Come, you aching runners, you shoulder-sore swimmers, you cyclists nursing chafed inner thighs the color of a sports car. Everyone can gain fitness by jumping rope regardless of their sport of choice. Jennika Landon, Crossrope athlete and part of the team developing its app-based workouts, has seen all types move into the sport, whether to rehab, supplement, or even switch due to chronic injury, only to discover its myriad benefits.
“It’s amazing what it does for your endurance and stamina,” she said. “And of course, you know, great calves.”
While calves might be your most visible adaptation, jumping rope has many benefits. Besides being a caloric furnace (significant due to the activity’s total-body demand), it’s also surprisingly low impact, providing an alternative to many nursing foot and knee injuries from other sports. There’s also the fact that, without excluding resistance bands, it may be one of the most portable workouts available, making it an ideal choice for those in small spaces or frequent travelers.
If you’ve never jumped rope before, are coming from a different discipline, or were total crap the last time you tried in high school, then Landon cautions to start slow. For the first few weeks, start with a 5-minute beginner session of 30 seconds of jumping and 30 seconds of resting. Complete these every other day, allowing the lighter load and days off for your body to strengthen the smaller, injury-prone tissues. “It takes time for those things to build up,” she said. “But if you do it right, adaptation happens pretty quickly, as with most things in fitness.” Then, when you’re ready, try one of the below workouts.
Basic ladder
This one isn’t as much about speed as it is consistency. Time yourself as you progress through the sequence and see how fast you can get over time. Retest once a week or once a month.
- 25 jumps
- 50 jumps
- 75 jumps
- 100 jumps
- 100 jumps
- 75 jumps
- 50 jumps
- 25 jumps
Rest as needed.
Combo ladder
Another at-your-own-pace workout that adds in extra upper body work, rest is as much (or as little) as you deem necessary. Again, time yourself and retest once a week or once a month, noting how your times drop.
- 25 jumps, 5 pushups
- 50 jumps, 5 pushups
- 75 jumps, 5 pushups
- 100 jumps, 5 pushups
- 100 jumps, 5 pushups
- 75 jumps, 5 pushups
- 50 jumps, 5 pushups
- 25 jumps, 5 pushups
Jump rope AMRAP
Short for “As Many Rounds as Possible,” this jump rope-themed take is grueling, but at least it’s over quickly. Over 10 minutes, complete rounds of:
- 100 jumps of the rope
- 10 plank up-downs
- 2 tuck-jump burpees
Repeat until death or the timer goes off.
Jump rope EMOM
Another famous gym acronym, these “Every Minute On the Minute,” workouts reward hard work: the harder you work, the more rest you have before the next round. For the basic, grab your rope and rip through 50 jumps. Rest and restart on the next minute. Repeat for 10 to 15 minutes.
Climbing EMOM
For this intermediate-to-expert variant of the previous workout, the reps only increase while the rests get shorter and shorter. For repeating 1-minute rounds:
- First minute, 20 jumps
- Next minute, 30 jumps
- Next minute, 40 jumps
- For every successive minute, add 10 jumps until you can no longer fit them in the prescribed minute interval
Combo EMOM
The easiest way to throw variety in the standard jump rope workout is to add bodyweight calisthenics, as Landon has done here. Rip through 40 jumps and then drop into 4 burpees. Rest and restart on the minute for 10 to 15 minutes.
Timed interval endurance builder
For this workout, you’re focusing on duration rather than revolutions. It’s longer, but remember you’re not trying to beat anyone, including yourself. Think of this as running’s weekly long run, where the object is time on your feet rather than a specific pace.
- 5 minutes of freestyle jumping
- Rest 1 minute
- 4 minutes of freestyle jumping
- Rest 45 seconds
- 3 minutes of freestyle jumping
- Rest 30 seconds
- 2 minutes of freestyle jumping
- Rest 20 seconds
- 1 minute of freestyle jumping
For your first workout, go all the way through. In the future, add successive rounds by feel.
All jump Tabata
Like all traditional tabata, you’ll go hard for 20 seconds and then take a 10-second break. While its duration is a mere 4 minutes (trust us, it’s an intense 4 minutes), you can add multiple rounds for a complete workout. When you’re running out of time, just finish one.
- 20 seconds basic jump, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds basic jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds basic jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds basic jump/10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump/10 seconds rest
Combo Tabata
For those who want to incorporate some bodyweight calisthenics, this hybrid has you recovering during your jumping before burning out another part of your body. As with the previous workout, you can complete one round when time is short or add rounds for a full workout.
- 20 seconds basic jump, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds curtsy lunges, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds 180° squat jumps, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds basic jump, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds curtsy lunges, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds alternate jump, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds 180° squat jumps, 10 seconds rest
Which jump rope is right for you?
Did you know there is more than one style of jump rope? While some are just standard ropes attached to handles, others are weighted to give you a more complete workout. For people just starting out jumping rope for fitness, Crossrope recommends a weighted rope. According to the website, the weighted rope “lets you feel more feedback as you jump, which helps you time your jumps better than if you use a light rope.”
Jumping with a weighted rope of even 1 pound makes your body work harder to swing the rope, burning more calories as a result. Additionally, a weighted rope causes you to use all of your upper body muscles, giving you a more complete workout.
