How Jumping Rope Changes The Human Body

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Most popularly enjoyed by professional boxers and six-year-old girls, jumping rope is one of the most metabolism-boosting exercises around:

Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from good health

Maybe you haven’t tried it since your age was in single digits, so, if you do…

What benefits can you expect?

  • Improves cardiovascular fitness, equivalent to 30 minutes of running with just 10 minutes of jumping.
  • Increases bone density and boosts immunity by aiding the lymphatic system.
  • Enhances explosiveness in the lower body, agility, and stamina.
  • Improves shoulder endurance, coordination, and spatial awareness.

What kind of rope is best for you?

  • Beginner ropes: licorice ropes (nylon/vinyl), beaded ropes for rhythm and durability.
  • Advanced ropes: speed ropes (denser, faster materials) for higher speeds and more difficult skills.
  • Weighted ropes: build upper body muscles (forearms, shoulders, chest, back).

What length should you get?

  • Recommended rope length varies by height (8 ft for 5’0″–5’4″, 9 ft for 5’5″–5’11”, 10 ft for 6’0″ and above).
  • Beginners should start with longer ropes for clearance.

What should you learn?

  • Initial jump rope skills: start with manageable daily jump totals, gradually increasing as ankles, calves, and feet adapt.
  • Further skills: learn the two-foot jump and then the boxer’s skip for efficient, longer sessions and advanced skills. Keep arms close and hands at waist level for a smooth swing.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

How To Do High Intensity Interval Training (Without Wrecking Your Body)

Take care!

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  • The Natural Facelift – by Sophie Perry

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    First, what this book isn’t: it’s mostly not about beauty, and it’s certainly not about ageist ideals of “hiding” aging.

    The author herself discusses the privilege that is aging (not everyone gets to do it) and the importance of taking thankful pride in our lived-in bodies.

    The title and blurb belie the contents of the book rather. Doubtlessly the publisher felt that extrinsic beauty would sell better than intrinsic wellbeing. As for what it’s actually more about…

    Ever splashed your face in cold water to feel better? This book’s about revitalising the complex array of facial muscles (there are anatomical diagrams) and the often-tired and very diverse tissues that cover them, complete with the array of nerve endings very close to your CNS (not to mention the vagus nerve running just behind your jaw), and some of the most important blood vessels of your body, serving your brain.

    With all that in mind, this book, full of useful therapeutic techniques, is a very, very far cry from “massage like this and you’ll look like you got photoshopped”.

    The style varies, as some parts of explanation of principles, or anatomy, and others are hands-on (literally) guides to the exercises, but it is all very clear and easy to understand/follow.

    Bottom line: aspects of conventional beauty may be a side-effect of applying the invigorating exercises described in this book. The real beauty is—literally—more than skin-deep.

    Click here to check out The Natural Facelift, and order yours!

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  • Viruses aren’t always harmful. 6 ways they’re used in health care and pest control

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    We tend to just think of viruses in terms of their damaging impacts on human health and lives. The 1918 flu pandemic killed around 50 million people. Smallpox claimed 30% of those who caught it, and survivors were often scarred and blinded. More recently, we’re all too familiar with the health and economic impacts of COVID.

    But viruses can also be used to benefit human health, agriculture and the environment.

    Viruses are comparatively simple in structure, consisting of a piece of genetic material (RNA or DNA) enclosed in a protein coat (the capsid). Some also have an outer envelope.

    Viruses get into your cells and use your cell machinery to copy themselves.
    Here are six ways we’ve harnessed this for health care and pest control.

    1. To correct genes

    Viruses are used in some gene therapies to correct malfunctioning genes. Genes are DNA sequences that code for a particular protein required for cell function.

    If we remove viral genetic material from the capsid (protein coat) we can use the space to transport a “cargo” into cells. These modified viruses are called “viral vectors”.

    Viruses consist of a piece of RNA or DNA enclosed in a protein coat called the capsid.
    DEXi

    Viral vectors can deliver a functional gene into someone with a genetic disorder whose own gene is not working properly.

    Some genetic diseases treated this way include haemophilia, sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia.

