So you think that jumping rope to lose weight might be something that only a child can do? I'm sorry but you are sadly mistaken. Jumping rope is such an amazing workout that most of us forget what it was like when we were children who did it for fun. It gets your heart rate pumping and you burn a ton of calories during the entire time.
In fact I think jumping rope if done right is a lot better than traditional cardio workouts sometimes. The high impact nature of this exercise really fires up your nervous system, which I feel helps to increase your metabolism and the afterburn effect that we all covet.
For example, go for a brisk walk for 15 minutes at a slight incline on the treadmill or on a steep hill throughout your neighborhood. I guarantee that most people will be able to do this without a problem. Yea, you might get out of breath and be breathing heavy, but you could most definitely carry on for long periods of time without stopping. Obviously if you are really overweight and just starting out then that is a different story. You'd want to work up to this, but you get the idea.
The muscles that jumping rope targets the most is well, everything. Every little muscle group in your body has to work extra hard to keep yourself upright and tight through each repetition. Then you have the repeated stress to your calves, quads and hamstrings during each rep and the extreme upper body burn from turning that rope over and over. For me personally, the most burn that I feel while jumping rope is in my shoulders, wrist, forearms, arms, calves, and trapezius muscles. The trapezius muscles are that bump that you see in the mirror that pops out from your neck and goes into your shoulder. They help to elevate the shoulders and also help to stabilize the upper body in certain movements.
But the one big thing I like so much about the jump rope is the afterburn effect that it really creates. It's a lot like sprinting at high intensities for a long duration of time. The huge amount of lactic acid buildup is quite critical if you want to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time and really transform your body. Studies have shown that the more lactic acid that you can create within your body, especially throughout the entire body at once, the more growth hormone that gets released. The cool thing about growth hormone is that it has been proven to help people drop pounds of belly fat. That is why a lot of professional bodybuilders take the stuff to help them get ready for competition. And again the easiest way to increase this output the most is through high lactic acid total body training such as jumping rope or weight lifting circuits where you push yourself to exhaustion for 12-15 repetitions.
Now when you first start to jump rope, a lot of people tend to make the mistake of turning their arms a lot. That is the exact opposite of what you want to do. You really want to create tight circles going around your body. The tighter the circle that you create, the faster the rope will go. And the only way that you should do this is with your wrists, that is where all the power comes from and the speed of the jump rope. The quicker you turn your wrists, the faster the rope; it's that plain and simple.
And that is why I said before I feel it the most in my wrists, forearms and arms when I jump rope. You feel an extreme tightness and tired feeling from the lactic acid and blood buildup in the surrounding tissues. So if you're reading this and you like to play any racket sports, golf or baseball, then jumping rope could have another benefit for you besides burning calories and losing weight, which is to build up your hand, forearm, and grip strength.
A good workout to start off with to jump rope is try and go for one minute straight. This is a lot harder than you think it is. I suggest setting up a little area in your garage with a clock on the wall and some good music playing, this will help to get you in the zone. Start jumping and watch the clock until it hits 1 minute. If you mess up during any part of the movement, then you have to restart all over again.
Once you can do 1 minute, then progress to 2 minutes and so on until you can reach 3 minutes straight. This is when your heart rate is really thumping and you're improving your VO2 max and caloric burn.
Now once you are in the 3 minute zone, you can really begin to start toying around with different workouts. The best types to get the necessary benefits from jumping rope are a series of intervals. This by far has been proven without a doubt to burn a ton of calories and help you lose belly fat.
So what you can do is start off with a high intensity jump of 1 minute, then rest for 30 seconds and repeat for another minute. You can repeat this entire sequence for 15-20 minutes to get a really great workout in. You could also do this right after a workout too and burn up excess calories. This is called a metabolic finisher.
All in all, jumping rope to lose weight is such an awesome exercise that a lot of us have forgotten about since we are no longer kids. But if you're still hung up on the power of a little piece of rope that can change the shape of your body, take a look at boxers and their physiques. They are all ripped, muscular with almost no body fat. And a lot of their training is based on jumping rope.
