In our busy lives, most people these days don’t have the extra time that it takes to hit the gym for a workout. After you spend all day at your job and then fight traffic on the way home, you have to fix a meal and eat. It can be difficult to muster up the emotional fortitude to get back into traffic and go to a gymnasium.
There are, however, some great ways that you can get an excellent cardio workout right at home. You don’t need to go out in the rain or snow either. It turns out that jumping rope, that child’s toy from fourth grade is one of the best ways to get in shape and is incredibly inexpensive as well.
Start By Getting A Quality Jump Rope
This isn’t going to set you back economically at all so you might as well get the best quality that you can find. Avoid, of course, the children’s toys, and get one made specifically for an adult jump rope workout.
It should have shatter-proof polyethylene handles since they will take a lot of use and abuse but still hold up nicely. They should be solid, not hollowed out, and the rope should spin easily without obstructions when you try it out. This is an important consideration for speed and general purpose skipping.
The rope itself should be vinyl cord that is solid and phthalate free. It should be easy to adjust the length of and this rope material will be able to strike the floor thousands of times without showing signs of wear. The solid vinyl cord has little wind resistance so it maintains a perfect arc overhead even when used at high speeds. The rope length can be adjusted by tying a knot at a shorter or longer distance from the handle.
Getting The Right Length For Your Jump Rope
The trick to getting started with the proper length of rope is to stand on the center of the rope and then the tips of the handles should reach to the armpits. After that, you may still need to shorten the rope depending on how you hold the handles when you jump. When using it in your jump rope workout, the rope should brush the floor directly below your feet each time you jump. If it strikes in front of you, it’s too long and if it doesn’t strike at all, it’s too short.
Jumping Rope Is A High-Calorie Burn Cardio Exercise
Of course, the biggest reason to use a jump rope in your workout is that it will burn about 10 calories per minute. That’s an incredible amount for such a simple movement. In addition to that, it also does an excellent job of strengthening your arms, shoulders, legs, ankles, and butt.
So, in addition to getting an effective cardio workout, you are also burning lots of calories and getting toned up legs, but, thighs, arms, and shoulders. There aren’t many single workouts that can make that claim. Plus, you can jump rope in your home, on vacation, during lunch hour at work and almost anywhere else since the rope is all you need.
If getting a good workout without going to the gym is one of your goals, you can’t go wrong with a jump rope. All you need to do to have a complete body workout is add a couple of core body exercises, like planks, squats, or sit-ups, all of which you can do nearly anywhere when you have a few spare minutes of time.