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Health benefits of trampolining
"The non-somersaulting benefits of trampoline is one of the best kept secrets
in the world. Rebounding will exercise and strengthen every muscle, organ, and
cell in your body. Trampoline is not only fun but will enhance overall
coordination, strength, flexibility, timing and balance," writes Michael Brook,
owner of High Performance Productions in Arvada, Colorado and 25-year national
veteran of high performance, and a Colorado State Trampoline Champion, a Member
of the Great American High Diving Team and a premier professional freestyle snow
skier in the aerial acrobatic event.
Studies by NASA scientists show that rebounding is 68% more effective than
jogging, and yet requires less effort! You can also develop both upper and lower
body strength just as effectively as weight lifting--without the strain or
threat of pulled or torn muscles. Rebounding has been shown to out perform
swimming as an all round exercise.
Apart from being great fun, bouncing on a trampoline brings a number of very
real health and wellbeing benefits including:
- Balance – trying to bounce in one place on a trampoline means you have
to develop a keen sense of balance and awareness of how your body’s balance
can be adjusted (or compromised) by small movements at the body’s
extremities.
- Coordination – closely related to balance is the need to coordinate arm
and leg actions, as well as many fast-twitch muscle groups, necessary to
form the different shapes and perform the various somersaults and twists.
- Bilateral motor skills – the action of bouncing whilst trying to
maintain balance and coordinate bodily extremities calls on both sides of
the body and, indeed, the brain to become engaged which is quite different
to many ground based sports where one side can often be favoured (most
notably in football for example).
- Rhythm – again closely related but distinct is the need to bounce in
tune with the trampoline to achieve optimum height for least effort.
- Self-confidence – even those least confident with sports will find it
possible to make some progress on the relatively forgiving surface of a
trampoline and this progress will help boost confidence.
- Cardiovascular fitness – bouncing on a trampoline increases the pulse
rate and strengthens muscle groups essential for a healthy cardiovascular
system.
- Bone Density – bouncing repeatedly puts bones under small amounts of
stress sufficient to help them build themselves up to cope with that stress.
This in turn reduces the risk of factures and osteoporosis.
- Improved lymphatic circulation – probably not quite as good as detoxing
entirely but the short periods of weightlessness between periods of higher
than average G forces that occur whilst bouncing actually helps the body get
rid of toxins; physical activity and gravity effects are essential to the
lymphatic system achieving this and both are more actively engaged when
trampolining than with almost any other sport.
- Low impact – although bouncing is an impact sport the period of
acceleration and deceleration is much longer than with activities such as
jogging where the surface used has no give at all. Although we have not seen
this with Wayne Rooney in this World Cup, it was notable that during the
build up to the World Cup in 2002 David Beckham was seen building up fitness
and ball skills whilst using a mini-rebounder for this very reason.
Some more information on training benefits etc... are available on this site
here.
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