Jumping rope is a well-known type of recreating and workout. There are a variety of interesting statistics and facts about this exercise.
In essence, jumping rope simply comes down to jumping over a rope. Below you can find some of the most popular findings and statistics about jumping rope and jump ropes and where this data comes from.
Keep in mind that the figures below are often estimations from smaller studies, data sets, and surveys. These things generally come with a lot of biases, suboptimal sample selection, and measurement errors.
In reality, some numbers will likely vary for the overall population, sometimes by a lot.
1. Jump rope intensity vs other exercises
MET-values are numbers to estimate how intense a workout is. These numbers are then used to estimate things like calories burned. You can also use these MET values to estimate how intense jumping rope is vs other workouts.
As an example, you can find how long you would have to do the exercises below to get in a workout of about the same intensity as 30 minutes of moderate-pace rope jumping (1).
- Rope jumping (fast pace): 28.8 minutes
- Running 5.2 mph (8.4 km/h): 39.3 minutes
- Bicycling 12-13.9 mph (19.3-22.4 km/h): 44.25 minutes
- Elliptical trainer (moderate effort): 70.8 minutes
- Stair-treadmill (general): 39.3 minutes
- Rowing (medium-load 100W): 50.6 minutes
- Swimming breaststroke (general training): 34.4 minutes
Two things become clear from these stats. First of all, jump rope intensity will make a difference. Secondly, jumping rope is a great workout compared to many of the alternatives.
2. Jumping rope offers many health benefits
While enjoyment is also often a reason, many people also jump rope because of all the health benefits it offers. This goes from a healthier cardiovascular system to stronger bones to improved cognitive function, etc.
Another popular reason is that jumping rope can help you lose weight.
10 minutes of jumping rope at a moderate pace can help you burn around 98-169+ calories depending on weight, exact intensity, and much more.
If you want to learn how to burn more calories while jumping rope, make sure you read the article on how many calories jumping rope burns.
3. Jump rope popularity
By now it is clear that jumping rope offers an intense workout, it is inexpensive, and you can do it basically anywhere. You may wonder if other people also know about and implement this piece of cardio workout equipment.
Google Trends is a tool that shows you how much interest in certain search terms evolves over time for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular.
Below you can find a worldwide search volume comparison from 2004-2021 between “jump rope”, “treadmill”, “rowing machine”, “elliptical”, and “exercise bike”.
Jump ropes are decent when it comes to popularity but clearly, some of the other cardio equipment options are even more popular.
4. Jump rope world records
Like with basically any intense sport, there are people that push the limits of what is possible with jumping rope. There are a few impressive jump rope world records.
First of all, there is the longest marathon of skipping. This was achieved by Joey Motsay who jumped rope for 33 hours and 20 minutes (2).
The record for the most number of skips in one minute is currently held by Daisuke Mimura who did 348 skips in one minute (3).
Next, the fastest mile (1.6 km) while skipping rope was 6 minutes and 7 seconds achieved by Samalya Schäfer (4).
The most revolutions in a single skip is 7 and this was achieved by Akitoshi Moriguchi (5).
As you can see, there are a lot of different world records when it comes to jumping rope. And these are only a few examples, there is a big list of other jump rope records.
5. At least 8 types of jump ropes
All jump ropes are in essence a rope you can swing around and jump over. However, there are a few different types of jump ropes with their own advantages and disadvantages. Some examples include:
- Basic jump rope: Usually made from nylon, plastic, or PVC.
- Speed rope: A thinner type that is usually made from steel. As the name implies, speed is the goal.
- Weighted jump rope: Heavier rope and/or handles. Increases muscle engagement and calorie burn.
- Beaded rope: As the name implies, a jump rope with beads around it. Generally used because of personal preference, not performance improvement.
- Smart ropes: Jump ropes that keep track of certain measurements.
- Cordless jump ropes: Handles with short weighted ropes that are meant to simulate regular jump ropes but with less room required.
- Cloth jump ropes: As the name implies, the rope is made of cloth. This is softer and thicker than the basic jump rope.
- Leather jump ropes: Jump ropes made of leather. Similar to basic jump ropes when it comes to workouts but more painful if the rope hits your legs and less suited for outside weather conditions.
What type is the best for you depends on things like personal preference, budget, training goals, etc.
6. Recommended daily jump rope time
At the time of writing the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends the following exercise guidelines to adults (6):
- 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.
The CDC defines moderate-intensity exercise as any form of movement where you are able to talk but not sing. They define vigorous intensity as not being able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath (7).
So when it comes to fulfilling the cardio guidelines, you could go for 225 minutes of moderate-intensity rope jumping and 125 minutes of vigorous-intensity rope jumping a week.
Spread out over 7 days this would come down to about 32 minutes of moderate-intensity rope jumping and 18 minutes of vigorous-intensity rope jumping a day.
Do not forget to add muscle-strengthening activities on top of that.
Something to keep in mind is that these statistics are very rough general recommendations about how often you should jump rope.
Also, if this is literally the only movement you do and sit the rest of the day your amount of exercise may still be rather lacking for certain goals.
7. Jumping rope can improve coordination
You consider coordination as one of the health benefits but in the case of jumping rope, this aspect deserves a separate mention.
One of the unique things about jump rope workouts is how much they can benefit you in this area.
One study divided 24 preadolescent soccer players into two groups. One group did extra jump rope training, the other group did extra soccer-specific drills.
After 8 weeks of training like this, they found that the group that did the jump rope training significantly increased their performance on certain coordination and balance test (8).
On the other hand, the improvements of the soccer-specific drill group on these tests were not statistically significant.
So even if you already do workouts that are focused on lower-body coordination, you can benefit from adding certain amounts of jump rope skips to your routine.
