As a personal trainer, I’m often reminding my clients of the importance and value of continued resistance training through their 6th, 7th and 8th decades. For those folks who run into these later decades, leg strength and power can be maintained and even increased with regular weight training and agility exercises. This fact has been examined and proven over and again in many controlled scientific studies with aging athletes.

It’s a running fact of life: Runners get slower as they get older. But a new report suggests that strengthening the ankles and calves could help aging runners stave off the slowdown. (Runner’s World)

I like to keep things simple for my clients because they have busy lives, and adding a heavy physical training schedule to their to-list is not an effective way for them to maintain their physical fitness. This is why I am a BIG fan of incorporating jump rope sessions into all my clients’ training programs.

For runner’s especially, jump rope provides an opportunity to improve one’s aerobic endurance, coordination, balance and lower leg strength. Jumping rope is the ultimate full body work out. In 10 minutes, a jump rope session can torch 100 calories, more or less. So pick up your jump rope and get started today. If it’s been awhile since you’ve jumped rope, you probably won’t be able to jump continuously for 10 minutes; but don’t let that deter you. If you’ll keep at it, you’ll be able to add another minute or two to your hops and skips in short order.

Consider the graphic below which illustrates the full body work out you gain while jumping rope. Without reserve, I can make this promise to you just like I do with my clients, if you’ll jump rope three or four times a week for 10 minutes at a time, I promise you that within 1 to 3 weeks, you’ll notice improved gains in your stamina, power, speed, and agility. So what are you waiting for? Hop to it and enjoy stronger lungs and legs!