“FACTS ABOUT JUMPING ROPE: The research and significant benefits.”
One researcher at Temple University has measured obvious cardiovascular improvement in a group of adult men who engaged in progressive rope skipping.
Another small study found that women who jumped rope for five minutes a day over a four-week period were rewarded with lower pulse rates, increased oxygen intake and a 25% improvement in physical work capacity.
These studies suggested that average people, non-athletes, could experience significant benefits from a form of exercise that required only a small time commitment and a minimal investment in equipment.
Who needs fancy gym facilities, when a simple jump rope can do the trick, the studies suggested.
A study published in The Research Quarterly, a journal of the American Association for Health, physical Education and Research.
It was a comparative study of rope skipping and jogging, pitting one against the other, to determine the effects of each on cardiovascular fitness.
Led by John A. Baker at Arizona State University, the study divided 92 male students into two groups, Half skipped rope for 10 minutes a day, the other half jogged for 30 minutes a day. After six weeks, the men were administered the Harvard Step Test to measure their cardiovascular gain.
Each group showed an equal level of improvement.
Baker concluded that a 10-minute daily program of rope jumping is as efficient as a 30-minute daily program of jogging for improvement cardiovascular efficiency. He went on to recommend that jumping rope, being less time-consuming than jogging, was a valuable component of any physical education program geared toward building endurance. He also viewed jumping rope as an attractive option for adults who were unable to jog because of time or space restriction.
(Reference: lifelineusa.com)
