I recently bought a jump rope from the sports dept of walmart. Heavy duty not pink neon plastic. Anyways, I was wondering if jumping rope was an effective cardio workout? how long should one do it for? how do you keep the intensity up? Thanks!
jump roping is fun, do it as quickly as possible to keep the intensity up, as jump roping at a normal pace isn’t that hard. Try different moves to keep it interesting.
I also have begun to incorporate a jump rope into my routine as outlined in Alessi’s Meltdown article: 6 sets of 60 seconds with 180 second rests…
good point about different moves…
also, find a jumping height that is just enough to allow the rope to pass under you (something like 1 or 2 inches). this lets you move the rope quickly and you arent waiting for your feet to touch the ground again.
as for workouts:
get a big clock or something similar to tell how long youve been jumping. you will eventually find a pace that is just barely sustainable. this is the perfect speed. do that for 3 sets of 5 min. if you can. then just increase speed when possible. incorporate crossovers, etc. to keep it interesting (kinda gets boring).
[quote]tiffy wrote:
I recently bought a jump rope from the sports dept of walmart. Heavy duty not pink neon plastic. Anyways, I was wondering if jumping rope was an effective cardio workout? how long should one do it for? how do you keep the intensity up? Thanks[/quote]
Jumping rope is one of the best things you can do. It’s cheap, convenient, can be done indoors or out, and you have great control of the intensity.
And rope jumping can be very intense.
My suggestion is to start by reading Coach Davies’s article, ‘Renegade Rope Training’[1]. That will give you everything you need to jump into exhaustion. 
Another site that has some information, as well as a couple of jump rope programs, is Buddy Lee’s website[2]…
[1] http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=174rope
[2] http://www.jumpropeinstitute.com/
[quote]topher wrote:
tiffy wrote:
I recently bought a jump rope from the sports dept of walmart. Heavy duty not pink neon plastic. Anyways, I was wondering if jumping rope was an effective cardio workout? how long should one do it for? how do you keep the intensity up? Thanks[/quote]
Jumping rope is one of the best things you can do. It’s cheap, convenient, can be done indoors or out, and you have great control of the intensity.
And rope jumping can be very intense.
My suggestion is to start by reading Coach Davies’s article, ‘Renegade Rope Training’[1]. That will give you everything you need to jump into exhaustion.
Another site that has some information, as well as a couple of jump rope programs, is Buddy Lee’s website[2].
[1] http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=174rope
[2] http://www.jumpropeinstitute.com/[/quote]
I agree. I’ve been using Coach Davies Renegade Roping since July 2001 when I first started training the Renegade way. I started out with one or two minute rounds and eventually worked up to six, three-minute rounds with 1-minute active rest breaks (i.e. 30 sec pushups, burpees or other exercise and 30 seconds rest before the next three-minute round of rope work).
Using the various rope techniques (shuffles, side-to-side hops, etc.), makes it even more challenging.
You want to aim for 120-180 “swings” per minute.
You can do it a variety of ways. Either one minute of rope work and then rest, or rope work and then some other exercises and a short rest before repeating, or do longer rope sessions (3-5 minutes) and several rounds.
Rope work is great for balance, agility, cardiovascular and CNS training.
Ten minutes of rope work is equal to 30 minutes of jogging, so you can see how beneficial it is (and how much harder).
Use it as a warm-up or use it on off days for your cardio/GPP.
Rope work is da bomb!
And it gives your calves a nice workout too.
I just started jumping rope again last week - it kicked my ass. I jump rope for 60 seconds, hit a punching bag for 60 seconds, then jump rope for 60, then kick the bag for 60, and so on (I have a timer on my watch go off every 65 seconds). No rest in between “sets.” Do as many as you can. Very fun, very intense. You could also jump rope for 60 seconds, do Hindu pushups for 60 seconds, jump, do Hindu squats for 60.
Good links guys…
Mike Mahler’s got another one called High Octane Cardio. He’s got some rope work that incorporates cleans, snatches, etc…