Jumping rope vs. jogging

Rope jumping has become more and more established in recreational sports over the last few years. Considering the positive effect on endurance, jumping rope is often compared to jogging. A look at the current study situation reveals that both sports have a similarly positive effect on the cardiovascular system. However, in terms of fat burning, the skipping rope can gain an advantage over jogging. In addition, comparatively more muscles are used when jumping rope, so that it is considered an ideal full-body workout for home or outdoors. It also benefits the development of your coordinative skills, as the timing of the jump and arm swing must be precisely linked. If you would like to learn more about the topic, you are welcome to read the following sections in more detail.

 

Rope jumping - The new megatrend

 

Jumping rope is often associated as a leisure activity for children or as a warm-up program for boxers. But also in many other sports, the skipping rope is nowadays an indispensable training tool. Especially in sports disciplines that require high full-body coordination, it is mostly used for warming up or in the form of an interval training session. Due to the promising positive effects on endurance, rope jumping is often compared to jogging and some ask the question: Is rope jumping as effective as jogging or even better?

 

Does your body good and boosts fat burning

 

In fact, the topic was already dealt with at the end of the 70s. The investigations of a study conducted at this time showed that 10 minutes of rope jumping had just as positive an effect on the cardiovascular system as 30 minutes of jogging [1]. However, there are no current studies that can prove or refute these findings. Nevertheless, the current study situation shows that regular rope jumping has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system [2]. But that's not all: jumping rope is also ideal for burning fat. Thus, a person weighing 57 kg burns about 300 calories while jumping rope in 30 minutes. In comparison, she would have to run an average of 9.45 km/h while jogging to burn the same amount of calories in the same amount of time [3].

 

Full body training

 

Jumping rope also has a clear advantage in terms of muscular stress. While jogging only uses the leg muscles, when jumping rope you also train the upper body. So if you want to burn fat within a very short time and also strengthen the whole body, you should rather reach for the skipping rope.

 

Your brain trains with

 

In addition, it is important to take into account coordinative requirements when skipping rope, which are not required when jogging. Several muscle groups in the area of the arms, legs, shoulders and trunk must be activated at the same time so that the rhythmic movements of arm swing and bounce can be precisely coupled with each other. The fact that rope jumping promotes the development of motor skills has already been proven in studies. It turned out that a few weeks of rope jumping training are enough to improve the coordination ability in children [4] and adults [5].

 

[1] Baker, J. A. (1968). Comparison of rope skipping and jogging as methods of improving cardiovascular efficiency of college men. Research Quarterly. American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 39(2), 240-243.

 

[2] Arazi, H., Jalali-Fard, A., & Abdinejad, H. (2016). A comparison of two aerobic training methods (running vs rope jumping) on health-related physical fitness in 10 to 12 years old boys. Physical Activity Review, 4, 9-17.

 

[3] Harvard Health (2004). Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. Harv Heart Lett. 

 

[4] Trecroci, A., Cavaggioni, L., Caccia, R., & Alberti, G. (2015). Jump rope training: Balance and motor coordination in preadolescent soccer players. Journal of sports science & medicine, 14(4), 792.

 

[5] Ozer, D., Duzgun, I., Baltaci, G., Karacan, S., & Colakoglu, F. (2011). The effects of rope or weighted rope jump training on strength, coordination and proprioception in adolescent female volleyball players. Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 51(2), 211.