Weekly Jump Rope Challenge

Starting this week I am going to do a weekly jump rope challenge and I encourage you to take it on as well. I knew there were many benefits to jump roping, but I struggle with my endurance due to my ankles starting to hurt after about a minute. So, when Michael has me do 3 minutes of work with 1 minute rest for three rounds, I'm not able to do the full 3 minutes without stopping for a few seconds. And, by the third round my ankles are hurting, and I know it's due to having weak ankles from all the injuries I sustained as a kid. I never broke an ankle, but many sprains, twists, torn tendons, etc. that caused me to be on crutches at least once a year between grades 4th and 11th grade. I started to research on how to strengthen my ankles, and low and behold every article indicated jump roping could do that. So, I decided to buy a jump rope for home and I'm going to start working on increasing my time (without stopping) and hopefully build up strength and endurance. Real quick though, before I get into what the actual challenge is for this week, I came across many articles that talk about all the benefits of jump roping. One article that I found very beneficial was from www.bodybuilding.com. Not only will it tone your body and build up your endurance, but some other health benefits include improving your cardiovascular system and help with your weight loss. Other benefits include coordination, agility, quickness, and footwork (these are many reasons you see jump roping in boxing gyms).

So, for me personally, this is how I'm starting. Complete the following twice every day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It will only take 5 minutes each time.

Jump rope for 30 seconds and rest for 30 seconds and do this 5 times. I am going to do what is called active rest. This is where on my 30 second of rest, instead of just standing there waiting for the 30 seconds to pass, I will do some type of light activity. This can just be as simple as jogging in place or if you're outside or in a large area just a light jog in a circle. Or even just walking/pacing back and forth. Nothing intense, just something light to keep your body moving. This will be what I do daily for this week, then next Monday I will increase my work time.