Is jump rope good training for endurance athletes?

Yes. Elite hybrid-racing athletes use weighted jump rope to build reflexive, bounding power that carries over directly to running and cycling. Adam, a Spartan and HYROX champion, uses a 5 to 10 minute weighted rope warmup before nearly every session and credits it with improving his running form and cycling power.

Can a weighted jump rope improve your running form?

It can. Jumping strengthens the calves and the soleus, the deep muscle that powers push-off. Adam went from being a midfoot striker held back by weak calves to a stronger toe runner with more endurance, a change he attributes to years of consistent weighted jump rope work.

Why do athletes travel with a jump rope?

A weighted jump rope is a full workout that fits in a bag. Adam calls it his insurance policy: no matter where he travels, he has a guaranteed 20 to 60 minute workout in minutes, whether or not the hotel has a gym or a safe place to run.

Is a weighted jump rope a serious training tool or just a warmup?

It is a serious training tool. Many athletes underestimate jump rope because they associate it with childhood, but a heavier weighted rope challenges even elite competitors. Adam's standing challenge to skeptics is to pick up a one and a half or two pound rope and attempt 100 jumps.

What muscles does jumping rope work?

Weighted jump rope engages the calves, soleus, shoulders, forearms, and core, while building ankle and Achilles stability. Because the whole body is rebounding and stabilizing with every jump, it delivers both cardio and full-body strength in a small space.

How a World Champion Endurance Athlete Trains With Crossrope

August 6, 2026 Crossrope

TL;DR: Adam is a yoga teacher, a creative director, and one of the most decorated hybrid-racing athletes competing today. He has won titles in Spartan, DECA, and HYROX, and lined up for the hardest endurance event on the planet. He has also broken his leg in half, spent three years fighting stress fractures, and rebuilt himself more than once. Through all of it, one piece of equipment never leaves his bag: Crossrope's weighted jump rope. Here's why an elite athlete calls it his insurance policy.

"There are no rules to it. I just found so much freedom."

The Athlete Who Wears a Lot of Hats

Ask Adam what he does and you'll get more than one answer.

He's a creative director in tech. He's a competitive endurance athlete who travels the world to race. But if you ask what he leads with, it isn't either of those.

"I'm a yoga teacher by heart. Then I do the work and everything else to afford that life and that connection."

Fifteen years of coaching and teaching sit underneath everything else he does. The athletic side, he says, grew out of the same soil: learning how to breathe, how to guide, how to pay attention.

Where the Freedom Started

Adam grew up in a small New Hampshire town, in a family that pushed academics and athletics equally hard. He also grew up with ADHD, at a time when it wasn't well understood. So sports became his outlet.

"The healthiest thing I could do was go run around on a field. I just found so much freedom in it. That was absolute happiness as a child."

His high school had 500 kids and no weight room. Competing meant traveling to Boston or New York to line up against athletes with real facilities. He liked the measuring stick, and he carried a chip on his shoulder about where he came from. That chip turned out to be useful.

The Injury That Ended One Career and Started Another

Adam earned a spot playing soccer at the University of Miami. It taught him the real work of being an athlete: diet, sleep, recovery, the parts that happen away from the ball. Then it ended, in the least glamorous way possible.

"My soccer career ended from skateboarding. I broke my leg in half. That was the end."

Coming back took a long time. But when he found his way back to movement, he discovered something that fit him better than any team sport had: Trail running.

"For someone who grew up with ADHD, you're constantly focused on where you're planting your feet. It keeps you engaged naturally. I want to go over there, I want to go over there. There's really no rules."

Three Years on the Couch

The comeback wasn't clean. Adam went through roughly three years of shin fractures and stress fractures, the kind of injury cycle that makes an athlete question whether they'll ever race again.

What got him through was a support network, good doctors who understood that an athlete doesn't want to get back to good, they want to get back to great, and a shift in how he saw the whole situation.

"There was a really powerful period of injury that helped me grow as a person. When I came back, I appreciated every step, every challenge, every horrible workout. I couldn't wait to get up in the morning."

Finding His Sport

When Adam entered his first Spartan race, he hadn't run seriously in years. He finished fourth.

