Daily tip #46| Eat right!

1. You generally want to eat at least 3 to 4 times per day. Also, try not to snack in between meals.

 



2. For those of you who love to snack between meals, I recommend drinking a cup or two of water - your snacking needs will be gone!

3. You want to not down everything in one sitting. a big meal spikes the sugar in your blood, which triggers an insulin reaction which then converts the temporary surpulus to fat. Therefor, you get hungry sooner than you should.

4. Spreading the same number of calories over several smaller meals ( 3 to 5, instead of 2 to 3) gives you a better chance of using the calories for energy rather than turning them to fat

I'm going to begin following this short method of tipping, the long articles gave me a lot, but this blog isn't for such things, I'll make another one for full articles if the need ever arises.

Have a great friday everyone! Drink water, otherwise tomorrow's morning won't be as pleasant as you wish!

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Daily tip #45| Clearing it up 301

Let's assume you run 30 minutes per day, you've changed your meal plan, it's been atleast a month, and.. Nothing. The weight doesn't shed off, so, what now?

You might be out-eating your cardio. Do not think that just because you are working out a lot you can eat a lot too - no. Losing weight is burning off more calories than you eat. If you burn off 800 and eat a 1000 - you'll gain 200. No matter how hard you are working out, you can always make this mistake. Just a friendly heads-up!




By the way - If you think that just because you eat very well cardio is not important, it still is. Cardio is one of the most important things you can do to improve your body. Ofcourse, you can lose weight with just nutrition. However, the two combined will grant you a healthy body!


How long will you have to keep this up? Here.

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Daily tip #40| The rest is over.

It's been a week and three days since my last post, and I have to admit, I just had to take some time off writing. I sincerely hope all of you are still there with me, and from today, I am going to be taking the my creation, this post, very seriously. Follow along on how to get back into it.


First of all, the strongest and best advice there is about getting back into it is..


Just don't even stop it in the first place– Avoid breaks for more than a week. Don't slack off just because you couldn't do it on time - I never miss my workouts, I reschedule. If at the end of the day you had time to sit down and watch an episode of a tv show, you should look for more motivation.

Short goals – I've done a post on this before, and here it is. Follow it. Short goals is the secret to keep it up.


Rewards – Yes, rewards. Whether it be cash you told someone to hide and not give to you until you ___ (Choosing a trustworthy person is recommended, this also is a great way to weed out 'friends'.)


Get a partner – Having a partner is definitely one of the best things that kept me going. You look at you partner, progressing - and you just can't help but wish to keep it up, maybe with these tips you'll even surpass them?


Start a small commitment – Something like, going for a jog every day for a month, for just twenty minutes. If you do it wholeheartedly, believe me, you will not want to stop, don't forget a reward afterwards.


The old-school way – Draw a big X over the days you have to do it. You're new-age and the only calendar  you have is the calendar on your computer? Buy one. They're not expensive ( it doesn't have to be all fancy, though, nothing's stopping you.) and hang it over your bed/in the bathroom, somewhere where you will see it every day, every morning, every night. This is the most straight-forward and basic way to keep motivation up.


Have you phone go crazy – On the days - set five phone alarms going off at random times during the day. I'm sure everytime the alarm goes off, you'll think about it and will soon realise that you could be spending your time productively. Believe me, mine does, it's also on full volume, and I've purposely set it to go off during class, that makes me paranoid, also making me think about what I should do later on today.


These are 7 most effective ( with my experience ) ways of getting back into it. Do not look at this post like you don't need to try these, it can make a difference.


Do not forget to drink a lot of water, not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes to become happier! 

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Daily tip #39| DOMS

You might have seen a very fit and/or strong/bulky guy taking the elevator..


   Now why would he do that when he looks like he could outrun it with stairs? He might have the time to do it, is he lazy? But then if he's lazy, how is he strong/bulky or fit? It might be DOMS (Delayed onset muscular soreness).


  If you work out hard enough, you get micro tears in your muscles which your body then repairs. Delayed onset muscular soreness starts 1-2 days after a workout and can last for a week ( Yep! That truly is no pain no gain.) This delayed muscle soreness is great, it is by far my favourite.  It is a great indicator that you've had an effective workout, you are constantly reminded that your hard work did not go to waste! Delayed onset muscular soreness is also a great reminder that you have to keep feeding your muscles nutrtion, afterall, nutrition is the key to the lock of a great body!