    2. Treat cancer

    Viral vectors can be used to treat cancer.

    Healthy people have p53, a tumour-suppressor gene. About half of cancers are associated with the loss of p53.

    Replacing the damaged p53 gene using a viral vector stops the cancerous cell from replicating and tells it to suicide (apoptosis).

    Viral vectors can also be used to deliver an inactive drug to a tumour, where it is then activated to kill the tumour cell.

    This targeted therapy reduces the side effects otherwise seen with cytotoxic (cell-killing) drugs.

    We can also use oncolytic (cancer cell-destroying) viruses to treat some types of cancer.

    Tumour cells have often lost their antiviral defences. In the case of melanoma, a modified herpes simplex virus can kill rapidly dividing melanoma cells while largely leaving non-tumour cells alone.

    3. Create immune responses

    Viral vectors can create a protective immune response to a particular viral antigen.

    One COVID vaccine uses a modified chimp adenovirus (adenoviruses cause the common cold in humans) to transport RNA coding for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into human cells.

    The RNA is then used to make spike protein copies, which stimulate our immune cells to replicate and “remember” the spike protein.

    Then, when you are exposed to SARS-CoV-2 for real, your immune system can churn out lots of antibodies and virus-killing cells very quickly to prevent or reduce the severity of infection.

    4. Act as vaccines

    Viruses can be modified to act directly as vaccines themselves in several ways.

    We can weaken a virus (for an attenuated virus vaccine) so it doesn’t cause infection in a healthy host but can still replicate to stimulate the immune response. The chickenpox vaccine works like this.

    The Salk vaccine for polio uses a whole virus that has been inactivated (so it can’t cause disease).

    Others use a small part of the virus such as a capsid protein to stimulate an immune response (subunit vaccines).

    An mRNA vaccine packages up viral RNA for a specific protein that will stimulate an immune response.

    5. Kill bacteria

    Viruses can – in limited situations in Australia – be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

    Bacteriophages are viruses that kill bacteria. Each type of phage usually infects a particular species of bacteria.

    Unlike antibiotics – which often kill “good” bacteria along with the disease-causing ones – phage therapy leaves your normal flora (useful microbes) intact.

    A phage
    Bacteriophages (red) are viruses that kill bacteria (green).
    Shutterstock

    6. Target plant, fungal or animal pests

    Viruses can be species-specific (infecting one species only) and even cell-specific (infecting one type of cell only).

    This occurs because the proteins viruses use to attach to cells have a shape that binds to a specific type of cell receptor or molecule, like a specific key fits a lock.

    The virus can enter the cells of all species with this receptor/molecule. For example, rabies virus can infect all mammals because we share the right receptor, and mammals have other characteristics that allow infection to occur whereas other non-mammal species don’t.

    When the receptor is only found on one cell type, then the virus will infect that cell type, which may only be found in one or a limited number of species. Hepatitis B virus successfully infects liver cells primarily in humans and chimps.

    We can use that property of specificity to target invasive plant species (reducing the need for chemical herbicides) and pest insects (reducing the need for chemical insecticides). Baculoviruses, for example, are used to control caterpillars.

    Similarly, bacteriophages can be used to control bacterial tomato and grapevine diseases.

    Other viruses reduce plant damage from fungal pests.

    Myxoma virus and calicivirus reduce rabbit populations and their environmental impacts and improve agricultural production.

    Just like humans can be protected against by vaccination, plants can be “immunised” against a disease-causing virus by being exposed to a milder version.The Conversation

    Thea van de Mortel, Professor, Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Cottage cheese is back and all over TikTok. Two dietitians explain why social media’s obsessed

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    You might remember cottage cheese from your childhood. Back then, it was considered “diet food”. You ate it out of the tub, with celery or spread it on crackers for a low-calorie snack. Then cottage cheese went out of fashion.

    But cottage cheese is having a resurgence. In recent months, Google searches for “cottage cheese” have risen to the highest levels since 2004.

    Social media influencers have been promoting its benefits on TikTok and Instagram with hashtags such as #cottagecheese, #cottagecheeseforlife, and #cottagecheeserecipe. Sales of cottage cheese around the world have skyrocketed.

