7 Health Benefits of Jumping Rope

Jumping rope is a basic form of movement that can benefit people of all ages. While you likely know it as a childhood playground game, jumping rope offers adults an easy, convenient, and practical way to stay fit.

The basics of jumping rope are easy to learn. You can progress to more intense and creative options as you get better. However, even in its simplest form, jumping rope is an ideal form of exercise as either a warm-up or a stand-alone workout. Its benefits can range from improved heart health to sustained weight loss.

What Are All the Ways to Jump Rope?

You can enjoy all the benefits of jumping rope with the standard moves you used as a child. However, there are many other ways to enjoy jumping rope. Here are some different ways to jump rope that range from beginner to more advanced techniques from professional jumpers:

• Double-unders: The rope passes under your feet twice every time you jump.
• Travelers and ski jumps: While jumping rope, you travel forward as far as possible before traveling back to the original spot.
• Skier: While jumping rope, alternate between jumping on the left side to jumping on the right, like a downhill skier.
• Bell: This is like the skier, but instead of jumping side to side, you’re jumping front to back, like a bell ringing.
• Side swings: While jumping rope, move both your hands to one side of your body while swinging the rope so it passes on your side rather than under your feet.
• Mummy kicks: Begin with the rope behind you. As it passes over your head and toward your feet, kick one foot out the way a mummy walks.
• Scissors: Begin in the classic stance. As the rope comes over your head, jump with one foot forward and one foot backward (like an open pair of scissors). Switch the alignment of your feet in the next revolution.
• One-foot hops: Lift one foot and hop with each rope turn on the other foot. This technique lets you focus on one leg for as long as you’d like before switching.
• Boxer step: Begin by swinging the jump rope in front of your body toward the floor. When it travels under your feet and lands on the left side, your left leg should make the landing while the right leg touches. Do the opposite with your feet when the jump rope moves to the right side.
• Push-up jump: Perform a traditional jump, drop down for a push-up, and jump right back up for your next jump. You can vary when and how often you drop down for the push-ups.

The Health Benefits of Jumping Rope

Jumping rope engages all your major muscle groups, making it a productive total body exercise. It can be used to warm up before any activity. It can also be used as a stand-alone workout since it incorporates both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training.

Here are some health benefits of jumping rope:

Improved Cardiovascular Fitness

Jumping rope is an excellent way to achieve improved cardiovascular fitness, which can reduce your risk of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension (high blood pressure). Like other forms of aerobic exercise, jumping rope increases your heart rate.

Research indicates that jumping rope can improve your VO2 max. This is the measure of the minimum amount of oxygen you can use during exercise. The higher your VO2 max, the better cardiovascular endurance you have. In one study, the group who jumped rope twice per day for 12 weeks improved their VO2 max and functional movement compared with those who did not include jumping rope in their fitness routine.

Other research shows that jumping rope can be beneficial for people at risk for cardiovascular disease. In one study, a group of teen girls with prehypertension (borderline high blood pressure) who followed a 12-week jump rope regimen reduced their cardiovascular disease risk factors at the end of 12 weeks. These improvements involved lowering overall body fat, reducing abdominal fat, and achieving a better pulse.

Calorie Burning and Weight Loss

As jumping rope increases your heart rate, it also burns calories. Jumping rope works your upper body, lower body, and core because of the resistance. In one study, adolescent girls reduced visceral fat and improved overall body composition after participating in a 12-week jump rope regimen.

Research indicates that jumping rope can help you burn more calories than many other types of activities because it involves your upper body, lower body, and core. Jumping rope for five minutes burns more calories than walking on a treadmill for the same amount of time. Jumping rope also burns more calories than walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, and tennis.

Strengthens Muscles

Jumping rope involves full-body strengthening. The process of jumping rope requires you to engage your calves, quads, and hamstrings. It strengthens the muscles of your feet, ankles, and knees, lending active stability to the joints of your legs.

