump higher.

Your hands and forearms should be at least a foot apart from your body, at a 45-degree angle, with a strong grasp on the rope in the starting position stretch.

Jumping with a slumped back will cause back pain and prevent you from getting the most out of this activity. Your back should be straight and neutral when jumping over the rope.

If you have heart difficulties or a bone injury, we also advise against jumping rope. High-intensity workouts should be avoided by anyone recovering from a serious illness or surgery. If you have any reservations about starting a regimen, make sure you receive permission from your doctor beforehand.

How Many Calories Does Jumping Rope Burn?
The number of calories you burn while jumping rope is mostly determined by three factors.

Your body weight
The heavier that you are, the more calories you will  burn jumping rope. In 20 minutes skipping at a slow pace (fewer than 100 skips per minute), a 120-pound person can burn 160+ calories, whereas a 160-pound person can burn 213+ calories. At a moderate pace this can increase to 15+ calories per minute. Skipping rope trounces almost every other calorie burn from almost every other form of exercise - it’s that efficient. 

Your pace.  
Skipping rope at a moderate to fast pace burns more calories in less time, as expected. That same 160-pound person might burn 286 calories in 20 minutes if they ramped up the speed just a little — hitting between 100–120 skips per minute at a steady rate. As you gradually improve, you will burn more calories per session. 

Running vs. Jump Rope 

Jumping rope and running are two of the most effective ways to burn calories while exercising. They both burn 700 calories each hour on average. The key distinction between the two is how much stress that they put on the body. Running is a high-impact workout, but jumping rope is a low-impact exercise.

Running, especially when done incorrectly, can result in a range of problems. Shin splints, knee pain, back and ankle troubles, and hip issues are all common problems. That is why, 9 times out of 10, advanced athletes chose to jump rope over running. 

Muscles Activated 
Jumping rope offers a tiny advantage over running when it comes to the muscles worked. Jumping rope provides a full-body workout, whereas running is solely a lower-body workout.

Although jumping rope works the upper body, it mostly works the leg muscles. Running and jumping rope work the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves in essentially the same way.

As mentioned above, people seem to either love or hate running. Some people find it cathartic and almost meditative, others (like myself) find it mind-numbingly boring. Skipping is an excellent alternative for all of the reasons listed, and if you are one of the people out there that can’t stand running as an exercise, skipping can more than make up for it. 

Walking vs. Jump Rope

Walking is one of the most under-appreciated type of cardio, particularly for weight loss. While walking may not burn as many calories as jumping rope, research has proven that it is an effective weight-loss exercise. 

While walking isn't the most efficient technique to burn calories, it can have a significant influence on your BMI and waist size over time. This is especially true if you walk after meals on a regular basis.

Walking after a meal has been shown to activate our bodies' glucose receptors, which can aid in blood sugar regulation. It has also been proven to boost metabolism.

A 30-minute walk can increase your metabolism for up to 12 hours after you finish! You can lose weight without strenuous exercise by following a Meal Plan optimized for fat loss and combining it with a 30-minute walk. Walking has other advantages, such as strengthening your bones and boosting your attention and memory.

Walking has been linked to a variety of excellent health outcomes, including weight loss. Walking in nature can boost attention and short-term memory by up to 20%, according to research from the University of Michigan.

Many of the advantages associated with walking are also linked to jumping rope, so it's not a black-and-white comparison with skipping. Where the benefits of skipping really become apparent is in the amount of calories burned per session. Skipping absolutely crushes the amount of calories that you can burn by walking. 

Calories Burned - Walking vs. Skipping 
Walking burns roughly 280 calories per hour on average, which is nothing compared to jumping rope. Jumping rope burns 700+ calories per hour on average.

Walking burns calories in different ways depending on your weight and distance travelled.

Boost your walking speed to increase the quantity of calories you burn, similar to jumping rope.

Adding a weighted vest to any movement, exercise or activity will not only dramatically increase your calorie burn, but will also help to build lean muscle mass - effectively turning any movement into strength training. 

A 150-pound woman walking a mile will burn the same number of calories as a 150-pound woman running a mile. The only difference is how long it took them to accomplish one mile.

Jumping rope has a clear advantage in this category, burning nearly 3X as many calories.

When it comes to skipping vs. Walking, you don’t have to choose - incorporate both into your routine to smash through a weight loss plateau or to kick up the rate of weight loss that you want to achieve. 5-10 minutes of skipping after a walk can give you a significant boost in terms of calories burned. 

