Skipping rope is largely seen as a pastime for schoolgirls. It is also a perennial favourite in the training arsenal of boxers. It is one of the cheapest, most effective, fat-burning workouts and is fun to boot. Here are some benefits of jumping rope.
1. Improves bone health
Skipping rope requires you to put weight on your skeleton which improves your bone health. It aids in bone development for young people and is especially encouraged in younger girls to peak bone density. For older people, it is great for maintaining bone density in the course of ageing. For older menopausal women who are most plagued by osteoporosis, it may also help improve bone health. It is an activity that’ll help you build and maintain a strong skeleton throughout your life.
This strengthening of bones makes them harder to break which is how jumping rope helps prevent injuries. It increases the strength in the muscles surrounding your ankle joint and foot, decreasing the risk of injury to those areas. The more weight-bearing exercises one does the harder it is to fracture bones or develop osteoporosis later in life.
It also strengthens the rest of the body because it requires head-to-toe engagement the entire time. It works not just on your legs but also on your core, biceps, and shoulders engaging multiple muscle groups at once. This synergy and engagement happen naturally without you actively thinking about it. This is one of the ways skipping improves coordination. Your brain is making all these connections and making all these internal systems work together without you having to pay attention to each one. Your whole body has to be in sync for you to jump rhythmically for any sustained period of time. It improves your coordination and balance.
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2. Efficient Cardio
Jumping rope is a vigorous-intensity activity that gets your heart rate up really quickly. This level of cardio has wonderful health benefits including reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes. Cardiovascular exercise is also good for your lungs improving your stamina and how efficiently you breathe. It helps prevent weight gain and helps prevent high blood pressure and certain types of cancers.
In order to improve your heart and lung health, you should skip at least three to five times a week for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
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3. Amazing for weight loss
Skipping rope burns major calories. Ten minutes of jumping rope can roughly be considered the equivalent of running an 8-minute mile (1 mile = 1.6 km). One of the most common reasons people pick up skipping rope is to lose weight. One hour of skipping rope will burn up to 1,600 calories. All this without any expensive equipment, gym fees, or trainer. Research also suggests that jumping rope provides a better workout than running.
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4. Improves your posture
The full-body workout that jumping rope provides also improves posture, pulling your shoulder blades and aligning your spine. This is increasingly important in a society in which the majority of the people spend their days seated and hunched over computers for adults or hunched over desks for students. Proper posture also improves digestion and blood flow to the brain.
5. Mental benefits
It turns out that skipping rope can make you smarter. It aids in the development of the left and right hemispheres of your brain which further enhances spatial awareness, improves reading skills, increases memory, and makes you more mentally alert.
It can be meditative once you get into the rhythm of it. It focuses your entire attention on just keeping a steady rhythm and nothing else. You can play a mindfulness game with it, just listening to the sound of your rope or other sounds and sensations in your surrounding environment.
This simple activity improves your heart, lungs, and mental health. It strengthens your bones, and muscles and improves your posture. Skipping ropes are accessible, affordable and portable. Jumping rope is also just good old-fashioned fun which is less than can be said about so many workouts and exercises. It will make you feel like a kid again which anyone who has ever been forced into ‘adulting’ knows is beyond precious not to mention it just goes too fast. Buy a skipping rope and find and enjoy your inner child.
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