One of the world's best exercise devices costs less than $15, fits in your briefcase, and is easy enough for a child to use.

In fact, jump ropes have long been considered "kid stuff"--but that's changing. Professional athletes in a variety of sports, particularly tennis and basketball, are adding rope jumping to their training for the same reason boxers have "skipped it" for years. An unparalleled all-around workout, rope jumping strengthens the heart, muscles, and bones, promotes leanness and improves agility, coordination, timing, rhythm, and explosive power on both sides of the body.

MORE THAN JUST "KID STUFF"

"Jumping rope is definitely catching on" in health clubs across America, says Kathie Davis, executive director of IDEA, a San Diego-based national association of fitness professionals. Jump rope segments are an integral part of one of the hottest trends in the fitness industry--boxing-based fitness classes, Davis says. Exercise instructors also are incorporating rope skipping into many other kinds of classes, including circuit training and boot camp workouts.

Several top clubs, such as Crunch Fitness in Los Angeles and several locations of Bally Total Fitness around the country, have offered workshops in the emerging sport of freestyle jump roping, in which participants jump rope to music and perform a variety of trick moves, such as double unders, arm crosses, and turns.

LEARNING THE ROPES

"There's a misconception that only very fit, well coordinated people can jump rope," says Marty Winkler, president of FreeStyle Jump Roping, (CQ) a Burbank, CA, company that markets jump rope products and services. "But we get people of all shapes and sizes and levels of fitness who can complete our one-hour jump rope class." Beginners don't jump through the rope for the entire class, he notes, but are encouraged to do "neutral and resting moves"--for example, putting down the rope and miming the instructor's movements--when they need a break.

And it's a great family activity, says Winkler. Everyone in the family can participate at his or her own level and enjoy jumping together. Even grandparents who might not want to jump can still turn the rope for double dutch.

"Even klutzes can learn to jump rope if they're taught properly," says Ken Solis, an emergency room physician in Beaver Dam, WI, who holds the Guinness World Record of 2,411 consecutive double unders (where the rope turns twice for each jump) with an arm cross. A 42-year-old former runner who picked up a jump rope one wintry day in 1979 when bitter weather kept him indoors, Solis is chairman of the education committee for the United States Amateur Jump Rope Federation (USAJRF).

"What really got me hooked was how much fun you can have when you turn on the music," Solis recalls. "All of a sudden, I was just flying."

Carol Krucoff is an award winning journalist and founding editor of the Health Section of THE WASHINGTON POST. Her internationally-syndicated column, Bodyworks, ran in newspapers around the world for 12 years. In addition to being the mother of two growing children, she is also certified as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise and holds a second-degree black belt in karate. She and her husband, Mitchell Krucoff, M.D., are the authors of HEALING MOVES: HOW TO CURE, RELIEVE AND PREVENT COMMON AILMENTS WITH EXERCISE (Harmony Books, 2000). Learn more about their book at www.healingmoves.com.