Muscles Activated
There are more effective activities for muscle building than walking. Walking, in reality, will not be particularly efficient in helping you gain fat burning lean muscle mass.

When it comes to growing muscle, you must put enough stress on your muscles to cause the muscular tissue to break down. Walking isn't a strenuous enough activity to promote muscular tissue breakdown, thus it won't help you gain muscle.

Muscles will appear more defined if they are covered by less body fat. You can achieve a more muscular, toned and defined look by either walking or jumping rope and eating a nutritious low-calorie diet based on a Meal Plan that is optimized to help you lose body fat. 

Strength Training and Skipping - the unbeatable combination for fat loss. 
Nothing compares to the power of strength training when it comes to lean muscle definition and fat loss. Strength training should be incorporated into your routine at least a few times each week to increase fat loss. To try a beginner level HIIT / Strength Training workout that you can do at home click here. Adding 5 minutes of skipping at the end of a strength training session will dramatically speed up your results. 

Spinning vs. Jump Rope

Cycling, like jumping rope, is a wonderful low-impact workout. Both workouts are joint friendly, high-calorie burners that boost heart health. The key distinction between the two is that cycling focuses on the lower body muscles, whereas jumping rope activates both upper and lower body muscles.

One of the key advantages of these exercises is how little they impact our legs' joints and ligaments. Cycling and jumping rope are both "low-impact" activities.

Cycling has been proved to be a fantastic workout for reducing stress and improving cognitive function. While science says that stationary cycling exercise is beneficial (cycling indoors), data suggests that cycling outside is especially beneficial.

Given that both workouts assist you to manage weight, lower stress, and enhance heart health in similar ways, neither appears to be much "better" than the other.

Calories Burned - Skipping vs. Cycling 

Cycling is a great calorie-burning workout that comes pretty close to jumping rope in terms of overall calorie burn.

Cycling burns roughly 650 calories per hour on average, compared to 700 calories for jumping rope. Once again, it all depends on your weight and how hard you jump rope or cycle.

If the main objective of your workout is to burn the maximum calories, cycling or jumping rope will work. Where there are significant differences, is in access and affordability. If you don’t have a stationary bike at home, or you don’t have access to a road bike (or the weather or traffic congestion is an issue) access becomes an issue. Stationary bikes are often too big for condos, or are simply too costly. Our newly engineered rope comes with a compact hard case, fits into a bag or purse, and can be used almost anywhere. From an access and price perspective, skipping rope burns the most calories for the buck. 

There is an important distinction to be made between cycling and bicycling. The type of riding we're talking about here is the kind you'd perform in a studio or on the freeway. Cycling around town for pleasure will not burn nearly as many calories. Skipping rope will burn significantly more calories than casual bike riding. 

Muscles Activated
Cycling is an excellent way to strengthen your leg muscles. Cycling, rather than jumping rope, is a better activity for building leg muscles. Particularly in the quadriceps and glutes.

That said, the resistance with which you ride makes a huge difference.

If you cycle in a studio without much resistance, your leg muscles will not be stressed enough to create significant progress. The same is true for road cycling. You won't see much muscle gain if you don't boost the effort or change the elevation frequently.

Cycling does not engage your upper body as jumping rope does. Jumping rope is definitely a superior option for stimulating muscular growth in the shoulders, back, and abs. It all depends on what you want to accomplish

The Bottom Line.

For portability, ease of use, calorie burn, accessibility and cost, a skipping rope is one of the most effective pieces of gear in your home gym arsenal. Although we have compared the pros and cons of skipping vs other common exercises, it’s not something that should be approached as an either or. Adding 5-10 minutes of skipping to your existing routine will give you a solid boost and propel you towards your weight loss and fitness goals that much faster. Give skipping a shot - you won’t be disappointed with the outcome. 

Our Summer Fit Bundle includes our fitness rope, hard case, multiple interchangeable rope lengths, and even the ability to add weight to the handles to improve upper body activation. Also included - our weighted vest, pink thing resistance band and a pair of ankle or wrist weights. All for just $103!

If you need to pick up a rope of your own, we have our newly engineered fitness rope, weighted vest, ankle weights and pink thing resistance band currently on offer for 50% off right now. Thats all 4 pieces of gear for just $103. Simply add the bundle to your shopping cart and watch the price drop magically by 50%. This offer is limited by stock availability, so don’t miss it! 

Best,

Freddy