Jumping Rope For Seniors. 5 Reasons To Do It!

Welcome friend! In this post, you will learn about everything you need about jumping rope for seniors. Is it a good form of exercise for seniors, is it safe, is it beneficial, etc. Read on to find out these and more!

The changes are you are a bit older and thinking about getting a jump rope like you had when you were younger or maybe as a child. It was great fun after all and great exercise!

The truth is that jump rope is probably one of the most efficient forms of exercise. It literally trains almost all dimensions of physical fitness. Jump rope challenges your balance and coordination, strength, and endurance and even helps make your bones stronger!

But there are certain safety considerations for seniors. While it can be safe and effective, you need to know your limits and ability to make sure it’s a good form of exercise for you.

I’m sure you are familiar with jumping rope as an exercise and don’t need a but just in case you are completely new to jump rope, here’s a great embedded (all rights belong to Youtube and the video owner, this is not my content) video by Jump Rope Dudes

Let’s start by talking about who jumping rope is suitable to on who should probably consider other types of exercise.

Is Skipping Rope Good For Seniors?

Let’s start by talking about if jumping rope is a good form of exercise for seniors and what considerations you should take when considering it.

Jump rope can be great for seniors but there are some safety precautions. First of all, you need to assess your physical ability realistically.

Jump rope puts a great demand on your stability and balance as well as your joints and ligaments. It will also raise your heart rate very fast. If you are at all overweight, every extra pound will make the exercise that much harder.

If you are in good health, lead an active lifestyle and do many forms of exercise, and thus trust in your ability to jump and keep balance, you are probably good to go. It’s still important to start very lightly and warm up. Get the flood flowing in your leg and stretch your calf, it’s very easy to get a calf cramp if you’re not used to jumping.

If you are overweight, sedentary, have any form of joint or back issues and especially if you have heart issues it’s important to be very critical of this activity and run it by your doctor. It’s probably wise to start improving your fitness with lighter exercise and strength training.

If you are somewhere in the between, in good health but not especially athletic, I recommend you start very light and try how it feels. It would be smart to improve your fitness levels.

Always try this in a safe environment where you can’t fall on dangerous objects and have someone watch you in the beginning. Also if you suffer from osteoporosis or pretty much any kind of chronic illness, it’s very important to talk to your doctor before trying rope skipping.

All that said, jump rope can be superior to keeping you fit at an older age if you can do it consistently. Let’s see why!

1. Great For Balance

It’s probably obvious that jump rope is great for balance. The fact that you have to keep jumping consecutively really challenges your sense of balance.

Because you have to coordinate the jumps with the rope and keep your posture good and your body tense it will require everything you got to keep your balance. If your balance is good, you might not realize this though.

Improving and maintaining your balance is one of the most important things for your health as you age. Balance is both a skill that requires constant practice but also a function of strength and mobility. If you lose too much strength or mobility, your balance will naturally suffer as well.

Jump rope is great for all of these components of balance.

2. Great For Coordination

There is a reason why jump rope is one of the cornerstones of training for boxing. It teaches your body to work as a coordinated whole.

This is great for your sense of proprioception and balance like we talked about. This sense of coordination will carry on to everyday tasks and it will keep your body youthful and strong.

We all become a bit clumsier as we age but the truth is that your activities and health play a huge role in how you can perform physically at an older age. I’m sure you’ve seen this in people during your life.

3. Great For Your Bones

One of the unfortunate changes to your body aging causes is loss of bones and muscle mass. If you lose so much bone mass that your bones become weak is called osteoporosis.

While hormones, diet, and nutrition play a big role in maintaining and improving your bone mass, exercise has an important role as well.

Your bones adapt to the stress of exercise just like your muscles, by becoming stronger. This is especially true for any kind of activity that puts a direct strain like load or a shock to your bone.

Jumping and hitting the floor consecutively puts a shock through your whole skeleton, especially your legs, hips, and spine. This is great for improving bone health. Not surprisingly, rope skipping has actually been shown to improve bone mineral density.

4. Great For Metabolism

Jumping is a metabolically demanding activity as it requires high force production. I’m sure you remember that even as a kid jumping rope could get your heart rate up and out of breath if you did it long or fast enough. Well, maybe you were having too much fun to pay any notice!

I can promise you that if you are capable of jumping rope, you will notice the high metabolic demand very fast. This is the second reason why boxers jump rope, it keeps them conditioned and fast on their feet.

High metabolic demand means skipping rope is great for controlling your weight (or burning fat) as well as your heart health. On the other hand, it means you need to have good base conditioning. Just like you can’t start running without building a base if you’ve been sedentary, you can’t start jumping rope either. It’s dangerous for your heart, especially as a senior.

So be safe and start very light, increasing speed and duration gradually, even if you are healthy and fit already.

5. Great For Muscle Mass

Finally, jumping rope is good for maintaining muscle mass. It’s not as effective as strength training but it should get the job done for your lower body midsection. And that’s what really matters.

This is because jumping requires your fast-twitch muscles to activate to produce enough force to get you airborne. This is a great way to activate

Beware that rope skipping won’t probably build any significant muscle but it will help you keep your existing muscle and make it a bit stronger as well as increase your lower body stamina and endurance.

One consideration is that if you have lost significant amounts of muscle mass due to age, ropes skipping might be too taxing on your muscles. In this case, it’s a good idea to start by improving your strength and muscle mass with a strength training program.

Best Jump Rope For Seniors

So what kind of a jump rope is the best option for seniors? The truth is that it doesn’t matter that much. You can get a professional jumping rope that has ball bearings and even a rep counter or you can use a $5 dollar one.

The truth is that any kind of rope is suitable when you are starting or trying rope jumping for the first time in a long time. In fact, you can even use a correct length cloth line nylon rope. It doesn’t have handles so it’s not optimal but it should be good for trying out.

If you find you enjoy rope skipping, you can invest in a good rope that will last forever. That’s the great thing about rope skipping, it’s one of the most effective forms of exercise yet it’s practically free!

Conclusion

I hope you found this article about jumping rope for seniors useful and enjoyed reading it. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you.

Rope jumping is a great form of exercise for seniors that are fit and normal weight but it can be a bit too demanding for sedentary and overweight people. For most people strength training and lighter activities like walking, swimming or golf are a better fit.

That said, if you are physically fit enough to jump rope you will get a great workout that challenges your whole body and burns a lot of calories offering great potential for health and fat loss.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed the article, remember to share!

See you next time.