Benefits

Skipping is all about joy and positive energy.  It is good for the body, mind, and spirit, and offers a fun and uplifting way to be fully present in the moment. With every step you skip you take you make the world around you a little more happy and free.

It’s great physical exercise. Skipping burns more calories than walking, has less impact on your joints than running, and is a lot more fun! Some people skip for long distances, and others simply incorporate 10 or so skips at a time into their walking routine to raise their heart rate. It’s really fun on the treadmill too. There’s nothing better than happily skipping to your heart’s content at the gym with two serious runners pounding away on either side of you.

It makes the world a happier place. Skipping infuses your entire being with joy and inevitably brings a smile to the faces of those who see you do it.

It makes you feel like a kid again. Skipping automatically connects us with spontaneous, creative, childlike energy. It energizes our dreams and our imagination. It’s a great way to experience the many benefits of play.

It connects you with the voice in your heart. Skipping gets your inner critic out of the way so your joyful spirit is free to shine. Even after years of skipping, my inner critic often still says things like, “Don’t skip here! What will people think?”  And the voice in my heart retorts even more loudly, “But I love to skip, let’s go!”   When we consciously choose to honor the voice in our heart, it grows stronger, and when we are connected to that voice, anything is possible.

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From Prevention Magazine (2001)…

This playful childhood exercise can also help with grown-up concerns:

**Speed up results. Add short skipping sessions to your daily walk. Skipping burns twice as many calories as walking, so you’ll lose weight faster. Or do it to raise your heart rate between sets while lifting weights.
***Sneak in a workout. Do you find there’s never any time to exercise? Skip around the house for a quickie workout.
***Strengthen bones. Moderate impact activities such as jumping and skipping help build your bones and keep them strong.
***Beat Boredom. A little skipping can energize an entire walk.
***Invite Family Fun. Young kids love to skip. Take them along to help the whole family stay fit.

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Skippers Make Better Runners

In the early 2000s, the Fox affiliate in San Francisco re-aired this  segment from the early 1980s about skipping.

They did the story because after the 1984 Olympics, when an official Olympic doctor said that jogging is hard on the body and that skipping would make a much better exercise alternative. The segment also features a former Mr. Hercules says skipping is a tremendous workout because it uses both the upper and lower body…He also says that, “Skippers make better runners.”