Jump Rope Videos Part 5 - Cardio Workouts To Burn Fat & Lose Weight

Muscles Targeted: The jump rope exercise is the perfect cardio workout to include in your fitness plan since it burns a lot of calories in a short amount of time, and it also is super convenient to perform anywhere. You can grab your jump rope and head outside to the backyard for a killer workout. You can even jump rope inside your house or do it in your office (if your boss doesn't get mad). Its a truly portable quick workout that burns body fat, helps your agility and also works every muscle group on your body. Since you're using your upper body to move the rope around and your jumping with your lower body, you are working your arms, chest, back, legs and calves. You're also working your abs and core as stabilizer muscles to keep your body tight while jumping up and down.

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Exercise Advice: The first thing you need to do is to make sure the height of your jump rope is correct. You can find out but standing on the middle of the jump rope with both feet together and then grab the handles and pull the rope up as far as it can go. The correct height should be when the handles come to just under your arm pits. Any higher and the jump rope is probably too long which will cause issues when you're jumping since there will be too much slack in the rope. If its too short, it will be difficult to get the rope under your feet while you're swinging it. You will know this very quickly since the rope will probably hit you right in the shins or legs and it will sting very badly! So, adjust the rope until you find a comfortable length where you can easily jump with the rope passing under your feet and not too much slack in the rope to cause issues.

In this specific jump rope workout, you will be doing a combination of jumping rope, doing pushups and finishing up with sit-ups. To begin, start jumping rope at a normal speed for 10-20 seconds. You will then start moving forward while jumping rope at a very high intensity of 90-95%. You want to really push yourself and jump rope fast while your moving forward about 10-15 yards. Once you reach the end, you will immediately drop the jump rope and do 20-30 pushups. After the pushups, you will immediately get on your back and do 20-30 sit-ups. Rest for 1 minute and repeat the cycle. This is a pretty intense workout, so if you're a beginner then you might want to go a little slower and only focus on doing 10-15 pushups and sit-ups.

Things To Avoid: One of the things you want to focus on when doing this jump rope workout, is to really work on your hand eye coordination when moving forward and jumping rope very fast. You might have to go a little slower to get the movement down and to avoid tripping on the rope. Most jump rope workouts will only have you jumping in one place and not moving forward and backward or side to side. When you're moving laterally or forward and backward, you need to focus jumping, moving and getting the rope under your feet, so it adds a few new elements to the mix. The pushups and sit-ups might also be too hard for some individuals. If you're a girl, you might try doing the pushups with your knees on the ground to make the exercise a little easier for you. Since you will be jumping rope before going into the pushups, your chest and triceps will already be working very hard and they might be too burned out when you make the transition into the pushup portion of the workout.

Reps and Sets: Since this is a multi-exercise cardio workout, you will be working at a high intensity and you will probably only be able to perform 8-12 sets before you're totally burned out. Total workout time should be in the range of 20-30 minutes for this workout. Since you will be jumping rope for 30-60 seconds and then moving into pushups for another 30-60 seconds and also doing sit-ups for 30-60 seconds, the entire set will last anywhere from 2-3 minutes. After each set, you will take a 60 second rest to fully recover. Make sure to drink water during your rest period to ensure you stay hydrated. If you're working out in the morning right after waking up, its really good to drink a BCAA (branched chain amino acid) sports drink before and during your workout. The great thing about a BCAA drink is that it will give you the energy you need to maximize your training while enhancing recovery at the same time. It also tastes great and comes in different flavors like apple, watermelon, orange and fruit punch.

Other Exercises To Use: A few great exercises to combine with this jump rope cardio workout include running in place and doing burpees. You can do one full set of the jump rope workout and then immediately follow it up with another 30-60 seconds of running in place. Since burpees are really tough, you might only be able to do 20-30 seconds without running out of breath. Combine these exercises for a killer cardio workout that will burn a ton of calories and shed off that unwanted body fat from your physique!

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