Training guide
Jumping rope, or skipping, is a low, quick bounce on the balls of your feet while you turn the rope from your wrists. It is vigorous cardio: minute for minute, a moderate pace costs about as much energy as running at 12 km/h, and in a trial in young adults, 8 weeks of rope sessions raised fitness. It isn't magic, though: when the two were tested side by side, 10 minutes of rope did less for fitness than 30 minutes of jogging.
Your calves and Achilles tendons do most of the work, so start with short rounds and build up over weeks.
This guide covers sizing your rope, the basic bounce step by step, a beginner plan with a follow-along workout, double-unders, calories, what skipping can and can't do for your bones, leaking, and the warning signs.
Stand on the middle of the rope and pull the handles up: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says to your armpits, and the American Council on Exercise (ACE) says to about chest height. Then hop only about a centimetre, turning the rope with your wrists and keeping your elbows by your sides, and land softly on the balls of your feet.
The NHS counts skipping as vigorous activity. Rope jumping costs about 8 to 12 METs (metabolic equivalents: multiples of your resting energy use) depending on pace, and in 59 young adults, 8 weeks of rope sessions raised VO2 max (the most oxygen your body can use, a measure of aerobic fitness) by about 5 mL/kg/min.
When rope and jogging were tested head to head in 26 inactive adults, 10 minutes of rope a day for 6 weeks raised VO2 max by 7%, against 13% for 30 minutes of jogging, and the rope group had more injuries and drop-outs.
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Start with about 5 rounds of 30 to 60 seconds with equal rest, the move page's starting dose, and add no more than a few minutes in all each week. Our editorial suggestion is 2 or 3 sessions a week with a day off between at first, because daily rope from scratch brought more injuries and drop-outs in that trial.
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Jumping programmes build bone in children and teenagers. For rope itself, pooled trials, mostly in young people, found no clear effect on bone, and no trial has tested rope skipping for bone in adults, though the Royal Osteoporosis Society counts skipping as moderate-impact exercise.
Hops can load the Achilles tendon to several times your body weight, so keep calf soreness mild and settled by the next morning. Leaking is common, in 39% of women CrossFit competitors while skipping, and it's treatable.
The CDC's activity card for children says to stand on the middle of the rope and pull the handles up so they fit under your arms, and that the rope should just brush the floor under your feet as you jump: if it hits the floor in front of your feet it's too long, and if it doesn't touch the floor it's too short. ACE's advice is to put one foot on the middle and bring the handles up to about chest height. Neither rule comes from a study.
Our suggestion is to choose the length that lets you clear the rope comfortably, and to shorten it a little only once your timing is steady.
Ropes come as cloth, speed ropes with a thin cord, and beaded ropes whose plastic beads clack on the floor. A double-under coach interviewed for the CrossFit Journal thinks beginners shouldn't use speed ropes, and that a heavier rope helps you feel the rhythm. ACE calls weighted ropes too cumbersome and suggests a light rope with foam grips.
Our suggestion is a beaded or medium-weight rope to learn on.
In 14 experienced skippers, shoes made the force of each landing build up more slowly than bare feet did. ACE suggests aerobics shoes or cross-trainers with cushioning under the balls of the feet. The NHS lists jumping on hard surfaces among the causes of shin splints.
Our suggestion: skip on a wooden floor, a gym mat or a rubber floor rather than concrete.
The figure shows the bounce without a rope. From ACE's advice and the CrossFit Journal's double-under article (singles about a centimetre high, hands by the hips, the rope landing about 30 cm in front of your toes); ending a round when your landings get loud is our jump rule.
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The movement on the figure: Ankle bounces (mini pogo)
Calf raises and rope-free bounces first, then the basic bounce; one-leg pogo hops and double-unders are the harder steps, with doses in the plan below.
3D demoSlow calf raiseBeginner · A wall
3D demoSingle-leg calf raise from a stepIntermediate · A step + A wall
3D demoAnkle bounces (mini pogo)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoPogo hopsIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoJump rope (basic bounce)Intermediate · A jump rope
3D demoSingle-leg pogo hopsAdvanced · No equipment
3D demoDouble-unders (jump rope)Advanced · A jump ropeSingles need only about a centimetre of height. High, loopy jumps tire you sooner, and ACE advises jumping low to keep the impact on your knees and ankles down.
