Muhammad Ali. Floyd Mayweather. Mike Tyson. Evander Holyfield. These men are renowned as some of the greatest boxers of all time, and their records and championship belts prove it. How did they get that way though? In order to be the best, you have to train like the best. If you search the Internet, you’ll find clips of almost all professional boxers jumping rope in preparation for a bout.

The short bursts of intensity and agility needed to jump rope at a consistent high level is staggering. I found this out the hard way, as I’ve reviewed the Renpho Smart Jump Rope. This jump rope is, in one breath, made from steel wire and gives you a fantastic sweat session. But it’s also a coach in its own right, guiding you through three different kinds of workouts. You may have also noticed the word “smart” in its title — it connects to your phone and can track your workouts for you.

If you’re looking for a new fitness gadget to help boost your cardio, stamina, and strength, a simple jump rope can be the answer. But this is anything but a simple jump rope — it gives you so much more for only $30. Here is more of what I found — minus how out of shape I was — while using the Renpho Smart Jump Rope.

Price, specs, and availability

You may know Renpho for its eye massager or smart scale, but the fitness tech company continues to expand its roster with its $30 smart jump rope. While it’s the normal price on Amazon, it is marked down to $30 on Renpho’s website from $60. Featuring a sleek design with either a black or gray casing option, you receive two handles, two cordless balls, the rope wire, two AAA batteries, a user’s manual, a travel bag, and fasteners to keep the rope in place.

When the jump rope is put together, it weighs just over one pound. The rope is adjustable, as it measures three meters, meaning you’re able to find the right length for you unless you are over 6′ 9″. Plus, you can attach the cordless balls for a workout on the handles as well if you don’t want to do a full jump rope exercise.

What I liked about the Renpho Smart Jump Rope

It challenges you in several different ways

I’ve been exercising my entire life — from baseball and football growing up to transitioning into running and cycling as an adult. I frequently participate in spin classes, 10ks, and half-marathons, but I’ve been looking for a mixture of workouts for both cardio and strength, as my time is more limited these days as a parent. When I had the opportunity to review this smart jump rope, I saw it as the combination I was searching for. I hadn’t done much jumping rope prior to receiving it, so I had a feeling the movements would be a struggle in the beginning.

After setting up and adjusting the length of the jump rope for my height, I put the batteries in and saw the LED screen light up to reveal a counter. The first workout mode is just a simple counter that calculates how many rotations the jump rope makes. I did a few jumps and stopped to look at the counter, and it was indeed calculating them. I then tried to do as many as I could do in a row and, despite stepping on the rope a few times and getting a slash on my arm (a known consequence of poor jump rope form), I was able to get up to a decent number of rotations before I had to stop.

I downloaded the Renpho Health app (not the Renpho Fit app) and was amazed at how quickly this paired via Bluetooth to the app. It allowed me to start a counter in the app, so I was able to look down to see how I was doing in the middle of my jumps rather than only being able to see at the end when I looked at the handle. After taking a few second break to catch my breath and let the fire building in my shoulders subside, I switched to the second option, which was a timed mode. It ranges from one minute to 10 minutes, so you can try and maximize the short amount or see how many jumps you can do over 10 minutes. After the time runs out, the handle makes a loud beep to alert you that you’re finished.

After two minutes and 156 completed jumps, my heart was racing. It was on to the third mode next, which allows you to reach a certain amount of jumps before it beeps. The number of jumps you can set as a goal range from 50 to 1,000 in increments of 50, and after that, 1,000 to 2,000 in increments of 100 — I completed 200 before being truly exhausted. The data from the Renpho Health app synced with my Apple Health app on my iPhone to pull through to my health tracking for the day.

I’ve used the smart jump rope multiple times since then, always trying to better improve my times, as it remembers how long it took you to hit a certain goal, so you don’t have to write it down anywhere. Now this is where the coaching aspect comes in — it gives you all the data both on the jump rope itself and in the app so you can work to beat your times. As a competitive person, this motivated me since it was right there in black and white on a well-lit LED screen.

The build of the jump rope was also impressive, as the steel wire was sturdy and bent nicely, even if my 6′ frame and size 12 shoe came down on it awkwardly. Renpho has also included two cordless balls for you to attach to the handles rather than the wire so that you can practice your jump rope without having to fully jump. The balls on the end will register a count on the handles, so you can work out inside a lot more easily.

What I don’t like about the Renpho Smart Jump Rope

The instructions were vague

The user manual for the Renpho Smart Jump Rope is a bit vague. There are six picture instructions on how to set it up but no list on what each component in the box was. The wire and cordless balls were secured together by a fastener, so as I was reading the picture instructions on how to set the length adjustment up, I struggled to figure out how the cordless balls came into play. I didn’t realize they were their own separate entity and not to be used with the jump rope, despite being fastened together with the wire.

Eventually, I sorted it out and realized that they were for two separate exercises. Meanwhile, the adjustable length was more intuitive to figure out because there were marked indentations on the wire itself. But they are in centimeters, which made me resort to my calculator to see where to set them for my height.

Should you buy the Renpho Smart Jump Rope?

If you want a quick workout that you can do in 10 minutes or less, the Renpho Smart Jump Rope is a smart investment. The fact that it is only $30 is a huge plus, because it’s much less than a full one-hour workout class is going to cost you at any exercise studio or gym. Assuming you have the room to utilize it properly, it makes a lot of sense if you want to give jumping rope a try.

Even though it provides a vastly different workout than a kettlebell or dumbbell exercise, the repetition is what gives you the strength and muscle building, so you’ll feel the burn just the same. Almost anybody can use a jump rope, making it an easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master fitness tool. I look forward to the challenge of continuing to try to master it, one flick of the wrist at a time.