Greetings Gang, Dr T here

JUMPING ROPE

Greetings as most of you know I am an avid bicycle rider. When I gave up on my tennis carrier, after I had completely destroyed my right shoulder. We used to have a serve called the American Twist. It was an amazingly effective serve, but it was really hard on the shoulder. Myself being invincible, never rested my shoulder when it would hurt. So my Tennis career was over not long after college.

Since I am a cyclist, I have my bike on an indoor trainer so I can ride during the summer when it is over a hundred every day in the summer. I live in Tucson, AZ (mucho hot in the summer here in the Sonoran desert). But sitting on my bike for hours is BORING and I was looking for something that would give me a great workout and burn the calories. The internet tells me that stationary bike riding burns about 509 calories an hour. I was watching a show on the Crossfit games and they use jump ropes and they are the fittest people in the world.

This is not your grandmothers jumprope. They now use weighted handles to increase the workout. The also have weighted ropes now. I have a 1/4 lb, 1/2 lb, 1 lb ropes. It does not seem like they are heavy when you just hold them but when you are using them they weigh 1000000000 pounds. But here is the secret, the heavier the handles and ropes the more calories you burn.

**As with any exercise program make sure that you are able to do exercise. You should always check with your doctor to make sure that jumping rope is ok for your current state of health**

I read this article from Matt Hopkins online and he lists the

6 surprising benefits of jump rope (+1 you already know)

I just copied most of this verbatim from the article that I found online.

1. Calorie cooker
   1. Very few exercises burn calories like jump rope. Even jumping at a very moderate rate burns 10 – 16 calories a minutes. (This goes way up when you use a weighted jump rope) According to Science Daily, 10 minutes of skipping rope is about equivalent to running and 8 minute mile. Even the American Heart Association recommends jumping rope (ever heard of Jump rope for your heart?)
2. Build Agility and Quickness
   1. Want to get “lighter on your feet?” Skip rope every day for a few minutes. When you jump rope on the balls of your feet, body connects with your mind to make “neural muscular adjustments” to keep you balanced. Essentially, skipping rope improves your balance and quickness/coordination by making your mind focus on your feet for sustained periods of time.
3. Increase Bone Density
   1. The medium impact of jumping rope increases bone density, but it is not as hard on your joints as running
4. It’s Good for Your Brain
   1. We know the exercise, even as little e as 20 minutes. Is good for the brain. But did you know that activities with Both physical and mental demands have higher impacts on cognitive functioning than exercise tasks alone. (In Europe they have found that exercise is actually better for depression and anxiety than any Rx that we have)
5. Jump Rope Tech
   1. Modern jump ropes come with ball-bearing handles, ultra fast cables and easy sizing systems. And as we said above you can get weighted ropes that increase the amount of work you are doing and therefore the amount of calories burned
6. Affordability
   1. Of all the fitness options today jump ropes are still one of the most affordable out there.
7. Portable
   1. You can jump rope ANYWHERE

So the place that I recommend to purchase a jump rope if you are looking to get into this is (www.crossrope.com) – I have no financial connection to this company I just think they make the best jump ropes out there

They have really tough handles and ropes so you do not have to worry about where you have to be to jump rope. Go onto Youtube and you can see people jumping rope on the beach, sidewalk, gym, anywhere. The ropes that crossrope uses are actually braided steel so they are really tough.

Most of the places online that I could find stated that if you use a weighted rope and weighted handles you can burn as much as 1200 – 1300 calories an hour.

Crossrope has a menu to help you find the right size. I tried  jumping rope in the past and I never knew what size to buy. They have a drop down guide that you just look for your height and it will tell you which size to buy.

Then if you search on Youtube you can find the mistakes that most beginners to jump rope make. I was making all of them I am proud to say.

So if you are looking for a new exercise that will burn the calories you might consider jump rope

I even saw a video of a girl that jumps rope with her dog here is is

https://youtu.be/OITDTNGad5s

Till next time

Dr T