Jump Rope - an amazing work out!

Lately I've been using the good old jump rope as a part of my exercises. Its one of those fun activities many of us did as kids. We could all use a little change in our work outs, adding jump rope is one with many benefits.
First of all, its something we all know how to do. Secondly, besides the fact that you are burning huge amounts of calories while jumping, you can also do it most anywhere. At home, traveling, in a hotel room, back yard etc.
If you have kids, this is a great activity to do together. Your not just role modeling an active life style,  you are also spending quality time with them.
One way to incorporate it, whether at the gym or at home is, to create a challenge. Set you timer for 3 minutes and see how many you can do in that time. To fitness test yourself, use a heart rate monitor and track how fast your heartbeats calms down after the hard work. Then in a few weeks or months test again. Seeing results on paper can be very motivating.

I always use my  Gymboss timer when jumping rope. I set it for 10 seconds, 50 seconds, for 10 rounds or more. Another way I can use it is to do 1000 jump ropes and time how fast I did it.

Another fun thing is to jump only on the left foot, for a certain time or amount, then alternate. A little Bonus with jumping rope is that you get gorgeously toned calf muscles.

You can do it! ;)