Starting A Jump Rope Workout

Yesterday and today were the last two days in my two week jump rope
workout warmup.  The five workouts that I did were helpful in a few of
different ways. Since I hadn’t jumped rope in a few months these couple
of weeks helped me get back into the hang of it while also preparing my
body for the real workouts that will be starting next Monday.

One of the things that make skipping rope difficult is the fact that it
does take some practice to master the skill of jumping over the rope
for a continuous period of time without tripping over it.  This two
week warm-up helped me to get used to jumping over the rope so that
when I start my more longer and more strenuous workouts next week I
will have less trip ups which will yield a better exercise session.
While I will still probably trip over the rope every now and again for
a while I will avoid tripping over it every 20 to 30 jumps.  While
jumping rope without tripping was one of my goals for this warm-up
period I also wanted to get my body used to jumping again so it won’t
be such a shock when I move to 4 days/week come starting next Monday.

A jump rope workout can be fairly hard on the calves and arches of your
feet so it’s important to go into this exercise at a reasonable pace in
order to get your body used to this type of cardio.  The last thing I
want is to have an injury or just plain old painful feet and calves
hold up my progress that I intend to make over the next 12 weeks so
these five days, spread out over two weeks, helped prepare me for my
coming workouts.  Since I plan on jumping rope two days in a row with
breaks in between I decided to workout yesterday and today to see how
my body would react.  While I did notice some pain in the arches of my
feet it wasn’t such a pain that I would be able to complete a workout
so that is good.  I’m looking forward to starting next weeks workouts
although after the first week I may think differently.

Yesterday’s workout was the same that I did on Monday but today’s was more
difficult to complete and I’ll outline it below.  I added some time to
my jumping sessions and was fully intending to jump for a minute
straight but I’m not at that point yet but I was able to get a couple
of 45 second jumping periods in there.  Here is what I accomplished
today:

While this may look easy, for me it was rather difficult given the poor shape
I’m in.  This is the last of my 10 minute workouts and Monday will be
the start of my longer workouts, not sure yet if I’ll start with 20
minutes of time or more so I’ll have to hash that out this weekend.
Now I just have to find a HR Monitor, I’ll probably go with the Polar
F6, and I’ll be all set for my next twelve weeks.

That is it for this post, I’ll put another one up this weekend detailing what my
jump rope workout will look like for next week.

I made it to the gym on Monday and completed the jump rope workout I outlined in my Day 2 post.  This workout was a bit tougher than my first
workout but I was able to successfully complete it without too much
trouble.  On one of the 30 second intervals I did get a bit tired and
tripped over the rope a few times but that was fine because I’m making
progress.

These workouts made me realize that getting to my first 12 week goal
of continuous jumping for 30 minutes is going to be tough and will
require some major leaps in jumping time in order to achieve it.  I’ll
probably take a gradual increase in jumping time for the first 6 weeks
and then start adding jumping time in greater increments for the final
6 weeks in order to get to 30 continuous minutes of jumping.

Today I had my physical and I’ve been cleared to start an exercise
program.  Once I get my cholesterol numbers I will probably put a
couple of them on my goals page so that I can compare them to my numbers after 36 weeks of jump rope training and eating healthier.

This just leaves me with deciding on what heart rate monitor I want to
get in order to track the progress of my fitness over the 36 weeks. 
It’s doubtful I’ll have the monitor in time for my first workout but as
long as I have it in time for week 2 I’ll be happy.

Tomorrow will be another warm up jump rope workout and this will be the
same one that I did yesterday so it should still be rather easy.  On
Friday I’m going to try and make the workout much tougher than these
first 4 workouts so that I will be prepared to start with my first 12
week workouts on the 18th.

That’s it for this post, feel free to leave a comment and I look forward to posting more as this journey goes on.

Day two of my 2 week jump rope workout warmup has come and gone
and I have to say that it seemed a lot easier than the first day’s
workout.  This days workout was the same as Mondays and is pretty easy
to begin with but on Monday it seems that I was more out of breath than
yesterday so it looks like I’m taking steps in the right direction for
my fitness.  It’s definitely going to take a while for me to get into
good enough shape to jump rope continuously for 15 to 20 minutes and
more but with persistence I know I’ll get there.  I did trip over the
rope a few times during the workout but those have been few and far
between and I have to attribute that to the work I was doing in October
of last year when I was able to get four good weeks of rope skipping in
before sickness and work stepped in and sidetracked me.  If you’re
considering adding jump rope fitness to your workouts and haven’t
jumped rope in a while please give yourself time to get used to
skipping over a rope again because it does take a while to get
proficient with the exercise, but once you do then all the fun footwork
and tricks come into play.

