I love jumping rope. I’m keen on exercises that take very little special equipment and are easily accessible to just about everyone. Skipping also makes me feel like a kid again.
I learned to skip as a school girl attending Catholic elementary school in Newfoundland. Elementary or primary school was mixed gender (high school wasn’t but I left Catholic school by then) but there was still separation between the boys and the girls. They had their own side of each classroom and even their own half of the school yard.
I don’t remember what games the boys played but on our side of the school yard we jumped rope. Usually we played with two girls one on each end of a long rope and we skipped to rhyming songs. So skipping for me is one of the few things that at one time only girls did but now as adults fitness types of all genders skip rope.
These days I often jump rope on our back deck in the summer. Lots of Crossfit workouts involve jumping rope, usually double unders. I can only do six doubles in a row right now but I’m working on it.
I was reminded of how much I love skipping reading this post from Wild Juggling, Jump Rope Training.
Skipping is EVIL, but boy does it get your heart-rate up quickly!
Every so often I start to get the “joy” of jumping rope, but not when I’m practicing double-unders, which more often results in me snapping the rope on my legs on the second or third one, leaving thin, winding bruises that shock my boyfriend when I get back from Crossfit and make him joke that I’m actually stepping out to an S&M club twice a week. Maybe once I can do enough of them in a row without hurting myself, I’ll get that joy for double-unders as well.
I’m with you on double unders. Tough stuff. We’ll get there though. I’m sure.