Jump Ropes: The Most Complete Portable Training Tool

Jump Rope training is a portable, cheap and fantastic way to build muscle, improve hand eye coordination and get your cardio workouts in! I’m a huge fan of jump rope training and I use mine at least once a day. Perfect, if you’re stuck for time, on the go, or just fancy putting on your favourite playlist and jumping around!

A Jump Ropes main plus point is that you can take one anywhere with you. I love to take mine on holiday, and I have one in my car, so even if I’m stopped somewhere just for a few minutes, I can get my heart rate up and blood pumping! Jump Rope training is a great way to work on hand eye coordination. It really helped me to do that as I have dyspraxia, which really affects my hand eye coordination. It’s also a very meditative practice, helping to remove distraction and focus on the task in front of you. Just keep bouncing!

You can work on more advanced jumps; whether that’s boxer skip, double unders or cris-crosses to add difficulty and a new dynamic to your jump rope rhythm. Check some jump rope tutorials out on YouTube, and I recommend seeing professional boxers do it as well, to aspire to that! Floyd Mayweather is particularly ridiculous at jump rope, but it shows you just how practiced you can become. 

You can even add weighted ropes to incorporate a strength element to your jump rope game. And trust me, it adds to the difficulty! The weighted ropes also allow for easier skills and tricks practice as the moment of the weighted rope means you don’t have to work as hard from the wrists to swing the rope itself.

In terms of jump rope form, keep your chin upright, your shoulders retracted and engaged, your elbows tucked and swing the rope from your wrists. Each time you hear the rope hit the floor, jump. Also make sure you only jump an inch or so off the ground (except with double unders). This helps to prevent shin splints and injuries. This sounds odd on paper, but when you find the correct form. You’ll find you can jump for longer consecutively than you could before.

Jump ropes can be used in between exercises too, to add a circuit element to your training. Below is an example Jump Rope workout I like to do, and you can do it anywhere:

Two foot bounce x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Press Up Plus Max x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Boxer Skip x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Pull Ups Max x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Criss Cross x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Squats Max x 45 secs / 15 secs rest
Boxer Skip x 45 secs / 15 secs rest

1 min rest

Repeat at least 4 times (+1 rep to each exercise on each repetition of the circuit)

You can also vary timings, circuit repetitions, pull up grip, press up variations, and squat variations to suit you and your training goals.

Make sure you mobilise the ankles, calves, quads and hamstrings in your warm up to keep those bounces nice and supple. Lower body mobility is key to keeping that solid jump rope form.

I hope this article helps you raise your game!