Jumping rope regularly strengthens your calf muscles and improves the elasticity of the surrounding tendons and fascia. When jumping rope, you can increase elasticity by trying to land on the ball of your foot first, but letting your heels go all of the way down to the ground.

Builds Stronger Bones

By participating in an activity like jumping rope, you are exposing your bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles to a stressor to which they can positively adapt. Your body’s response can help delay age-related loss of bone density and muscle mass. In one study, a group of women aged 25 to 50 saw improvements in hip bone mineral density after performing jumping exercises just 10 times, twice a day, over 16 weeks.

Improved Coordination and Balance

Research indicates that jumping rope is an effective and practical way to improve athletic conditioning, balance, and coordination. The nature of jumping rope naturally involves the coordination and synchronization of upper and lower body movements. As you jump, you must maintain gross motor coordination to coordinate your arms, legs, and torso movements when your whole body is in motion.

In addition, jumping rope forces you to practice stability to prevent unsuitable displacement of your center of gravity to avoid injuries. This occurs as you reestablish your balance with each skip.

Bone Health and Density

Jumping rope stresses your bones in a way that can improve bone health and bone density (a measure of the amount of minerals, mostly calcium and phosphorus, in a certain volume of bone). Bones that contain more minerals are denser and less likely to fracture.

Since your bone is tissue, it can improve over time in response to forces placed on it. When you jump rope or perform other load-bearing activities, your bones become denser and less likely to fracture in reaction to the impact or stress of landing after a jump.

Time Efficiency and Convenience

To jump rope, all you need is a lightweight rope and an even, flat surface to start. It is one of the few exercises that is travel-friendly. You can do it virtually anywhere. A jump rope is lightweight and easy to carry, making it a perfect fitness accessory for traveling or taking to work.

Once you start, jumping rope is an efficient way to burn calories. Just 10 minutes of jumping rope can burn 100 calories, depending on your weight and intensity. Jumping rope for 10 minutes is equivalent to running an eight-minute mile.

How Many Calories Does Jumping Rope Burn?

The number of calories that you burn while jumping rope depends on your body weight along with the speed and intensity with which you jump. According to the American Heart Association, the average number of calories burned per hour by a 100-, 150-, and 200-pound person jumping rope averages:

• 100-pound person: 500 calories per hour
• 150-pound person: 750 calories per hour
• 200-pound person: 1,000 calories per hour

Is Jumping Rope Enough to Lose Weight? What Else Should You Do?

While jumping rope can help you lose weight, it may not be adequate to maintain long-term weight loss. While weight loss is possible, achieving durable, long-term weight loss requires a more complex plan. Research indicates that biological, behavioral, and environmental factors can make it challenging to lose weight and avoid regain.

Healthy weight loss includes the following:

How to Add Jumping Rope to Your Workout Routine

There are many ways to add jumping rope to your workout routine. Based on your level of fitness and workout goals, consider adding jumping rope in the following ways:

• Add two to three minutes of steady rope jumping at the end of your exercise circuits for an additional calorie-burning opportunity.
• Alternating between different muscle groups can increase heart rate and provide a cardiorespiratory benefit to a strength-training workout. Adding one or more jump rope stations to a circuit is an easy way to increase the intensity of the overall workout.
• Use a jump-rope workout as a warm-up or at the end of a strength-training session to cool down.
• Jump rope as a stand-alone workout on cardio day.
• Jumping rope as a warm-up helps prepare the muscles and connective tissues of your lower legs for the forces they will experience during the workout.

Choosing the Right Rope

Physical fitness experts advise choosing a jump rope that is easy to adjust and uses ball bearings to connect the rope and the handle. Ropes with bearings can last longer than ropes that simply have the end knotted in the handle.

To get the most out of your workout, start by choosing a jump rope appropriate for your height. A rope that is too long will require that you jump higher and swing wider, or force you to wrap the rope around your wrists to comfortably jump without tripping.

