edit

This Smart Jump Rope Tracks Your Grueling Workouts

Jumping rope is, like, the worst cardio you can do. Not "worst" because it's bad for you, but worst because it absolutely sucks. Why did we think jumping rope was such a fun thing when we were kids? Remember back on the playground when two of your friends would hold the rope and you'd jump around and do tricks, or you'd try to see who could jump the longest without being smacked in the face by the rope? What were we thinking? That isn't fun at all.

But there's no doubt that jumping rope is great for your body, even if your entire body is crying in excruciating pain while doing it. It gets the heart rate going like few other things can do.

And if you want to keep track of exactly how fast it's sending your heart racing, there is the new Smart Rope from Tangram. The shiny silver handles track calories burned, total jump count, workout time and more. What's really crazy about this rope is that it's filled with LED's that light up while you jump, and those LED's (once you figure out how to read them) give you information you can see while jumping. You don't have to look down at your Fitbit or even at the rope handles; it's all right there in the rope as it passes perilously close to your dome.

When you're done working out, the rope transmits all the data it captured to an app on your smartphone, so you can track your workouts over time. It's $90, which is very expensive for a thing that will almost certainly maim your head and/or legs at some point, but there you have it.

What do you think?