Do not forget to drink a lot of water, not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes to become happier! 

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Daily tip #37| Pain equals gain?

 Everyone has heard the phrase 'no pain no gain', and it does apply to a lot of people, and yes, I said 'a lot' that means not to everyone, let me clear things up a bit..


  The kind of pain you could get:

Joint pain - this is always bad, pain is your bodies way of saying something's up and you should not ignore joint pain, if you continue to push through it you can seriously injure yourself - forget bodybuilding. If you feel joint pain try to recall what might have caused it and stop it immideatly. Try a different angle, change the grip position, and try doing less, more reps with light weight instead of few reps with heavy weight.


   Bad kind of pain - sharp, sudden and 'knife stab' kind of pain is really bad, it usually is a sign that you have seriously injured yourself. Tears and seperations cause this kind of pain - get someone to run and fetch a bag of ice for you and visit a doctor.


   Good pain - pain that starts as a slow light burn at the end of your workout, slowly building up with every last step/rep until it gets really intense. Why? This is lactic acid building up in your muscles. Why is this pain good? The buildup of lactic acid is a great indicator that you are pushing yourself hard enough to develop muscle.

  If you work out intensively enough, you will get micro tears in your muscles which your body then has to repair.

If you've had a good workout and feel no pain - don't fret, some people don't feel sore at all!


Do not forget to drink a lot of water, not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes to become happier! 

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Daily tip #28| Poor results gaining

A lot of people are getting demotivated after seeing no results.. After a week. This is not how muscles work. Building muscle is a very slow and hard process. Before changing your work out, work with it for ATLEAST a month, and then see. Now, let's take a look at what you might be doing wrong..


                              Nutrition is key in gaining muscle, but not the only key.

  Lifting weights may be the easiest part of working out, but you must not take it lightly. You need to constantly and intensively lift weights. If you go to workout just once a week, for one hour and spend half of that one hour talking to a bud, you're not going to gain anything.




Let's say you intensively work out 3 days a week, and you're still not seeing results after a few months. Well, remember that cookie you ate? Yeah. Remember the sugar you put into the coffee covered with cream on top of it? Do not expect results without solid, proper nutrition. 6 meals a day, every two to three hours. 3.3 litres of water (2.3 if you are a girl). And proper sleep (Atleast 8 hours). Solid sleep and rest is essential, no sleep - no gain.
Ofcourse, the meals have to be balanced too! (more on that in a later post)

   You're probably thinking to yourself "6 meals a day.. Damn, I need to eat like a horse to do this' Nope. Wrong. You do not need to eat more to gain muscles. You do not need fat to gain muscle. This is a horrible myth, seen and heard everyday. 'I'm skinny so I eat a lot to add fat in order to gain muscle' this is heard really often, too often. To build muscle you need atleast 0.5/1g of protein per pound of your total bodyweight weight. That is what you need to start building muscle, no fat. If you weigh 180 pounds, you need to consume 180 grams of protein each day. Ofcourse, somewhat evenly spaced out!(30g per meal, though you can have 15 g in one meal and then compensate with 45 in the other, just do not have your daily dose at once)

  Do not abandon natural protein and turn to protein shakes. One protein shake per day is good, but two or three is horrible. There are many, BETTER proteins in natural foods like nuts, chicken breasts, eggs, milk and other lean meats. You can also have a protein bar, but do not have it as a snack.

  If you're getting poor results.. Ofcourse, you might just be simply overtraining. If you've suddenly stopped gaining strenght and started losing it - you're overtraining. If you lift weights, 3 days per week of 1-2 hours is enough. If you're having 'parts days' do not have two chest days, or two bicep days, one day per week is enough. Later on you CAN start lifting 4 days per week, but that's much more later on, do not worry about that.

And yes! Drink a lot of water, not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes and you'll be much happier!

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Daily tip #26| Cooling down

Cooling down, as in, cooling down after a workout. It doesn't seem too important, does it?


Cooling down is actually important. What is 'cooling down' defined by? A cool down is a period of time for example, at the end of a workout session,  when you gradually decrease the physical activity of your body to almost resting. It usually consists aerobic moves, together with stretches.