The next two days workouts are going to be a bit tougher than the first
two and will further get my body used to jump rope training.  Here is how
the workouts will go:

• Minutes 1 – 3 I will jump for 15 seconds then march in place for 15 seconds until the 3 minutes are up.
• Minutes 4 – 5 I will jump for 30 seconds then march in place for 30 seconds until the 2 minutes are up.
• Minutes 6 – 7 I will jump for 15 seconds, march in place for 30 seconds, jump for 30 seconds, march in place for 30 seconds, and finish with 15 seconds of jumping.
• Minutes 8 – 10 I will march in place for 15 seconds then jump for 15 seconds until the 3 minutes are up.

As you can see this is just a bit tougher than the first two days of
skipping and will continue to get me into jumping shape for my “real”
workouts.  As mentioned in my last post, though, these workouts are
just designed to get my body used to the how difficult jumping rope is
while also easing my calves and the arches of my feet back into jumping
shape.  After the workout I’ll once again cool down with 5 minutes of
easy treadmill walking and then get in a good 5 minutes of stretching
so my muscles aren’t so sore the next few days.

I hope to have a good heart rate monitor researched and picked out
before I start into my full jump rope workout so that I can track my
calories burned and the progress I make in fitness-wise.  Also, I have
scheduled a physical next week just to make sure I’m healthy enough for
this strenuous exercise plus I plan on using before and after blood
work readings to gauge how well I’ve done this year.  With those out of
the way I just need to focus on dialing my diet in tight for a couple
of months so that I can achieve the goals I have for my program.
That’s it for this post, I’ll try to get a synopsis of day 3’s workout
up as well as my goal page this weekend.  Please feel free to leave me
any comments or suggestions you have!

It’s a new year already and time to start moving on my new years resolutions.  After I weighed myself on the morning of the 1st I wanted to kick myself because the scale showed my weight was very near the heaviest I have ever been and this made me realize that putting the goal of getting into shape off is not an option anymore!  My weight was 281.5 lbs which is around 7 lbs lighter than the heaviest I have ever been.  So, with this weight in mind I am beginning to develop my Jump Rope Workout so that at year end I’ll be in the best shape of my life and not in the worst.  I am going to make a goals page for this blog so that you can see where I want to be and what timeline I am giving myself to get there, this page will posted in a few days.  This post will discuss my next two weeks goals for this jump rope fitness program and then in the next week I will write what my plans are for the next 12-24-36 week time frame.

The next two weeks will help my body to get used to jumping rope again.  Last October I was really getting into a good groove with the jump rope and was starting to build some stamina when sickness brought that to a screeching halt.  Not only did sickness derail my efforts but work got real busy in the second half of November and through December so my jump rope workout unfortunately took a back seat, and after looking at the scale on the 1st I really wish I hadn’t let that go…  Anyway, I’m starting fresh again so the next two weeks will be all about getting my calves, legs, and the arches of my feet back into rope skipping shape.  This period of time should also allow me to get proficient with the jump rope again so that I wont be constantly tripping over the rope during my workout.

With that in mind I am going to be skipping rope three days this week and then another three next week before moving on to my anticipated four days a week for a while after that.  I started up again today and did a beginner workout of 10 minutes with the rope and it went like this:

• Minutes 1 – 3 I jumped for 15 second then marched in place for 15 seconds until the 3 minutes were up.
• Minutes 4 – 7 I jumped for 15 seconds then marched in place for 30 seconds until the 4 minutes were up.
• Minutes 8 – 10 I jumped for 15 seconds then marched in place for 15 seconds until the 3 minutes were up.

