The new London skipping classes burning 1200 calories an hour

Shred fat and boost cardio at the capital’s new skipping classes
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Getting fit takes commitment but even the most dedicated of gym-goers can run short of time. Late nights in the office eat into your workout, and slogging on the Central line to a HIIT class feels inefficient when it’s the other side of town.

To burn calories fast you have to raise the intensity, and for the capital’s top trainers this means getting on the jump rope.

Skipping is the smartest way to whip up a sweat and accelerate your fat-burning: Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian and Kate Hudson say it’s their secret to staying in shape, and many of London’s expert instructors recommend it for a more efficient workout. They say it’ll help you shred fat, boost cardio and burn 1,200 calories an hour — almost double that of a spin class.

“There’s so much you can do with one rope,” says former professional boxer Darren Barker as I sweat through his new High Intensity Interval Skipping (HIIS) class at Paddington boxing gym 12x3.

Skipping is a popular warm-up for boxers — Anthony Joshua always uses a jump rope before getting in the ring — but Barker and his co-founder Ryan Pickard want to bring it to the masses: a 30-minute, high-tempo workout for Londoners looking for a speedy lunchtime fat-burner. It has me dripping within minutes.

Like a boxing bout, the class is split into three-minute rounds and each movement incorporates the jump rope, whether it’s knees-up skipping, double-time skipping or using it for arm raises while you squat.

“A constantly changing pace is key and it’s a full body workout, says Barker. “It’s not just turning the rope that’s the difficult bit: it’s the bending, the squatting, the jumping over the rope. You’re using every component of the body: your arms, your legs, getting your heart rate up.”

"It’s not just turning the rope that’s difficult, it’s the bending and squatting. You’re using the whole body."

Darren Barker

Apparently just 10 minutes of skipping has the same health benefits as a 45-minute run — perfect for my marathon training, especially as someone who suffers from a bad hip.

This part is crucial, says Barker. “Though skipping is high impact, it’s not as bad as pounding the road.” He recommends practising at home as carpet “softens the blow” and makes the skipping harder — plus you can take a rope anywhere.

It’s not just for boxers. Celebrity trainer Dalton Wong regularly uses jump ropes with PT clients at Twenty Two Training, especially if they’re injured, and Virgin Active now uses skipping in its Grid and Heat HIIT classes, as well as more boxing-related workouts such as Punch.

At Equinox in Kensington and St James’s, the new 30-minute Jump Rope class alternates a normal skipping rope with a weighted “fury” rope to really keep you on your toes. “The rope is two pounds, which may not sound like a lot, but when you’re whipping it around for a while, that weight adds up,” says class creator Christa DiPaolo.

She says the design distributes the weight so your abs have to be completely braced, plus it engages more muscle groups in the upper body. “The added resistance in the cable generates more force that the user is required to control,” says DiPaolo.

“Once you get the rhythm down you’ll start to feel the work all over, especially in your core, which you should keep engaged throughout, as well as your biceps, pecs, delts, lats and calves.” You’ll leave skipping for joy.

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