It is important for several reasons, one of them is that it will help remove the metabolic waste your body might have acquired during the workout.


There are many more reasons though, for example if you feel faint after exercising - you do not cool down properly, or at all. Why would you feel faint? During physical activity, say, a workout, blood is pumped around your body by your heart. It circulates. The blood comes in to the heart, gets pumped out, and returns, repeat. During exercise blood is assisted in returning to the heart by muscle contractions and several other factors. If you suddenly stop all physical activity - your heart will continue to pump the blood around your body, but nothing will assist the blood in returning. And that is the reason why you feel faint.


If you properly cool down, that is, gradually decrease physical activity to almost none you heart will slow down with the slow decrease in the intensity, preventing you feeling faint.

You don't have to do stretches or aerobic movies to cool down, if you're jogging, you can begin decreasing the speed and intensity into walking, and from walking into slowly stopping for at least half a minute. Stretching after a work out though, is recommended.


The length of a cool down varies from person and exercise. If the exercise was strenuous - obviously your heart has been working intensively and will need a longer gradual cool down. If you are out of shape, or just a beginner you might also have to take it easy, as your body and heart might not have adapted to this kind of stress yet. Along with warming up, cooling down, as you see, is important!

Drink a lot of water, do not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes and you'll be much happier!

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Daily tip #25| Warming up

Warming up before exercising is essential, no matter the complexity of the exercise. Everybody knows you need to warm up, but not everyone does it long enough to actually properly warm up, so let me teach you how to.



Then again, lets see what warming up is defined by. Warming up basically raising your body temperature. Why would you want to do that? Increasing your body temperature allows your muscles to flex and stretch more, obviously, since cold muscles don't like to move freely. Your tendons, ligaments and cartilage also increase in flexibility, leading to a lesser risk of injuries, strains and tears.


The warm up movements also help activate the fluids in your joints, reducing their friction and wear. Which is obviously great as you get older! After warming up your heart can properly adjust to the tempo and regulate blood easier. Sudden exercise can lead to many injuries and a heart attack.


A good enough warm up should get your heart pumping and a little bit of sweat. A basic warm up would be walking slightly faster than average for 10 minutes before jogging. Your heart will be ready to accept the need for blood and nourishments of your muscles.

Warming up reduces pre-mature fatigue, maybe you haven't been warming up properly and you're a better runner than you think? It also enables you to get the most benefits out of a workout.


The lenght of the warm up should be dictated by the intensity of the following exercise. As I said, average jogging should be prepared for with 10 minutes of walking slightly faster than average. Don't have the time to warm up? Get ready for severe injuries and a heart attack. Cold muscles do not want to stretch and work.

If you're interested in my warm up - it would take quite a while to write it all down. But it takes just around 15 minutes, consisting many different ways to warm up, like Jumping Jacks, Scorpions, Trunk Twists, Clap push-ups, Lat pulldowns and so on and on. I do 18 different exercises to warm up, so as you can see it can get quite complex. There are also ways to fix your muscle anatomy with warming up in specific ways before a workout.


Always make sure to properly warm up before exercise, as it can increase your results, help the recovery be more bearable ( keep in mind pain is not the only indicator of a good workout ) and prevent injury.


If you have no idea how to start running, here's a basic week:

Drink a lot of water, do not underestimate sleeping properly, stop making common mistakes and you'll be much happier!

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Daily tip #21| Push-ups.

Push ups along with pull ups are one of the main strenght developing exercises, they're so simple, yet effective. I'll explain what to do, and what not to.





Push-ups! Push-ups are great for your chest and shoulders. I think it's one of the most hated exercises, though, second is pull-ups and third is sit-ups.
     If you can't do a single push-up, don't worry, there are many variations to help you build up your strenght up for a pushup, and more. You can use a bench, or the side of your bed to do push-ups you can also use a chair, or the side of your bath, if all fails, or you're too lazy to go somewhere (that'll be fixed soon) do them on your knees. Your hands should be at chest level, shoulder-width (palms at your shoulders, but chest level) and your head should be tucked into your neck and level with your butt. If I were to take a photo and draw a line through your body, your body should be as straight as the line.
 


    Now, it is very important to activate and let your core (abs area) work. It'll help you, and make your core overall stronger. This exercise trains the triceps, shoulders, chest, traps, upper abs (not only completely) and it can also train wrists and fingers.

