Have you heard of the 7-day jump rope challenge?
If you haven’t, people are hopping on social media to share stories of accomplishing 1000 jumps a day for 7 days.
It’s pretty impressive, but one Crossroper decided to crank the jump rope challenge dial. To be specific, crank the dial past 1 million.
You read that right.
We want to introduce you to Alfred, who in 2020, completed an awe-inspiring 1,202,057 jumps with Crossrope.
We love his story, and we’re so excited to share it with you. Alfred’s jump rope story speaks volumes about determination and how setting meaningful goals can take your fitness experience to new heights.
So, let’s jump into how anything is possible when you persevere.
Conquering One Million Jumps
We connected with Alfred and we just had to ask, “was this something you set out to do?”
“Well actually, yes,” explains Alfred. “Back in 2019, I met a friend in the Crossrope Jump Rope Fitness Community, who chronicled her journey to a million jumps and I was very impressed following along with her story.”
(You can meet some pretty inspirational folks in our Community, so be sure to check it out).
“Every year I try to do something different,” says Alfred. “It’s not always a big challenge like this one, but I’m always trying to push myself with things I’ve never done before.”
And that’s where it started. For 2020, Alfred decided to go after a million jumps but added a nice personal touch to his goal.
“I wanted there to be personal significance, so I settled on 1,202,057 jumps,” explains Alfred. “I added the year 2020 and my age at the time, 57, and that became my number of jumps.”
Looking back to January 1, 2020, Alfred planned out how many jumps he’d need to do a day and factored in rest days, and he was on his way.
But this impressive feat wasn’t without its own set of hurdles.
“There were touches of anxiety,” says Alfred. “What if something goes wrong or I get hurt? Things aren’t going to go exactly to plan, but that’s part of the journey. I knew it was doable but I had to commit to showing up.”
“I did, every now and then, suffer slight muscle strains in my calves. Those seemed to alternate. The left, one month, another month, the right one. It never stopped me for long. I treated them and took a day or two off when needed. These were minor, and didn’t set me back much.”
Everything was going according to plan. Enter the pandemic.
“Around March last year, my job switched to a work-from-home situation, my gym closed down, and many things changed at home with my family. My daily jumps went way down,” explains Alfred. “But I was determined not to let that become an excuse. I had to adjust my plan!”
Alfred recalibrated his numbers and took off jumping, more determined than ever.
“I had to make up for the lost time, so I worked through some pretty taxing workouts,” says Alfred. “Some days I was doing 10,000 jumps and several times I pushed myself past 20,000.”
Maintaining Motivation
Alfred went on to say that “the whole process was definitely a challenge for determination, focus and committing to the drive that got me through the days when I didn’t feel like it or was feeling tired.”
Naturally, we had to ask, “what was your biggest motivation that got you through the tough moments?”
“For me, and this applies to fitness in general, comes from a reverse motivator,” says Alfred. “On the days when I’m feeling tired, my motivation comes from asking if I don’t get the rope out and get this done, how am I going to feel later?”
“That feeling kept pushing me.” Alfred offered some words of wisdom saying that “in life, you’re probably going to regret putting things off, but you’re not going to regret doing the workout.”
“I never once said ‘I wish I didn’t spend those hours jumping’ or ‘I should have watched a movie.’”
Basically, if Alfred didn’t get his jumps in, it would bother him until the next time he could jump.
“Sometimes it takes a few minutes to go through that motivation process,” says Alfred. “But you have to tell yourself ‘alright, get the trainers on you got to get this done,’ and I always felt great afterward.”
Choosing Crossrope Jump Ropes
“I couldn’t imagine doing this challenge with any other ropes! I would have worn through so many jump ropes by the end.”
We asked Alfred, “when did you first start using Crossrope?”
Alfred’s journey with Crossrope goes back about 4 years around the time he joined our Community.
“I decided to get really serious about jump rope,” explains Alfred. “I always had a PVC rope in the garage and I used to jump when I was younger, but when I decided to make a real commitment I started sourcing different options.”
“I have all Crossrope’s jump rope sets now,” Alfred says. “The one thing that convinced me to try Crossrope is the ropes seemed like they were going to last and I know the importance of having good equipment.”
As far as durability goes, Alfred says “the rope I used was not new when I started this challenge, so this rope has logged a million jumps and is still usable.”
“The 60-day guarantee and handle warranty was also a huge factor,” explains Alfred. “I’ve had to replace some handles in the past four years, but the process is so quick and smooth that it really made a difference. I haven’t had to replace a rope yet because they last so long, so the durability is what really sold me on Crossrope.”
Alfred’s Advice for New Jumpers
We wrapped up our conversation looking for Alfred’s advice for new jumpers.
“I think about this a lot because I get asked about jumping,” says Alfred. “For people who haven’t jumped in a long time or have never done it before, I recommend really spending the time learning how to jump rope before you decide if you like it or not.”
“This is especially true for adults,” explains Alfred. “Sometimes we don’t stick with things we don’t master right away, and we avoid the learning curve, but really take the time to figure out if it’s for you, because it probably will be — jumping is awesome!”
What’s Next?
“I’m still jumping but my volume is much lower, of course.”
Alfred says he’s still jumping during nearly every workout but it’s only 1000 or 1,500 jumps.
“It's almost too easy!”
Now that 1,202,057 jumps are in the books, Alfred says he can focus on using his heavy ropes again.
“I haven’t used them in a year,” explains Alfred. “I bought the 4 and 5 LB ropes and they’re so fresh and clean — I have to break them in!”
We can’t wait to see what’s in store for Alfred in 2021 and his next jump rope adventure. His story of perseverance and determination is truly inspiring.
Great job, Alfred! Keep crushing those astounding numbers.
Do you think you could tackle a million jumps? Let us know in the comments!
Happy jumping!
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