Yoo-hoo, I have a new challenge! In addition to my Basic Fit subscription, which I use a few times a week, I try to do some sports at home on the other days. Now we have such a cool cross trainer at home to exercise at home that I sometimes stand on, but I also wanted to add some jumping rope. Jumping rope is super good for your combustion, provided you follow a schedule and don't go too crazy and overload your body. In addition, the threshold to start with this is very low.
But first things first… get a decent skipping rope and good sports shoes.
These skipping ropes are good for beginners and advanced players
Table of contents
If you want to jump rope as a 'sport' and you are going to follow a schedule to build up your condition and possibly lose weight, it is important that you at least purchase a good skipping rope. So no children's skipping rope! And your skipping rope shouldn't be too heavy either. That's how I came across the Smartrope that I can try out and I would like to tell you a bit about it below. But first I'll go over the schedule to build up the jumping rope. That is very important for your health. You have to give yourself time to build it up and not overload it.
If you are a beginner - like me - then you would do well to follow the schedule and not jump rope. Jumping can be very taxing on your body. For example, I myself have a knee that requires some attention because I tore my cruciate ligament while skiing, so a constructive schedule is very important to me. Even if you find the structure a bit simple… stick to it. When you have finally followed the build-up, you will see that the schedule of jumping rope can become quite a workout.
As mentioned, you have to watch out for overload. That means building up slowly to keep the risk of injuries as small as possible.
As you can see, there is a build-up in this schedule of the number of minutes that you jump rope and a decrease in the number of times you train per day and per week. Because in the beginning you are only allowed to jump rope very briefly according to the schedule, you can do that twice a day. The advantage of this is that you build up your condition relatively quickly without putting too much strain on yourself.
As soon as you are allowed to jump rope for longer according to the schedule, you will also see that the frequency per day goes from 2 to 1 and that you also train fewer times a week. Logical. This is because the load on your body is much greater in this part of the schedule. And your body must also be able to recover in between, of course!
As promised, I will also tell you more about the Smartrope, a skipping rope for adults with some extra functionalities on top of a normal skipping rope. If you like gadgets (and we do that here at home) then this is your skipping rope!
The Smartrope comes in 3 versions. The Rookie, the Pure and the LED. With all three versions you can download an app that registers the number of jumps, in which you can set a workout, set goals and challenge friends if you want. Nice of course to have some kind of competition while working out indoors in this way.
The Smartrope Rookie and the Pure are not very different from each other. The advantage is that they are both adjustable in length. However, the Rookie works on a battery and the Pure can be recharged.
I myself have the LED version of Smartrope. It has the same features as the Rookie and Pure, but is not adjustable in length. So you order it in a specific size that suits your height. The advantage of the LED variant is that it shows in the air how many jumps you have already made. If you do not base your jumping rope schedule on time, but on numbers of jumps, this is very useful.
Furthermore, the LED variant has a handle that is at a 45° angle, 2×2 ball loaders that make the movement even smoother and the most accurate measurement of the number of times rope jumps of the three. Of course there is also some price difference, it is up to you how much money you want to spend. But if you are really going to practice skipping ropes as a sport, read carefully so that you make the right choice. Investing a little more once is perhaps better.
Above I already told you something about the app. It's nice that you click on the app don't just see how it goes with the jump rope and your schedule. You can also do an interval training (this is not on a minute schedule as above, but on the number of times you jump rope). You also see your 'status' in relation to others. Over the past month, I am 2932th of all participants. That's not so good, haha!
As I mentioned above, jumping rope has a number of advantages and disadvantages regardless of whether you use a schedule or not. I'll go through them with you.
Have you ever considered jumping rope as a sport?
