TITLE Skipping Rope: Leather or PVC Speed, Ball Bearings

Round three is where the rope tells you the truth about your legs.

The two ropes do different jobs. The leather rope is heavier through the arc, so you feel it turning and your shoulders work for the whole three minutes. Weights sit inside the foam handles and come out when you want them out. Load the rope up for conditioning, strip it back for footwork. The PVC speed rope is the light one: thin, quick, and built for double-unders and high-cadence intervals where the rope should disappear under you. Both turn on built-in bearings, so the cord runs clean at the handle instead of winding up on itself between skips.

Specifications

• Leather: Leather cord, foam handles, removable internal weights
• Speed: PVC cord, fast turn
• Bearings: Built in on both ropes

Which rope

Boxers building a round-long engine take the leather. CrossFit and Hyrox athletes chasing double-unders take the speed rope. Plenty of gym bags hold both, and that is a fair answer.

Put your own rope in the bag and stop borrowing the gym's.