When doing push ups, it's important to keep your form as described above, and it's also important to not do them on your palms. Yes, that's right. Not on your palms. You should use your knuckles (fists) instead of your palms. Doing push ups on your palms will put a lot of your bodyweight onto your wrists in a not very well good manner. If you were to do push ups once a month, that wouldn't be a problem, but since you're going to start doing them often (throughout the day) you must use your knuckles. Using your fists on the ground might hurt the first few times, but bear through it, or go do push ups on the carpet. While using fists, you'll also be able to go down a little farther, meaning you'll have to hold yourself up from plopping to the floor harder than with normal push ups, which is great for getting a little bit more out of push ups.


 Do negative push ups too. What you do is, you go/lay under a bar holding yourself with your arms extended, and pull your chest up until it touches the bar, basically, a push up, only it's backwards and you're pulling yourself up. This one is important to do, if you are only going to do push-ups without these, you are not going to develop as much pushing power as you would of otherwise, and you're going to start having trouble with your rotatory blades. You should be able to do the same number of these as you do of push-ups.


There are many variations of push ups, too many to write them all here, but the basic one is plenty, unless you want to train your shoulders more, or your triceps.

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Daily tip #19| Abs

Let me ask you something.. Do you hate sit ups? I hate sit ups. And there is a very solid reason for it..


Before that, how many times have you seen the commercial where ripped models are using the product X and 'working out on it'? Many, I bet. Maybe you've bought one of those things too, and now it's just collecting dust. Never fall for those commercials, NONE of the things there work. Some of the commercials claim the product will get you abs only with 7 minutes of exercise per day!


... Now that is just outrageous. You can't get abs with a cheap plastic toy which bends and does nothing else, you get abs with 101% dedication, 90% work 120% rest and 200% nutrition. That's how you get abs, and that is how you get ripped, don't spend your money thinking 'maybe this one will work'. It will not, it never will. You can go to the gym, destroy yourself in there for two hours a day, three days a week and you're not going to achieve ANYTHING if you come home and eat pizza.


If you are buying these products, and believe me, A LOT of people are falling for these, you probably don't know how to work out your abs. The only exercise you might think of to get abs is sit ups, right? Well..



Sit ups.. They don't work. Sit ups are useless, and they can mess up your back. Do NOT do them. Ever. They're a complete waste of time. Your abs are not going to get the workout they need, it might seem like it's helping in the beginning, but you could've actually gone way further if you were doing something else, and you're probably going to start having problems with your back soon.

There is something, far greater than sit ups..


 And that something is crunches. Crunches are just plain wonderful. You lay down flat on your back, legs bent, hands behind your head lightly supporting your neck, looking up to the ceiling, you move your face towards the ceiling together with your shoulders. Do not begin doing a sit up, this is not a sit up, this is a crunch, concentrate on contracting your abs and as far as possible, as soon as you're at the most you can move your shoulders forward, HOLD. Hold that position for atleast two seconds, then slowly lower your shoulders down. Repeat. So what if you can do 20 sit ups, try 20 of properly done these, you'll see the HUGE difference. So, you work your way up to 20 of properly done these, now, take a big book, or a brick, or just something heavy you can fit, and hold it under your head while doing the crunches. This'll be like exercising with crunches all over again.


Form is KEY in this exercise. Do not concentrate on how many you do, concentrate on your abs, and the perfect form. If you don't, you'll end up working out your neck, or your hips. If you want to do that though, feel free, but it's not going to make your abs stronger.  Remember to move your shoulders straight up, no arms flailing around, no moving your head around. Try to lessen the tension in your neck, you have to learn to support it right, try different ways, just do not hurt yourself.



Why you would want to do this? This will strenghten your abs, and strong abs stabilize your lower back and protect you. They also look great!



Do not forget, nutrition is key to achieving abs. You can have rock hard abs, but nobody will be able to see them! Make sure to not make common mistakes, and sleep right!


Cheating a day is better than quitting.

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Daily tip #18| Do you really need a gym?

I see a lot of people using the excuse 'I don't have a gym near/ can't afford a membership' for not working out. This is just plain lazyness, I thought everyone knew you didn't need to have a gym to get ripped, in fact, I don't suggest going to a gym until you've been exercise for atleast a year an a half on your own.