That completed my 10 minute jump rope workout and after this I did a 5 minute cooldown on the treadmill followed by about 5 minutes of stretching to make sure my legs were well stretched after this workout, especially the calves and arches of my feet, so that I can carry on without the inconvenience of injury. I plan on following this workout again on Wednesday and will adjust the jumping and active rest periods at least two more times over the course of the remaining 4 workout days of this first two week period of time.  After this “warm-up” is over I will begin my “real” workouts and will post the details of these workouts in the coming weekend.  I know this looks like an easy workout and for the most part it was but it definitely showed me that I have a long way to go in order to get into the physical condition that I would like to be in.  With persistence I will be successful with my fitness goals and jump rope training will be a big key to getting me there.

OK, it’s that time of the year again where we write down our New Years resolutions again.  For a lot of us, yours truly included, the resolution that is at the top of the list is to lose weight and get in shape.  Well, after a very hectic November and December I am able to once again start plugging away at this blog in order to keep track of my journey to get fit with the jump rope.  There are three areas that I want my fitness program to encompass in the coming year and they are losing weight, gaining stamina/increasing endurance, and building some muscle.  I will be focusing on developing a Jump Rope Workout in order to accomplish the first two goals and will even incorporate the jump rope into my weight training program after I get into better shape.

Losing weight is just one of those things that comes up again and again, unless of course you’re in excellent shape already, and it’s a very important goal for me to accomplish this year.  I’ve been in kind of a yo-yo pattern the last 5 years where I was around my ideal weight then ballooned up again then lost the weight again and once again gained it all back.  I’m not at my heaviest now, pretty close I’d bet, but I want to stop this pattern and lose the weight and keep it off.  The main reason is that I want to set a good example for my kids so they don’t have to struggle with this like I have for a lot of my life.  The kids are also one of the main reasons I’ve chosen the jump rope workout as my main piece of cardio equipment that I’ll use to lose the weight because as they grow older we’ll be able to spend time jumping rope together and hopefully they’ll develop a love for fitness and stick with it throughout their lives.  My goal weight is 185 lbs which is probably about 90 or so pounds lighter than I am right now.  I’ll weigh in on Friday and post my initial weight for all to see then.  While losing weight is one of the big goals with my fitness program I also want to develop my stamina so that I am able to play with my kids instead of just watching from the sidelines.

Jumping rope is an excellent way to increase the endurance levels and build stamina which is another reason why I chose this type of workout.  Just look at a boxer and you will realize they are in fantastic cardiovascular condition and I’d like to achieve some form of that in my own life.  As my kids grow older I want to be able to go full speed with them and spend time with them where now I am just too tired to play very long.  So, increasing my stamina levels is a very big piece of my fitness program and one that I know I can accomplish by skipping rope.  I actually started to get into a routine with jump rope in October but then busy season came at work and I got sidetracked.  Right now I would be unable to jump continuously for more than a minute to a minute and a half.  My goal is to be able to get up to 30 minutes four times a week with an eventual mixture of High Intensity Interval Training and slow-go cardio jumping.  This will most likely take a while but I know it can be done.  Gaining stamina and losing weight are great goals but I also want to develop muscle in order to sculpt my body a bit and to be able to keep up with the physical demands that I’m sure the children will be putting me through.

Weight training is an integral part of keeping the weight off because muscle burns a good deal of calories each day just by being there.  I’m not looking to become the next Mr Olympia, I just want to be able to have some definition to my body once the fat is gone and be able to pick up my children as they get older and bigger.  So my initial goals for the year are to use the basics such as the bench and shoulder press, curls, rows, and leg presses to build a decent foundation of muscle that I can focus on once I am in better shape later on.  I’ll also add some circuit training in there, which is where the jump rope will come in, where I’ll perform a set of weight lifting followed by a minute or two of jump rope then right into the next set of weight lifting and so on.  This type of workout should have the extra benefit of blasting fat off at a quicker rate but is one that I’ll probably have to wait on for a few months as I build my initial stamina.

Now that I kind of have my goals written out I just have to clarify them a bit, write out some workouts, and get to work on attaining them.  The jump rope workout will be key to my fitness program this year and I’ll post my results here often.  Losing weight, gaining stamina, and building muscle are all achievable goals because I’ve done them before but I know it’s going to be a challenge.  This blog will hopefully be a way for me to keep myself honest and be a way to be accountable so that I don’t just let another year of poor fitness go by.  Feel free to leave comments on your goals this coming year and stop back often to keep me honest with mine.