Drylands

From middle school through high school I swam every day except Sundays. Two or three times a week after practice we would have additional "drylands" workouts. To a swimmer, this means any physical thing that isn't swimming. 

I like to call my non-running workouts drylands workouts as well. Usually I don't like drylands. I'm not a fan of gyms or weight rooms, cardio stuff is my weakness right now, my arms have always been shrimpy, and who likes planks (not me).

I didn't work this morning, and I didn't feel like running hills, but I really need to whip my cardio into shape. Here's what I did:

1:00 jump rope

15 wall pushups

20 lunges

(repeat all 5x)

This, plus a little stretching, took less than 30 minutes. 

Now, I've seen fancy weighted jump ropes, all different types of cords, wooden handles, foam handles, molded grip handles. I've tried lots of them because I was curious. Is my lack of appearing to jump rope like Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby simply because I had the wrong jump rope?

Deff don't look like that when I skip rope

That question was rhetorical. Obviously it comes down to getting in shape regardless of the tools you have at your disposal. I just happen to have a jump rope that I got from a free event that is the best jump rope I have ever used. 

My high-tech jump rope

The handles are slim and plastic. The cord is a translucent hardish plastic that really stings if you hit yourself with it (ahem). And the handles rotate around the cord without making it all twisted up when you're jumping (that's the most important quality for a jump rope to possess IMO). 

Jump roping kicked my butt today, cardio-wise. I think I have a good amount of muscle because I have to climb a mountain just to get to the metro station, but my cardio and active recovery is pitiful. Here's my resolution to add this into my workouts three times a week!

Do you use jump ropes? Do you like the rope you have?