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I am not good at rope-jumping so in order to warm up before my medium intensity training (some push-ups, some ab activities, etc) I do jumping jacks, sometimes up to 150 of them. I count every move, one for opening legs one for closing them.

Is it possible to do too many jumping jacks? Can I do them in rest days? Do they interfere with my muscle recovery?

Sean Duggan
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ck1987pd
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  • That is some pretty good counting skills. Are you breathing hard or really feel you are exerting yourself? Are you burning? If not, it will stimulate blood flow and be fine as a warmup- – Joao Noch Jan 28 '17 at 21:32
  • I count with two increments :) My breathing is not heavy. To the end I guess my heart rate increases a lot. I do not feel any burning and I recover relatively fast after I stop it. So, is it a replacement for rope jumping? – ck1987pd Jan 28 '17 at 23:11
  • Yes, but if your warmup is below 5 mins then do something else as well to reach the 5 min mark (it's a warmup minimum – Joao Noch Jan 29 '17 at 22:12
  • @JoaoNoch does it include stretching? – ck1987pd Jan 30 '17 at 18:08
  • I'd say what you're doing for a warmup is great, but I thought a jumping jack is completed when you do both the movement out and back in. So you'd be doing 75 jumping jacks instead of 150, but maybe I'm wrong on that one! – MJB Feb 01 '17 at 07:31
  • Only dynamic stretching – Joao Noch Feb 01 '17 at 08:31

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Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a great way to intuitively gauge your workouts. RPE works on a scale of 1 - 10 with one being almost no exertion and 10 be the max exertion you can endure. For warming up you should try to keep around 2 or 3 which (for me) equates to carrying in a load of groceries.

Measure your jumping jacks by this scale and you'll be in a good place to judge whether or not it is too much.

Ben Glasser
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