Lately, I've really fallen back into love with jump roping. It's such a surefire way to quickly get your heart rate up and get a good sweat going, plus jump ropes are incredibly inexpensive and take almost no room to store, which is ideal for home workouts. As a bonus, it's a very effective total body exercise that burns a good deal of calories.
This is a quick but difficult routine that will challenge your coordination, stamina, and the strength of your mind-body connection while pushing yourself physically. It's a win-win situation and a great exercise to engage your mind and your body at the same time; these little "sleeper" workouts like this one are the workouts that end up shaping you into a surprise athlete with stellar coordination, balance, agility, and control over your own body - something that benefits literally every aspect of life and health.
Workout Structure
25 Seconds On, 10 Off/reduced intensity
Equipment: Jumping rope - if you don't have one, you can always just go through the motions and still get in a great workout
Warm up and cool down not included; both are recommended
Printable Jump Rope Workout
- Basic Skip Kick
- Double Feet, Double Jump
- Double Feet, Single Jump
- Wide Jumps / Jumping Jack Feet
- Split Jumps
- Split /Jack Combo
- High Knees
- Butt Kickers
- Crossover Arms
- As fast as you can!
Not so coordinated?
Feel like you're jumping with two left feet? This workout is meant to be challenging on coordination, so don't feel bad if you have to stop often or if the jump rope frequently gets caught under your feet (or around your waist or under your butt or in your hair or around the cat, etc, etc). Especially if you're brand new to jump roping - or if you haven't done it since recess in second grade - be careful not to judge yourself too harshly if and when you mess up. If you're out of practice or feel like you are really struggling your way through this, you can always stick to a very basic jumping style, and a few times out of every new interval shown, take a few stabs at conquering whatever variation we're showing. Once you've tried it a few times, feel free to go back to whatever style of jumping you are most comfortable and proficient at, making sure to be brave enough to always at least try each new style of jumping. Over time and with some practice, your coordination will improve and you might just find that you become a jump rope master (or at least that you stop scaring your pets and anything breakable in your house with your wildly flailing jump rope).
How to use this jump rope workout in your own routine
With a quick warm up and cool down, this can be an awesome standalone workout to wake you up with an energy boost of the best kind in the middle of the day. It also makes for a great add on before or after strength workouts (upper, lower, core or total body) - the extra burst of cardio ends up being a significant calorie burner that can make a big difference in your physique and cardiovascular endurance.
How many calories does jumping rope burn?
The jump roping calorie burn ranges from roughly 65-114 calories - the wide range in calorie burn estimation is due to variance in many factors - gender, bodyweight, intensity, muscle mass, baseline fitness, etc. These numbers in this range for this workout in particular are based on someone weighing 115-200 lbs, and are assuming that you're pushing yourself really hard throughout the length of this routine.