Warming up with a jump rope is a great way to get the heart pumping and breaking out a sweat. Most boxers do this for the agility, footwork, and speed benefits. It’s also an exercise you can practice at home and for just general fitness. Lets take a look at how you can start doing the boxer step.
Being sure to stay on the balls of your feet and keeping as little lift in your knees as possible. Skip with the rope by lifting your feet about an inch and a half to allow the cord to pass through. Making sure to shift your weight and alternating your feet as you go. Any PVC cord speed rope weighted or not would work best.
As you get more comfortable with the basics, start progressing to double step or side to side boxer steps to improve boxing footwork, stamina and agility.
Increasing your speed will likely come a well as you get better, which can help you focus on coordination and your rhythm as a boxer.
Why The Boxer Step?
Skipping or jump rope on its own is already a solid way to get a cardiovascular workout. Many benefits can be taken from doing the exercise whether you’re a boxer or not.
If boxing is your main focus. Agility, footwork and staying light on your feet is important factors when training or during a match. Skipping rope is an exercise that primarily focus’ on your foot movement, but also engages core activity, leg muscles, and mental aspects such as timing and coordination.
Improving on these techniques translates well for a boxer when they get into a ring and face a live opponent. In order to elevate your boxing skills, simple training exercises such as the boxer step should be included more often than not.
Even as a none boxer, jump rope exercises like the boxer step shouldn’t be overlooked. According to Calories Burned HQ. Jumping rope for 15 minutes can burn up to 300 calories, which can be comparable and even exceed that of going for a jog for the same amount of time.
…jumping rope at 2 jumps a second (120 per min) for 15 minutes will burn almost 300 calories.
www.caloriesburnedhq.com
You can think of it as an added option when you need a warm up or a workout fixer on off days. For me, I’ve always been a fan of exercises that have added benefits to it. For example, boxing as an exercise, I get the fitness aspect as well as learning a fight skill. Killing two birds with one stone.
What Do You Need For the Boxer Step
To start it all off, the obvious equipment is a jump rope. Although not necessary, you may also want to look into investing in a jump rope mat.
They’re almost like a yoga mat, but typically more durable and heavy duty to withstand the work you would be doing. It’s also a good option if you want to preserve the floor you exercise on as well as the jump rope itself.
Getting back to the jump rope. You would want to steer clear of the plastic made products mainly for quality reasons.
Finding a higher quality make, preferably out of aluminum or steal and with a PVC cord are the general standards of fitness enthusiasts. Not only would they last longer they make any setup and tear down of your exercise easier. Most come with tangle free and detachable cords, which makes replacing any damaged parts a breeze.
You can find this relatively inexpensively on amazon or if you’re looking for a longer lasting performer checkout CROSSROPE.
Finding the right mat might is also a good idea. A good thing about them is that they come with a certain level of cushion and durability, making it easy to double for body weight exercises such as yoga or calisthenics. The best quality I have found is over at CROSSROPE as well.
How Long Should The Jump Rope Be
Nothing worse than starting your jump rope exercise to find that the cord you have is either too short or too long.
An easy way to find the perfect length of your jump rope is by stepping on the middle of the cord. Lift the two handles up and at max length they should be around your chest area and under the armpits.
If this is what you have, then when you’re rotating the jump rope with your hands down on your sides. You can be confident that there is enough room to complete your work out with out tripping or getting whacked in the back of your head.
How To Do The Boxer Step
So you now have your equipment and found the proper space for jumping rope. If this is your first time, it’s probably best to not use the rope at all and get your footing down first.
Lets go through a beginner exercise to get you up to speed.
- While on the mat, get on the balls of your feet and begin to step from one foot to the other. It should feel a bit like running on the spot, but with a lot less movement in you legs. In fact, your body as a whole should have very little movement with the main focus on your feet.
- When you have gotten comfortable with this movement. You can now incorporate the jump rope. It’s okay if it takes a couple of tries, but at this point you are looking to practice your rhythm and coordination. Continuing with the previous step and your footwork. As your are alternating between your two feet. At the top height of your feet off the ground is when you want to pass the skipping cord through.
- When you’re able to perform this exercise with good rhythm and technique, it helps elevate any type of workout routine you’re currently doing, and not to mention your boxing footwork. A good thing about it is that you can progress to other challenging styles of the boxer steps to further progress in your exercise.
Conclusion
Although it takes some getting use to, the boxer step is considered a must in any type of boxing training. Jump rope exercise also a popular movement now with fitness enthusiasts around the world. The boxer step or jumping rope in general is a multi beneficial exercise that can be easy and done anywhere you see fit.
Use this type of exercise for cardio, boxing footwork and agility or even to just to take place of a jog when you’re not able to go out. Jumping rope is so versatile and simple and it produces many benefits.
Sources
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLiozP7GVeA&t=275s
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH8hwq_VGxo&t=320s