It’s fun; it’s nearly free; it’s jump rope.
Thankfully, I’ve always been a devotee of exercise.
Most mornings, I rise before the sun and raise the heart rate before my breakfast smoothie.
Honestly, some mornings, my pillow’s inviting softness offers some fierce resistance to the yearning for fitness. I usually press on, scratching the night from my eyes and stumble towards upright.
It’s usually the after-exercise rush that keeps me coming back; the loose muscles; the limber, languid feeling; the uncluttered mind.
Some mornings I run, breathing in the freshly-pressed new day air.
Other mornings I stay indoors for some push-ups, sit-ups and stretching. Between sets, I’ll take a glance at the morning’s headlines.
A few years ago, I went off-script and tried to jump rope. Beware: if you can run for 20 minutes, don’t think you can jump rope for the same timeframe. My first few attempts had me thinking respirator after just two minutes.
Jumping rope is a high return on investment exercise. You put in a small amount of time jumping rope, and you get solid exercise; this is an equation worth memorizing.
So I ask: Why aren’t schools more aggressively pushing the incredibly beneficial merits of the jump rope?
Why aren’t our children (and adults) being introduced to this wonder?
The benefits will have you ditching the treadmill in no time:
- Low cost (buy a rope for under $10 from any sporting retailer/Web site)
- Time (20 minutes of jump rope is usually equivalent to a 40 minute run)
- Low body stress (jumping rope is much less taxing on your body compared to running)
- A variety of jumps and skips to break up the predictable routine
Let’s match this activity (jumping rope) with a market desperate for solutions (the increasingly obese nation that we’ve become).
The couch may be soft. The snooze button is too easy. If you succumb to jump rope, however, you’ll be enraptured by its cadence, activity, attractiveness.
Just do it.
Until next time,
Dan Naden
