Fast and Furious Fitness

All,

Rope skipping is something I haven’t written about much. I’m not sure why I’ve been ignoring this simple tool (that can get you fit at the highest levels) for a while now, but, I recently started adding it back into my routine, and boy am I seeing results. I’ll attempt to explain some of the benefits of rope skipping in this post; look for future posts on this as well.

We all know (or at least, those that read this blog regularly ;)) what a wrestler’s workout routine primarily consists off, and how the exercises therein can benefit you (and make no mistake, they will benefit you if done correctly), but what about a boxer’s routine? A typical boxer’s routine consists of roadwork (running), sparring practice, practice on the bag, medicine ball etc - most of which is required for the boxer’s “trade”, but skipping rope and pushups are a staple in any boxer’s training. As for results, well, look at any boxer’s phyisque, and you’ll see for yourself. Boxers may not always be as solidly built overall as wrestlers, but when it comes to pure strength, speed, and stamina, they’re certainly no laggards there either. In fact, I’m yet to see an overweight boxer, or one whose core is not conditioned superbly. And a lot of that conditioning comes through one exercises (along with it’s variants): Rope skipping.

Sure, boxers train for hours on end, but the basic exercises they do are the same as YOU can do. And the good thing is, you don’t have to train for hours to get some of the same results they do. Sure, you may not look like a heavyweight boxer by just skipping, but the benefits of this exercise willl ensure overall gain in almost any activity/exercise you pursue.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the main benefits of skipping rope: -

- Solid cardiovascular strength/endurance workout (in one exercise), and major benefits for the heart/lungs in less than 1/2 the time it would take you by doing other forms of “cardio”.
- Perfect way to tone and build muscle in your legs, calves and butt (as well as your entire core). This is different from doing squats, which build strength and bulk in the legs, but don’t “shape” the legs quite as well as jumping does. To explain things better, let me give you an example from my own training: I haven’t been doing any squats for over TWO months now (thats right, over two months); but have been skipping regularly (I average around 500 skips per day), and my thigh measurement has gone up by a couple of inches. However, the “bulk” around my thighs is not so prominent any longer; instead, the muscles have become even leaner and “tighter”, if that makes sense. So if shapely and strong is what your looking for, this is the perfect exercise for you!
- A pretty decent forearm workout (especially if you use weighted ropes; I’ll get into this in the future).
- Can be a warmup, or an entire workout, depending on what you do, and the intensity.

. . . And much, much, more, but that should be enough for starters.

So, as you can see, skipping rope is another perfect example of a “fast and furious” routine that will get you in the best shape of your life. Like anything else you do need to work into slowly (don’t even attempt 500 skips at one go, or even one entire workout if you’ve never skipped before), but once you do get into the exercise, you’ll be wondering why you hadn’t been incorporating it into your routine before.

Well, that should be it for today. I’ll be writing about my own workouts with the rope shortly. In the meanwhile, stay safe, train hard - and as always - get fit - FAST!

Rahul

Yup, I know I’ve been remiss in updating this blog - once again. To be honest, this has been in my mind for a while, but unfortunately, and as was the case a while back, I just haven’t had time to post as regularly as I should be. We’ve been dealing with a host of issues here - mutiple moves between apartments (I think I’ve moved a total of three times in six months); starting a business, taking a break from that and doing other things, then getting back to it and finding out it wasn’t all it’s touted to be, and of course the big dark cloud of “recession” which, while not sinking any lower, doesn’t seem to be departing from the horizon anytime soon. Ah, the fun of it all. . .

So for those loyal readers who’ve stuck by me, and kept faith (you know who you are!), a huge THANK YOU. I promise to update more regularly now, and also add in more features to the site as I have said I would be doing.

With that out of the way, on to exercise. Yeah, I might not have updated this thing in months, but I’ve been working out regularly for sure. I’ve modified my fast and furious routine a bit though - those that have been following this blog will know that my workout routine (as I wrote about here) was pretty much modeled on a wrestler’s routine, only in lesser time. Well, thats’s great, but I’ve added in a new dimension to this, and am doing some new things - which are all working wonderfully well for me. Something that I’ve really been getting into these days is doing workouts like boxers do - primarily rope skipping and pushups (look for posts on rope skipping in future - thats something EVERY serious traineed should be doing), combined with some other exercises and yoga.

(Yeah, yoga doesn’t fit into the “fast and furious” mould, but it sure does stretch the muscles well and improve one’s flexibility beyond belief when done right - look for more posts on that in the future as well!!)

Anyway, that’s enough for now - it’ll be back to exercise now in all future posts. For all of you out there, have a very merry Christmas, be safe - and be sure to ring in the New Year on an optimistic note!

On to 2010,

Rahul