Jump rope training is one of fitness's hidden gems. Even as viral jump rope videos gain traction online, many people still don’t realize the numerous benefits jump rope offers for all fitness levels.
Jumping rope is not only easy to start but also supports nearly any fitness goal—whether it's fat loss, endurance, strength, or performance. Plus, it's portable and can be done anywhere, anytime.
In this post, we’ll explore the physical and mental benefits of jumping rope and explain why it’s more than just a great workout.
What are the Benefits of Jumping Rope?
Want to get straight to the point? Here are the health benefits of jumping rope:
- Burns calories
- Improves cardiovascular health
- Boosts bone density
- Greater muscle activation
- Increases agility
- Improves coordination
- Builds Balance
- Has meditative qualities
- Improves Overall Wellbeing
- It’s fun
PHYSICAL Jump Rope Benefits
1. Jumping Rope Burns Calories Like Crazy
If jumping rope is anything, it’s efficient. You don’t need to chain yourself to the treadmill for an hour to get a decent cardio workout. All you need is a few minutes to get the same calorie-burning results. Research shows that jumping rope can achieve a burn rate of up to 1,300 calories per hour of vigorous activity, with about 0.1 calories consumed per jump.
Ten minutes of jumping rope can roughly be considered the equivalent of running an eight-minute mile.
And compared to other activities, jumping rope is one of the most efficient forms of exercise you can do for torching calories.
Check out some of the jump rope transformations from our community members:
2. Jumping Rope Benefits for Cardiovascular Health
Jumping rope is phenomenal for heart health. The exercise can:
- Lower your resting heart rate
- Decrease blood pressure
- Reduce stress
- Reverse bad cholesterol
- Lower your risk of cardiovascular diseases
If you’re looking for a powerful cardio tool, a jump rope should be in your line-up.
Seeing cardiovascular benefits from physical activity start with roughly 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. So, is jump rope good cardio? And how long should you jump rope to reap those cardiovascular benefits? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers jumping rope to be a vigorous-intensity activity and is about the same as two minutes of moderate-intensity exercise. On that note, you can improve your cardiovascular health with only 15 minutes of jump rope a day, five times a week.
3. Jump Rope for Bone Density
Bone-strengthening activities create a force on the bones that promotes growth and strength, and impact on the ground creates this force. Harvard Health defines jumping rope as one example of an impact loading exercise, making it ideal for giving your bone density a boost.
4. Jumping Rope Creates More Muscle Activation
Total-body strengthening is another key benefit to jumping rope with quicker results when you jump with different weights which engage more muscle groups. The heavier the rope, the greater the resistance.
Weighted jump ropes offer a complete full-body workout. It works your calfs, quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs, oblique muscles, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back muscles, and chest muscles. Plus, your entire upper body is engaged to control the force of motion.
5. Jumping Rope Increases Agility
Research shows that jumping rope has a significant effect on increasing leg muscle power. When jumping with proper form you develop:
- Quick Footwork
- Faster Speed
- More Power
- Higher Agility
Jumping rope can be exceptionally useful for cross-training also if you play sports that require you to change direction quickly such as boxing, hockey, basketball, and volleyball. (Or maybe you just want to get better at chasing your kids around. Jumping rope can help with that too.)
6. Jumping Rope Improves Coordination
Jumping rope requires a lot of coordination, especially when you progress past the basic jump. To maintain the rhythm of footwork techniques, you need to coordinate your eyes, feet, hands, arms, legs, and torso while you jump. As you get more comfortable with the exercise, you'll notice that this benefit will extend to all areas of your life.
7. Jumping Rope Builds Balance
Alongside improved coordination, better balance is one more benefit of jumping rope. Research shows that while you jump rope, your body needs to re-establish balance with each skip. Given that you need to coordinate multiple areas while your whole body is in motion, the combined movements are tasked with maintaining balance. With practice, you should find that balancing becomes easier over time.
MENTAL Jump Rope Benefits
8. Jumping Rope Can Be Meditative
Even though jump rope is considered a vigorous exercise, it has certain meditative qualities. Some Crossrope jumpers even go so far as to say the activity feels like therapy.
“I am addicted to your ropes! Not only have I experienced amazing results and gains, but I enjoy the exercise. There’s something about the rhythm. I think it does the same things to your brain as throwing and catching a ball. It activates certain parts of my brain, which happens to be extremely therapeutic and healthy stress relief.”
Jumping rope can be tricky. Keeping a steady pace for 30 seconds takes work. To build up to long periods of unbroken skips you must keep your mind in the present moment. When you enter a state of flow with your jump rope, everything else that’s clouding your mind just slips away - it’s just you and your rope.
One Crossroper, Kathy, explains, “the best part of jumping, for me, is the freedom. There are no rules. You don’t have to worry about making a mistake with a step or the wrong movement. I throw on my favorite music, and allow myself to move however I want.”
9. Jumping Rope Improves Overall Wellbeing
Jump rope not only adds years to your life, but life to your years. Studies point to physical activity, like jumping rope, improve several areas of wellness such as:
- Quality of sleep
- Ability to cope with stress
- Mental sharpness
- Self-image
- Opportunities to make new friends
- Productivity
Crossrope user, Ahmed, told us that once he started jumping rope, he started to appreciate more small joys of life—cooking beautiful meals, learning new languages, sleeping soundly, experiencing nature, reading and writing, enjoying music from all corners of the world, and respecting his body for the places it can take him.
10. Jumping Rope is Fun
The fun factor is crucial! We all know that when it comes to exercise, consistency is everything. You need to be able to stick with your routine if you want to see lasting results. But to be consistent, you have to actually enjoy doing it.
• Jumping rope gives you the freedom to take your workouts on the go and break free from the gym. No more staring at walls or screens.
(Bonus: with our free jump rope workout app, you can get easy-to-follow workouts to take with you wherever you go.)
• It gives you the ability to learn new skills. Unlike running, jumping rope allows you to learn and progress with new skills like crisscrosses, double unders, and side swings. Each exercise is a new adventure and something you can add to your repertoire of skills.
• Compete with yourself and with other jumpers. You can challenge yourself with one of our app workouts, climb the Crossrope leaderboard, or tackle a workout with a partner.
• Endless versatility. There are hundreds of ways you can structure a jump rope circuit to get lean, strong, and fit at your own pace. If you want to get a taste of what that looks like, try one of our fun fitness challenges in the Crossrope app.
One of our jump rope fitness community members, Firas, said:
“I've always hated the cardio warm-up part of working out whether it was on a treadmill or elliptical machine as they're boring for me. What I love about the jump rope is that it's challenging and forces me to be more mindful of what I'm doing. This way it's both a warm-up for my body and my mind that helps me go into my workouts with more focus.”
Interchangeable Jump Rope Benefits
One of our favorite features of jump rope come from being able to utilize a combination of light and heavy jump ropes in your workouts. Think about how you use other training tools, like dumbbells. You don’t just train with a single set of weights. You have different weights that you mix and match depending on what you’re trying to achieve. The same goes with jump ropes.
Lighter ropes are great for getting lean and improving endurance. Heavier ropes are great for building strength and power. Together, the combination gives you the ability to get a complete, full-body workout wherever you go.
We designed the Crossrope Fitness System to give you this type of workout. Clip in different weights of ropes and follow along as our app guides you through fun workouts and challenges.
Quick Jump Rope Benefits Summary
We hope you found this post helpful. Whether you’re looking to add something fresh to your routine or for a workout you can do anywhere, Crossrope is a great solution. Like we said, it’s the best kept secret in fitness!
We’d love to hear from you. What jump rope benefit resonates the most with you? Leave your response in the comments below.
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