Last year, Brandon Epstein showed how a half hour jump rope workout helped him get his six-pack back in the space of just one week. In another Jump Rope Dudes video, Brandon decided to take on the challenge of jumping rope 1,000 times a day for a whole month, to see what kind of impact it would have on his overall fitness.
Using a quarter pound CrossRope, Brandon threw himself into the challenge seven days a week, without taking any days off to rest as he would in his usual training schedule.
On Day 1, it takes Brandon less than nine minutes to do the full 1,000, and his time improves as the days pass. However, halfway through the challenge he actually says he wouldn’t recommend doing this, as he can feel it taking its toll on the body. “Even though it doesn’t take that long to do, I think it’s good to give yourself a rest day every three or four days or so, at least once a week,” he says, noting the importance of giving the muscles and joints in your knees and ankles time to rest when doing a jump rope workout.
Men’s Health
Subscribe to Men’s Health
hearstmags.com
SHOP NOW
Even without a rest day, he’s still alternating the intensity of his workouts, going hard one day to see if he can break his record time, and then slowing the pace the next so that he’s getting a little recovery. By the end of the month, Brandon has hit a new personal best time, completing 1,000 jump ropes in 390 seconds, or six-and-a-half minutes.
As for results, well, there weren’t any noticeable changes. Brandon was already pretty lean at the start of the challenge, and so by the end of the 30 days he hasn’t lost much in the way of body fat—and he’s not particularly surprised.
“You are not gonna lose weight just by skipping rope 1,000 times a day,” he says. “What I found was, on average it only takes six to eight minutes if you’re going at a decent intensity and you’re not breaking at all. Six to eight minutes a day is not quite enough to give you the cardiovascular workout you need to consistently lose weight and create the body that you want.”
However, he does say that there were some benefits to the challenge, calling it a “lesson in consistency. This can help with the psychological element of building habits, and moving exercise “from the conscious mind of ‘ah, I gotta go work out today’ to the subconscious of ‘I just work out because this is what I do and this is who I am.'”
Source: Read Full Article