15 HEALTH BENEFITS OF JUMPING ROPE - ARTE - 2025

There are several health benefits of jumping rope: it improves coordination, reduces injuries, burns calories, improves bone density, cardiovascular health and the functioning of the respiratory system, controls diabetes, and others that I will explain below.

Jumping rope can do more for your general health than other sports more practiced by young people and adults such as running, swimming, tennis, soccer… It is an easy exercise to do anywhere. A jump rope can be carried in your backpack or bag when you are traveling, at work, school or practicing while watching TV.

To start jumping rope, the only thing you need to keep in mind is not to choose a rope of light thickness for your workouts. Plastic ropes are generally used in gyms and are easier to use for speed exercises.

Once you have your rope, make sure it fits comfortably. Most strings are 250 to 300 cm long. It can be cut to fit and the handles should be comfortably at the waist. You can also adjust them accordingly.

Choose a nice, flat surface such as those found in gyms or a smooth, non-sloped floor. On the other hand, if you choose a surface covered with grass or dirt, make sure that there is nothing in the way such as stones, sticks, very long grass or anything that could cause a fall.

The benefits of jumping rope for your health

1- Improve coordination

Jumping rope improves your coordination by making you focus on your feet. Even when you are not paying attention to them, your brain is aware of what your feet are doing.

This practice, over and over again, will make you better coordinate your feet. If you are training for a specific race or sport, jumping rope can help as a pre-workout to improve coordination.

2- Reduces foot and ankle injuries

As we said earlier, jumping rope is beneficial for people who play other sports. Many athletes often sustain foot and ankle injuries while running and then have to stop training.

This is very common in tennis or basketball. Jumping rope not only improves foot coordination, it also increases strength in the muscles that surround the ankle and foot joint, decreasing the chance of injury in those areas.

According to the Jump Rope Institute, jumping rope helps players keep the balls of their feet in proper posture, rather than developing flat feet or heel problems.

Thus, in many sports where it is necessary to stay with coordinated feet, such as tennis, jumping rope can improve performance.

3- Helps burn more calories

Compared to running for 30 minutes, jumping rope actually burns more calories. According to Science Daily, this aerobic exercise can reach a metabolic substrate burning rate of up to 1,300 calories per hour when performed vigorously, with around several calories consumed per jump.

4- A form of portable fun

A jump rope is very versatile and can be taken anywhere, such as to work or school. It is an excellent way to have fun not only individually, but with friends and family that does not require additional costs or equipment.

In addition, it does not require prior training. You can warm up before a basketball game or use it as a sport to lower the intensity after a more vigorous sport. It is a great way to enjoy a fun time with the family and outdoors.

5- Improves bone density

Dr. Daniel W. Barry, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver, has studied the bones of the elderly and athletes, concluding that the best exercise to improve bone density is simply jumping rope.

If the person jumping rope is of large body build, then there is little need to do more. Those with small build, on the other hand, are more prone to suffer the loss of mineral density, especially after 50 years.

However, if you have a history of fractures or a family history of osteoporosis, consult a doctor before jumping rope.

According to The New York Times, in studies conducted in Japan, mice that jumped about 40 times during a week increased their bone density significantly after 24 weeks, and this increase kept them jumping only about 20 or 30 times per week after this

6- Improves cardiovascular health

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, jumping rope is highly recommended for aerobic conditioning. In order to improve lung and cardiovascular health, you need to do it three to five times a week for 12 to 20 minutes at a time.

7- Improvement of respiratory efficiency

In addition to improving heart health and endurance, jumping rope also improves the efficiency with which you breathe.

This is very beneficial when performing other activities, as it involves learning in the act of breathing and an improvement in the efficiency of the work of the respiratory muscles. This prevents moments of breathlessness while playing sports.

8- Increase intelligence

Jumping rope can make you smarter. According to the Jump Rope Institute, it helps in the development of the left and right hemispheres of your brain, which further improves spatial awareness, improves reading skills, increases memory, and makes you feel more mentally alert.