That was the beginning of a run most athletes never get. He started winning. In 2022 he took the North American title in Lake Tahoe after coming in ranked outside the top ten. He went on to collect titles across Spartan, DEKA, and HYROX.

But ask him which one means the most, and he doesn't name a win. He names a race he didn't finish.

The Title That Wasn't a Title

Last fall, Adam attempted GORUCK Selection, widely considered the toughest endurance event on earth. Forty-eight hours. A pass rate of one or two percent. Led by former special forces.

He didn't finish.

What made it the most meaningful thing he's done wasn't the result. It was who was watching.

"My parents were there, in their lawn chairs, watching me get brutalized on the beach. That was an emotion I had never experienced. Something I'll never forget."

The Fitness Challenge That Humbled Him

Around 2018, Adam took part in a fitness challenge that included jump rope: single unders and double unders. He was an elite athlete and he could not do it.

"I don't think I've ever embarrassed myself more in a fitness challenge. I had no idea what I was doing."

For most people that's the end of the story. For Adam, a new skill he was bad at was irresistible. He researched, read every review, and landed on Crossrope.

"There's no one anywhere near the quality. It's so tangibly strong and well-made in your hands."

Being Adam, he ordered the heavy set first, caught himself in the shin with the 3 pound rope, and decided on the spot that he had to master it.

"I said, this is a weakness. I really want to conquer this."

The Gym in a Bag

Then COVID hit, travel became complicated, and the ropes revealed what they were actually for.

Adam is on the road constantly, for work, for races, for family. Sometimes the hotel gym isn't great. Sometimes there's nowhere safe to run. The ropes solved that permanently.

"It's an insurance policy. Anywhere in the world I'm traveling to, I have a guaranteed 20, 30, 40, 60 minute workout minutes away. You throw on your shoes and you're ready to go in five minutes."

Six or seven years later, it's the same set of ropes.

"It hasn't left my bag ever since. That's how quality they are."

How It Made Him Faster

Here's the part that matters most to serious athletes: the jump rope didn't just keep Adam fit on the road. It changed how he runs.

For years he was a mid-foot striker held back by weak calves and a weak Soleus, the deep muscle that powers push-off. The rebounding found with Crossrope work fixed that.

"All the jumping enabled me to get to my toes more often. I have much more endurance as a toe runner. That ability to build stability and power in the Soleus is unmatched. That's been tremendous."

His coaches now build a 5 to 10 minute rope warmup into nearly every session for its reflexive, bounding effect.

"The benefits have been tenfold. Running form has improved. Cycling power has improved."

Why Athletes Still Get It Wrong

Adam's biggest frustration is that most serious athletes still don't take jump rope seriously.

"It feels like something you did as a child. The idea that it can be a lifelong fitness activity that kicks your butt at a high level is probably a newer idea."

He tells the athletes he coaches to get two things: a weighted vest or rucksack, and a pair of Crossropes. He treats the rope as a secret weapon, the training tool your competitors aren't using. And when someone insists it's just a warmup, he has a standing challenge:

"I'd load up the one and a half or the 2 pound, hand it to them, and say let's see 100. I want to see their face change when they get to 10 or 20 and go, wait, how many are you doing? After that, let's high five and go work out."

The Coach Behind the Competitor

For all the racing, the thing Adam values most isn't a plaque. It's the moment an athlete or student starts to believe in themselves.

"It can be someone going upside down for the first time who had a head injury or a trauma. When they begin to build the confidence of 'I can do this, I will do this', it's one of the most beautiful things to be part of. It makes everything worth it."

His advice for people starting out is about finding the middle: enough intensity to grow, enough rest to recover, and patience with the plateau.

"Embrace that plateau. That's where you build resilience."

What's Next

At 40, Adam is doing something that scares him. His first triathlon.

"I'm not the world's greatest swimmer, so I'm in the pool two days a week. It's so much fun to have these new chances to test yourself. I'm excited to be an intermediate again."

Being 40, he points out, means he's the young one in a new age group. He plans to use every year of it.

But under the racing, the reason is the same one it's always been, going all the way back to a kid running around a field in New Hampshire.

"Fitness is still my freedom. It's a chance to express yourself. It can be an art form, a challenge. I'm still curious to find out what's possible. I just feel free."

Watch Adam's full story in his own words.