I've Been Punked!

I finally tried Punk Rope, a power jump roping class my co-worker is obsessed with! Wow, what an experience. I can’t remember if I was a good jump roper in elementary school, but I’m not now! Punk Rope is available in many gyms, studios and YMCA’s.

I wore my camouflage shirt to be in the badass mindset, but it turned out that our instructor was a very sweet woman-nothing drill-sergeant about her-and the class was all girls!

Punk rope is a class where you alternate a song of jump roping, with a song of group activities: relay races and squats and mini-handball and other games, kind of like gym-class.

Each jump roping interval incorporated a different skill, such as crossing, double jumping, lounge jumps, side to side, etc. There is a learning curve here, and although the instructor explained techniques very well, I could do a lot of the moves. However, she did provide the option of swinging the rope to the side to get your rhythm.

By the end of the class I had managed to master the basic jump and a few simple moves, and boy does jumping with the rope get your heart rate up! I was winded in like 30 seconds. Jumping rope burn move than 100 calories in 10 minutes, but you never have to jump hard for more than 90 seconds, before slowing down and speeding up again.

For a good jump roper, this workout could easily be an9 out of 10. For a beginner, it was maybe more of a 6 or 7 (because you have to stop when you mess up).

I liked the class, but as it would take me a long time to master the art of jumping, I think I will duck out feeling kind of punked.