Big arm circles tire your shoulders and change the rope's shape. Turn from the wrists, with your elbows by your sides.
Moving your hands changes the rope's length and timing. Keep them by your hips, where you can just see them out of the corners of your eyes.
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Keep your knees slightly bent and land on the balls of your feet; for singles, your heels can lightly touch down.
If it hits the floor in front of your feet it's too long; if it doesn't touch the floor it's too short.
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In a 6-week trial, inactive adults who started with 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, had more injuries and drop-outs than joggers.
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Jumping on hard surfaces is one of the causes of shin splints the NHS lists.
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Breathe steadily through each round (our suggestion).
A meta-analysis of 21 studies (1,021 people; 18 of the studies were in under-18s; programmes of 6 to 40 weeks) found small to moderate gains in resting heart rate, body mass index, fat mass, aerobic fitness, strength, jumping, flexibility and sprinting, but no clear effect on blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, bone or lean mass, or muscular endurance. In 15 trials of 1,048 children aged 10 to 12, rope beat ordinary physical education (PE) lessons for fitness but not for body measurements, including height; several of the trials were university theses.
In 59 young adults, 8 weeks of rope intervals (9 rounds of 2 minutes at 80% of maximum heart rate with a minute easy, 3 times a week) or steady rope work (30 minutes, 5 times a week) raised VO2 max by about 5 mL/kg/min, with similar enjoyment and no change in body composition. In 96 students, 2,000 rope jumps a week for 12 weeks lowered resting heart rate and triglycerides (a blood fat) compared with no training.
In 26 inactive adults, 10 minutes of rope a day for 6 weeks raised VO2 max by 2.8 mL/kg/min (7%), against 5.1 (13%) for 30 minutes of jogging. In 92 students, 2 months of jogging improved the standing long jump and the top blood pressure number, while the rope group's fitness test scores didn't improve; the sessions were checked only by app screenshots and spot checks.
In 120 adolescents aged 10 to 13 with overweight or obesity, 12 weeks of rope intervals built into PE lessons, 3 times a week, improved body weight, body fat, fitness, fasting blood sugar, insulin and triglycerides, compared with no extra training.
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Rope practice at the start of training improved coordination (9% faster on a circuit test) and balance in 24 young footballers over 8 weeks. Rope plus band training improved jumps, sprints, agility and balance in 24 nine-year-old basketball players, and 12 weeks of rope intervals improved sprint and reaction speed more than usual training in 25 elite footballers. All three were small trials.
Jumping programmes raised bone mineral at the spine and hip in children and teenagers (12 studies, 940 participants), most clearly in girls. Rope-only findings are weaker: girls in Hong Kong who skipped every week had higher heel bone density, but it didn't rise faster over about 10 months; pooled rope trials found no clear effect on bone; and rope jumping plus vibration raised bone density by about 2% in 16 young artistic swimmers, with no comparison group. No trial has tested rope skipping for bone in adults.
In 8 young adults, the load on the Achilles tendon ranged from half body weight in a seated heel raise to 7.3 times body weight in a forward one-leg hop. In 16 young competitive skippers, the ankles absorbed 39 to 114% more power on landing in double-unders and the speed step than in running, with similar peak forces. In 16 teenage boys, the two-foot bounce loaded the legs less than the alternate-foot step and leaned more on the calves.
In 452 women CrossFit competitors, 39% leaked while jumping rope and 37% during double-unders: the two commonest triggers in the survey.
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The move page's starting dose is 5 rounds of 30 to 60 seconds with equal rest, adding no more than a few minutes in all each week (our editorial starting point). Don't start with daily sessions: in the 6-week trial, inactive adults who skipped 10 minutes a day had more injuries and drop-outs than joggers.
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This is our editorial build-up, 2 or 3 sessions a week with a day off between. No trial has tested it; it builds slowly because of the injuries and drop-outs in the 1986 trial.