So, maybe you really don't need to go to a gym? Can you do handstand push-ups? Okay, can you do one-handed push ups? Only a few right? What about handstand clap-push-ups? Then why are you not working on those, and instead using weights for money, when you have the necessary weight for free!?

I'll cover a few basic exercises which people underestimate.

If you can do 50 squats and lunges, do you think you've mastered it? You're still far from that. Let me give you some variations you could try.. Sumo squat, one leg squat, front lunge, back lunge, plyometric lunge, walking lunge, jump squat, and there's more. Let's say you can do 50 of those. What about in a row? What about with a 40 lbs backpack? I bet you'd only do 10. Work on it!

So you've got your legs workout sorted, now, the upper body.. Pull ups. This is solely the best exercise for developing core, and upper body strenght. Can only do 4? Don't do 4, do three sets of 2 ( split your max into half ) with a maximum rest of 1 minute. Do this six days a week. If you can't even do 2, hold onto the bar, quickly jump up and hold yourself at the top, VERY slowly lowering yourself down until your arms are extended (8-12 seconds) you'll feel what's it like to workout, so why spend money on weights? You could also do a pyramid set of pull ups. The way you do it is: 1p - 30 seconds - 2p - 30 seconds - 3p - 40 seconds - 4p - 50 seconds -... And on, and on, and on, until you can't do anymore (p = pull up). And yes, you have to do the pull ups all over again, on the first set you do one, rest, on the second you do two, rest, on the third you do three, rest.. What if.. You're feeling confident with your pull-ups. Get your school bag/backpack and pack all your books in it, or maybe fit as many 2 litre bottles filled with water as you can, you could also use bricks if you're not worried about getting the backpack a little dusty. It'll be pull-ups all over again.. Even a little weight added onto you can greatly decrease your max. Work on until you get back up to 10-12, then add more weight. You see what I'm doing? You'll build loads of strenght.



If you can do more than 8 reps of something, you're not developing strenght anymore, you're developing your endurance. Anything up until 8 will develop strenght. I do not recommend going too heavy with additional weights though (nothing to knock you back down under 4 reps).


You can combine all of these into one day. If you don't have time, or want to go further faster, you should do them through-out the day. For example, going through a hallway and you see a pipe? Knock out 10 pull ups ( you don't have to do your max everytime ) just make sure you're building the number of pull ups/push-ups/crunches you did throughout the day. Sitting on the computer? Randomly run out of the room and do a few sets. This'll help you build up strenght and endurance faster. You'll feel way better through out the day too, don't believe so?

I need some suggestions about my style of writing, I'm not sure if I'm laying out my experience and thoughts in a short enough manner, what do you think about the quality?

So there you go, after reading this, do you really need a gym? With proper nutrition and adding weight to these exercises, you can go very far and get ripped, basically spending no money on a gym. I suggest you only start going to a gym after you've been doing these for ATLEAST a year.

Always remember - it's better to cheat a day or two off than quit.

And as always (from now on)!

Drink atleast 3litres of water, sleep properly, and don't make common mistakes. Happy exercising for free!

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Daily tip #12| Common mistakes

I see A LOT of common mistakes people are making when 'dieting', and it's not something insignificant. If you think it's insignificant, it probably isnt. Let me help you by pointing out some of these..


Beverages: These are something that's taken for granted, you can get a lot of liquid calories. It has no nutritional, even if you drink 2000 calories, you'll still feel hungry, and then over-eat. You should always take note of what you are drinking, as this can be pretty big. Just say no sweetened soda and other drinks like latte, frappe, frozen coffee, smoothies or sweetened tea. Juice doesn't seem like a big deal, but eating the whole fruit would be far more benefitial, it would be more filling, it would have more fibers and few calories.



Skipping meals: Sounds logical, right? You want to lose weight, so you eat less calories = skipping some meals. That's a big NO. By skipping meals you're doing way more harm than good to yourself. Breakfast is the most skipped meal of the day, and it can be the most important one in your diet. Do not skip breakfast. If you're always running out of time, go to sleep earlier, you need more sleep anyways.



