With everyone working from home, it’s been inspiring to watch people embrace home-based workouts. I decided to do the same. When gyms temporarily closed down, I committed to learning to jump rope. Every morning I watched YouTube videos and practice until it felt natural.
Within months, jump rope fitness has now become a huge part of my life. It’s the most effective cardio exercise I’ve ever done, and it’s really fun.
As a tech reviewer and jump rope enthusiasts, it seems fitting to review high-tech jump ropes. The MSAN Fitness Electronic Skipping Rope with Fitness Tracker keeps track of your workout time, revolutions, and calories used. I love fitness technology products that track workouts and measure progress. Needless to say, I have high hopes for this jump rope.
Design of the MSAN skipping rope
There is no shortage of jump rope available, each with their own unique design and characteristics. The handles on the MSAN skipping rope is made from PVC plastic with rubber, non-slip nodes. To be honest, the plastic feels cheap but the handles feel light and comfortable in the hand.
The rope itself is an internal cable covered with a layer of rubber. It seems slightly weighted, but I can’t really tell. Compared to my jump rope, this rope holds more bends and kinks. I rubbed my hand through the rope to help straighten before use.
One of the handles has an LCD display screen and four small buttons. The display is the built-in fitness tracker which shows the user’s weight, workout time, calories burned, and jump rope rotations.
Cordless Skipping mode is a great way to start
The MSAN rope also allows a cordless skipping mode. Users can attach a small rope on each handle with a weighted rubber ball on the end. This provides the feeling of jumping, but without a rope. This is a great option for beginners who don’t want to put in the practice to jump without tripping over the rope. Plus you can jump virtually anywhere without having to worry about hitting things with the rope.
I tried cordless skipping but I prefer to use the rope. If I didn’t know how to jump rope, I would have definitely started with this.
How to setup the MSAN skipping rope
The MSAN Electronic Skipping Rope is powered by a small watch battery. User weight is set with the buttons. The rope will then save the user weight for future use.
On the top of the handles are two holes where the rope passes through. This makes it very easy to set up. To determine the length, I placed one foot in the middle of the rope and adjusted the rope length so that both handles were just under my armpits. This handle design provides a fast way to adjust the length of the 3-meter skipping cable. Unlike other jump ropes I’ve used, you don’t have to cut the rope to adjust the length.
Performance considerations for great skipping
After setting up the rope for first-time use, I wasn’t expecting much. The rope seemed to hold a lot of kinks. I didn’t think I would jump at the same speed and frequency as my current jump rope. But I was completely wrong. As soon as I got warmed up, I had no trouble jumping with this rope. The handles and rope felt light, and I got into a good rhythm.
The second time, I used the built-in fitness tracker for an early 6am workout. In the fitness tracker, I set my weight. My goal was to track a 10-minute consistent jump rope workout session. This was a very unique experience for me. I’ve used fitness trackers to track steps and runs, but never for a jump rope session.
Now that the rope was tracking my performance. I was motivated to jump consistently without breaks. In a lot of ways, I felt I was taking a jump rope exam. This is the inherent beauty of fitness trackers. With measurable data, they gamify workouts.
My results with the MSAN skipping rope
A little after 10 minutes, I examined the results. In 10:53 seconds, the MSAN fitness tracker said I registered 1469 rotations and burned 529 calories.
I know jumping rope burns more calories than running and other forms of cardio. I also jumped very hard during that workout. But I’m still having a hard time believing I burned 500 calories in 10 minutes.
The accuracy of the data is suspect. From my online research, a person can burn up to 20 calories a minute jumping rope. That means I likely burned 150-200 calories in 10:53 minutes, not 529 calories. That’s more than a 50% variance between what the online data says, compared to the results.
Should you get this skipping rope
Fitness trackers motivate people like me to stay committed to their fitness goals. However, the accuracy between them has always been an issue. The MSAN Electronic Skipping Rope is no exception. While the rotation data seems to be accurate, I wouldn’t trust the calories burned in the built-in fitness tracker. It’s better to use jump time and rotations to estimate calories burned.
As a jump rope, I found it easy to use. I really like how the rope connects to the handle. I didn’t like the PVC plastic in the handle. MSAN should look into making a premium version with better material. Another issue I had was hitting the buttons with my fingers by accident. Thankfully, they designed it so that hitting the buttons during jumps wouldn’t interfere with the tracker.
Having a fitness tracker in the handle is a great idea. But other than the LCD display, this is pretty low tech. I would like to see smartphone integration so I could track jump rope workouts inside an app. If smartwatches have told us anything, it’s that people love to track their steps. Jump rope enthusiasts like myself would love to track jumps and calories burned during workouts.
That said, this is a perfect entry-level jump rope. If you’re looking for a way to stay fit and healthy at home, I highly recommend you give jump rope a shot.
You can purchase the MSAN Fitness Electronic Skipping Rope at Best Buy.
