Jump Rope Exercises

Jump rope is an amazing exercise equipment. It's portable and inexpensive. What's more, you can regularly perform jump rope exercises to maintain a healthy body weight, and tone up the major muscles of upper and lower body. It works your chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps, calves, hamstring, and glutes.

Apart from these benefits, the primary advantage is that you can perform them anywhere, at home, in the gym, or in the park. So, no excuses! Here are some basic exercises that you can perform daily to improve your fitness.

Before you start your workout, first you need to get the right rope. Here's how you can find the right piece. Stand on the center of the rope, grasp the handles and pull them to your chest. The top of the handles must be about six inches below your collarbone.

Remember, that it must not reach the collarbone or be just up to your upper abs. A bit longer will do, but using a shorter rope might make you fall. So, now you have a perfect rope. Just put on a good pair of cross training shoes, and start the workout with this amazing equipment.

• Keep your feet together and elbows close to your sides. Hold the rope and jump 1 to 2 inches off the floor.
• Swing the rope over your head in forward motion and slip it under feet as you jump.

• Make sure that just the balls of your feet touch the floor.
• Your wrist and forearms should move, but your shoulders should not.
• Continue for a minute. Rest for a minute and again repeat.
• Repeat this basic jump five times. Gradually increase the duration of jumping, while reducing the duration of intervals after every week.

• Jump as you would in regular session, feet together, elbows at sides, but swing the rope over your head in backwards motion.
• So, instead of bringing it in front of you, take it back from over your head and let it slip under your feet as you jump.

• Continue for a minute and rest for a few seconds. Again repeat for a minute. Perform 5 such repetitions.
• Increase the speed and duration of exercise as you get comfortable.

• This is like jogging on a place and swinging the rope at the same time.
• The rope will slip under one foot and then the other leg will be raised.
• The benefit of this exercise is that you perform double the number of skips in a particular amount of time, as compared to that in basic exercise.

• This is similar to the previous exercise, but you don't have to be on the same place.
• Here you have to run forward while you jump on the rope.
• Some people enjoy running backwards and performing this exercise. However, you would need more space to perform this fat burning exercise.

• You need to jump higher and move the rope faster.
• Basically, you need to jump, swing the rope, and slip it twice under your feet before your feet touch the floor.

• Again jump and swing it twice or thrice.
• This exercise requires more practice, but it's not difficult. You can perform as many jumps as you can in a row. Rest and repeat.

So get your hands on a jump rope, and start performing the aforementioned exercises from today itself to reap benefits.