IPOH: To create awareness about a healthy lifestyle this National Day, two friends have taken up a challenge to skip rope 31,857 times between July 30 and Sept 7.
Teacher Nurul Ain Jamalludin Al Amini, 32, (pic, left) and IT analyst Muhammad Irfan Ibrahim, 27, (pic, right) are part of the largest virtual jump rope challenge known as “Jump for Malaysia 2021”.
Participants have the option of skipping 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 31,857 times.
Both chose to skip 31,857 times, as the digits represent the nation’s independence date.
Nurul Ain said they were required to accumulate the number of jumps between July 30 and Sept 7 using an application that would record their skips, and the time taken to do so.
The results would then be submitted to the event organiser.
Based on her estimates, she would skip another 1,000 times before reaching the 31,857 mark by today.
“It takes me about an hour to skip between 1,000 and 2,000 times daily. When I started at the beginning of the month, I never thought I could complete the skips, but I challenged myself to do it.
“I am proud that I took up the challenge in conjunction with National Day, and I hope Malaysians will stay healthy and fit at all times,” she added.
As for Irfan, he said it took him 20 days to complete 31,857 skips.
He completed his mission by Aug 22 and there was a day when he completed 10,000 skips.
“I had done so because I was going to get my second dose of the vaccine, which meant that I was not going to do any strenuous exercises for the next seven days.
“So in order to make sure I completed 31,857 skips, I had to do 10,000 skips in that one day,” he said.
Irfan started skipping the past two months as he wanted to lose weight.
Since undertaking the exercise at the end of June, he has lost about 15kg.
“I was 117kg then. Now, I am 102kg. So I hope my experience will motivate others to lead a healthy lifestyle,” he said, adding that he received guidance on rope skipping methods from other enthusiasts.