Rope skipping – a marvelous way to lose weight and keep yourself fit

I’m sure you have skipped rope one time or another as a child. While it was a game then, rope skipping is also a great way to shed those extra tires and stay slim.

Skipping is a great cardiac workout, somewhat at par with jogging and cycling, or even better. A one hour rope skipping can burn up to 700 calories. In fact a ten minute rope skipping is nearly equivalent to eight-minute mile.

The best thing about rope skipping is the rope you can easily buy a skipping rope in a store and it’s quite cheap too. Moreover, not much of technique is required to skip a rope as compared to other athletic activities that may require proper learning of techniques.

The right method of Skipping Rope

• First step is finding right size of the rope. If the rope is adjustable, adjust it for yourself, otherwise buy the right size. If you put a foot in the center of the rope, when you lift the handles, they shouldn’t get past the armpits.
• You should jump to a height of about 1-2 inches above, just so the rope would slip through the space between your foot and floor. Just the foot’s ball should touch the ground.
• You elbow should remain to the sides while rotating the rope. Your shoulder shouldn’t move but only the wrists and forearms.

Various techniques of rope skipping

Basic jump or easy jump

This is the most basic technique of rope skipping. The feet are kept a little apart and both of them are jumped at the same time.

Side Swing

In this technique the rope passes the side of the body without jumping over it. A Basic jump is performed after a criss-cross or side swing.

Alternate foot jump

The feet are jumped off the ground one at a time. This way you can skip twice as compared to the basic jump in a given time.

Criss-cross

The difference between criss-cross and basic jump is that during the jump right hand hand moves to the right side of the body and vice versa. Arms cross in front of the body.

Double under

In this technique, skipper jumps higher than normal while the rope passes twice under his feet. If the rope is skipped three times on a single jump it’s called Triple under. Wondering about quadruples, and quintuples are also performed in competitive rope skipping.

Front-back cross

This technique is like the criss-cross, however, one arm is crossed behind the back.

Toad

In this technique the skipper do the ‘cross’ technique but one arm crosses under the opposite leg from inside.

Double Dutch

Two ropes are used each swinging in opposite direction. One or more skippers can jump together too.

Other techniques for skipping rope are awesome annie, leg over, inverse toad, frog/donkey kick, elephant, James Hirst and other combination jumps.