Which jump rope is best for weight loss?

Contrary to popular belief, the jump rope you choose is not the contributing factor which will determine how successfully you can or will lose weight when implementing jump rope workouts. 

Jump rope is commonly promoted as a ‘full-body workout’ that targets all your body's muscles. However, sadly, this is not true. Jump rope is not a full-body workout. If you look at the biomechanics of how a person jumps rope, it’s clear that jump rope is predominantly a lower-body workout which targets both the anterior and posterior chain musculature.

The primary action in jump rope is bounding. This is where the person explosively jumps up and down on the balls of their feet without letting their heels touch the ground in between reps. The muscles which create the energy to jump are the calves and soleus, the quadriceps and the glutes. These muscles work together to achieve full extension of the knees and ankle to create the jump. Upon landing, these same muscles work in a resisting fashion (known as eccentric) to absorb the impact of the landing. Your tibialis anterior and your hamstrings help to stabilise the landing.

Despite the relatively small range of motion, the leg muscles are taken through during bounding, the high intensity which comes from such a repetitive explosive movement pattern can lead eventually to hypertrophy - the growth of muscle fibre. So if you’d like to grow your glutes, calves or thighs then jump rope is a fantastic way to supplement any resistance training you may already be doing.

With all this in mind, will the rope you use impact weight loss? Not really.  Jump rope is known for being an excellent way to burn a lot more calories per hour than other forms of cardiovascular exercise.

Fat loss only occurs when a calorie deficit is achieved over a sustained period of time. Jumping rope will help you achieve a calorie deficit due to how efficiently it can burn calories. But without a consistent and sustainable caloric deficit, no amount of jump rope will magically melt fat. 

As the saying goes, you can’t out-train a bad diet.

All in all, the best jump rope for weight loss is the rope you find most comfortable to use, which enables you to stick to a consistent workout regime such that you’re able to maintain a calorie deficit over an extended period of time.