The last time I jumped rope was during the Jump Rope for Heart program in elementary school. I remember practicing every day because I did not want to be the weak one in my class. Peer pressure could be a good thing when it comes to exercise.
While I occasionally “jump rope” in my exercise videos for cardio between sets when I lift weights, the duration is usually 30 seconds to a minute. So when I was asked to review the Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts book, I was curious. After all, how many variations could there be to jumping rope?
This post is a review of the Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts book.
Is a jump rope workout effective?
First, the duration of your jump rope workout tends to be short, usually 5 – 20 minutes. Jumping rope could be an intense and high impact workout.
You don’t even need any equipment to jump rope. In my exercise videos, I go through the jump rope motions without an actual rope. It is the motion that is important, not the rope. The concept is similar to lifting your own body weights if you do not have any weights around.
Chapters in the Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts
Part 1: Overview
The two paragraphs above pretty much summarized this part of the jump rope book.
Part 2: Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts
The jump rope workouts in this part are designed to take no more than 15 minutes. The authors spend a couple of pages talking about intensity and how to design your own jump rope workout.
The prep program includes 4 weekly jump rope workouts that prepare your body for the basic jump rope program. Each week you exercise Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
After completing the prep program, you should have build up your endurance for the basic program. Once again, there are 4 weekly jump rope workouts where you exercise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
And if the basic program does not make you want to burn your jump rope, there is an advanced program that is 4 weeks long with 3 jump rope sessions per week.
While the layout of the jump rope workouts implied that you should be able to linearly progress through all 12 weeks, it is a difficult exercise program so do not feel bad if you find that it might take you an extra week or two to complete a program. There has been plenty of time when it has taken me extra time to complete an exercise video program.
Part 3: The Jumps
This part has illustrated pictures of the various jump rope exercises listed in Part 2′s workout routines. There are 12 types of jump rope exercises. These include:
- shadow jumps: jumping rope without the rope
- basic jump
- the skier: jumping side to side
- the bell: jumping forward and back
- ali step: heel to toe jump
- scissors: splitting the legs when jumping
- alternating single leg
- double under: jump rope rotate twice per jump
- single leg hop
- running man
- knee tuck single: tuck knees as close to chin as possible when jumping
- knee tuck double: same as single knee tuck except rope has to rotate twice per jump
My advice on jumping rope
A jump rope workout is an effective and quick way to burn calories and build muscle. But because it is intense and could be high impact, I recommend you take the following precautions:
- Start at the prep program
- Exercise on a soft surface.
Save your knees. If you can, jump rope on hardwood floors instead of concrete or tile. It is better to whip up dust than to jump on asphalt.
- Take as long as you need to progress.
So what if you have to repeat week 3 two times before you build up the endurance to progress to the jump rope workout in week 4.
Should you buy the Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts?
If you are looking for a quick and effective way to exercise, then you might want to purchase the Ultimate Jump Rope Workouts. Looking through the illustrated photos certainly brought back a tinge of nostalgia for my childhood.
Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health. If you like what you are reading, please share this with your friends.
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