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Rope Burn

Yesterday, all the kids at my daughter's school got skipping ropes from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  I think this is a really great idea but I had to laugh when I saw the kids pouring out of the school with the jump ropes in their hands.  Exactly one of the kids, of the dozens I saw, was actually skipping rope.  The rest were playing "helicopter", twirling the rope wildly above their heads, others were enticing their little siblings to chase them by encouraging them to run after the end of the rope and still more kids were using the ropes as reins and whips.

Witnessing all the dozens of improvised uses of the skipping rope reminded me that hearts benefit not just from jumping up and down in one place, but also from lunging, running, galloping and stretching and...
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