Giving into friends: You go to a restaurant, or come over at a friends house.. And there it is, a big bucket of ice cream, or pleasantly smelling hot pizza, your friend starts eating, looking at you weirdly as to why you're not taking a piece, you then-- WAKE UP! You have your own head on your body, you have to think for yourself, if anyone is insisting on you eating something, you have to nicely apologise and say you can't. You shouldn't lie saying you don't like that flavour, because you'd be tricking yourself too, you need to stay strong.



Forgetting your meal schedule: I see people forgetting when they have to eat all the time, if you do too, you should set an alarm to go off every two and a half hours, every day. This will not only remind you, it will also help you remember it better on your own since you'll be looking at the exact times every time it goes off. The good thing is this can be done on almost any phone.



Not drinking enough water: I can't stress how important water is, see this.



Weighting yourself too often: People are getting more and more obsessed about the scale, media doesn't really help with this fact. The thing about weighing yourself is that your weight changes constantly, in the morning you'll be one way, in the evening you might be shocked, how could you have lost/gained so much in one day?! Only to be let down the next morning.. What you have to do is weigh yourself daily, taking notes of your weight, then taking the average at the end of the week. You'll know your exact weight then.



Forgetting this is a lifestyle: If you think dieting is just a two-week thing which you have to last through, and then you're done - you're just plain wrong, it can be, but you're going to go back to the same weight you were before the diet, possibly even more since now you're 'allowed' to eat anything you want. What you have to realise is this can be a lifestyle, you can be healthy, fit, strong and flexible your whole life, you just have to make it you, and let it make you.

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Daily tip #11| Exercise does make you happy

Do you ever feel like you've acomplished something, and become more happy after workouts? Well, you're kind of forced to. Some even describe the post-workout feeling as euphoric.When you workout, you improve, get more fit and flexibe, those are not the only reasons why you're happy. A study from the American College of Sports Medicine has shown that just a basic 30 minute exercise session can really boost your mood and tackle depression seriously. This does sound familiar, doesn't it? If low or medium intensity exercise is all that’s needed to give yourself a boost, imagine what you can get out of intense exercise..

Now, there's sience behind this, there's three things that make this happen:

Serotonin: It is a neurotransmitter which makes us emotionally stable. Levels of serotonin rise high during exercise, meaning it boosts your confidence and makes you happier. Serotonin produces out of an tryptophan, which is found in bananas, cottage cheese (more reasons to love cheese),chicken, and baked potatoes. Serotonin is also responsible for your sleep and awake cycles, mood, libido and appetite. It is directly linked to feelings of depression and sadness.



Dopamine: Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which makes us feel energised, motivated and upbeat. High levels of protein containing foods such as meat, milk, fish and beans help produce dopamine. Dopamine is factor in developing and strenghtening coordination and  muscle memory. Dopamine makes the brain associate happiness with exercise, your brain will then remember the feeling and will be encouraging your body to do exercise, in order to get more.


Phenylethylamine: An naturally occuring neurotransmitter found in the brain, it works as an mood enhancing stimulant, also aiding in the production of dopamine.



Endorphins: They bind to opioid receptors in your brains neurons, altering the number of neurotransmitters which are discharged. It reduces your central-nervous-systems' ability to receive electrical impulses of your nerves which mean pain, this means your body declines the feelings of discomfort, sadness and pain while working out.



So now you know, exercise is truly the key to happiness, not only will you look great - you'll feel better.

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Daily tip #9| Jump rope

I've been getting the idea that people prefer indoor cardio workouts. I don't exactly know why, maybe because they don't know their city well, or they don't feel comfortable going through the city (in this case you should bring someone along with you, you'll help them and they'll help you!).

Since this seems to be getting more and more common ( I hope you don't forget to open your windows after the workout ) I suppose I could share my experience with indoor cardio..

Jump rope, just like swimming, is definitely one of the best activities to target almost every muscle in your body, especially stability/core muscles (Your abs). How is that? Well when you jump, the core (your abs) are used to stabilize yourself to not fall while landing. The legs (calves in this case) are used to help you jump. Your upper body and arms are used to hold and move the rope, your arms don't get much workout out of this though, if you're doing jump rope right, you'll be using your wrist more. However, you can buy a heavier rope, which will then help you use your arm muscles more.

