Do you go on vacation and want to continue training but you can not take material for it? In addition to the circuits that we have proposed to train without material in the hotel room itself , there is an exercise that you can do practically anywhere, with many benefits and that only requires a light string that you can put in your suitcase: we talk about jump rope, a perfect cardio workout.

Jumping rope may seem like a simple exercise, but it really is a powerful workout that helps us work legs, abdomen, shoulders, wrists and coordination with a single movement.

Jumping rope is much more than child’s play: it makes us work with our own body weight and it raises our pulsations quickly with a simple movement. It is perfect both for quick training and to include it in a circuit as a means of work or as an active rest if we do not want to remain unemployed.

How to train jumping rope: technique

It is important that when jumping rope we pay attention to our body posture : the shoulders should be placed back and down, away from our ears and relaxed, not in tension. Our back should stay elongated : straight, not leaning forward, and respecting the curves of our spine . The elbows should be kept close to the sides and without moving from the site: the movement we give to the rope is born from the wrists (not from the shoulders), which are those that move by drawing small circles. The knees remain semi-flexed throughout the movement to minimize the impact on the ground.

Take into account: before starting to jump rope is good idea to perform a small warm-up with mobilization of the joints that are going to be more involved in the exercise, such as wrists, ankles and knees. In this way we prepare for training and we can avoid possible injuries.

Jump rope is a very demanding exercise, so it is advisable to train with intervalsin which we combine a time of work (we can combine different types of jumps: singles, doubles, crossed, one leg …) with short periods of rest in which we rest our arms and slightly lower the pulsations. The typical intervals of boxing workouts(assaults or work intervals of three minutes with sufficient rest to lower our pulsations) are a good way to work with the rope.

How to choose the perfect rope or rope for you

Do not have a rope but want to get one? There are a couple of things you should keep in mind before buying it.

On the one hand, we will have to choose the material in which the rope is made , which will also determine the weight of it. The most common materials in the combas are usually PVC or some type of plastic, or steel cable coated with plastic material. These strings tend to be light and fast: it allows us to make double jumps with ease, although they have the risk that if we get stuck with them (very likely, especially in beginners) we can get hurt.

On the other hand, the rope must be adjustable in length to adapt it to our height. The ideal length can be measured by stepping the rope in the center and carrying the ends towards our waist: that is the ideal point where the grabs should be.