When it comes to success in fitness, consistency is everything.
Regardless of the activity you choose, you have to do it over and over again before you see any results.
And that’s usually not easy.
Creating fitness habits starts with creating mindset habits.
Suppose you’ve struggled with sticking to a fitness routine instead of taking long breaks, cooking at home regularly instead of ordering takeout, or reading at night instead of endlessly scrolling through social media. In that case, it’s most likely that you haven’t strengthened those behaviors with habit formation.
In this post, we’re going to share 7 simple but effective ways to make jumping rope a habit but really creating any healthy practice in general.
How To Make Jumping Rope a Habit
Here’s a recent post from our jump rope fitness community:
*Pay attention to Nancy’s response.
The situation above is all too relatable; we start off motivated and committed, but soon we find ourselves putting our goals aside.
Nancy’s comment is excellent and fits perfectly with what we’ll cover in this post.
So, let’s jump into some tactical approaches to creating a jump rope habit that you’ll find yourself coming back to time and time again.
1. Find Your Why
So many of us search for a magic mental trick when we start a fitness journey, which will shift our way of thinking and keep us motivated.
Well, there’s only one motivation hack that works. It’s a question.
Why do you want this?
If you don’t have a strong why then success isn’t going to happen.
If you want to lose 10 pounds, that’s great, but that’s only setting a goal rather than identifying the purpose that’s holding you accountable for the weight loss.
The biggest reason people fall of track is that they lose sight of why they started building a healthy habit in the first place.
Rachel MacPherson, certified personal trainer, and writer for Radical Strength, explains that finding your why is the first step in fully establishing a new habit in your life.
You can start with a few questions: why do you want to build this habit, why is it important to you, and what will it add to your life?
Doing The 5 Whys Analysis
Here’s a great exercise to try. Break out a journal and do a 5 Whys Analysis.
This exercise will help you understand the root cause of building a new habit.
Here’s an example:
- Why do I want to start jumping rope?
- I want to lose 10 pounds.
- Why do I want to lose 10 pounds?
- I want to look better in my clothes.
- Why do I want to look better in my clothes?
- I want to look good in photos at my daughter's wedding in a few months.
- Why do I want to look good in the photos from my daughter's wedding?
- I want to look back and only think about the great memories and not how I look.
- Why do I only want to think about the memories and not how I look?
- I want to fully experience the significant moments of my life without worrying about my appearance.
There you have it.
Keep asking yourself why until you get to what’s actually driving you to make a change.
When you look at the root cause behind building a jump rope habit, you arrive at a powerful why that will keep you going through your entire weight loss journey.
You need to dive deeper into the reason for building a new habit and create an emotional connection to the process. That emotional connection is going to keep you going even when your motivation is low.
2. Start Small
And we mean really small. The smaller, the better.
Telling yourself that you’re going to commit to a 30-minute jump rope workout every day is hard. Instead, commit to doing a single jump every day. Chances are, you’ll end up doing more than one jump.
You could break it down even smaller if you’d like. For example, you could say, “every day at 5 o’clock, I will lay my jump rope mat out.”
And that’s it.
Putting your mat on the ground is a small task, and it’s probably something you can handle doing every day. Again, chances are you’ll end up doing more than just getting your mat out.
If you commit to something small, the activity you chose won’t seem so daunting, and you’re more likely to follow through every day.
The truth is you become more motivated after taking action.
Something is always better than nothing.
Over time, you’ll get used to the ritual of laying your mat out or doing one jump. And just like brushing your teeth before bed, if you do it enough, it will start to feel weird when you don’t.
3. Have Fun With It
When you make your exercise routine fun, you’ll find you have something to look forward to instead of seeing your workout as a burden.
Making your new habit fun is the second law of behavior change that James Clear outlines in his book Atomic Habits.
When you’re building a healthy habit, you need to make it attractive. Trying to develop a habit out of an activity you think is boring or just downright hate is another reason people abandon a new routine.
If you hate waking up early, then try exercising after work.
If you dread the idea of walking into a crowded gym, create a simple home workout plan.
Kate Norris from Recourse Health & Fitness Coaching explains that new habits need to come from intrinsic motivation because it’s personally rewarding and long-lasting. Intrinsic motivation comes from creating joy, a sense of accomplishment, and a sense of higher meaning.
Kate also mentioned, “I have a Crossrope, and I LOVE it. I just tell myself that I will jump rope for 5 minutes. Usually, I end up going for more than 5 minutes. Keep it simple and get a Crossrope. Seriously jumping rope is a simple and fun way to exercise. You can have even more fun with it by learning new skills, like double unders or crisscrosses. You can even jump to music, which means you can choreograph different jump rope skills and make the time fly by.”
