Bounce Bounce Baby

- Cherie Tseng

It is no surprise that kids are naturally drawn to trampolines. They like bouncing on it, they like playing on it and they even like simply flopping on its bouncy surface. Parents like trampolines too, even if the reason is largely because they know that trampolines are a great way for kids to expend their excess energy. Talk about a win-win! Fun factor aside, trampolines are a sneaky way to get a great workout and have huge benefits physically and even mentally.

Benefits There are many physical benefits of trampoline exercise: for one, it is a fun, efficient and effective way to get a workout. A ten-minute trampoline workout is equivalent to a half hour run! It has been shown that jumping on trampolines can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour. The aerobic nature of exercise stimulates metabolic rates and is a good way to get a cardiovascular workout. At the same time, it also strengthens, firms and tones muscles and improves one’s sense of balance.

This is good bilateral motor skills training, and allows trampolinists to learn to control and activate different muscles and limbs at the same time. While the jury is still out in many circles, trampoline enthusiast will swear to high heavens that trampolining is a better form of exercise than most, even running. For one, jogging and running places stress on lower limbs and feet. It is estimated that at times a jogger might generate up to quadruple the downward G-forces at work on their lower limbs. So, a 60kg person would generate about 240kg of downward pressure on the joints each time the foot hits the ground.

Conversely, trampolining takes away more than 70 per cent of stress on your weight bearing joints making the incorporation of trampoline work a good alternative for people who may have physical limitations and challenges when used under proper advice and supervision.