The study attached found a 3% decrease in 3km running time trial among many other benefits such as 7.8% increase in arch strength and 10.5% increase in jumping ability by simply substituting 10-20 minutes per week of running warm up drills with jump roping.
A 3% decrease in a 18min 5k race is over 30 seconds time saved, or for a 27min 5k this is almost 49 seconds saved! I also believe the increased arch and tendon stiffness could provide injury prevention of plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, etc.
“Before starting the training program (week 0), the experimental group, EG participants, were instructed with technical key points about jump roping, JR. These included (1) rope rotation should be generated by the wrists with minimal movement of the elbows and shoulders, (2) jump height should be maximized and ground contact time should be minimized, and (3) landing should be softened on the forefoot and with the knees slightly flexed. More details about the 10-week JR training program can be checked in Table 3:”
I can imagine that I would have an opposite effect, from the welts & bruises on my ankles & shins, as I am such an uncoordinated fucker that I can NOT jump rope
Can’t do a kick-flip, either, if anyone is asking
Science. Specific words having specific meanings, defining what you are talking about.
These papers aren’t written for you or I but people in labs where they’ll often debate the meaning of a word without debating the merits of the paper
I 1000% agree with you though. Science & scientist need to explain it like they are talking to a high school student who has average grades.
I commented on the benefits of jr in another thread awhile back.
Jumping rope started for me in 1976. My HS football team started practice daily for 10min (in full gear) jumping rope. My coach, who was from the 1940’s!!!, believed in its physiological and neurological multi-functional efficacy prior to any scientific paper. The man coached and implemented jr in wrestling too. He just knew - Big slow guys got quicker, fast guys got faster, and everybody got “fitter.”
There was also a 9 week segment of 9th grade PE class (same coach) that was dedicated to jr exclusively. Grade was determined by the level of progression daily through 13 different jump skills that could be repeated for 50-100 reps. Many, including me, at the start, couldn’t complete Step1 (Both feet/100 reps). By the end of the semester I made it up through step10 (A-).
To this day, I have a rope in my garage, car, gym, travel and TRX bags - and incorporate jr into strength sessions 4x week.
I’ll quit when they fit me for a wheelchair, or hang myself with it on day one in a nursing home.
The original premise was to increase running speed via tendon strength; hopping should increase tendon strength whether or not there’s a rope involved
Correct. Tendons have one job: store and release energy. Repetitive hopping like jumping rope will improve the tolerance of the structures in the foot/ankle to repetitive movements like steady state running whether the rope is present or not. We call them “pogo jumps” without a rope.
EG ran 42k in 4.2h/w (10kph)
CG ran 40.5k in 4.4h/w (9.2kph)
The paces in their 3k test were ~14kph. Just plugging into Daniels VDOT their training paces should be something like Easy=10.5kph minimum, with intensity a bit faster than that.
It says that “Warm up and cooldown routines are included” which means 10-20 minutes of possible running are represented in time but not distance, to my reading.
While the EG gained 3%, the CG also gained 1.5%.
My read is that both groups trained in a way that (as the study calls them) “amateur endurance runners” often do…much too slow. This leaves the assumption that the 10-20min of jump rope was likely the peak intensity of the 10 wk program. IMO a follow up study is warranted where the twice weekly 10-20min of jump rope is replaced not with low-intensity warm up, but with HR matched running during the same time.
Tl;dr - It should be unsurprising that an overall low intensity, low volume program that replaces low intensity warmup with higher intensity jump rope produces faster race times than a low-intensity-only program.
There might be something to this. I picked up the JR routine to replace mostly all my running due to a hip injury, and I’ve maintained most of my speed with 2 great 5k races recently. At first it was hard to maintain the right cadence and was limited to about 20 jumps before failure but now can go up to 1 or 2 minutes before stopping. I am not jumping high but a fairly high cadence. Lower legs feel stronger specifically in shins and calves. Decent cardio workout as well. Only about 5-10 minutes a few times a week.
There is a lot of research around plyometrics and increased running velocity/lower times with 5k runners. Jumping rope is just another form of plyo’s although with more of an endurance component to it. Someone may jump for 2-3-4 minutes but someone isn’t doing 4 continuous minutes of box jumps
I wonder if there is any benefit to jumping with the rope (which makes it more like a full body movement) instead of simply acting the same jump repetition with your feet only (which is effectively a plyometrics exercise)
