Skipping is a high intensity exercise which makes it a great activity for weight loss. It can be done at home, in the gym, on your travels, or basically anywhere. Skipping ropes are easy to transport around. Therefore, no matter how busy your schedule is, it can be an easy activity to fit into your day and get your daily exercise in.
In this article, we will discuss whether skipping ropes are good for weight-loss by analysing:
- The muscles you train when skipping
- The effect of skipping on your carido
- Understanding the role skipping can play in weight loss as a whole
- How to add skipping into your exercise routine
Which Muscles Does Skipping Work?
Skipping is pretty much a full body work out. However, there is extra focus on the legs, glutes and core.
For the legs, you mostly use your calves to perform the small jumps when you jump over the rope. This is the main muscle used when skipping. Therefore, skipping is a great way to tone and even slim down your calves.
Your quadriceps are also used a lot when skipping. These muscles help extend the knee which supports your jump. You quads will get slightly toned when skipping consistently, however for more focus on these muscles, its more effective to do other exercises such as squats or leg extensions.
Your core is working to maintain balance and control when skipping. Your abs and obliques will be contracted the whole time.
Your arms are obviously used to move the skipping rope over and under your body. The muscle usage here is minimal.
Why Is Skipping So Good For Weight-loss?
To lose weight, you must consume less calories that your body needs. Skipping is a great calorie burner. When you burn calories, you increase the amount of calories your body needs, therefore, you’d have to consume more calories for your body to maintain it’s weight. That’s why any form of exercise can help you lose weight.
Skipping is a high intensity exercise like sprinting. It gets your heart rate up really quickly and to a high BPM (beats per minute) which results in significant caloric burn. Skipping can burn around 15-20 calories per minute so compared to a low intensity exercise like walking that burns around 5-8 calories per minute, you can burn approximately double the amount of calories from skipping. Skipping does, of course, require lots of breaks, between exercises, but a short 15 minute session can burn around 300 calories. This makes it one of the most efficient calorie burning activities you can do.
Other Benefits Of Skipping
Skipping, among other high intensity exercises, is an excellent cardiovascular exercise that challenges the heart and lungs, improving overall cardiovascular health. By elevating the heart rate during the workout, skipping strengthens the heart muscle and improves its efficiency in pumping blood throughout the body. Over time, regular skipping can lead to a lower resting heart rate, improved blood circulation, and reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases.
How To Add Skipping Into Your Exercise Routine
Now you know that skipping is good for weight loss, you may be wondering how much of it to do. Skipping is a high intensity exercise, which means you won’t be able to do it for long periods of time. Therefore, it must be worked into your routine, which could be in a number of ways.
As A Warmup
Skipping gets your heart rate up really quickly, so a 3-5 minute session would be a good way to get your blood pumping and warming your body up for a gym session.
HIIT Workout
HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. It is short burst of high intensity activities and a great way to improve your fitness level, especially if you’re training for stop-start sports such as football or tennis. Incorporating skipping as one of the exercises in a circuit training session or a general HIIT workout can be beneficial.
Ending Burst
Conclude your workout with an intense finish by engaging in a rapid jump rope session to elevate your heart rate.
After your main workout, propel yourself into a quick-paced jumping routine aiming for a total of 100 jumps. Following a brief pause, repeat this sequence in sets of 100 jumps, extending your cumulative count to 500 or beyond.
Alternatively, if time is limited, this routine stands alone as a comprehensive workout. Challenge yourself to complete as many sets as possible within a 10 to 15-minute time frame.
Conclusion
Skipping is a great exercise that can help you to lose weight. However, you can only lose weight if you consume less calories than your body needs to maintain it’s weight. Therefore, skipping, or exercise, must be part of a healthy lifestyle for you to effectively lost weight. The calories burnt from skipping will increase the amount of calories the body needs to maintain it’s weight and therefore, if you eat your normal diet, you will lose weight.
It’s important to stay consistent over time with eating nutritious food throughout your weight loss journey and not to be in too much of a calorie deficit. A small deficit each day, little by little is the safest, and most sustainable way to lose weight.