jumping jacks

If you increase the intensity of your jumping jacks workout, youll burn more calories. For example, a person weighing 150 pounds will burn about 274 calories in a 30 minute bout of jumping jacks when theyre done at a vigorous intensity. This means theyll burn about 9.1 calories per minute. A 200 pound person will burn about 366 calories in 30 minutes when jumping at a vigorous intensity. This equates to 12.2 calories per minute.

You could do a complete cardio workout of jumping jacks. However, performing jumping jacks for long periods can be monotonous and difficult to maintain. In addition, landing from the jumps can place stress on your musculoskeletal system. However, jumping jacks work great when incorporated in a circuit workout that consists of multiple types of exercises. For example, you could do a circuit that features 60 seconds each of jumping jacks, squats, pushups, sprints and crunches, and then go through the circuit five times for a 25 minute workout.

The calories that you burn with jumping jacks can help you lower your body fat percentage. Weight loss happens when you consume fewer calories than you burn. Therefore, regular bouts of cardio exercise, such as jumping jacks, are beneficial because they significantly increase the number of calories that you burn during the day. If youre trying to lose fat, the longer and faster you perform jumping jacks, the more effective your workouts will be.

Jumping rope requires quick reflexes, good timing and coordination. It develops all of these skills, which can help you improve athletically. Jumping rope is also an effective aerobic activity that burns up to 744 calories in a 155 pound person after 60 minutes. The exercise engages your entire body but targets the calves and core muscles especially. Jumping rope also works the forearm and shoulders intensely as well since these are the muscles used to hold and turn the rope. The quads are involved as well since your knees work as shock absorbers for each jump. Your aim when jumping rope should be to create a steady, uninterrupted rhythm of jumping for several minutes at a time. If you increase the pace of your jumps, adapt your breathing pattern as well.

Jumping jacks and jumping rope are exercises you can incorporate into aerobic or anaerobic workouts. These activities are ideal for warming up your muscles before engaging in more vigorous physical exercise such as sprinting, swimming, weightlifting or sports. They also are good complementary exercises you can integrate into circuit training workouts. Doing jumping jacks or jumping rope between anaerobic exercises helps to keep your heart rate elevated, which optimizes the circuit training objectives to increase muscle strength and develop cardiovascular endurance. The two exercises are ideal in that they do not require a lot of space to perform or large equipment such as a treadmill or elliptical trainer.

You can develop a personal workout that consists solely of jumping jacks and jumping rope. The movements are simple and can be performed by nearly anyone, which makes them good if you are a fitness beginner. The key to a basic but effective workout is to do the exercises at an intensity level that challenges you. This means you must perform them at a pace and for a certain amount of time that improves your cardiovascular fitness. If youre a beginner, start by jumping rope for two minutes. Then, perform jumping jacks for one minute. Now, jump rope again for two minutes with alternating knee lifts, and follow that with two minutes of jumping jacks. Finish the workout with two minutes of rope jumping, jumping on one leg for five hops, then switching to the other leg for five hops. Finish with one minute of jumping jacks.

The American Heart Association has a chart showing that jumping rope burns 500 calories per hour for a 100 pound person, while a 200 pound individual would burn 1,000 calories per hour. Every time you jump, you are lifting your body weight off the ground. As such, the 200 pound person is lifting twice as much weight.

The American Heart Association chart shows how intensity varies the number of calories burned. A 100 pound individual running at 5 mph burns 440 calories in an hour. Upping the pace to 10 mph increases the calories used in an hour to 850. Twirling the rope faster helps you burn more calories during a workout. However, your ability to keep up the pace depends on your fitness level. A 100 pound person may not be as fit as a 200 pound athlete.

Fitness magazine recommends starting by jumping with both feet 2 to 6 inches off the ground as the rope turns. A rhythm will develop. Once you are comfortable doing single jumps, do double jumps. Increase the height of your jump and the speed of the rope so it passes under your feet twice with each jump. Try alternating your feet by picking up the pace until youre essentially running in place in rhythm with the jump rope.

More calories are burned when the speed or height of jumping rope is increased. Raising the knees higher while running in place requires more effort than minimally raising the feet to skip. Jumping on one foot improves balance and requires more abdominal muscle effort than jumping on two feet. Fitness magazine suggests incorporating figure of eight arm cross movements to use more arm muscles to jump rope.