I’ve been trying to add some varied aerobic activity into my workout. I can’t run or do elliptical machines because of my knees, and to be honest I don’t like a lack of forward momentum. So I’ve been looking for activities to add to my walking, and decided to add jump roping.

The first jump rope I got was too short. Way too short. It kept getting caught in my hair on the upswing (my hair is chin length, but too short to pull back). I could get about ten jumps in before the thing would tangle in my hair and go off course.

So I found a longer jump rope.

I tried this a couple times, however, for some unknown reason, the rope (actually thin, smooth plastic/rubber tube[think a whip]) kept twisting at the top (or bottom if you prefer) of the arc, and would after 15 to 20 jumps twist around itself twice–enough that it would go entirely off course.

Michael actually witnessed this, and saw the rope coiling as I jumped.

Yesterday I decided I’d do 25 jumps, untwist the rope, do 25 more jumps, and so on and so forth.

At about sixteen jumps I had a fair amount of momentum, at which point the rope comes down SMACK on my arm.

I’ve still got a six to eight-inch mark on my forearm where the damned thing hit me.

So no more jump rope. I’m thinking of jumping over the painted lines on the floor, except with my luck, I’ll probably trip over ’em.