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This morning my wife bought my daughter and son a couple of jump ropes, the problem was they were really long ones that are to be held by two people.

It is a snowy day today in Calgary and so of course the kids wanted to jump rope so we pushed the table aside in the living room and the kids learned to jump rope. It was tons of fun and of course pretty good exercise.

Did you know that a 160 pound person would burn 760 calories in an hour jumping rope? This is the same exercise output of running 6 miles in an hour. I am not sure how good a shape you would have to be in to do this and the coordination that you would need to jump rope for an hour but jumping rope is the speed secret for boxers and other athletes.

Jumping rope is not only good for your coordiantion but it uses the muscles in your arms, shoulders, legs and glutes and is great also for improving your balance. Another great thing about jumping rope is how easy it is to do. Nowadays with 10 foot ceilings in houses it is easy enough to jump rope indoors all winter.

Try jumping rope and see how exhausting but fun it can be as an alternative exercise for you.