Best Jump Rope Workouts For Beginners

Simple, jump rope workouts for beginners to start today, plus how to measure your rope, and the basics of proper form.

What’s up, JRD Nation? Today we’re revisiting a topic we get asked about often—jumping rope for beginners—specifically, what are the best beginner jump rope workouts, what rope should you use, and proper form?

But don’t fret! It’s not complicated. Consider the following example…

The World’s Easiest Jump Rope Workout for Beginners:

30 Seconds Regular Bounce, or any jump rope variation you can pull off
15 Seconds rest
30 Seconds plank, push ups, squats, or any bodyweight exercise that works for you
15 Seconds rest
Repeat this circuit 5—20x, depending on your fitness level and exercise capacity

BOOM! You’ve just completed the perfect beginner jump rope workout!

The point is, any workout you’ll do consistently is the best one. However, there’s a lot to consider if you want to adopt a new fitness lifestyle and stick with it.

Today, we’re giving you not just the best jump rope workout for beginners but three awesome beginner jump rope workouts to choose from, plus a proper form checklist and detail how to choose the best jump rope to get you started skipping now!

Today you’ll learn:

What’s the best jump rope for a beginner?
What’s the proper jump rope form?
What’s the best jump rope workout for my fitness level?

We’re giving you not just the best jump rope workout for beginners but three awesome beginner jump rope workouts to choose from:

Workout 1: a strength training HIIT workout incorporating bodyweight calisthenics for someone looking for a challenge.
Workout 2: a high-intensity fat-burning workout designed for the advanced beginner, aka people with some prior exercise experience.
Workout 3 : an uplifting morning routine with simple, basic moves for less-experienced beginners.

Let’s get started!

The Jump Rope Beginner’s Proper Form Checklist

When people start skipping rope, they often go hard and fast, and if you don’t take your form extremely seriously, that could lead to injury.

We see this happen too often—people get injured, rest up for a while, and as soon as they feel better, they repeat the same mistakes and hurt themselves all over again! You can’t make progress this way, and you’ll give up (out of frustration or injury) pretty quickly.

To reap the immediate rewards of implementing a fitness routine into your life, you’ve got to think of long-term sustainable habits. To jump rope well and for a long time, you’ve got to master your form before anything else. This checklist guides you through the basic bounce form, the first and fundamental jump rope exercise, starting with the focus—your feet.

1. Feet together; stay on your toes and the balls of your feet.

With your feet close together, shift your weight to your toes and midsoles and practice bouncing up and down. You’ll only need to jump around 1—2″ off the ground to clear the rope and land softly. Keep your ankles straight in line with your knees and feet to absorb the landing and rebound again. Never land on your heels!

2. Legs bounce like a spring, landing and rebounding with knees bent.

Keep your knees slightly bent always. There’s no need to jump super high or overwork the legs; make sure the lower body matches your upper body with your spine neutral and straight.

3. Core is tight, midline is straight, with a tall neutral spine.

Keeping your chest up and shoulders back, maintain a tall spine with a solid upright posture. Keeping your shoulder blades back allows you to pull your elbows in and keep your wrists down by your hips.

4. Arms stay close to your sides, with your wrists jutting out and slightly forward from your hips.

Your elbows stay close to your sides, with your wrists jutting out at around a 45° angle from your hips. Position your wrists slightly in front of your body with your hands facing open and even on each side.

It’s all in the flick of the wrists! Focus on propelling the rope with your wrist movement, not your elbows, arms, or upper body. Rotate the rope slowly at first, concentrating on your form and a strong core. Think about keeping each side (right and left) symmetrical as you jump.

Jump once only for each rope rotation—never double jump!

5. Head up, look forward, and keep your midline straight and even.

Think of your midline as an vertical extension of your spine. Picture you physique tall and straight like a ruler, with each side of your body (left and right) acting as a mirror to each other. Head up and look straight ahead—never look down!

After you nail your basic bounce form, you can experiment with moves that will challenge you to switch the position of your feet, arms, legs, and head. Now, what kind of rope do you get?

What’s the Best Jump Rope Beginner?

There are too many fundamentals of weight loss and beginner basics to cover in this article. You can check out the ONLY 10 things that matter for weight loss here.

With so many options and immensely varied price points for sports equipment, choosing the best jump rope can be confusing when you’re just starting out.

Truthfully, the best jump rope for you is anyone that does the job and keeps you invested in your exercise journey and fitness goals. If you’re looking for a rope, check out this guide on sizing, and we strongly recommended a weighted jump rope for beginners.

Why? A flimsy lightweight rope requires you to work hard, swinging your arms wide and fast to propel it around. You’ll be working much harder for poor results, and potentially leading to injury. Also, to be real (and this is coming from seasoned jump rope athletes), the flimsy ropes feel like junk and aren’t fun to use. Compare them to a weighted jump rope just once, and you’ll be swayed forever.

A weighted jump rope provides the feedback you need to time your jumps, make fewer mistakes, and learn quicker. When you feel the rope rotations, you can sense and build the rope momentum, allowing you to develop your unique jumping cadence. You’ll find your flow and work up to a full 20—30 minute workout (where you’ll see results) in less time.

You’ll get an easier, more enjoyable, more efficient workout experience with a quality, weighted jump rope. You don’t need to go too heavy; most often, we use the Get Lean Set by Crossrope, which comes with 1/4 LB and 1/2 LB ropes and provides just the right amount of feedback for beginners.

