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On the Goal Guys official YouTube channel, Brendan Jones is busy strengthening his endurance and strength while preserving his lean shape by attempting all kinds of physical challenges. In a new youtube video, he uses a weighted jump rope for thirty days in addition to his normal workouts.
At the beginning of his workout, Jones starts out with 5 circuits of 90 seconds on a 1lb rope, but he becomes so weary that he has to stop after the first 60 seconds before he can continue. “The pain begins to grow intensely until I quit on the last circuit after only 30 seconds,” he explains. “I’m feeling it in my shoulders and lats right now. My whole upper body is tired.”
After a few days of feeling fatigued and dejected Jones begins enjoying his exercises, and he decides to start bringing a second half-pound rope with him so that he can change out once he starts to tire and continue doing his circuits for longer, increasing the amount of time his shoulder muscles are under tension.
Over time, Jones learns new strategies and variations from his brother Cam such as crisscrossing the rope and single-foot reps, then attempts to add them into his weighted rope routine to increase the difficulty. “I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was to scale up these moves with a 1-pound rope,” he adds. “But… when you make a mistake, it feels like hell.”
On the last day of the challenge, Jones puts his shoulder strength to the test to determine how far he has progressed in a month’s time. The lateral hold is 10 seconds quicker and the front-facing hold is 12 seconds faster than on Day 1, indicating that he has gained a pound of muscle.
“Perhaps as essential as any of these statistics is the fact that I genuinely liked performing these activities,” he adds. “Practicing and improving my Cam’s skills, getting faster, and increasing circuit times — it was all pleasurable and rewarding.”
