Jump Rope to Scorch Calories

Kelly Gonzalez
Busy Bodies
Date Published: July 1, 2009

Jump Rope to Scorch Calories

I’m a huge fan of efficient workouts. One of my all time favorite cardio workouts is jumping rope. If you think it’s just for kids or boxers think again. Jumping rope is a great way to get in shape and scorch calories.
Jumping rope can burn about 600-900 calories per hour, about the same as running. It is very high impact, can be hard on the joints when performed for an extended period of time, and it takes a bit of practice and coordination. I don’t know many people that jump rope for an hour as their steady-state cardiovascular exercise. Maybe that’s a good thing, because in order to get the best benefits from jumping rope you don’t have to!

Take the Jump

Jumping rope is a perfect form of interval training. I’m an advocate for interval training because you can burn more calories in less time, and interval training has a huge impact on fat loss. When you perform short bursts of high intensity training your body releases a higher level of human growth hormone (HGH). This hormone helps regulate metabolism, burn fat, and build lean muscle. Adding intervals into your exercise program can help you break through plateaus and get better results.
Jump ropes are great, because they are affordable, usually $15 or less at your local sporting goods store, light and portable making them the best piece of exercise equipment to throw in your suitcase when traveling, and challenging, which relieves exercise boredom.

Choose a lightweight rope. Weighted ropes can cause wrist strain. To find the right length place the rope under both feet while standing. The handles should come up about 4-6” below your collarbone.
When you jump your shoulders should be relaxed, the swinging motion comes from the wrists not the arms. Look forward. Have a slight bend in your knee, keep your abs contracted (jumping rope is a great ab stabilization exercise!), and bounce off the balls of your feet. You should only come about 1-1.5” off the ground. It may take a bit of practice, and may be frustrating in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it jumping rope can be a lot of fun. With some practice you will be able to mix up your jumping patterns-alternate feet, double foot jump, single legged hop, lateral jump, high knees and kicks, etc. Get creative and challenge yourself!

Jump Rope Workouts

Improve your stamina, speed, agility, and tone and strengthen your body in just 15 minutes!

Mix Jump Rope Intervals Into Your Strength Training Routine

By performing jump rope intervals in a circuit fashion with strength training exercises you can get so much more out of your workout. You can strengthen and tone your muscles while keeping your heart rate up, which will give you the cardiovascular health benefits as well, and burn more calories. An added bonus is that cardio intervals mixed in with strength training can help reduce soreness by increasing circulation and flushing lactic acid from your muscles.

Example Circuit: Perform 2-3 sets of 15-20 repetitions of the first 3 exercises followed by a 1-minute jump rope interval. Rest 1-3 minutes between sets.

- Bodyweight squats
- Push-ups
- Crunches
- 1 minute Jump Rope Interval

15-Minute Jump Rope Workout

Warm-up for about 3 minutes with easy jumping

Perform 30 seconds of speed jumping followed by 30 second recovery. Complete 5 repetitions.

Recover for 1 minute.

Alternate between high intensity jump roping for 15 seconds and recovering for 15 seconds for one minute. Complete 3 repetitions.

Jump easy for 3 minutes.