Leather ropes or speed ropes, which is better? If you think there is a significantly superior type of jump rope please share. Pros and cons would be great as well. Thank you.
plastic, speed ropes. I skip outside. It rained and I forgot to bring in the leather rope. Ruined Same situation, plastic rope. It survives. Win Plastic. People say that the leather gives your forearms a workout but they're far more expensive (up to and more than 5x more) are not as durable and IMO not as effective.
I've got a few of each. I don't mind either. My favorite ropes heavy and thick plastic rope (around 10.5mm diameter) with weighted handles that have bearings. The weight makes it more work for the wrists... which is a good feeling. That being said I don't often haul them around because of the weight when rushing between clients and locations. So I'll chuck a very light plastic speed rope in the kit and off I go. Plenty enough hard for most people who are just getting into skipping as it is.
It does depend largely on what you're training for, but for most martial artists Im a firm believer in skipping how you would train i.e. explosively and fast. Whilst heavy leather ropes do give a good workout, they are slow, and in my opinion, ultimately not half as productive as a speed rope, which allows you you to train fast and explosively; traits which are then transferable to your martial arts. A comparison I would make is - it's like sprinting and jogging. Whilst there are health benefits to jogging/endurance running, there is a huge difference between a slow paced jog and a fast paced interval workout. Interval training is intense, raises your metabolic rate for several hours, and encourages the recruitment of fast twitch muscle fibres. Overall, it will allow you to become more explosive for longer periods. This is how I think skipping as a tool should be used - to train your body for specific needs required during your sport/martial arts. Even as a warm up, the skipping should be intense, so as to prepare you for the intense nature of the workout that you will be doing - in other words, a sport specific warm up. Em