    Let’s see why cottage cheese is having such a moment.

    Karolina Kaboompics/Pexels

    What is cottage cheese?

    Cottage cheese is a fresh dairy cheese product with a mild flavour and a slightly tangy taste. It is made by curdling cow’s milk, then draining the whey, leaving behind the curds. These curds are usually small and lumpy, and the texture can vary from creamy to dry, depending on the amount of whey left in the cheese.

    The term “cottage cheese” is said to have originated because the cheese was generally made in cottage-type houses from leftover milk, after making butter.

    Cottage cheese is cheap, costing about A$12 per kilogram in the supermarket, similar to ricotta cheese.

    It’s also surprisingly simple to make at home using freely available recipes. All you need is milk, salt and a splash of vinegar.

    We’re using cottage cheese in new ways

    It’s difficult to know what started the latest cottage cheese trend. But the creativity of social media means people are sharing alternative ways to use cottage cheese, changing people’s views from it being boring and lacking flavour to it being versatile and healthy.

    People are spreading cottage cheese on toast and using it to make dishes such as porridge, dips, salads, bread and flatbreads. They’re using it in cakes and scones, and in desserts such as mousse and ice cream.

    Is cottage cheese healthy?

    Compared with other cheeses, cottage cheese is low in fat and therefore energy (kilojoules or kJ). This makes it a smart choice for people looking to cut down on their daily energy intake.

    For example, 100 grams of cottage cheese contains about 556kJ. The same amount of cheddar contains 1,254kJ and parmesan 1,565kJ.

    Many cheeses are rich in protein but they often contain higher amounts of kilojoules due to their fat content. But cottage cheese has substantial amounts of protein with fewer kilojoules.

    This makes cottage cheese an ideal option for people aiming to maximise their protein intake without eating large amounts of kilojoules.

    Some 100g of cottage cheese provides 17g protein. This is about the same found in three eggs, 60g chicken breast or 320 millilitres (about 300g) full-fat yoghurt.

    Woman taking picture of pancakes with smartphone
    People are sharing images of their cottage cheese creations on TikTok and Instagram. New Africa/Shutterstock

    Cottage cheese also contains high levels of vitamin B12 (important for healthy brain function), riboflavin (supports healthy skin and eyes), phosphorus (helps build strong bones and teeth) and folate (essential for cell growth).

    However, cottage cheese is lower in calcium compared with other cheeses. It contains just 89 milligrams per 100g. This compares with parmesan (948mg), haloumi (620mg) and ricotta (170mg).

    You’ve convinced me. How can I use cottage cheese?

    Beyond its excellent nutrition profile, the resurgence of cottage cheese is enabling people to experiment in the kitchen. Its neutral flavour and varied textures – ranging from smooth to chunky – makes it suitable for a range of dishes, from sweet to savoury.

    TikTok and Instagram have some great recipes. You could start with an old faithful recipe of celery and cottage cheese, and work your way towards new options such as cottage cheese ice cream.

    The healthiest recipes will be those that combine cottage cheese with wholefoods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and lean protein sources.

    For instance, you can make a cottage cheese wrap then fill it with vegetables and a lean source of protein (such as chicken or fish).

    Other combinations include cottage cheese salad dressings, vegetable dips and egg salads.

    Cottage cheese’s rise in popularity is well deserved. Including more cottage cheese in your diet is a smart choice for getting a high dose of protein without adding processed ingredients or too much energy. Embrace the trend and get creative in the kitchen.

    Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland and Emily Burch, Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer, Southern Cross University

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • The Telomere Effect – by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Telomeres can be pretty mystifying to the person with a lay interest in longevity. Beyond “they’re the little caps that sit on the end of your DNA, and longer is better, and when they get short, damage occurs, and aging”, how do they fit into the big picture?

    Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel excel at explaining the marvelous world of telomeres…

    • how they work
    • what affects them
    • and how and why

    …and the extent to which changes are or aren’t reversible.

