This week’s Workout Wednesday is a full body plyometric workout that can help with your overall conditioning, coordination and cadence. You will need a jump rope and a towel (I was sweating like a pig after this one). I purchased my jump ropes from CrossRope.com, but any rope will do.

I like to add jumping rope as a form of cross training into my routine for several reasons. Jumping rope helps me stay on my toes, be light on my feet, build calf strength and increase the elasticity of the Achilles. The fast cadence of the rope also helps to improve stride turnover by training the lower legs to decrease ground contact time—a major component of speed. In addition, your upper body muscles get a workout as well as your abs since you must maintain good posture.

This is a good workout to do on your rest day when you are having that “I need to run, but coach said to take a break” moment.

A couple tips:

  • Be springy! Your heels should not touch the ground or should touch very softly.
  • Jumps should be very soft and rhythmic. Focus on quality and not quantity. Instead of 100 jumps at once, you can break down into 5 sets of 20.

Below is a workout I did recently. It took me around 16-20 minutes to complete. You can vary this workout to meet your own preferences. My workout consisted of 5 sets of 100 jumps with an exercise in between to create a circuit-type full-body workout. Some days I do sets of 200 jumps or switch to a heavy rope.

100 Jumps
20 Burpees
100 Jumps
20 Lunges (10 each side)
100 Jumps
20 Push ups
100 Jumps
20 Air Squats
100 Jumps
20 Burpees

Feel free to change the number of repetitions and adjust the exercises to suit your fitness level. Get creative! Put your variations in the comments and maybe I can learn from you!

Here is a video of my workout. The whole family, even the dog, joined in.

Please pay attention to your form on any exercises you do. Our form is not perfect and should not be taken for an example of the right way to perform the exercises.