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Once your rounds feel steady, you can add the interval session from a trial in young adults once or twice a week, as our HIIT (high-intensity interval training) guide suggests: 9 rounds of 2 minutes at a hard pace, with 1 minute easy between. The trial used it 3 times a week.
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For intervals, hard means you can't say more than a few words without pausing for breath, the NHS description of vigorous activity. For steady rope work, our suggestion is a pace you can keep for the whole round without tripping. End a round when your landings get loud or your timing goes, as our jump higher guide does with jumps.
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Hops load the Achilles tendon heavily, so calf soreness in the first week or two is common. Keep it at 5 out of 10 or less and settled by the next morning, as our Achilles guide's pain rule says; if it isn't, our suggestion is to repeat the previous week.
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Our suggestion is two weeks of the springy starter workout, calf raises and then gentle bounces, as a bridge. The move page asks for ankle bounces and pogo hops without calf or Achilles soreness the next day before you start.
Our suggestion: time how long you can skip without tripping, count your skips a minute (under 100 is a slow pace, 100 to 120 moderate and 120 to 160 fast), and log your minutes of rope each week. In the adult trials, fitness gains showed after 6 to 8 weeks.
The 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, a reference list of energy costs for adults aged 19 to 59, measured where possible, gives rope jumping 8.3 METs below 100 skips a minute, 11.8 at 100 to 120, and 12.3 at 120 to 160. Double-unders are 10.0, and rope skipping in general 11.0.
Running is 9.3 METs at 6 mph (about 10 km/h) and 11.8 at 7.5 mph (about 12 km/h). So minute for minute, a moderate rope pace costs about the same as running at 12 km/h, by our comparison. Few beginners can skip for long without stopping, though, so by our estimate a rope session usually adds up to less than a run.
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By our rough arithmetic, about 10 calories a minute at a slow pace, 14.5 at a moderate pace and 15 at a fast pace: 10 minutes at a moderate pace is about 145 calories. Our calories burned calculator does the sum for your weight and time.
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Tested directly, 10 minutes of rope did less for fitness than 30 minutes of jogging. A 1980 article on the calorie cost of skipping and running also took issue with the claim.
Once you can do 50 or more basic bounces in a row with relaxed wrists and quiet landings, as the double-unders move page asks.
Coach Dave Newman, interviewed for the CrossFit Journal, calls jump height the most important part: the rope doesn't have to move faster, you need longer in the air. Stay tall, spring off your toes with your heels off the floor, and keep your hands by your hips.
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Jump just after the rope passes below your knees. His timing drill is 10 singles, then 10 doubles, repeated, and his mark of a mastered double-under is 50 in 30 seconds and 100 in 60 seconds.
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The move page's dose: 5 to 10 minutes of short practice sets, ending each before your form slips (our editorial starting point), and once they're consistent, 5 rounds of 20 to 30 with full rest.
In 3 world champions and 5 junior national champions, the world champions had shorter ground contacts, a lower and steadier body and more ankle-led coordination at their fastest pace.
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Double-unders load the ankles more than running does, and 37% of women CrossFit competitors leaked during them. Build them up in small doses, and leave them out while your calves or Achilles are sore.
Jumping programmes build bone in children and teenagers, most clearly in girls. Pooled rope trials, mostly in young people, found no clear effect on bone mass, so rope is one way to jump rather than a proven bone builder.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society names skipping as a moderate-impact activity, and both it and a UK consensus on osteoporosis advise building up to about 50 moderate impacts on most days if you have no spinal fractures. But no trial has tested rope skipping for bone in adults, and pooled rope trials, mostly in young people, found no clear effect on bone.
With spinal fractures, or several fractures from minor falls, the UK consensus advises impact only up to the level of brisk walking, and the Royal Osteoporosis Society suggests talking to your doctor or physiotherapist first. Our osteoporosis guide has more.
Hops load the Achilles tendon heavily, so build up slowly. A sudden pop at the back of your ankle, with pain and swelling near your heel or not being able to stand on tiptoe on that leg, can mean a torn Achilles: stop, and get help the same day.
Shin splints are more likely when you start exercising after a break, or jump on hard surfaces, the NHS says. Build up gradually on a forgiving floor.