In fact I think jumping rope if done right is a lot better than traditional cardio workouts sometimes. The high impact nature of this exercise really fires up your nervous system, which I feel helps to increase your metabolism and the afterburn effect that we all covet.
For example, go for a brisk walk for 15 minutes at a slight incline on the treadmill or on a steep hill throughout your neighborhood. I guarantee that most people will be able to do this without a problem. Yea, you might get out of breath and be breathing heavy, but you could most definitely carry on for long periods of time without stopping. Obviously if you are really overweight and just starting out then that is a different story. You'd want to work up to this, but you get the idea.
The muscles that jumping rope targets the most is well, everything. Every little muscle group in your body has to work extra hard to keep yourself upright and tight through each repetition. Then you have the repeated stress to your calves, quads and hamstrings during each rep and the extreme upper body burn from turning that rope over and over. For me personally, the most burn that I feel while jumping rope is in my shoulders, wrist, forearms, arms, calves, and trapezius muscles. The trapezius muscles are that bump that you see in the mirror that pops out from your neck and goes into your shoulder. They help to elevate the shoulders and also help to stabilize the upper body in certain movements.
But the one big thing I like so much about the jump rope is the afterburn effect that it really creates. It's a lot like sprinting at high intensities for a long duration of time. The huge amount of lactic acid buildup is quite critical if you want to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time and really transform your body. Studies have shown that the more lactic acid that you can create within your body, especially throughout the entire body at once, the more growth hormone that gets released. The cool thing about growth hormone is that it has been proven to help people drop pounds of belly fat. That is why a lot of professional bodybuilders take the stuff to help them get ready for competition. And again the easiest way to increase this output the most is through high lactic acid total body training such as jumping rope or weight lifting circuits where you push yourself to exhaustion for 12-15 repetitions.
Now when you first start to jump rope, a lot of people tend to make the mistake of turning their arms a lot. That is the exact opposite of what you want to do. You really want to create tight circles going around your body. The tighter the circle that you create, the faster the rope will go. And the only way that you should do this is with your wrists, that is where all the power comes from and the speed of the jump rope. The quicker you turn your wrists, the faster the rope; it's that plain and simple.
And that is why I said before I feel it the most in my wrists, forearms and arms when I jump rope. You feel an extreme tightness and tired feeling from the lactic acid and blood buildup in the surrounding tissues. So if you're reading this and you like to play any racket sports, golf or baseball, then jumping rope could have another benefit for you besides burning calories and losing weight, which is to build up your hand, forearm, and grip strength.
A good workout to start off with to jump rope is try and go for one minute straight. This is a lot harder than you think it is. I suggest setting up a little area in your garage with a clock on the wall and some good music playing, this will help to get you in the zone. Start jumping and watch the clock until it hits 1 minute. If you mess up during any part of the movement, then you have to restart all over again.
Once you can do 1 minute, then progress to 2 minutes and so on until you can reach 3 minutes straight. This is when your heart rate is really thumping and you're improving your VO2 max and caloric burn.
Now once you are in the 3 minute zone, you can really begin to start toying around with different workouts. The best types to get the necessary benefits from jumping rope are a series of intervals. This by far has been proven without a doubt to burn a ton of calories and help you lose belly fat.
So what you can do is start off with a high intensity jump of 1 minute, then rest for 30 seconds and repeat for another minute. You can repeat this entire sequence for 15-20 minutes to get a really great workout in. You could also do this right after a workout too and burn up excess calories. This is called a metabolic finisher.
All in all, jumping rope to lose weight is such an awesome exercise that a lot of us have forgotten about since we are no longer kids. But if you're still hung up on the power of a little piece of rope that can change the shape of your body, take a look at boxers and their physiques. They are all ripped, muscular with almost no body fat. And a lot of their training is based on jumping rope.