Just about everyone knows that jumping on a trampoline is fun. What you may not realize, however, is that both children and adults can benefit from jumping on trampolines. This is true whether you’re bouncing on a large trampoline or a rebounder (which is just a small personal trampoline).
There are many benefits of trampoline use. Today we’ll discuss the physical benefits of jumping on a trampoline, as well as the benefits of rebounding. We’ll also discuss the not so well known other benefits of trampoline usage as well. Let’s get started!
Physical Benefits of Jumping on a Trampoline
There are numerous physical benefits one can enjoy from bouncing on a trampoline. Some of the most notable benefits are improved cardiovascular health, increased muscle strength, weight loss, improved flexibility, increased bone density, along with better posture and balance
YIKES! That’s a lot to take in. Let’s break each of these benefits down individually to provide you with some more details.
Cardio
Jumping on a trampoline increases your heart a great workout. It’s easy to argue that the heart is the most important part of your body. Therefore, anything that moderately increases your heart rate and provides your heart with exercise is a big plus.
Jumping on a trampoline is also likely to increase your overall blood flow as well. Why is this important?
Consider that improved blood flow will increase your body’s ability to transfer nutrients from one part of the body to another. This will also help ensure that each part of your body always has sufficient blood flow.
Muscle Strength
One of the biggest problems we face in modern society is muscle atrophy from our sedentary lifestyles. This is true both when we are young and old. Young people have to deal with a body that they’re not proud of when they look in the mirror, as well as being unable to perform strenuous exercises.
The problem is even more serious for older individuals. A lack of muscle strength can increase one’s risk of injury, and cause them to struggle with even the most basic of tasks.
Fortunately, jumping on a trampoline activates virtually all the muscles in your body. While jumping on a trampoline isn’t going to give you the body of a gym rat AKA “The Rock”, it will help stave off the muscle atrophy that so many people are struggling with within today’s world.
Jumping on a trampoline for just a few minutes a day can strengthen your core and your whole body for that matter. Of course, the more active time you spend on your trampoline each day the stronger you’ll become!
Weight Loss
We understand that in today’s world lot of people have some issues with ‘fat shaming’. It is true that everyone is entitled to choose the lifestyle they would like to lead.
The important thing to recognize, however, is that being overweight isn’t just about aesthetics. The most important aspect of being chubby or obese isn’t that you need to buy bigger shirts.
The biggest reason you’ll want to lose weight is that being overweight comes with a lot of health and mental issues. If being overweight is causing you to feel less confident, it’s difficult to argue that your weight is negatively affecting your quality of life.
Even if you’re confident about being “PLUS size,” however, tipping the scale at an excessively high number also makes it more likely for you to suffer from body pain, high blood pressure, heart disease, high LDL cholesterol, and even some forms of cancer (source here).
Yikes, that’s some serious business! Don’t freak out too much though. One of the benefits of jumping on a trampoline is that doing so can help you lose weight. For one, jumping on a trampoline burns many calories.
Jumping on a trampoline also helps strengthen your muscles, and having stronger/bigger muscles contributes to your body’s metabolism. Thus, regularly jumping on a trampoline can help you to burn fat, and obtain a healthier body!
Improved Flexibility
Apart from strengthening your muscles, jumping on a trampoline is also said to lengthen your muscles. This leads to you becoming more flexible. Flexibility is important for several reasons. Being flexible will decrease your overall risk of injury, improve physical performance, and also help improve your posture.
Increased Bone Density
Similar to your muscles, your bones strengthen if they are challenged to the proper extent. Jumping on a trampoline benefits the density of your bones because it repeatedly puts them under small amounts of stress.
To accommodate for this, over time your bones will rebuild themselves to be stronger than they were before! Strong bones help you avoid painful injuries such as broken or fractured bones. High bone density will also help protect you against osteoporosis.
Improved Posture
As we said earlier, jumping on a trampoline improved your muscle strength and flexibility. This leads to the improved ability for your body to support your spine which can help to prevent and even reverse many of the negative health effects typically associated with poor posture.
Better Balance/Coordination
Jumping on a trampoline offers a unique opportunity to practice your balancing opportunities. Balancing on a trampoline is comparable to jumping and trying to properly land on a floor that is always moving.
Because of this movement, you’re forced to become more aware of your body and its center of gravity. The obvious benefit of better balance is that you’re less likely to fall. This is especially important for senior citizens who are always at risk of falling and being unable to get back up.
Of course, having a better sense of balance can also be useful for other sports or athletic activities. A basketball player or football player that’s highly efficient at controlling their balance and center of gravity is also EXTREMELY DANGEROUS to the other team.
Other Benefits of Regular Trampoline Use
Apart from the physical benefits regular usage of a trampoline may provide, there are a number of other improvements you may notice after you begin using your trampoline.
Increased Persistence
Nobody likes a quitter. Unfortunately, instant gratification activities such as video games or social media don’t teach us to work through difficult problems. You can’t expect yourself (or your children) to learn the skills of patience or resiliency if you’re partaking in activities that instantly reward you.
The benefit of trampolines is that they can encourage you or your child to become more persistent. Everyone wants to eventually learn how to backflip or learn some other trampoline trick.
The process of repeatedly trying-failing-trying-failing before one eventually succeeds can help teach you or your child an amazing amount of persistence and self-discipline.
Self-Esteem Boost
Using a trampoline can make you feel more confident for two reasons. The first is one we already alluded to before. Using a trampoline can help you lose weight or tone your body. When you have a healthy body, you’re more likely to feel confident about yourself.
The other reason using a trampoline may boost your self-esteem is that we tend to become more confident as we develop new skills and abilities. As you see your balance, cardiovascular capacity, and ability to perform trampoline tricks improve, you’ll feel more confident in yourself and thus have higher self-esteem.
Cheap Form of Entertainment
It’s almost unanimously agreed that jumping on a trampoline is lots of fun. Fortunately, most trampolines cost only a few hundred dollars (see 7 trampolines to consider buying here).
While that’s obviously more expensive than going to the movies this weekend, think about how much lasting entertainment you’ll get out of your trampoline.
A family night at the movie theater may only cost $50 for a family of 5, but that experience is only enjoyable for a few hours. A trampoline may cost $300 but your family will be able to enjoy using it for several years.
If your $300 trampoline lasts 6 years, it’ll average out to only cost you $50/year — the same as a single-family night out to the movie theater!
Conclusion
We hope our post has helped you understand some of the benefits of trampolines. There’s a reason we’re so passionate about writing new posts about trampolines every day.
There are so many benefits of using a trampoline and in a day and age where money and physical activity can be scarce, a trampoline offers you excellent bang for your buck in both of those areas.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of our trampoline reviews. It’s our mission at TeamTrampoline to help you find the perfect trampoline for your family at a price you’ll feel good about.