You can determine the right size jump rope by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. As you jump rope, you should be able to pull the handles to your shoulders if your rope is the appropriate size. If the handles go past your shoulders, the rope is too long. If the rope does not touch the floor as you turn it, the rope is too short. A rope that is too long will hit in front of your feet.

Use these guidelines when determining which size jump rope you should use:

• 7-foot rope for adults 4 feet to 4 feet, 9 inches tall
• 8-foot rope for adults 4 feet, 10 inches to 5 feet, 3 inches tall
• 9-foot rope for adults 5 feet, 4 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall
• 10-foot rope for adults 5 feet, 11 inches to 6 feet, 5 inches tall
• 11-foot rope for adults 6 feet, 6 inches tall or higher

Proper Technique and Form

Proper jump rope technique and form can help you achieve the best result. Start with the proper length of the jump rope. An appropriate jump rope measurement should be long enough so that the handles come to your shoulders when you pull up the ends of the rope. However, as you become more experienced, you can change ropes so the handles reach your chest and then your rib cage.

The proper position for jumping rope involves the following steps:

• Hold your hands at your waist about 2 inches from your body.
• Jump low.
• Breathe through your nose as you jump.
• Spin the rope so it barely touches the floor.
• Skip lightly on the balls of your feet with your knees bent to take the strain off your shins. 

To properly hold your jump rope, use the following technique:

• Grip the handles loosely with your thumb and index finger.
• Wrap your hand around the handle.
• Use a comfortable and firm grip.
• With your hands at waist level, make small circles with your wrists to turn the rope as you jump.

Gradual Progression and Variation

You can easily modify your jump rope routine to include gradual progression and variation as you improve your skills. Start with a minimum of 25 revolutions for four sets. As you gain strength and ability, challenge yourself by progressing from 50 to 100 revolutions of four sets, To go high intensity, go as fast as you can for 10 to 15 seconds, then rest and repeat.

As you gain experience, you can add variations and more complex moves. Learning new moves can keep your workouts interesting and work different parts of your body. You can find a wide range of video tutorials online to learn the moves that can build the muscles you desire.

Safety Precautions

Like all forms of physical activity, jumping rope involves the possibility of injuries to yourself and those around you. You can reduce your risk of causing short-term and long-term problems by taking the following precautions when you jump rope:

• Make sure you start with a jump rope that is the proper size for you.
• Always jump on a smooth, hard surface such as a wooden floor, rubberized gym floor, dirt field, or tennis court.
• Avoid jumping rope on concrete. This surface has no give, and it increases your risk of joint injuries.
• Avoid wearing baggy clothing, hats, or jewelry that could catch on the rope while you’re jumping,
• Wear comfortable shoes with good support, and check that your shoes are tied to avoid tripping.
• Establish and maintain a grip that is comfortable to use for the duration of your jumping.
• Maintain a safe jumping distance from others when jumping rope.

The amount of open space in your jumping area should include:

• 2 feet above your head
• 5 feet in front of your body
• 5 feet in back of your body
• 3 feet beyond the distance of your extended arm on each side

How Long Do You Need to Jump Rope to Enjoy the Benefits?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) highly recommends jumping rope as a healthy form of aerobic exercise. To increase heart and lung health, the ACSM advises participating in this type of exercise three to five times a week for periods of 12 to 20 minutes at a time.

Summary

Jumping rope is a great warm-up or stand-alone workout. It is easy to learn, requires little equipment, and can be done almost anywhere. While often considered a childhood activity, jumping rope can provide many health benefits to people of all ages.

Jumping rope helps to improve your cardiovascular health and muscle strength. It can also help build bone density and promote weight loss. After you choose the right type and size rope, jumping rope can involve movements that range from easy to complex, based on your ability and fitness goals. While jumping rope is a skill you likely learned as a child, it’s always wise to consult your healthcare provider before starting any new exercise activity.