Jumping Rope: How To Increase Endurance, Speed and Agility

Jump rope workout is very effective in sports that require speed, agility and endurance. Early on my boxing training, I skipped jump rope training. That was a mistake. During sparring, I noticed my legs getting tired. I was focusing on upper body training and neglected my legs. As a result, I couldn't plant my legs securely to deliver a strong punch. Learning my lesson, I picked up some leather jump ropes and went along with my endurance training. If you want to work on burst speed, pick up some speed ropes. They are light and are made up of synthetic compounds that slices through the air faster than leather. Whether you are training for agility, speed or endurance, jumping rope is a fantastic workout. Good for boxers, football players, sprinters, practically any sport that requires speed and endurance.

Grab a pair of ropes and keep them in your training bag. Bring it everywhere you go. Anytime you have a break period, skip some ropes. When you are at the bus stop, jump rope until the bus gets here. When you warm up, do some jump rope training. Don't be embarrassed to jump rope in public. Just do it. I do it and I actually get praised by pedestrians. Lots of people walk by and give me the smile and thumbs up. I get tons of, "keep it up!" and "good job!" Just do it. The hardest part is getting started. If you can't pick up some ropes and jump, just "X" this window and go somewhere else. If you want to improve your overall fitness, stay lean and strong, keep reading.

For Beginners and Intermediates

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When you first start jumping rope, you will get tired fast. Your hops will be slow, big and inefficient. As you train longer, your skips will be shorter, efficient and fast. Your errors will decrease and you will be able to jump rope nonstop for a longer period. When you first start, you will mess up often. Work your way up. A good way to keep your rhythm is exhaling during alternating jumps. Try to keep a rhythm in your skips and time it with your breathing. After a few sessions, you will develop the basic skills fast. Focus on keeping your rhythm going for at least 5 minutes. If you can go 5 minutes without messing up your skips, you are doing very well. When you jump rope train for an extended period of time, you body will get use to it and you will shed excess fat very quickly. It takes much energy to jump. Once you get into 5 minutes durations, that's when you become an intermediate jumper.

For speed training, do interval training. Go at a normal pace to warm up, then explode and do it fast for 30 seconds. This exercise is great for boxers. Go at a normal pace, the do it faster for 20 second. Last, go at normal pace, then explode and do double jumps for 10 seconds. Double jumps is a technique where you jump once while skipping over the rope twice. This is a very difficult thing to do for 10 seconds straight. You may be able to do it once or twice, but try it for 10 seconds. You will really get a workout. This is a good anaerobic workout for explosive speed.

For endurance training, jump rope at a normal pace and gradually skip so that you start to sweat. Keep that pace for as long as you can. Do at least 5 minutes before stopping. Practice training your calves. Jump on the same foot twice and alternate. If you want to train your calves harder, try 3 times per foot and alternate. Keep your rhythm up. A good tip when trying to keep a good rhythm is breathing out every other step. As your pace and speed change faster, breath out every step. When you match your breaths with your jumps, you can keep a good rhythm and keep jumping longer. If your forearms get tires, keep your wrist still while skipping. This will help you jump rope longer. If you get bored, you can mix it up by rolling ropes. Bring your fists together and make a figure 8 horizontally. This takes a little practice. Keep jumping while you roll the ropes from side to side. This works out your arms and keeps you from boredom.

Jumping rope is not easy. Once you get going though you will see how valuable this simple exercise really is. Boxers do it to train for endurance. I can also see it being very useful for basketball players that need to be quick on their feet. Football player can benefit from both endurance training with jump ropes and agility training. Jumping ropes does not replace jogging or running. The intensity can be turned up or down and you are in control of that. The benefits of jumping ropes is the cost and convenience. You can buy a pair for cheap at any sports store or even a department store. You can jump rope practically anywhere. Another advantage of jumping ropes is the total body workout. If you have excess fat, your body will adjust and trim down these fats. For one, it takes tons of energy to stay jumping. And second any excess fat on your body is dead weight. I used to test myself at work. There is this ceiling that I always try to touch every once in a while. I've never been about to touch the ceiling until I started my training. I would be off by a good amount. I would be off by about 6-8 inches. I've since been able to touch the ceiling easily with my improved vertical jumps. I credit my conditioned legs and jumping ropes. I don't recommend jumping ropes to improve vertical hops. Explosive squat-like training would suit that best but it was a nice side benefit. Everyone wants to train to be fit. Jumping ropes is a very good and inexpensive workout. Try it today! It's easy to get started!