Trampoline Fitness: How Jumping Up and Down Helped Me Stand on My Own Two Feet

Photo courtesy of Jump Life

Fact: I’m a clumsy person. I fall off treadmills, trip on sidewalk cracks, crash bikes, and face-plant in yoga class, just to name a few of my most recent mishaps. But despite my proclivity for injury in some pretty safe environments, I decided to take a trampoline fitness class. I figured it’s just jumping up and down — who screws that up?

New York City’s JumpLife class is a kickboxing-Zumba-dancercise combo on a mini personal trampoline, also known as a rebounder. Expecting to happily bounce around the entire time, I strapped on an industrial sports bra and a diaper (joking — but seriously ladies, do your kegels!) to attend a 45-minute group session.

However, jumping up and down in a sweaty studio didn’t evoke warm feelings of nostalgia — and as an adult hopping onto the springy apparatus for the first time since childhood, that’s exactly what I anticipated. Instead, I was shocked at the sweat-inducing intensity of the workout.

Yet, as unpleasant as I’m making the class sound, it was still the most fun I’ve had exercising, and surprisingly, also the safest. While I feared that I would tumble right off the 3-ft. in diameter tramp, I felt secure and stable. Monserrat Markou, founder of JumpLife, explains why klutzes are suited for this form of exercise, including its many health perks.

It’s easy on your frame: Because of the trampoline’s resistance and elasticity, you use your own body weight to bounce which places less stress on the knees, back, and joints.

It can give you a six-pack: Even if you don’t necessarily realize it, trampoline bouncing constantly engages the core because jumping on an unstable surface, forces you to engage your abdominal muscles to avoid a wipeout.

It’s a form of meditation: The rhythmic bouncing and the steely concentration on balance makes the workout positively Zen. “You can’t focus on something else, otherwise you wouldn’t know what to do with your feet,” Markou says. “Your mind isn’t wandering and you’re not thinking, ‘I have to go cook, or clean, or go shopping.’”

It’s a serious health boost: Not only does bouncing burn an average of approximately 650 calories during a medium-intensity class, it can lower blood pressure and strengthen the heart thanks to the increased gravitational force (G-force) on your muscles.

It builds bones and prevents muscle loss. In the 1980s, a NASA study found that jumping is more beneficial in maintaining bone and muscle mass than jogging. Since then, bodybuilders have been tooting the effects of trampoline jumping, especially for the elderly.

It’s a painless workout: “People believe they need to feel pain in order to get a good workout,” Markou says. “But exercise shouldn’t hurt.”