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There are many different ways to improve your current exercise routine. What about jumping rope with a weighted jump rope, what benefits can you expect?
A weighted jump rope is simply a type of jump rope that is heavier than usual. The extra weight can be located both in the handle and the rope.
Some people question how useful this equipment can be but using a weighted jump rope while jumping rope can offer you some amazing benefits.
This article will go over the benefits of using a weighted jump rope vs jumping rope with a regular rope. You can also check out the regular benefits of jumping rope.
You do have to keep in mind that jumping rope can be hard on body parts like ankles, shins, knees, and back. Using a weighted jump rope can slightly increase your injury risk.
Additionally, if you are very injury-sensitive exercises different from jumping rope may be better additions to your workout routine.
1. Can help you lose more weight
Losing weight is about using up body fat, which is basically energy stored. To do this you want to make sure that you require more energy throughout the day than there is coming in from food.
One way to try to make this happen is by doing a workout. By increasing the intensity of your movements for a period of time you use up more energy than usual.
Jumping rope with a weighted jump rope can help with weight loss since using it generally requires more energy compared to jumping rope with a regular rope.
A big factor in how many calories you burn during a workout is your weight. To move around your body needs energy, measured in calories. The more weight you carry, the more energy you need to fuel movement.
For example, a 155-pound (70 kg) person jumping rope for 30 minutes at a moderate pace burns around 366 calories.
On the other hand, a 185-pound (83 kg) person jumping rope for 30 minutes at a moderate pace burns around 437 calories.
There will likely be a difference in how much a weighted jump rope increases calorie-burning vs the same weight in body fat but that just shows how using a jump rope when jumping rope can benefit your weight loss.
A weighted jump rope will likely not make or break your weight loss journey but even a small improvement in these jump rope statistics will make a big difference over time.
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.
2. Helps you engage your muscles more
Jumping rope is mainly a cardiovascular workout but it also helps you engage muscles in other areas. While you should not expect too much, if any, growth in these muscles, engaging them can still offer benefits.
Some of these positive effects include slowing down degradation, making the muscles healthier, and improving muscle endurance.
Some of the muscles you engage by jumping rope include:
- Calves
- Glutes
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- Core muscles like your abs, obliques, and erector spinae
- Shoulders
- Forearms
By adding more weight to the movements, you will engage your muscles more. This is one of the reasons why people go to a gym instead of only doing bodyweight exercises at home.
Jumping rope with a weighted jump rope will mainly help you engage your shoulder and forearm muscles more compared to jumping rope with a regular rope.
Keep in mind that you do want to run to actual resistance training exercises if you are serious about growing and strengthening the muscles mentioned above.
3. Improved cardiovascular health
Your cardiovascular system is the circulatory system inside of your body and includes heart and blood vessels. These transport many types of important nutrients, oxygen, and waste throughout your body.
When you move more intensely your body needs to transport these things, which means using your heart, at a higher rate.
Your heart is a muscle that can be trained by using it more intensely. Jumping rope with a weighted jump rope makes your heart beat faster and thus helps you strengthen your cardiovascular system more.
In turn, this leads to a wide variety of other benefits (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Do keep in mind that muscles can get injured. If you have not done any physical activity in a long time you may want to start out with low-intensity movements without a weighted jump rope and build up from there.
4. Can improve athletic performance
Getting better at a certain sport or exercise isn’t necessarily done by doing these activities more. Cross-training which is training in a different sport can be useful.
If jumping rope with a weighted rope is enough for you to strengthen your leg muscles, it could also help you improve things like jump height and running endurance (6, 7).
Additionally, one study suggests that in turn, jump height is related to sprint performance (8).
More importantly, one of the previous benefits, better cardiovascular health is a big advantage in many sports.
If you consider all of these effects, it becomes clear that jumping rope with a weighted rope should offer more athletic performance improvements than the regular bodyweight version.
5. Relatively budget-friendly
Another potential hurdle for many workouts is the budget required.
Some exercises require inexpensive equipment starting with a jumping rope to at-home workout machines of hundreds or thousands of dollars. Even the investment required for gym subscriptions adds up after a while.
Money put into improving your health is generally a great investment but sometimes you can get the same effects with less. A jump rope is relatively inexpensive. This can be a great benefit depending on your personal situation.
6. Makes jumping rope more time-efficient
Another benefit of jumping rope with a weighted jump rope is that it can help you decrease the time it takes to do a good workout. Quality exercise sessions are not necessarily only about duration.
For example to build muscle you basically want to put enough strain on your muscles so muscle growth processes start. This doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time out of your day.
A more intense cardio workout can train your cardiovascular system in a shorter amount of time than one at a lower intensity.
Using a weighted jump rope when jumping rope can help with both of these things. This benefit of weighted jump ropes is especially useful if you have trouble finding enough time throughout your day to fit in a workout.
7. Healthier lungs
To move around your body needs oxygen, the more intensely the more oxygen. Your body absorbs oxygen from the air through your lungs.
By using your lungs more you can improve how well they work (9, 10, 11, 12, 13). Jumping rope while using a weighted jump rope engages your lungs more than workouts with a regular rope (14).
Improving how well your lungs function leads to benefits like improved exercise performance and getting tired slower.
8. Improves coordination
While the technique of jumping rope is not that complicated, you do need to use some coordination. By doing this frequently you get better at it like with most skills.
One small study with 25 volleyball players compared a weighted jump rope program with regular rope jumping and a control group.
They observed that the weighted jump rope group improved coordination more than the regular rope jumping group (15).
Stronger leg muscles also generally reduce fall risk. Since jumping rope with a weighted jump rope can improve leg muscle mass it can be helpful for reducing fall risk.
The benefits of improved coordination don’t just show up in other technical sports. Daily activities as simple as walking the stairs require coordination.
Conclusion
All in all, it is amazing that you can get so many important benefits from adding one piece of equipment to your rope jumping routine.
Remember that even though there are benefits to jumping rope with a weighted jump rope, your injury risk is generally also slightly higher.
Especially if you are more of an injury-sensitive exercise beginner, you want to start with soft workouts without a weighted jump rope and build up from there.
Also keep in mind that consistency is a big factor in a workout plan. The more you love the exercise you do the easier it becomes to do it consistently.
If you like jumping rope with a weighted jump rope, great. If not regular rope jumping can also offer a lot of benefits.
