Double Dutch

Okay, so maybe you haven't played double dutch since elementary school. But jump roping is a great way to get our heart rates up and spice up our workouts. A great benefit of jump roping is that it's great for our lower abdominal region! And who doesn't want to work out THAT area?!? Another benefit: They're portable! When I went on vacation I ran around my sister's block once, then jumped for 5 minutes, and continued doing that for about 45 minutes. I burned more calories than I would have if I had just jogged around the block. (Which is what I would have done without the jump rope, because when you're on vacation, you don't always feel like pushing the petal to the metal!) If worst came to worst, I could have just done it on her patio, like if it were raining. So no more excuses on why we can't do our cardio!!!

You can do it in different ways. If you're starting out, you'll probably only get in about a minute of jumping. So I'd suggest you add it into your cardio, i.e. jogging, biking, eliptical, instead of jumping for the whole 30 minutes. It will wear you out! So just bring it with you for whatever kind of cardio you're doing, and every 5 minutes, take a pit stop with your jump rope!

If you feel more advanced, you can try jumping for 10-15 minutes at a time. Although, it might take a while to build up this stamina.

So go out and get yourself a jump rope to spice up your cardio this week. At Target, the jump ropes range from $26.99 to $4.99. Amazon has some around the same price range, or a little cheaper, and at Wal Mart they're from the $11-14 range.

They're inexpensive, portable, works lower abs, gets our heart rates up like non other, and makes us feel like we're in 5th grade again. I can't think of a better workout for us this week!

Let me know how last week's workout went for you! You can always continue to do last week's work out every week. It has enough variety to where you won't burn out of it for a while! Our bodies go through transitions every 4-6 weeks, so feel free to keep doing it for a while :)