Double Under Workout – UPDATED 2022 – A Complete Guide

One of the main reasons that working out consistently in 2022 doesn’t stick for many people is because they find it boring and tedious. If you’ve been doing them for a week, simple exercises like sit-ups, push-ups, murph workouts and jogging can feel like more of a chore than an exciting self-improvement regime.

It’s time to end the boredom of working out, by looking at some fun exercises. The Double under workout is an exercise that’s fast, lively, and gets your heart pumping. This is an exercise developed under the CrossFit training program, meaning you know it’s had years of research and development behind it – the double under workout gets results.

Interested in making working out fun again? This complete guide will give you everything you need to know about the double under workout, the steps, and the benefits of this workout, and how you can fit it into your exercise program.

 

Double Under Workout – A Complete Guide

The double under is a jump-rope exercise and doesn’t require anything except a rope to do. It doesn’t have to be an athletics grade rope, and you pick one up for as little as $5 online.

Here is a step-by-step guide to double unders.

1. Hold the jump rope towards the floor and place your foot in the middle of the rope. Bring the handles up in line with your armpits. This will make sure the rope is even and stretched.
2. Bring your hands and the handles of the rope down into a neutral position.
3. Re-center your body and balance your weight onto your toes.
4. Begin doing single jumps over the rope, speeding up gradually. It’s important to let your wrists control the height and speed of the rope, and not to lift your arms with it.
5. As you settle into a rhythm, start making every 3rd jump higher than the previous two.
6. Once you are comfortable with this pattern, turn this 3rd jump into a double under jump. Continue until you can comfortably and consistently do a double under.
7. Then, make every other jump a double under. Once again, repeat this pattern until you can be consistent.
8. Finally, you can make every jump you do a double under. Keep this rhythm for as long as you can.

Understanding The Double Under WOD

Now that you know how to do a basic double under routine, you can start to incorporate it as one of your daily workouts. You can find a lot of great WOD exercises that use double unders, as they’re a quick circuit-breaker exercise that can fit into many routines.

The double under workout can also be a WOD routine by itself. One of the most popular will have you doing 5 double under jumps, then 10, then 15, all the way until 50 continuous double under jumps. You then decrease this by 5 reps each time until you’re back to the start of the routine.

 

Double Unders Benefits

You might have heard of jump rope exercises being popular with Boxers – this is because they are a perfect exercise for learning to maintain a rhythm, keeping you quick on your toes, and building strength in your legs.

Double unders are also one of the best cardiovascular exercises you can do. Because they involve exerting the huge amount of energy needed to propel your whole body, they get your blood pumping and are one of the quickest exercises for triggering an anaerobic state.

If you want to put the benefits of the double under workout in numbers, just 1 minute of them will burn 10 calories. This means that by just doing double unders for 10 minutes a day, you can burn 100 calories.

The double under workout has an impact on not just your legs, but other essential muscles – you’ll be building your biceps and you’ll be building your core, which is one of the most important areas for CrossFit training.

Double Unders for Beginners – Getting Started

If you’ve never done a jump rope exercise before, don’t worry – learning how to do the double under workout can help to teach you the fundamentals of all jump rope exercises.

For total beginners, it’s recommended that you practice jumping without a rope in hand. This will let you get used to having the weight of your body in your toes and avoid common mistakes that can lead to injury.

When practicing the jump, focus on keeping your legs straight and your core tight. You want to lift off using the balls of your feet and land back on them. Your jumps should be more like bounces, quick and springy.

Once you’re consistent with this, you should move on to jumping with the rope. Start with single under jumps and build up your speed and height until you’re able to do double under jumps.

Double Unders Vs Running – How Do They Compare?

When it comes to cardiovascular exercises, running is often hailed as one of the best. You might be surprised that double unders have a lot of the same benefits of running, with less of the drawbacks.

Jogging or running is something that everyone can do, but this also means it’s possible to do it wrong. For running to be effective and burn as many calories as it theoretically can, you need a proper technique and a routine.

This is something that you can only achieve with practice, and for the first few months of running consistently, you might not see any progress at all.

With double unders if you’re doing them wrong then you’ll know about it. You’ll trip over the rope, which will give you a clear indicator that you need to adjust your technique or posture. This means that once you get the hang of them, which can take as little as 10 minutes, you’ll be at the peak performance of the double under workout already.

 

Double Under Workout – Closing Thoughts

If you want to have fun when you’re exercising again, the double under workout is something you should give a try this year. It’s an easy routine to learn, and it’s proven to be effective by expert CrossFit trainers.
Keep an eye out for more guides that will help you improve your CrossFit routines, tips, tricks, and more double under workout ideas.