The Benefits Of Jump Rope…
Perhaps you have considered trying jump rope in the past but you still have not taken the plunge. Todays blog post is going to highlight the major benefits of skipping and how it can improve your fitness and health:
Improve your cardiovascular fitness:
I think this is probably the most well known benefit of skipping. Most of us have seen images of boxers and other athletes using skipping as part of training. Skipping is a great tool to build cardiovascular fitness. Because jumping rope requires full body involvement, it engages the cardiovascular system at a level that can challenge the body regardless of fitness level. If you are new to jumping rope, often small bursts of skipping can be appropriate for building cardiovascular fitness, while a full time athlete may complete high intensity interval training (HIIT) utilizing the jump rope with various other exercises.
May benefit bone density, tendon and ligament strength:
There are many studies that look at jumping that show potential benefits of jumping to our bone and tissue health. Our bones create density with resistance and impact: jumping rope can be a perfect tool for creating impact for the lower extremity. Furthermore, tendon health could be improved for your lower extremity with the eccentric loading caused by the repetitive jumping of skipping.
Improve balance and coordination:
Jumping rope takes considerable full body coordination. Because jumping rope is quite a unique and novel type of exercise it requires a significant amount if central processing to learn. Because of the central nervous system challenge, jumping rope can take some time to learn and a lot of practice to master. This type of experience is excellent for training coordination. Furthermore, by practicing repeated jumping (especially if moving to some single leg jumping) we can challenge our balance system. Jumping rope can help improve the muscles of the hips, knees and ankles that are important for balance. Better balance can reduce risk of falls that is especially important as we age.
Help with building core strength:
Jumping rope requires core stability to execute well. Because of this, skipping rope can provide a fantastic opportunity to build core strength including the pelvic floor muscles. Many people struggle with poor core strength that can be a cause for back pain, poor posture, and even urinary incontinence. By learning to activate and strengthening your core with jumping rope, you have the opportunity to solves nagging problems that can often bother people for years.
It can be Fun (and quick):
One of the best part of jumping rope is that is can be used in many ways that can be both fun and engaging. Jumping rope can be a form of exercise that is used in isolation but can just as easily be added in as part of a circuit of other types of exercise. Jumping rope has countless types of jumping techniques that can challenge you and make progressing in the sport satisfying. You may jump rope for only 5 minutes and gain some of the benefits, especially when new to the sport!
I hope some of the above benefits give you the inspiration to add jumping rope to your own fitness journey. Next week we will take a look at our own Titan Team for case studies looking at specific workout routines that are appropriate for their skill and fitness levels. Thanks again for reading and keep jumping out there!
