When it comes to fitness trends, some are more beneficial to your health than others. That doesn’t mean you have to write off the less beneficial ones before you try them. Any form of working out should be a little bit fun, after all. Let’s talk about rebounding – glorified trampoline jumping – and how you can still use it to encourage yourself to stay active.

WHAT IS REBOUNDING?

A rebounder is pretty much a mini trampoline. So as you can probably guess, the idea behind rebounding is simple: you jump up and down for as many “reps” as you want to. Some rebounders come with support bars, but part of the exercise is learning to control and stabilize your jumps. Rebounding can be considered a leg workout. It’s not quite cardio and it’s not exactly strength training, either. But you can still use it to your advantage to help you work toward your fitness training goals.

WHAT REBOUNDING CAN AND CANNOT DO

If you ever jumped on a trampoline as a kid, you probably already know it’s enough of a workout to get you sweating and feeling out of breath. It has its pros and cons, mostly because it’s not intense enough of an activity to replace an entire workout. Rebounding is fun, low intensity and can be good for building up stability and balance. But it’s not enough of a workout to burn a ton of calories or muscle. It’s more of an accessory maintenance workout – good to do on a rest day when you’re feeling a little too restless. The science boasting about your immune system benefiting from jumping up and down is a little outdated.

Regardless, activity is still activity no matter the intensity. Watching an hour of TV while jumping on a mini trampoline is still more beneficial than watching an hour of TV while laying on your couch eating potato chips. Rebounding won’t replace your high intensity cardio and strength training, but it’s still a way to get your heart pumping and relieve stress when you would otherwise just lounge around.

HOW TO USE REBOUNDING TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Rebounding isn’t new, and it’s not going to keep you away from the gym or your usual workouts. It’s not completely useless, though. Sometimes, low impact physical activity can still be enough to release hormones that make you feel less stressed. If it’s the end of the day and you have extra energy to burn before you start winding down, jump on your rebounder for 10 minutes. Use to to loosen up tight leg muscles. Use it just for fun, if that’s the only benefit you get from it.

A little physical activity is better than none. Sometimes you just need something quick and easy to clear your head and fend off some side effects from stress. After some upper body training, rebounding can be a nice, simple alternative later in the day that keeps you moving without wearing you out. Give it a try.

Source

https://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/love-at-first-bounce-the-benefits-of-rebounding