Do you remember when jump roping was easy? I do. I was six or seven, because we did the whole Jump Rope for Heart thing at my school. But I never felt particularly challenged by it, because I never was really jumping rope. I was just pretending to, giving whatever minimum amount of effort was needed to collect my participation points.
So imagine my surprise when my old kettlebell coach, a salty, frightening bald headed Goliath, handed me a rope some years later and barked “Jump!”
Somewhere in my hiatus, jumping rope became an actual, honest to God workout. It was tougher than the bunions on Gran’s left foot. I sweat, I cussed, I made a mess of myself. And as it turned out, I was only jumping rope for 30 seconds.
Then it was time to swing the kettlebell my coach dropped on the mat in front of me. I huffed and puffed and I turned purple. It was a set of 10 swings.
I repeated this process, back and forth, back and forth, until my coach was convinced that some of my weakness had been sufficiently worked out of me, and then he told me the warm-up was over.
That “warm-up” he used to call The Old School Lead In, and it went something like this.
The Old School Lead In
Kettlebell Swing x 30 seconds
Plank x 30 seconds
Jump Rope x 60 seconds
Repeat for 5 rounds, no rest between. 10 if you’re from the asylum. Men: 24 – 32kg; women 16 – 24kg.
Again, simple, but not easy.
Strong ON!
– Pat
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Really impressed Pat. I wish I could jump rope. I’ve heard it’s a great exercise for cardio AND coordination. I’ve tried it so many times and the older I get, the worse I seem to be at it. Are there any tips you have for learning how to jump rope? It’s a workout area I see as a personal challenge and it would be a major achievement if I learned how to do this.