Jumping Rope is a fun, fabulous full body aerobic workout. It is also a cheap and quick way to stay in shape.

A jump rope is an essential for nearly anyone’s home gym. The beauty of a jump rope is you can get a great workout, in a short amount of time, and it is cheap and portable. You can use it at home, in the park, at the gym or on vacation.

However, there is a learning curve… You have to build a certain amount of skill, coordination and stamina to jump rope continuously for 10, 15 or 20+ minutes. This can result in jump ropes not getting used. The good news is that even a beginner can get a fabulous workout if they do a jump rope interval workout.

You can design your own hump rope interval workout, so it is always fresh, fun and different every day! In this post I feature the Limm Jump Rope which is affordable, adjustable and available on Amazon. Later, watch my video to see just how easy it is to make your Limm jump rope the perfect length for you.

 

Build Your Own Jump Rope Workout

First, a disclaimer… I am not a medical or fitness professional, please see professional advice if you have questions or concerns. Jumping rope is a high impact, vigorous activity. Though it is a fun, effective workout, it is also risky for some people. Not every activity is right for everyone. Please consult with your doctor before starting a new exercise program especially if you are not use to vigorous exercise. Assuming your doctor recommends vigorous exercise to maintain or improve your health and fitness…

Ideas For Your Alternate Exercises…

I prefer to alternate jumping rope with a low impact exercise that uses different muscle groups. Sometimes I like an equally vigorous alternate and sometimes I like a lower intensity. It just depends whether I want more of an interval workout or steady state circuit aerobic workout.

Sometimes for people who are regular exercisers, there can be a learning curve that hiders our ability to get a good workout from jumping rope. The issue isn’t fitness, but skill and coordination for this activity. For people like this (me!), we can still receive an intense workout if we choose an alternate exercise that is also vigorous in intensity.

Alternate Exercises If You Want To Keep the Intensity High Throughout:

• Kettlebell Swings
• Burpees
• Medicine Ball Exercises
• Shadow Boxing

The options are endless. Yet another option is to use a deck of fitness cards to randomly select an alternate exercise (or a few). I recently reviewed the HIIT game and is is fabulous for this purpose (Click here to visit my review of the HIIT Game).

If you are new or returning to vigorous exercise, keep in mind jumping rope is very vigorous and high impact. I find it easier on my body than running, but not everyone does.  I suggest choosing a milder intensity, low impact alternate exercise while you build stamina. This is also an option for a lighter aerobic workout, or if you just want to go all out on your jumping interval and use the alternate exercise as recovery..

Some potential Exercises For a Recovery Interval:

• Hula hooping (one of my favorites, you can up the intensity as well)
• Low impact dancing
• Walking/ low impact aerobic moves (if at a loss, find a walking workout online and pause it during your jump rope intervals)
• Walking around the room
• Dynamic stretching (if you really want to use it as a recovery interval)

Ideas How To Structure Your Workout

Some like to use an interval timer. This is great, I like Seconds Pro, but there are a lot of good timers.

Another option is more intuitive. I often will just jump until I miss the rope once or twice. Then I switch to the alternate until I feel ready to jump again. In this case it can be fun to count your successful jumps. Sometimes missing the rope is skill, sometimes fatigue. Either way it is fun to see how quickly you improve.

About Your Warm-up:

Be sure to warm up before you jump rope. Some use jumping rope as a warm-up, but they often only jump a few minutes. I like to do a mix of light aerobic movements, mobility work and dynamic stretches. I like to concentrate on my feet, ankles, knees, hips core and back. There are a lot of good warm-ups on the web. Many of the exercises I like are included in “movement preparation” type warm-ups. Also a mile from a walking video is a great warm up for a jump rope workout. (There are a lot on YouTube, try Jessica Smith or Leslie Sansone).

Featured Jump Rope – The Limm Jump Rope

My Experience Using The Limm Jump Rope:

Since I am only 5′ 1″, I appreciate that it is so easy to adjust this rope to the perfect height (see my video demonstration for an example). I also like the comfort of the the foam covered handles. Given that this is an affordable, easy to adjust jump rope, you really can’t go wrong if you are looking for a jump rope.

My Video Demonstrations of How To Adjust The Limm Jump Rope:

 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KekIOqTSOIA]
 

About The Limm Jump Rope (In Their Own Words):

“What separates the Limm Jump Rope from the competition?
 
It’s simple really. It starts with the precise ball bearing system that ensures that the rope will turn smoothly and precisely while you are jumping.

When you’re working out you need a quality rope that doesn’t tangle at every couple of jumps and with the Limm Jump Rope you won’t have this problem.

Another exclusive feature is the removable plastic pieces at the top of the handles which allow you to adjust the length of the rope using nothing but your hands, simply and safely – unlike other jump ropes in the market.

In addition, we have made comfortable foam handles to make sure you can skip for long periods of time. Finally, the total length of the rope is 9.8 ft, which was made longer to fit different heights.” (Source Limm Publicity Materials).

Where to Purchase The Limm Jump Rope:

 The Limm Jump Rope is available on Amazon – Click here to visit the product listing.