Yes, this is exactly why Rocky and other boxers perform this activity religiously. Another benefit of doing jump rope, is that it will likely expose your weakest muscles. However, this is not a beginner activity (unless you're really good at jump rope to begin with). You should start with jogging and/or swimming and gradually learn to jump rope better, until you can get 30-40 minutes of good rope jumping, then you can use it as proper cardio. Many people get discouraged before reaching that level, but if you stick to it, it'll be worth it. Jump roping is also hard on the joints, although not as hard as running. Lastly the seriously obese can hurt their backs and legs joints due to the excess weight in the mid section causing excess momentum and jarring. If you're seriously obese you are likely to hurt your back and leg joints due to the weight in the middle of your body, which will then cause excess momentum.

Interesting? So, here's what you need to get started:

You need an area which has high enough ceilings.
Stable flat floor,
A good pair of shoes (check daily tip #2)
And, a jump rope (make sure you have this one.)


Now, for those who are planning to do it in your garage or basement which has cement floor, you need to make sure that you have shoes which absorb much of the impact. If neither your floor or shoes are absorbing the impact, your joints are. It's obvious that it isn't the best idea to let your joints absorb the whole impact, it will also tire you out very quickly. Don't worry though, you can use your mind and create a platform.

For example, you could use a piece of some wooden board ( I used 122 cm on 122 ). You then place it between the floor and several collapsed carboard boxes, which will likely give you (depending on your boxes) about 2 or 3 centimetres between the floor and your wood board. I suggest not trying to jump rope on the carpet, it will make the rope drag and will be very hard, you don't want to damage your carpet either. If you don't have wood, you can try placing a piece of linoleum (I'm sure it's at your local DIY store) on the carpet. The carpet will be a nice cushion, and you can stash the linoleum away.


About the rope. If you are a beginner, you should avoid ropes called 'speed rope', or 'weighted rope', these will require you already knowing the technique, which you probably don't know.

We have the parts, now lets get to the jumping part!

If you're new, what's likely to happen when you try jump roping for the first or second time? The rope hits the ground, or you trip, now why is that? The most likely reason people trip or hit is because the rope might not be of proper lenght. Either it's way too long or short. But how do you measure how much lenght do you need? You definitely do not eye it.


- Set the rope on the ground.
- Stand on the midpoint of the rope with both feet ( make sure you're standing in the middle, the distance should be equal to both handles)
- Grab the handles and pull them up to your chest while still standing on the middle point.

If the top of the handles reach above your shoulders the rope is too long, and If the top of the handles only reaches your upper abs or lower, the rope is too short. The handles should reach your armpits. Now, if you're a beginner you should start with a slightly longer lenght, then gradually shorten it to the proper lenght.

You've set the rope, now jump! Your arms should very barely move when you jump. The movement of the rope should be done with your wrists. If you want to increase the speed, you should increase the tightness of the circles that your wrist is making ( that's the only way I can explain it, you get what I'm saying.) Also keep your elbows tucked into your side. The whole jump should be coming from your feet and calves pushing from the ball of your foot and definitely not from the knees and upper legs. If you find it hard to get the idea, stand straight and make yourself taller by raising yourself to the ball of your feet, you understand now? Good. Do the same but harder, to actually make you hop, do not bend your knees.



 You should keep repeating this until you can get about, lets say 10 cm off the ground. While doing this you should imagine you have a rope, and mimick the movement of it with your wrists. The actual trick to going over without falling is to get the rope to skip under the distance between your feet and the floor while you're in mid air.



 For the first few weeks (Yep, weeks) you should target no more than 1-3 minutes of flawless jumps (not stopping or hitting your feet) so that you do not get too frustrated (believe me, you can, and I don't want you to quit.). Do not try double hopping. Practice and patience (nutrition too) will strenghten your core, making you better. And as I mentioned, you should lenghten the rope more if you trip or hit often, gradually shortening it.


We got the technique, the place, and the learning curve down, now what's a routine? One of my prefered ones is 5 minutes of clean jumps, then for ~45 seconds. That's not it! I repeat until I get 40 minutes. Why walk? It will reduce the stiffness in your calves, and 40 seconds won't alter your heart rate much.


I think I've covered the basics and helped you, I'm sorry about the lenght. I'm not good enough to explain more simply, I hope you sticked through this post and read it all. I hope you'll use it too, I highly recommend this exercise, which can also be done outdoors, actually combined with jogging!


I thank you for your read and hope you leave a comment with your experience, as it's always interesting for everyone to read.

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