Are exercises like jumping rope bad for the knees?

I recently took an interest in adding jumping rope to my exercise regimen because it's really easy to do and can be fairly intense cardio. Only thing that concerns me is it seems like an exercise that really gives the knees a beating. If you do them properly, and do them on a mat, are they okay to do in the long term without risking knee damage?

Jumping rope is awesome for cardio. I can't imagine any problems with knees or anything. I do a couple of rounds of it to warm up before Muay Thai. If anything, I found that it took a while for my ankles to adjust and my toes stop hurting from banging them all of the time with the rope.

I've since moved onto a weighted rope and it burns my biceps and forearms.

It also took a month or two of doing it a couple of days a week to be able to jump through a three minute round without stopping or losing control.

If your knees are in good shape and you are not very overweight, yes, probably. Concern yourself with the short term first - start gradually and stop if jumping rope causes you pain.

I just bounce with the ankles and leave the knees slightly bent the whole time. Don't get much pounding at all.

if youre doing it right you should hardly be jumping off the ground. should be less strenuous on the knees then walking. just dont do two feet together right beside eachother as ive heard its bad for your back etc and when doing it it does seem that way. do like the boxers and one leg infront etc.

Depends how fat you are, Elvis.

The constant jumping creates stress on your knees, ankles and hip joints. In the long run, I don't know how it could be beneficial.

Skipping is only really bad for you if you're not skipping particularly well. Really, you should be raising off the floor no more than a few centimetres, as previously stated. If you're jumping up and down like back in grade two I can see how it could become a worry over time, but once you've learned to skip well it's no worse than anything else. Just like running properly is much easier on the knees than runnign poorly.

Originally Posted by Qubaduck

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Skipping is only really bad for you if you're not skipping particularly well. Really, you should be raising off the floor no more than a few centimetres, as previously stated. If you're jumping up and down like back in grade two I can see how it could become a worry over time, but once you've learned to skip well it's no worse than anything else. Just like running properly is much easier on the knees than runnign poorly.

It's also going to depend on the surface your doing it on.

no, because your ankles and shins absorb the impact.

Never thought about it- when I used to do them I thought they were very low impact, because you're not really lifting your feet too much once you get good at it, and after a while your calves get pretty strong (lessening impact even more) and ankles get strong (tendons get tougher, I think- smart guys can enlighten me if this is incorrect) which I think would actually lessen your chances at injury. I also only jumped rope on a wood floor (or when the gym filled up, in the ring) in the gym, which is obviously much lower impact than jumping rope on like concrete.

And, I think this is true for any sort of repetitive exercise, you can get efficient enough where it's not really even giving you a workout anymore, unless you mix it up by double skipping or varying your pace or however. I'd jump rope to warm up for boxing, and if I were feeling lazy I'd go ahead and jump rope for two rounds (including thirty second breaks) and barely be breaking a sweat. I'm not saying I could do that now, even at an easy pace I think I'd be dead after one round.

What's bad for your kness is only doing exercises that involve little or no impact. Activities like running, which put moderate stress on your joints, actually make those joints stronger and help maintain bone density. I think that jumping rope is a good idea, though I have never done it myself.

Originally Posted by Fat-Elvis

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If you do them properly, and do them on a mat, are they okay to do in the long term without risking knee damage?

how are they done properly?

skipping rope is great exercise

running on a treadmill is where i'd worry about my knees.

Running is not bad for your knees.