Raise your hand if home workouts haven’t been top of your priorities list recently?
Morning yoga is off the cards – you’d rather the extra hour in bed, thanks – and you’ve gone off live at-home HIIT workouts quicker than Zoom.
That’s why we’ve found the perfect solution to all of your problems. Well, ok, not all of your problems, but your total lack of workout motivation, anyway.
Enter stage right, the humble skipping rope. It’s cheap, cheerful, and totally do-able in between your back-to-back video calls, from the comfort of your own home.
Keep reading to find out what happened when one GLAMOUR staffer invested in one, mid-lockdown number three.
I started skipping in lockdown: here’s what it taught me
No matter what at-home gym equipment I invested in – I got kettlebells, dumbbells, and resistance bands in March – I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that smashing a morning workout and then sitting sedentary all day wasn’t doing me any favours.
I work in my living room, on a desk that’s definitely designed for eating and not working, on chairs that, albeit very purse-friendly when we first bought them in Ikea, definitely aren’t ergonomically designed.
It’s all well and good committing to a daily walk but, without something to hold me to it and my email inbox popping off, I kept seeing it get dark before I’d even had a chance to think about getting my steps in.
I’m a sucker for a challenge – yep, I am mad enough to be running a (virtual) ultra marathon in two weeks time – so I knew the best way to get moving more was to set myself one.
So, why did I choose a skipping rope?
Enter stage right, my skipping rope challenge. I saw an ad for a snazzy pink jump rope pop up on one of my social media channels and for some unknown reason, I was sold.
Once a toy used in schoolyards at break time, now a cheap and cheerful way to keep your cardio fitness on point from the comfort of lockdown (sorry, neighbours).
It was really purse-friendly – compared to the hundreds I forked out for dumbbells, anyway – space-efficient for my flat and also kind of fun. I hadn’t used a skipping rope in years, so in my mind, I had visions of it being like my sourdough and scrapbooking attempts in lockdown one. Fun and freeing and full of laughs. (Reality: I will never be a baker).
I set myself the aim of two to three skips a day, and was convinced it was the answer to all my problems. No steps that day and 4pm already? Skip time. 10 minutes in between calls and backache from slumping over a desk all day? Living room skip it is.
What are the benefits of using a skipping rope?
As with any cardio activity, there are plenty. Think perks like improved cardiovascular endurance and ankle stability, which doesn’t sound all that sexy but is so important for staving off injuries when running or doing high-intensity workouts, like HIIT.
It’s also a good one for burning calories – the average person will hit around 10 to 16 per minute when skipping. Not bad.
Where did you use the skipping rope?
My main aim was to make sure I was breaking up the eight (to ten) hours at my desk a little more. So, I really took the meaning of skipping anywhere figuratively.
I managed around two skips a day, either in my living room or on my balcony if I got scared I was making too much noise for the neighbours.
Verdict? Fun, harder than you’d think, and actually a great way of quickly getting your heart rate up.
Making activity throughout the day a regular occurrence suddenly didn’t seem daunting, or like I needed to take at least a twenty-minute break to walk around the block. A quick stretch, grap my rope, and I was getting my steps up and my heart pumping.
It’s probably the most 2021 thing I’ve ever done, but I’m loving it.
Worth noting here – I’m doing a lot of other training at current too (n.b. the aforementioned ultra marathon), so I can’t single-handedly thank the skipping rope for transforming my fitness. But it was a fun, enjoyable, and stress-free way of adding quick exercise breaks into my daily routine. It didn’t feel like exercise at all.
How do you use a skipping rope?
It’s pretty simple, but if you haven’t used one before (or for a while), you may need to refresh your memory.
How to: Hold an end of the skipping rope in each hand and let the rope rest on the back of your ankles. Then, swing the rope up and over your head, and jump your feet to allow the rope to past under you as it reaches the ground. And again. And again.
There are lots of different jumping techniques, like:
- Alternative foot steps
- Boxer jumps
- Double unders
But trust me when I say, start basic and work up. It’s harder than it looks. One great place to start if you’d like tutorials, tips or routines to follow is the Lauren Jumps Instagram account. She taught herself to skip during the first lockdown and is seriously talented.