Want to Make Your Jump-Rope Workouts Even More Challenging? Try a Weighted Rope

Jumping rope may bring you back to your elementary school days, when you were showing off some impressive double-dutch skills during recess. Fast-forward to the present, and you may have swapped the double ropes for double unders, but the fact still remains: jumping rope is an amazing workout you can do in just a few minutes, and an even better one with a weighted rope. Here's what you need to know about weighted jump ropes, their benefits, and why they're great even for beginners.

Jumping rope has tons of benefits beyond helping you develop some fancy footwork. "[It's a] low-impact endurance activity that efficiently incinerates calories while positively impacting every aspect of your fitness training," Joshua Vela, an NASM-certified personal trainer at Daily Burn, told POPSUGAR. "When jumping rope, expect to increase your cardiovascular threshold while increasing bone density, reducing your risk of foot and ankle injury, and honing in on dynamic balance and coordination skills."

Jumping rope is also a great way to get your whole body moving. Your legs, especially the calves, are obviously engaged, but with a variety of different jumping styles, "you will also be utilizing your anterior core, hip flexors, shoulders, back, hamstrings, and glutes," explained Jen Polzak, an ACE-certified personal trainer. Bonus: jump ropes are accessible and portable. Polzak noted that not only are they easy to use for most people, they're also compact enough to throw in a backpack to take with you on the go, or to bring outside for a fresh air sweat session.

One way to amp up your workout is to change the weight of your jump rope. Depending on your goals, you can get a regular jump rope, a lighter jump rope (speed rope), or a heavier one (weighted jump rope). A weighted jump rope allows you to do the same variety of jumps — like double unders, high-knees, and single leg hops — as a regular jump rope, but it "ups the challenge and muscle recruitment, which can lead to more calorie burn," Polzak told POPSUGAR. "Weighted ropes can also add a component of power training (how fast you can exert force), that is hard to do with an unweighted rope."

Because a weighted jump rope requires more muscular control, it can also add intensity to your workouts, Vela explained. "It will spike your heart rate faster than jumping with an unweighted rope, especially if you try to maintain the same tempo or intervals that you used with your unweighted rope." If you're looking for a way to make an efficient exercise even more efficient, a weighted rope may be the solution.

Weighted jump ropes can also target some new muscles. "As soon as you add the weighted jump rope to the equation, the shoulders and forearms will be on fire from the burn," Polzak said. "Our rotator cuff muscles in our shoulder are often underdeveloped, and adding a weighted jump rope can force these muscles to develop and to do their job of stabilizing the shoulder. The weighted rope can also help engage the back and triceps as well."

Although it may seem like more weight would require more skill or ability, both Polzak and Vela said that weighted jump ropes are great for beginners and advanced jumpers alike. The heavier weight of the rope means it will rotate more slowly and "give the user time to feel and time out the rotation, until they become a more efficient jumper," Polzak explained. Weighted ropes can help you nail down your form, too. "Some people like to start with a weighted rope, as the resistance and feedback allow you to work a bit slower. This can help if you're still working on your balance and coordination," Vela said.

Now that you're ready to get to (weighted) jumping, here are a few things to know.