For his most recent one month physical challenge, Cam Jones (one half of YouTube’s Goal Guys) followed his brother Brendan’s example and set out to jump rope every single day for 30 days.
After acquiring a simple speed rope and a 1-pound weighted rope, Cam assigns himself a target of doing 30 minutes each day. But he lasts just a single minute skipping with the 1-pound rope on the first day before he has to stop, and so decides to adapt his strategy, starting out using just a speed rope in order to get closer to his goal of 30 full minutes.
“Even with the speed rope, I can still only go for 3 minutes straight before I’m exhausted,” he says. “So with lots of breaks, I make my way through my first 30-minute workout.” However, the further Jones gets into the workout, the slower his skipping becomes, and the longer his breaks get between rounds. “This is kicking my ass,” he says. “It really feels like this is the longest 30 minutes of my life.”
This only gets worse as he forges ahead through his first week of the challenge: the fatigue and soreness increase, and he begins to wonder if he’ll ever improve. Not to mention he keeps accidentally hitting himself with the rope. “This skipping rope is out to kill!”
Cam seeks the guidance of Dan Witmer, one of YouTube’s Jump Rope Dudes, on how he can enhance his technique, in the hope that it will lead to an improvement in his performance in the workouts. “Your heels should never touch the ground,” says Witmer. “Your knees should be slightly bent. You want to keep your elbows in at the side when you’re jumping. Your shoulders should be back.” He adds that keeping your head up and eyes forward can be crucial in ensuring good alignment and form.
Following this advice, Cam begins to show progress, and by the end of the month-long challenge, he finds he has lost nearly 3 pounds, and his body fat percentage has dropped by 0.3 percent.
“The more I practice, the more I start to enjoy my workouts, and I’m really able to push myself,” he says. “I’ve seen improvements in my foot speed, in my coordination, in my cardio, I feel stronger… Most of all, I’m excited to have discovered a new form of exercise that I really love.”
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