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If you leak or feel heaviness, squeeze your pelvic floor just before you start, use shorter rounds or the no-jump options for now, and see our pelvic floor guide or a pelvic health physiotherapist.
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Don't start skipping in pregnancy: the NHS advises against starting a new vigorous activity. If you already skip, our suggestion is to drop it when it causes leaking, heaviness or pelvic pain.
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The NHS advises avoiding high-impact exercise to start with. Our postpartum guide covers when and how to build back up to jumping.
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UK guidelines list skipping among the impact activities for active older adults, and note that injuries are more likely in people who aren't used to exercise. Start low and build up gradually.
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With proliferative or severe diabetic retinopathy, the American College of Sports Medicine advises avoiding activities that jar the head, such as jumping. With numb feet, our suggestion is low-impact options and a check of your feet afterwards.
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With sore knees, use the no-jump swaps and our knee guides. With heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms when you're active, check with your GP before hard intervals, as our HIIT guide advises.
For a first week back, sore knees or feet, leaking or pregnancy: step jacks, a fast march or standing punches, 30 to 45 seconds at a time in a circuit, as the step jack and punch pages suggest.
The beginner jump rope workout times your first weeks, and the springy starter is the bridge if your calves are untrained. The boxing workout's warm-up already offers 2 minutes of rope; rope rounds can replace the jumping jacks in the Tabata workout (our suggestion); the low-impact cardio workout has no jumping.
A first jump rope session in about 20 minutes: a springy warm-up, five short rope rounds with equal rest, calf and shin work, and calf stretches.
20 minBeginner7 movesA jump rope, A wallA beginner's springy session: calf strength first, then heel drops, calf springs and gentle bounces, building towards skipping and pogo hops.
20 minBeginner11 movesA wall, A stepA 35-minute boxing workout with no sparring: a warm-up, three shadow boxing rounds, optional bag rounds, a punching finisher and core work.
35 minBeginner10 movesA band, A wallThree 4-minute blocks of 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds easy, with bodyweight moves and a minute between: the timing of the Tabata study, at home.
22 minIntermediate10 movesA wallA 25-minute standing cardio circuit with no jumping: marching, step jacks, sit-to-stands, punches, step-ups and wall push-ups, with a seated option for most moves.
25 minBeginner9 movesA bench or box, A stepOur suggestion: rope rounds can fill the Saturday interval slot in the 7-day plan, or the optional intervals from week 7 of the weight loss plan, and with osteoporosis, start with the heel drops in the plan for women over 50.
A full week that mixes intensities: three strength days, two cardio days, a mobility day and an easy day, never seven hard days.
3 training days45 minBeginner5 days a weekA 12-week workout plan for weight loss: three strength days, two cardio days and daily steps, building to 200 minutes a week, with honest results.
3 training days45 minBeginner3 days a weekA weekly plan for women over 50: strength, bone-loading and balance on 3 days plus walking, built on UK osteoporosis consensus advice.
3 training days45 minBeginnerChest pain that doesn't go away, spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness. Someone who faints while exercising. Signs of a stroke, such as a drooping face, a weak arm or slurred speech, even if they pass.
A pounding, fluttering or irregular heartbeat that doesn't go away, or comes with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint.
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A snap or popping noise at the back of your ankle or heel when it happened, not being able to walk or stand on tiptoe, or swelling and bruising in your calf and ankle. Also a tendon you think you've torn, or severe pain.
Heel, ankle or calf pain that hasn't improved after 2 weeks of looking after it yourself, or comes with tingling in your foot. Shin pain that is getting worse or not getting better. Pain in one spot on a bone that hurts to press and gets worse when you jump can be a stress fracture: stop jumping until it's checked.
A knee that is very painful, won't take your weight, is badly swollen or has changed shape, or locks or gives way.
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Tested directly, it didn't: over 6 weeks, 10 minutes of rope a day raised VO2 max by 7%, against 13% for 30 minutes of jogging, and the rope group had more injuries and drop-outs. Minute for minute, a moderate rope pace costs about as much as running at 12 km/h; it doesn't triple your time.
