Skipping rope vs Jump squat, which is better?

There is no clear cut winner here. It would all depend on your fitness goals. 

For instance, if you’re looking to build your cardiovascular endurance, jump ropes have the upper hand.

On the other hand, if building explosive power is your goal, then jump squats can be just the thing.

Let’s compare these two exercises on different parameters.

1. Muscles worked

With a skipping rope, you can target a whole bunch of muscle groups in both your upper and lower body making it a great total-body workout. 

Muscles worked include the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves (lower body) and the shoulders, arms, and core (upper body).

With a jump squat, only your lower body muscles such as the glutes, quads, hips, and hamstrings are recruited.

So in terms of muscles worked, jumping rope is better than doing jump squats.

2. Explosive power

Jump squats are one of the best bodyweight exercises to build explosive power and strength. A lot of athletes in tennis, football, track, etc. practice jump squats to help them move faster and take off quicker. 

As per a 2016 study, it was found that squat jumps helped participants improve various fitness measures such as sprint time, explosive strength, vertical jump, max strength, and range of motion.

Doing double unders with a skipping rope is another terrific way to build up explosive power and boost your vertical jump.

3. Protection from poor form

Jumping rope is a self-limiting exercise. Such exercises use an 'adjust or fail' mechanism- meaning you can’t perform these exercises unless you do them correctly. So in the case of a skipping rope, if you use improper form, you will most likely trip up on your rope and you’ll need to restart your rep, thus protecting you from poor form.

But you can continue doing jump squats even if you’re not using perfect form which could have negative consequences. (Think ankle and knee injuries.)

4. Weight loss

Jumping rope is one of the best ways to shed those extra pounds and get that toned bod you’ve always wanted. Just 30 minutes a day for 5-6 days of the week can do the trick.

Incorporating jump squats into your daily workout routine (which includes cardio and strength training) is a great way to lose weight. As a beginner, try doing 2-3 sets of 3–5 reps of jump squats. As you build more stamina, aim for sets of 12–15 reps.

Please bear in mind that any form of exercise alone isn’t sufficient to lose weight. A healthy and balanced diet is equally important.

5. Calories burned

Depending on the intensity, you can burn around 200-300 calories in 15 minutes of skipping rope.

Check out this physical activity calorie counter to know how many calories you can burn by skipping rope.

30 jump squats-with 30-second breaks between sets of ten-can burn up to 100 calories. 

To know how many calories you can burn while doing jump squats, enter your details here.