Don’t forget!—We have the highest discount code available for Crossrope! Use our code: DOTHETHING to get you 15% off.

Now that you have your ropes let’s dive into the best jump rope workouts for beginners.

The Best Beginner Jump Rope Workouts

As mentioned, the best workout is the one that works for you. Consider what your current fitness level is and what your goals are. Be realistic with your goals, include the exercises you enjoy, and take it slow. You’re looking for that sweet spot, at around 70% of your max heart rate. If you need help making an exercise routine into a habit, you’ll find lots of helpful advice here—Why Starting an Exercise Routine is the Hardest Part.

Let’s get started with a strength-building beginner workout.

#1: 10-Minute Bodyweight Strength Training Beginner Jump Rope Workout

The beauty of this first workout is it’s quick and efficient. If you’re a beginner, one circuit will probably be enough. As you progress, work up to 3 circuits, and you’ll have a complete, effective total body workout.

Not sure how to do some of these moves? Just watch the videos embedded and follow Dan! If you can’t pull off some of these moves, stick with the basic bounce.

Workout Details: each exercise interval lasts 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest between (more if needed.) Beginners, complete this circuit once. Or, If you can handle the challenge, repeat the circuit 2—3x.

30 sec – Regular Bounce
30 sec – Plank
30 sec – Boxer Skip
30 sec – Push Ups *
30 sec- Single Leg Jumps (alternating)
30 sec – Jumping Jacks **
30 sec – Lazy Side Step
30 sec – Modified Regular Bounce Right
30 sec – Modified Regular Bounce Left
30 sec – Push Ups
30 sec – Run In Place
30 sec – Air Squats
30 sec – Boxer Skip
30 sec – Run In Place
30 sec – Double Unders

* Note for Push Ups: Don’t rush through them, do as many as you can—form is most important. If you’re going to rest, rest in the up position.

**Note for Jumping Jacks: Resist the urge to flail your arms and legs around. Think slow and controlled, core tight and knees bent.

#2: 15-Minute Rapid Fat Loss Beginner Jump Rope Workout

Is weight loss your goal rather than strength gains? This is a great option for you. This workout is challenging and intended only for beginners who have some experience with athletics.

This workout ramps up the intensity by switching between two weighted jump ropes, the 1/4 and 1/2 LB ropes. If you have the Get Lean Set, we strongly encourage you to switch ropes as instructed to see how quickly your body changes.

Don’t have a set of weighted jump ropes? No sweat! Use any rope you have and Do The Thing! Using weighted ropes during this workout is recommended but in no way required.

30 Sec Regular Bounce 1/4 LB
30 Sec Regular Bounce, 1/2 LB
30 Sec Run In Place 1/4 LB
30 Sec Run In Place 1/2 LB
30 Sec Push Ups
30 Sec Boxer Skip 1/4 LB
30 Sec Boxer Skip 1/2 LB
30 Sec Fast Skip 1/4 LB
30 Sec Fast Skip 1/2 LB
30 Sec Sit Ups
30 Sec Regular Bounce 1/4 LB
30 Sec Regular Bounce, 1/2 LB
30 Sec Run In Place 1/4 LB
30 Sec Run In Place 1/2 LB
30 Sec Push Ups
30 Sec Boxer Skip 1/4 LB
30 Sec Boxer Skip 1/2 LB
30 Sec Fast Skip 1/4 LB
30 Sec Fast Skip 1/2 LB
30 Sec Sit Ups
30 Sec Regular Bounce 1/4 LB
30 Sec Regular Bounce, 1/2 LB
30 Sec Run In Place 1/4 LB

#3: Morning Circuit Beginner Jump Rope Workout

This is a great energizing workout for weight loss and for beginners who want something basic when it comes to the moves and footwork. Easy, simple, effective!

Workout Details: each exercise interval lasts 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest between exercises and 1 min between circuits (more if needed.) Complete the circuit 2—4x.

30 Sec Regular Bounce
30 Sec Regular Bounce
30 Sec Plank
30 Sec Run In Place
30 Sec Run In Place
30 Sec Push Ups
30 Sec Boxer Skip
30 Sec Boxer Skip

If you need guidance on the moves in these workouts, search our YouTube for demonstrations of beginner jump rope moves anyone can do.

beginner jump rope workouts. exercise for weight loss

Get More Jump Rope Workouts for Beginners—Or Any Skill Level

If you’re serious about committing to your jump rope journey and seeing quantifiable results, we strongly recommend signing up for the free 7-Day Jump Rope Challenge.

Today was your introduction; the 7-Day Challenge is your master class on how to jump rope. Giving you a detailed dive into the fundamentals of form, footwork, timing, coordination, muscle memory, and more.

If you like the challenge and get addicted to the Do. The. Thing. lifestyle—warning, it’s incredibly addictive!—you’ll want to progress to a 90-day goal-based workout program. Swole Samurai for muscle gains; Shredded Ninja if you want to get lean, and don’t forget to use our Nutrition System if you’re trying to lose weight and see more definition.

The JRD App is your one-stop shop for our best-selling workout programs, nutritional guidance, personalized coaching, and the world’s largest jump rope community!

Start your free trial today and get access to the JRD App FREE FOR TWO WEEKS!!

Beginners, the hardest part is now—Keep going!

Do. The. Thing.
The Jump Rope Dudes

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