When you make your new habit fun, you’ll have something to look forward to. Always pick an exercise that makes you feel excited. Don’t just pick something that you think you should do to see results. Results come from passion, joy, and consistency.
4. Commit To 30 Days
Our community has seen tremendous results in their first 30 days with Crossrope. If you’re looking to make jumping rope a habit, commit yourself to at least 30 days.
Like any new skill, jumping rope takes a bit of practice to get right.
To give you a total sense of what it’s like to jump with Crossrope, we’ve asked our customers to share their first 30 days with the system.
"[My first 30 days] was so long ago I don't remember! I do remember falling in love with them and becoming addicted quite quickly. The best part is the support and challenges that the group provides." - Kirsten S.
Some of our jumpers have been around for a long time, but the one thing they do remember most about learning to jump with a weighted rope was how quickly they saw the benefits and fell in love.
"I'm still within my 30 days, and I love these jump ropes. My favorite thing would be the feel of these ropes. I have the Get Lean bundle. I do mainly jump rope only workouts since I do 9Round boxing and weights. I'm looking forward to getting more Crossropes. If I'm not doing either, I'll do jump rope and abs. Or pick a workout in the app (which I love). I was frustrated at first because I kept tripping and learning, but I got better. I love these so much." - Donyale W.
"After trying out a cheap $5 rope and I took the plunge and have never looked back, I upgraded to the 2020 Crossrope set within 6 months of buying my original Crossrope set. Quite simply, they are a fantastic rope. The best bit, though, is the community; they rock." - Stuart H.
There is no clear window for how long it takes to see results from jumping rope, but we offer a monthly jump rope workout challenge to help you get started, and the Crossrope app has plenty of challenges + programs for you to start building those healthy habits.
5. Find Your Trigger
To explain triggers, let’s use brushing your teeth as an example. For most people, going to bed is the trigger for brushing their teeth.
You need to find a trigger for your workouts.
One technique to make it easier to build a habit is to try habit stacking.
It’s easier to attach a new habit to the end of an existing routine rather than starting from scratch.
Choose a habit you already have, like making coffee. When you set up your coffee machine, jump rope while you’re waiting for it to brew. Or, when you get ready for bed, set out your workout clothes and ropes for the morning.
These little habits stacked on top of each other create triggers and make incorporating fitness into your life a no-brainer.
6. Don’t Be Hard On Yourself
This point is so essential to your habit-building journey.
It’s easy to get hung up on a weight loss goal or a number on the scale, but if you’re genuinely trying to build a habit, you’ll have to look past these things.
Focus on the process rather than the outcome to sustain motivation.
When you set out to make jumping rope a habit, pay attention to your baseline strength, endurance, and cardiovascular performance, and measure that to see how far you’ve come. Bookmark the workouts you do, and repeat them once in a while to see your progress. You may notice a change in your endurance, less fatigue, the ability to complete more reps, or less need to modify the exercises.
Athletic Trainer, Erica Marcano, stresses to "be proud of yourself! I see so much self-deprecating behavior from people who are just starting - little jokes about their weight, what they could have done when they were younger, or what they saw someone on Instagram do. Reward yourself by acknowledging the courage it took to do this, the hard work you are putting in, and the results you begin to see! Have fun, and acknowledge that there is a learning curve - don't get frustrated, and definitely don't give up!"
7. Find Accountability
The number one way to stay consistent is to be accountable to someone.
Let’s say you and a friend commit to a jump rope workout challenge, and you plan to do a workout together every day for 10 days. The likelihood of completing the challenge will skyrocket because you don’t want to disappoint your friend by ditching them.
If you’re struggling to stay consistent with building a new habit, ask a close friend or family member to be your workout partner to keep you accountable.
Or, better yet, be a part of our jump rope community. We’ve got 94K dedicated jumpers who will make sure you get your workouts done.
Getting Started with Jumping Rope
If you’ve been struggling with building and sticking with healthy fitness habits, jump ropes might just be the best option for you. Haven't jumped rope before? Check out this beginner guide on how to jump rope to see just how easy it is to begin your jump rope journey.
Don't forget to download our free app for quick on-the-go workouts and popular jump rope challenges, like our 14 Day Beginner Challenge, explicitly designed to help build your endurance and learn basic jump rope skills.
Have more questions on building healthy habits? Leave a comment below.
Happy jumping!
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