Fitness :: The Jump Rope Journey :: Overcoming the Unmentionables

So yesterday was quite an amazing kickboxing workout. With an instructor named Terrance. I'll talk about the awesomeness of his particular class later but one thing that happened during this class was that he brought out a bunch of jump ropes and had all the students jump. We jumped A LOT. Had I entered this class without any experience with the rope, I probably would have been wiped out the first five minutes and maybe bowed out of the class altogether. But I was so proud. Little ole me ... jumped and jumped and kept up in a big way ... out-jumping some who looked rather tough and scary. :)

I've had so many people ask about the whole jump roping thing. Eventually, I'd like to get some videos prepared to better show you what I've learned but all I can say is that I was trained to just begin. And in the beginning, doing three 30-second sets just about killed me. It was harder than I imagined.

The other thing ... that women have spoken to me about in a low whisper is that when they have started to try and jump, they find that they experience leakage ... due to bladder control issues that they didn't think they had. There. I said it. It's ok. Kind of an unmentionable when around fancy folk but come on ... let's stay real ... we can be honest here, right?

And in all honesty, in the beginning, I experienced the same thing. I thought to myself, "OMG, I'll never be able to jump rope!"

But you know what? I decided to stick with it and try and see if through practice, the issue would subside. So I got myself some cute little skorts ... they look like skirts but they actually have built-in shorts in the skirt, allowing you to complete workouts without any awkwardness in case any unmentionables happen ... especially around fancy folk. :)

The other thing I did was to buy a jump rope of my own. (There are lots of choices out there and I'm not really sure if this is "the best" but it's what I use: the Valeo Deluxe Speed Rope. When you get it, you can adjust the length to your height.) This way, even when I was not at the gym or if I was traveling, I could always have a rope to jump with. (The photo below is of my rope in Colorado ... when I took it with me earlier this year when I taught at The Makerie. I jumped every morning before the day started.)

So with my rope, I jumped and jumped and jumped every single day. And soon, I found that I could do more than 3 30-second sets. I could do 3 3-minute sets and quite a few respectable fancy footwork. Before I knew it, like within 2-3 weeks, the unmentionable did subside and has become a complete non-issue for me now. I just have to believe that this and many other unmentionable issues do subside when we stick with exercise. (I'll talk about that in a future post ... about things like heartburn, colds, and other ailments surprisingly disappear on the road to fitness. And how even Type 2 Diabetes can become reversed through diet and exerciese.)

Today, I ended up ordering a new rope for me because my first rope has officially retired, due to so much wear and tear. You can kind of tell in this photo but the part that hits the floor has become so thin that I know it will break if I use it any more and I sort of don't want it to. It was my first rope. I want to keep it in tact.

The other thing I've learned through my journey with the jump rope is that activities and methods within fitness have relationships to each other. Jump rope relates to kickboxing relates to fencing relates to archery relates to ... well ... you get the point.

I'm having lots of fun kickboxing these days. I love it and can't seem to get enough. In fact, as I write this, I sort of can't wait to get up super early tomorrow to make it to my MWF 6AM kickboxing class ... with folks from all walks of life who inspire me as they face an hour of sweaty hard work to welcome the day. And I do admit, I especially love days when the instructor brings out the ropes ... as I get to pretend that I'm one of the fancy folk.

PS: In order to stay a good jumper, I've learned you've got to be a mindful stretcher. More on that in a future post.

Comments

[sheila]

Hi Jenny,

Thanks so much for mentioning the 'unmentionable' in your blog post. I am so encouraged to know that such things can be overcome by keeping on. I do yoga regularly but would love to try something a little more cardiovascular so skipping rope here I come!