How to Jump Rope With Proper Form — Plus 5 Tips to Improve Your Skills

With TikTok elevating jump-rope tricksters to influencer status and CrossFit programming mostly double unders and crossovers, many exercisers are forgetting just how much fun and benefit old-school jumping — aka single unders — can beinorhowa workout.

Here’s how to jump rope with good form, plus five tips for graduating from junior jumper to single-under senior.

“Jump rope offers many of the same health benefits as running,” says CrossFit Level 1 coach David Newman, CF-L1, founder and CEO of Rx Smart Gear, the rope brand of many jump rope enthusiasts.

For starters, because jumping rope increases your heart rate very quickly, it can improve cardiovascular endurance and capacity, he says. (Need proof? See how gassed you are after 50 consecutive jumps).

Aside from the cardiovascular benefits, skipping rope also has strength benefits. It’s a full-body exercise that works your shoulders, grip muscles, forearms, calves, quads, and hamstrings, Newman says. More specifically, “regular jumping rope can increase muscular endurance in your lower body,” he says, which can aid in your goals while running, biking, walking, or hiking.

In addition, jumping rope can increase speed and agility, improve coordination, and increase strength, Newman says. So if you want to become more effective on the soccer field or lift heavier on the platform, jumping rope can help you get there.

Research backs up these benefits: An October 2019 study in the ​Pharmacy and Technology Research Journalfound that 12 weeks of jumping rope was associated with improved VO2max (an indicator of fitness level) in college-age men. And a January 2015 study in theAmerican Journal of Health Promotion​ suggests that jumping rope may support bone density in pre-menopausal people, making it an optimal supplement for anyone with osteopenia, which is the stage before osteoporosis.

It is not for nothing that another advantage of jumping rope is that it requires no more than one rope and little space. That means it’s accessible to everyone — even those who don’t have the funds for a gym membership or transportation to get to one.

Jumping with good form requires many of the same mechanics as ​meetingwith good shape. For real! You want your midline engaged, shoulders back and down, back straight, and eyes forward.

“Start with the rope behind your socks, a grip light in each hand, palms out, arms straight and hands about pocket level,” says Newman. To twist the string around your body, wiggle your wrists as if shaking a maraca. “You shouldn’t move your arms too drastically — if your arms are beating, you’re going to fail,” he says.

The jump that gets you over the rope isNota tuck jump. Instead, you have to push through the balls of your feet to float 1 to 2 inches in the air. You only have to jump as high as the rope is thick, Newman explains, and the rope is damn thin. “If you’re jumping higher, you’re wasting energy,” he says, which isn’t ideal when you’re jumping for time or reps.

The hardest part is figuring it outifto jump. “You have to build your own inner understanding of how long it takes to move the rope around your body,” Newman says. If you jump too early you’ll land on top of the jump, but if you jump too late you’ll trip. In general, you should initiate the jump as the rope passes your shins, he says.

Nothing bothers solid single unders as much as a rope that is too long or too short. So, before you start practicing your form, find your Goldilocks rope.

Most rope websites, like RxSmartGear, have online guides that make it easy to choose the right length of cable based on your height.

However, if you already have a rope, you can check if it’s the right size by breaking it in half with a foot. Pull the handles up to your chest so there is equal amount of rope on either side. If the end of the cable should come to about nipple height. But typically, your height plus 3 feet equals your ideal rope length according to Rx Smart Gear’s size guide.

If you’re new to jumping rope, Newman recommends using thin, smooth rope for the time being because it’s too light.

“In the beginning, you want a rope that’s heavy enough to feel like it’s twisting around your body,” he says. However, you don’t want a weight or resistance rope, which are advanced pieces of equipment for more experienced jumpers.

“Start with a 3 or 4 ounce rope, then you can go lighter or heavier as you become more experienced,” says Newman.

Many of us have been jumping rope since the break. Still, Newman recommends taking stock of your positioning.

“Proper hand placement is critical to making jumping rope as efficient and comfortable as possible,” he says.

So where to put your hands? At your side, about shoulder width apart. A trick to test your positioning is to grab a broomstick, PVC pipe, or barbell.

“Think about where your hands would be if you were holding a broomstick horizontal to the floor, hands about hip-width apart,” he says. Now turn your hands over so your palms are facing forward. “If you’re wearing pants with pockets, the stick is usually right around the opening of your pockets,” he says.

At this level, your hands are in the middle of your body. When you rotate the rope, the result is that with each rotation, the line is the same distance above your head as it is below your feet, Newman explains. If the ropeNotin the middle of your body, you will either trip over it. Or you may have to work harder to get it all the way around.

This may surprise you, but Newman says that the first step to learning how to jump rope involves no jumping at all. Instead, it’s about learning something called a toe catch.

“Try a toe-trap with your feet together, grips at waist height, and the rope behind you,” he says. Then, without lifting your feet off the floor, twist the rope around you once. “To spin the rope, remember to unzip a jacket very quickly,” he says.

This cue will help you flex your wrists to get the rope around your body instead of using your shoulders and traps to do it. After the rope rotates forward, lift your toes and catch the rope under your foot, making sure your hands end in the aforementioned broomstick position, he says.

“Doing toe catches forces people to freeze and really make sure their hands are in the right position,” he says. “If you can consistently get five to eight toe catches in a row, you know you have the right hand and rope positioning to perform a true single-under with good form.”

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk. So once you know how to do a toe catch, you can learn to do a single under plus a toe catch, Newman says. When the rope spins in front of your body for the first time, jump over it. The second time, catch the rope with your toes. Once you can do this correctly for five reps, Newman gives you the green light to try doing multiple individual sub-exercises without stopping.