    For some of us, the ship has sailed on avoiding a lot of early-life damage to our telomeres, and now we have a damage-mitigation task ahead. That’s where the authors get practical.

    Indeed, the whole third part of the book is titled “Help Your Body Protect Its Cells“, and indeed covers not just “from now on” protection, but undoing some of the damage already done (yes, telomeres can be lengthened—it gets harder as we get older, but absolutely can be done).

    In short: if you’d like to avoid further damage to your telomeres where possible, and reverse some of the damage done already, this book will set you on the right track.

    Order your copy of The Telomere Effect from Amazon today!

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  • The 7 Approaches To Pain Management

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    More Than One Way To Kill Pain

    This is Dr. Deepak Ravindran (MD, FRCA. FFPMRCA, EDRA. FIPP, DMSMed). He has decades of experience and is a specialist in acute and chronic pain management, anesthesia, musculoskeletal medicine, and lifestyle medicine.

    A quick catch-up, first:

    We’ve written about chronic pain management before:

    Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)

    As well as:

    Science-Based Alternative Pain Relief

    Dr. Ravindran’s approach

    Dr. Ravindran takes a “trauma-informed care” approach to his professional practice, and recommends the same for others.

    In a nutshell, this means starting from a position of not “what’s wrong with you?”, but rather “what happened to you?”.

    This seemingly subtle shift is important, because it means actually dealing with a person’s issues, instead of “take one of these and call my secretary next month”. Read more:

    What is Trauma-Informed Care?

    Pain itself can be something of a many-headed hydra. Dr. Ravindran’s approach is equally many-headed; specifically, he has a 7-point plan:

    Medications

    Dr. Ravindran sees painkillers (and a collection of other drugs, like antidepressants and muscle relaxants) as a potential means to an end worth exploring, but he doesn’t expect them to be the best choice for everyone, and nor does he expect them to be a cure-all. Neither should we. He also advises being mindful of the drawbacks and potential complications of these drugs, too.

    Interventions

    Sometimes, surgery is the right choice. Sometimes it isn’t. Often, it will change a life—one way or the other. Similar to with medications, Dr. Ravindran is very averse to a “one size fits all” approach here. See also:

    The Insider’s Guide To Making Hospital As Comfortable As Possible

    Neuroscience and stress management

    Often a lot of the distress of pain is not just the pain itself, but the fear associated with it. Will it get worse if I move wrong or eat the wrong thing? How long will it last? Will it ever get better? Will it get worse if I do nothing?. Dr. Ravindran advises tackling this, with the same level of importance as the pain itself. Here’s a good start:

    Stress, And Building Psychological Resilience

    Diet and the microbiome

    Many chronic illnesses are heavily influenced by this, and Dr. Ravindran’s respect for lifestyle medicine comes into play here. While diet might not fix all our ills, it certainly can stop things from being a lot worse. Beyond the obvious “eat healthily” (Mediterranean diet being a good starting point for most people), he also advises doing elimination tests where appropriate, to screen out potential flare-up triggers. You also might consider:

    Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet

    Sleep

    “Get good sleep” is easy advice for those who are not in agonizing pain that sometimes gets worse from staying in the same position for too long. Nevertheless, it is important, and foundational to good health. So it’s important to explore—whatever limitations one might realistically have—what can be done to improve it.

    If you can only sleep for a short while at a time, you may get benefit from this previous main feature of ours:

    How To Nap Like A Pro (No More “Sleep Hangovers”!)

    Exercise and movement

    The trick here is to move little and often; without overdoing it, but without permitting loss of mobility either. See also:

    The Doctor Who Wants Us To Exercise Less, And Move More

    Therapies of the mind and body

    This is about taking a holistic approach to one’s wellness. In Dr. Ravindran’s words:

    ❝Mind-body therapies are often an extremely sensitive topic about which people hold very strong opinions and sometimes irrational beliefs.

    Some, like reiki and spiritual therapy and homeopathy, have hardly any scientific evidence to back them up, while others like yoga, hypnosis, and meditation/mindfulness are mainstream techniques with many studies showing the benefits, but they all work for certain patients.❞

    In other words: evidence-based is surely the best starting point, but if you feel inclined to try something else and it works for you, then it works for you. And that’s a win.

