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In
the preceding page, I demonstrated a step-by-step approach to learning how
to jump rope, which solves one of the two objections people often voice
about rope jumping. The other objection, "rope jumping is too
strenuous" is just a bit more challenging to answer. First a little
background on the problem.
Published studies from a number of
researchers, including mine, shows that rope jumping requires a
minimum amount of energy - about the equivalent of running 9 minute miles
or bicycling 13 miles per hour. This is a modest amount of energy, but still
too strenuous to do for long if you haven't exercised in a long while.
Unfortunately, jumping slower than about 130 times a minute (it's not as
fast as it sounds!) does not reduce energy requirements because you have
to jump higher or pause between jumps to maintain the timing with
the turning rope.
Perhaps more importantly, constant rope
jumping puts stresses to the calves and shins to which even fit athletes
might not be accustomed and can lead to shin splints. The most
common cause of shin splints is tendonitis where some of the leg muscles
attach to the shins. Tendonitis takes a long time to recover from, so
avoiding shin splints is very important.
RopicsŪ decreases the aerobic demands and
dramatically reduces the chance of shin splints with a simple strategy:
Intersperse short periods of jumping with non-jumping skills.
Figure 1 below illustrates one very simple
Ropics routine. Short periods of the basic "Two-foot Jump" is
alternated with the "Figure-8 Whirl." For example, in the beginning,
you might:
 | Alternate jumping for 1 minute and
then do Figure-8's for 30 seconds. Or, |
| Jump to the verses in the song while
doing Figure-8's to choruses, or |
| Jump 100 times and then do 50
Figure-8's. |
| Use your own sense of exertion and jump
until you feel just a little winded and
then do Figure-8's until you
have recovered (WARNING, with this last strategy,
fit athletes might not
feel winded, and jump for long periods of time, only to wake
up with
shin splints the next day.) |
The main point is to not jump for prolonged
periods of time, e.g. more than several minutes, in the beginning until
your body adjusts to the new demands of this exercise. I would give
the same advice for any other activity as well. The muscles are used
in unique ways whether it's biking, running, swimming, tennis, push-ups,
or rock climbing. If you start off trying to climb Mt Everest before
you climb some smaller mountains, you're going to get exhausted at best,
and injured at worst.
I can honestly claim that not one of our
beginning students that have followed this approach (and jumped on the
correct floor surface -see More Jump Rope Gear
) have ever developed shin splints even though the classes went 45
minutes long.
In case you're worried that doing Two-foot
Jumps alternating with Figure-8's Whirls is going to get boring pretty
quick, don't worry. There are hundreds of jumping skills and
hundreds of non-jumping skills to put together into countless routines
(See Jump Rope Skills or go to
Rope Links for educational material.) I don't think I'm exaggerating if I state that no activity
competes with jump rope for variety!
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