No exercise burns fat from one place: 6 weeks of tummy exercises didn't reduce belly fat in 24 adults, and 8 weeks of rope sessions didn't change body composition in young adults. Pooled trials, mostly in young people, found a small fall in fat mass; your overall activity and eating matter most.
It's vigorous, about 8 to 12 METs depending on pace, like brisk running, but not in a class of its own.
Jumping builds bone in children and teenagers. For rope itself the evidence is mixed, and no trial has tested it for bone in adults, though the Royal Osteoporosis Society counts skipping as moderate impact.
In 15 trials in children aged 10 to 12, rope programmes didn't change height compared with ordinary PE lessons.
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We found no study of rope skipping and lymph flow. If you have lymphoedema, follow your lymphoedema service's advice and our lymphoedema guide.
We found no study showing that. The two-foot bounce loaded the legs less than the alternate-foot step in a lab study, and ACE advises jumping low to keep the impact on your knees down. With sore knees, use the no-jump swaps for now.
Size the rope first, then practise the basic bounce: feet together, elbows by your sides, turning the rope from your wrists and hopping only about a centimetre, landing softly on the balls of your feet. Start with about 5 rounds of 30 seconds with equal rest and add no more than a few minutes a week; our suggestion is 2 or 3 sessions a week. Our beginner jump rope workout times it for you.
There are two rules of thumb, and neither comes from a study: stand on the middle and the handles should reach your armpits (the CDC) or about your chest (ACE). When you jump, the rope should just brush the floor under your feet; if it hits the floor in front of you it's too long, and if it doesn't touch the floor it's too short. Our suggestion is to choose the length that lets you clear it comfortably.
Start with about 2 to 5 minutes of rope in rounds of 30 to 60 seconds, 2 or 3 times a week rather than daily: in a trial, daily rope from scratch brought more injuries and drop-outs. Building towards 10 to 20 minutes of rounds over the following weeks is our suggestion. Later, a harder session of 9 rounds of 2 minutes raised fitness over 8 weeks in a trial in young adults; our HIIT guide suggests hard sessions once or twice a week.
Yes: the NHS counts skipping as vigorous activity, and rope sessions raised aerobic fitness in trials in adults. In pooled trials, mostly in young people, rope training improved fitness, strength, sprinting and jumping a little.
About 8 to 12 METs depending on pace: for a 70 kg person that's roughly 10 calories a minute at a slow pace and 14 to 15 at a moderate or fast pace, by our rough arithmetic. Ten minutes at a moderate pace is about 145 calories. Our calories burned calculator works it out for your weight.
Minute for minute, a moderate rope pace costs about the same as running at 12 km/h. But 10 minutes of rope did less for fitness than 30 minutes of jogging, and in one student trial jogging did more over 2 months. Our suggestion: choose the one you'll keep doing, or mix both.
Not from your belly in particular: no exercise burns fat from one spot, and 8 weeks of rope training didn't change body composition in young adults. It adds vigorous minutes to your week; what you eat and your total activity matter most.
In children and teenagers, jumping builds bone, though rope-only studies are mixed. For adults, the Royal Osteoporosis Society counts skipping as moderate impact and suggests building up to about 50 impacts on most days if you have no spinal fractures, but no trial has tested rope skipping itself. With spinal fractures, keep impact to about brisk walking and ask a physiotherapist.
Skipping is a calf and Achilles exercise, so soreness for a day or two is common at first. Keep it at 5 out of 10 or less and settled by the next morning; if it isn't, our suggestion is to drop back a week. A sudden pop at the back of your ankle needs same-day help.
It can, especially if you start exercising after a break or skip on hard surfaces. If your shins hurt, the NHS advises not carrying on with the exercise that caused it and building back up slowly; our suggestion is to skip on a wooden floor or mat, in cushioned shoes. Our shin splints guide has more.
Jump higher rather than spinning the rope faster, keep your body straight and your hands by your hips, and flick the rope twice from your wrists. Learn them once you can do 50 or more basic bounces in a row, practising 10 singles then 10 doubles.
It's common: 39% of women CrossFit competitors leaked while jumping rope. Squeeze your pelvic floor just before you start, use shorter rounds or the no-jump options for now, and see our pelvic floor guide; a pelvic health physiotherapist can help.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