Jumping rope on the balls of your feet requires your body and mind to make neural muscle adjustments according to the imbalances created by continuous jumping. As a result, it improves dynamic balance and coordination, reflexes, bone density, and muscle endurance.

9- Improves the ability to stay calm

Because you are working your brain and your body at the same time, those who have a habit of jumping rope are usually calmer people.

If we analyze this exercise from a biomechanical point of view, the jump represents a compound movement that combines a circular movement with an angular movement.

The body resembles a projectile subject to all the laws that govern the motion of projectiles, while the string becomes a dynamic flywheel subject to all the laws that govern the motion of rotation.

It is from the synchronous and harmonious coordination of movements, with which the health benefits are obtained.

The ability that needs to be developed and improved to jump rope and reach body, mind and rope synchronicity can actually help you to be calmer than in other situations.

10- Increases energy metabolism

Another reason to jump rope is because of its effects on metabolism. Along with speeding up your heart rate, this exercise also increases the rate of other processes in the body, i.e. metabolism.

Generally speaking, the more intense the jump rope session, the more noticeable the increase in your metabolic rate.

Short intervals of time, but intense jumps increase metabolism; bypassing the process called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). Increased metabolism translates into easier reaching and maintaining your ideal weight.

11- Improvement of the hormonal profile

Jump rope also changes your body's hormonal profile considerably. It favors the release of hormones and neurotransmitters that will help relieve the symptoms of depression and fatigue, as well as the release of hormones that decrease appetite.

Jump rope people often have a much more positive outlook on life, simply because they are receiving the stress relieving benefits of these hormones.

12- Improved recovery capacity

Jumping rope can decrease recovery time as well. If you've just had a hard training session at the gym, this aerobic exercise can help you eliminate some of the by-products that have been created during your training session, as long as you do it at a lower intensity.

This will help reduce muscle pain and improve oxygen-rich blood reaching muscle tissue, facilitating repair and rebuilding. This means you can get back to the gym faster and work your muscles again.

13- Helps build muscle mass

Building muscle mass is a combination of an overload stimulus and enough rest to allow the muscle to heal itself. If this balance is skewed in any way, either by training too much or by providing too much rest, optimal results will not be achieved.

The more often you can work a muscle (assuming you have made a full recovery), the faster you will add additional muscle. The jump rope helps to do this.

14- Helps control diabetes

For those who have diabetes, jumping rope helps manage this condition. By performing this exercise, you will increase the muscle's ability to use glucose.

People who do aerobic exercise, such as jumping rope regularly, tend to have better control of their blood sugar and do not have as many blood sugar swings as those who do not.

In the case of diabetes this is very important as they are extremely sensitive to changes in blood sugar levels.

In this article you can find 8 other physical exercises for diabetics.

15- Jumping rope is the best exercise for a healthy lymphatic system

The lymphatic system is like a sewer system in the body. Through it, all kinds of waste and toxins are removed from the blood. However, unlike your circulatory system, the lymphatic system does not have a pump. It relies on the expansion and contraction of muscles to transport lymphatic fluid throughout the body.

A healthy lymphatic system, with adequate circulation, is very important for healthy and beautiful skin. Thus, the up and down movement that we perform when jumping rope is one of the best exercises to facilitate transport through the lymphatic pathways.

16- Improves the condition of the skin

If you want beautiful skin, you need to exercise. You don't have to go to the gym, but you do need to be active every day.

Exercise is one of the remedies to reduce acne. This is because it increases blood flow, which means more nutrients reach the skin, promoting the elimination of toxins through sweating.

It also strengthens the internal organs to work more efficiently, being able to open the pores and facilitating the elimination of substances that later cause injuries or infections.

It contributes greatly to hormonal balance, increasing sensitivity to insulin and facilitating the use of glucose as an energy source.

Lastly, jumping rope also contributes to skin health by relieving tension and stress.