Double-unders are seen as the crown jewel in the cardio world. As simple as it seems to pass the rope underneath your feet twice in one single hop, they can be more challenging than one would think; especially after you get whipped by the rope a few times.

I’ve worked with athletes for years on learning this skill, and the past two months have helped over 20 athletes finally get their double-unders for the first time. Here is the proven way I have found to help individuals get their double-unders:

• Single-single-double penguin hops.
• Single-single-double jump rope.
• Single-double-single-double penguin hops.
• Single-double-single-double jump rope.
• Double-double penguin hops.
• Double-double jump rope.

Here’s the catch though: wherever you are on this progression, you must practice that progression in the workouts.

We write our workouts every day with eight different “levels” depending on your current fitness level. For athletes trying to learn double-unders, they fall under our “blue” level. A workout in the blue-level will look something like this:

The way this workout is intended to be performed for blue-level athletes is for them to accumulate 15 double-unders. Too often the athlete will say to themselves, “I can’t do 15 double-unders, so I’m just going to do 35 single-unders.” This is not what it means.

Instead, the athlete should work on their current progression (above) and accumulate 15 double-unders. This might look like doing 15 sets of single-single-double under hops. They continue to do this until they are messing up so frequently that the stimulus of the workout is no longer being met. At this point, they should switch to 35 single-unders.

I made a short video to further explain this proven progression, as well as how to approach jump rope workouts in the future. In summary, here’s the secret: Find and practice your current level in the workout every time.

Tyler