Most people know that more exercise, like jumping rope, in their routine can be beneficial. But how often should you jump rope?
How often and how long you should jump rope varies a lot from person to person. Keep in mind that the examples in this article may not be the best for you personally.
When in doubt consult a physician before starting a new workout schedule.
A potential downside of jumping rope is that it can be rough on body parts like knees and back. Especially if you are carrying around a lot of extra weight or if you are injury-sensitive.
In situations like that, it may be smarter to start out with “softer” exercises like swimming, the elliptical trainer, or other jump rope alternatives.
If your body is able to deal with it, for a popular fitness goal like losing weight, your jumping rope workout plan may look something like this:
In this case, a weekly plan may look something like 4 x 30-minute moderate/high-intensity jumping rope, 2 weight lifting days, and 1 rest day.
Workout beginners who are not sure their bodies would be able to deal with a plan like this can start very small and build up from there.
If you feel pain it may be a sign you are overdoing it. In that case, you may need some rest, better lifestyle habits, or a less intense workout schedule.
If you are injury-sensitive, especially in your ankles, shins, knees, and back, only 1-2 jump rope sessions or even 0 may be better. There are plenty of other effective workouts where your injury risk is lower.
Is it OK to jump rope every day?
The first thing you want to consider before implementing a workout routine is how much physical activity your body can currently handle. Jumping rope every day may not be OK for you.
Consistency is a big part of working out. The effectiveness of your workout plan will go down drastically if you can’t jump rope for 2 weeks every month because of injuries.
Here are a few important factors to consider to find out if jumping rope every day is ok for you.
How active are you currently?
Jumping rope day is generally a rather intense workout. It’s possible that your last serious workout session was a few months or years ago. This can cause a few problems.
If you start (to try) jumping rope every day with muscles that are not used to it the risk of an injury will be relatively high. Your heart is a muscle too.
In the best worst case, you will run out of breath very fast. In the worst case, you overwork your heart.
On top of that, your muscles will initially need more recovery time. You may need some rest days instead of being able to jump rope every single day.
How much do you weigh?
Jumping rope can be rough on body parts like ankles, shins, knees, and back. If you carry around a lot of extra weight, both from muscle and (more often) fat, these shocks will be even harder.
If you are in a situation like that, walking, using an elliptical trainer, or swimming may be better workout choices to start with to avoid injuries.
Are you sensitive to injuries?
Even if you are physically fit, jumping rope every day may not be a good idea simply because you are injury-sensitive in the wrong places.
Some people are injury sensitive in general. Others are just injury-sensitive in specific areas that jumping rope engages a lot.
Some people who are at a healthy weight, in great shape, use a good pair of shoes, and eat very healthy, can’t jump rope every day because of sensitive shins. Doing so would cause injuries like shin splints.
It’s possible that your body is able to deal with jumping rope for example twice a week but that you need to do lower-impact exercises on the other days.
Conclusion
Whether or not jumping rope every day is OK is very hard to predict since it is so different from person to person.
For experienced exercisers who are lean and not injury sensitive, jumping rope every day is likely OK. For many other types of individuals jumping rope every day may not be the best idea.
The message here is rather safe than sorry. If you’re not sure, it may be smart to start out with short rope jumping sessions 2 times per week and see how that goes.
When that goes well, you can slowly build up from there. If any body parts start to hurt that may be a sign that you need more rest in between your rope jumping sessions.
When in doubt consult a physician before starting a new workout schedule.
What is a good duration for a jump rope workout?
How many times you should jump rope per week is not the only important thing. There is still a big difference between 5-minute jump rope sessions and 30-minute jump rope sessions.
The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion offers a few recommendations for adults when it comes to cardiovascular focused exercises like jumping rope (1):
- At least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity a week. Preferably spread throughout the week.
- You can gain additional health benefits by engaging in physical activity beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week.
Let’s say you jump rope at a high intensity. In that case sessions of 20 minutes will be enough to fulfill the aerobic activity recommendations per week.
That being said, as long as your body is able to deal with your workout you can consider longer-duration jump rope workouts too. There is not really a magic number when it comes to how long you should jump rope.
For most people, this becomes a question of how much you can and want to fit into your day to day life.
Even so, there are people who may take it too far. There is an upper limit when it comes to exercise, more is not always better.
If you are tired, sore, have a decline in performance, disturbed sleep, etc. it may be a sign you are overtraining.
What if you jump rope for 30 minutes a day?
Let’s say your body is able to deal with it and you jump rope for 30 minutes a day, what kind of effects can you expect?
If you generally don’t do a lot of strength training can expect stronger leg muscles than before. Make sure you eat enough of the right types of nutrients to support muscle repair and growth.
It is a fact of jumping rope that doing this activity for 30 minutes a day will also help you burn more calories than sitting still.
30 minutes of jumping rope a day at a moderate pace could help you burn an extra 3660 calories in 10 days which is about 1.05 pounds of body fat. 30 days 10980 calories and so on…
Keep in mind that other lifestyle habits like what you eat are important when trying to lose weight no matter what exercise you do. You can work out and gain weight at the same time if your other lifestyle habits are not good.
The scale might also not move that much at first because you are gaining muscle weight while losing fat weight. However, you are likely still becoming healthier and lowering your body fat percentage.
You will likely also experience other benefits from jumping rope. Some examples include improved mood, improved cognitive function, lower LDL, improved sleep, improved coordination, and much more.
What is your goal with jumping rope?
A question you need to ask yourself is what goal you are aiming for with jumping rope. More jumping rope, and more working out in general, is not always better even if you are not at risk for injuries.
Let’s say you want to be able to improve your cardiovascular capacity as much as possible.
The best training schedule for that will look more like a few intensive jumping rope sessions a week with lighter sessions or rest days in between.
In this case, a weekly plan may look something like 3 x 20-minute high-intensity jumping rope, 3 x 20-minute low-intensity jumping rope, and 1 rest day.
Another popular reason many people start to, and stick to, jumping rope is to lose weight. Even if your body can jump with the extra pounds without getting injured you likely want to have some weight lifting days too.
In this case, a weekly plan may look something like 4 x 30-minute moderate/high-intensity jumping rope, 2 weight lifting days, and 1 rest day.
At the time of writing the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends the following exercise guidelines to adults (1):
- Moving more and sitting less throughout the day
- At least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity a week. Preferably spread throughout the week.
- You can gain additional health benefits by engaging in physical activity beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week.
- Muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.
If your goal with exercising is optimal health and longevity jumping rope every day is likely not the best choice either. Again, you preferably want to implement some weight lifting days too.
In this case, a weekly plan may look something like 2-3 x 30-minute high-intensity jumping rope, 1-2 x 30-minute medium-intensity jumping rope, 2 weight lifting days, and 1 rest day.
The actual best rope jumping schedule will vary from individual, these are rough examples.
If any body parts start to hurt, that may be a sign that you need more rest in between your rope jumping sessions or that other workouts may be better for you.
When in doubt consult a physician before starting a new workout schedule.
