Shake up your rebounding routine!

So… you’ve made the first big step.  You’ve got a rebounder.  Or, as your friends and family probably call it, “that mini trampoline thing.”

You’ve even made the second big step: you set it up.  It’s sitting right there.  Maybe you even took the third big step onto the rebounder.

Now what?

The most common question I get about my rebounder, after all of the preliminary “whys?” is something like, “so what do you do on there?”

Let’s answer that question with another: what can’t we do on there?  Have we all gotten so uncreative with our bodies that we think we just need to kinda half-bounce on our new rebounders for a few minutes and call it quits?  The kids in us would be ashamed!

This is where I’ll step in and offer some advice.  First and foremost: have FUN on your new piece of health equipment!  It really is a mini trampoline, after all.  Remember how much you wanted to jump around on those in your younger years?  Here’s your chance to give yourself full permission.  You’re an adult now.  You can do that, if you want.

But, creativity is hard sometimes.  Here are a few of my favorite moves to throw into my rebounding routine to mix it up and get my lymphatic system really moving in all parts of my body.  That’s one of the main rebounding health benefits, after all!

Jumping Jacks

Now, these aren’t your military-style jacks here.  Sure, you’re doing a movement similar to that.  But the fact that you’re on a trampoline will quickly boost the amount of power you’re getting from this simple move.  You’ll soon feel like you’re flying and the image of soldiers doing these babies will quickly change to a wide open sky embracing you!

Twist & Shout

Yep, just like the name implies.  Throw some twisting motions into your bounces and soon you’ll shout with joy!  I like to do “twist jacks,” basically a variation of jumping jacks in which the legs twist to face one way while your torso twists to face the opposite direction.  It may take a few tries to get right, but it’s so fun and feels like you’re dancing with the Beatles themselves!

Skipping

Back to the whole childhood thing.  You know how to do this and it’s totally a game changer with springs beneath you.  Again, this will increase coordination as the movement is still different atop an unstable surface.  We could all use more stability, yes?

Single-leg Hops

Here’s a definite strength-builder: going one-legged on a trampoline.  You laugh, but I’m telling you right now that this is a lot harder to maintain than it sounds.  This is not a move for someone with knee issues, as the body weight is being held by only one side now and the leg needs to learn to absorb all of that extra amount by itself.  Focus on squeezing the glutes (booty muscles!) and quads (the big muscles on the front of the thigh) when landing to take the pressure off the knee and teach the muscles how to support you instead.

Frog Jumps

Clients always complain during workouts that I include these in, but they also always request them because they’re a dang good movement.  Start in a crouching squat with the hands touching the trampoline in from of you, and push with the legs and butt to explode off your feet with as much force as you can make.  When landing, make sure to dip the butt right back down to the bottom of the squat and use all the same muscles to catch yourself and land as softly as possible.  This, again, brings the strength to the muscles and pressure off the knees.  You won’t be doing as many of these as, say, the jumping jacks.  But they’ll work you super well!

So, there you have it.  These are just a few moves you can incorporate into your rebounding routine to either:

1. Move the whole body more
2. Avoid boredom with only simply going up-and-down
3. Burn some serious calories
4. Improve strength, stability, and balance

The amount of intense exercise on your rebounder is up to you.  I generally just use mine to get the lymph flowing, as mentioned before, than as a hard workout.  But the moves discussed above can easily turn your “mini trampoline” into a full-on sweat session, if that’s how you push yourself on them!  The versatility is marvelous and any kind of goals can be worked toward with a rebounder in your life.

About the Author

Allison is an ACE-certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition level 1-certified nutrition coach in Austin, Texas.  She owns and operates Flabs to Fitness, Inc., her wellness business that publishes recipes, product reviews, and blogs regularly at www.flabstofitness.com.  Allison will be finishing her time as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin in May 2017, receiving two degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Dance.  She believes in a holistic approach to health and fitness.  When she isn’t working (which is rare, because she loves what she does!) you can find her doing something outside, reading, or going out dancing, be it on the iconic Sixth Street or at a swing dance venue or two-stepping hall.  If she can watch the steps, she’ll learn the dance.

She is always looking for ways to improve her health so she can send that message to others.

This has been a guest post by Allison of www.flabstofitness.com for Needak Rebounder