Equipment and Gear / Fitness / Home Gym / Mixed Martial Arts / Muay Thai / Strength and Conditioning
3 Cardio Building Skipping Workouts
Skipping is a key exercise for building cardiovascular strength in martial arts, Boxers use it, Grapplers use it, fighters of all kinds, shapes and sizes use skipping. But skipping isn’t just limited to fighters and martial artists, anyone can skip and they should!! Skipping is a phenomenal plyometric workout, it builds the ability to generate force throughout your body, especially from your feet and legs and will give you the ability to run faster, jump higher and hit harder.
On top of all that, a skipping rope is probably one of the cheapest pieces of exercise equipment you can buy and probably one of the most effective. Skipping workouts are often less time consuming than other cardio workouts as their plyometric nature tires you out quickly so its common to finish a skipping workout within 10 – 20 minutes.
With that in mind here are 3 of my favourite skipping workouts that I use to get a sweat on and work on my cardio
Skipping Ladder Workout
This workout is probably my go to skipping workout, ill normally do this at the start of the day to get my blood flowing and off on a good note, that way if I don’t get another workout in or don’t have one scheduled for the day I know ill have done at least one piece of exercise. I’ll also tack this one on the end of my weight training workouts if I have time.
This workout is very simple, you just set a timer for 5 minutes, skip for the 5 minutes, rest for 30 seconds to a minute and then set a timer for 4 minutes and skip again, going down the ‘ladder’ in a descending order until you reach 1, finishing after you’ve completed that minute of skipping, adding up to a total of 15 minutes, very simple and very effective, which is why i like it so much.
Its also very versatile, if you need to get more out of your workout you can add ‘extra rungs’ on the ladder, for instance starting at 6 minutes instead of 5 or you can add some bodyweight movements in the rest periods, to really ramp up the intensity.
HIIT Skipping Workout
This workout is normally a bit shorter, around 10 minutes is the goal, there is no rest period for this one, its quick and nasty, exactly what you need if your short on time.
For this workout all you need to do is skip for 1 minute intervals and then do some sort of bodyweight exercise for 1 minute, alternate between skipping and bodyweight exercise every round, I normally use burpees for the bodyweight exercise, but you can use whatever bodyweight exercise you want. The workout should look like 1 minute skipping, 1 minute burpees, 1 minute skipping etc.
I normally tack this workout onto the end of a session as finishing cardio, as it can be done relatively quickly, getting me out of the gym quicker and onto the rest of my day.
Skipping for Rounds Workout
This workout is a tried and true one, used by people all over the world, its also the simplest workout on the list, you set your timer to the length of one Boxing round, or 3 minutes, you skip until the timer is done, rest for 30 secs to a minute and then you go again, you do this for as long as you need, this is normally done as a warm up for Boxers, especially amateur Boxers, who do this for 3 rounds, the same length of time as an amateur Boxing bout, this really gets the blood pumping.
However you can turn this from a warmup into a full cardio workout if you wish, by imitating what professional boxers do, by skipping for 10 to 12 rounds instead, this is a serious workout, but will boost your cardio massively by performing this a couple of times a week.
The simplicity of this workout is what makes it great, almost similar to running, you just have to get up, set the timer and go, which is great for building mental toughness and grit, because speaking from experience this one gets tough to get through.
To Conclude
These are just three simple skipping workouts I use to help keep me fit, simplicity is key, I want to get the most out of my time skipping and these three are how I do that, no frills or fancy tricks, just get out and amongst it so I can reach my goals and achieve what I want to, I hope these workouts help you achieve too! Remember to train hard and stay civilized and I’ll see you again next time.
