Why You Should Jump Rope for Cardio!
Like always we need a bit of background…
Let’s go over what Cardio actually is before we explore why jump rope is the most powerful form of cardio (I was going to use a superhero reference, but I could not decide which one is the most powerful!).
Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise which essentially boils down to an exercise that raises your heart rate for a prolonged amount of time. Any form of exercise that raises your heart, is a cardiovascular exercise. This can include anything from playing tennis, running, kayaking, jump roping, fencing… you get the picture. It does not matter what you do, but if your heart rate it up, you are doing cardio in some shape of form.
It isn’t hard to see that all cardio exercises are different and can give you different benefits. They will definitely all help your heart and improve your heart’s functionality and keep it strong. However, that is not all cardio exercises can do.
For example, running will help build some very strong and lean legs, using all the power from your legs to move you around. Tennis will increase your hand eye coordination, while working our leg muscles and your dominant arm’s muscles as well. Kayaking will work your upper body, mainly your back and your core as well.
Why is it then that jump rope is such an incredible form of cardio?
Let me explain! Sticking to the pure form of what cardio is, jump rope raises your heart rate significantly, even at a mild intensity. This means that your heart is doing the needed to work to improve all its functions. The “start - stop” nature of jump rope also aids the hearts functions and puts your heart to the test - in the best way possible of course.
Along to the cardiovascular benefits, jump rope gives you the most bang for your buck for added benefits. You have all the added benefits that we spoke about in this blog post. Jump rope offers you the added benefits of
burning loads of calories (in turn helping in weight loss)
growing muscle
improving heart health (as we mentioned before)
improving coordination
reducing risk of injury
I will not do a side by side comparison of jump rope versus other forms of cardio because that would make this post way too long, but, I invite you to think about the comparisons and what added benefits there are from other forms of cardio.
How do they stack up to the benefits of jump rope?
All that is left to say is
Now get out there and Live.Breathe.JUMP!