    Want to know more?

    You might like his book…

    The Pain-Free Mindset: 7 Steps to Taking Control and Overcoming Chronic Pain

    He also has a blog and a podcast.

    Take care!

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  • The Sweet Truth About Diabetes

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    There’s A Lot Of Confusion About Diabetes!

    For those readers who are not diabetic, nor have a loved one who is diabetic, nor any other pressing reason to know these things, first a quick 101 rundown of some things to understand the rest of today’s main feature:

    • Blood sugar levels: how much sugar is in the blood, measured in mg/dL or mmol/L
    • Hyperglycemia or “hyper” for short: too much sugar in the blood
    • Hypoglycemia or “hypo” for short: too little sugar in the blood
    • Insulin: a hormone that acts as a gatekeeper to allow sugar to pass, or not pass, into various parts of the body
    • Type 1 diabetes (sometimes capitalized, and/or abbreviated to “T1D”) is an autoimmune disorder that prevents the pancreas from being able to supply the body with insulin. This means that taking insulin consistently is necessary for life.
    • Type 2 diabetes is a matter of insulin resistance. The pancreas produces plenty of insulin, but the body has become desensitized to it, so it doesn’t work properly. Taking extra insulin may sometimes be necessary, but for many people, it can be controlled by means of a careful diet and other lifestyle factors.

    With that in mind, on to some very popular myths…

    Diabetes is caused by having too much sugar

    While sugar is not exactly a health food, it’s not the villain of this story either.

    • Type 1 diabetes has a genetic basis, triggered by epigenetic factors unrelated to sugar.
    • Type 2 diabetes comes from a cluster of risk factors which, together, can cause a person to go through pre-diabetes and acquire type 2 diabetes.
      • Those risk factors include:
        • A genetic predisposition
        • A large waist circumference
          • (this is more relevant than BMI or body fat percentage)
        • High blood pressure
        • A sedentary lifestyle
        • Age (the risk starts rising at 35, rises sharply at 45, and continues upwards with increasing age)

    Read more: Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes

    Diabetics can’t have sugar

    While it’s true that diabetics must be careful about sugar (and carbs in general), it’s not to say that they can’t have them… just: be mindful and intentional about it.

    • Type 1 diabetics will need to carb-count in order to take the appropriate insulin bolus. Otherwise, too little insulin will result in hyperglycemia, or too much insulin will result in hypoglycemia.
    • Type 2 diabetics will often be able to manage their blood sugar levels with diet alone, and slow-release carbs will make this easier.

    In either case, having quick release sugars will increase blood sugar levels (what a surprise), and sometimes (such as when experiencing a hypo), that’s what’s needed.

    Also, when it comes to sugar, a word on fruit:

    Not all fruits are equal, and some fruits can help maintain stable blood sugar levels! Read all about it:

    Fruit Intake to Prevent and Control Hypertension and Diabetes

    Artificial sweeteners are must-haves for diabetics

    Whereas sugar is a known quantity to the careful diabetic, some artificial sweeteners can impact insulin sensitivity, causing blood sugars to behave in unexpected ways. See for example:

    The Impact of Artificial Sweeteners on Body Weight Control and Glucose Homeostasis

    If a diabetic person is hyper, they should exercise to bring their blood sugar levels down

    Be careful with this!

    • In the case of type 2 diabetes, it may (or may not) help, as the extra sugar may be used up.
    • Type 1 diabetes, however, has a crucial difference. Because the pancreas isn’t making insulin, a hyper (above a certain level, anyway) means more insulin is needed. Exercising could do more harm than good, as unlike in type 2 diabetes, the body has no way to use that extra sugar, without the insulin to facilitate it. Exercising will just pump the syrupy hyperglycemic blood around the body, potentially causing damage as it goes (all without actually being able to use it).

    There are other ways this can be managed that are outside of the scope of this newsletter, but “be careful” is rarely a bad approach.

    Read more, from the American Diabetes Association:

    Exercise & Type 1 Diabetes

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

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