Rebounding (mini trampoline)

Anyone have a link to an exercise routine or video for a mini trampoline? I've searched on here and on google and I've found names of moves but not much in the way of descriptions of them (I've never done it), or a full routine. I am looking to rebound for about 30 mins and don't know what to do!

If anyone knows of a video on YouTube or something similar, that might be the best thing because then it would have the right music too!

And in lieu of all that... if someone here is willing to spend the time to describe to me what I should be doing (to warm up and during the workout and how fast and anything else helpful) I would be quite appreciative :)

Thanks!

If this is your first time rebounding I'll tell you what I was told...ease yourself into it very gently..I do 5 or 6 minutes a few times a day now and I really can tell the difference in my overall fitness and I have only had mine a couple of weeks. 

The basic warm up move is called the Health Bounce I think...it is basically just a light bounce where your feet never leave the mat.

I walk in place also and even jog a bit if I need to get my heart rate up. I'm no expert on moves. I use music to help me out. Eventually you will find what feels natural to you.

I posted something like this..

Just remember not to overdo it! Have a great experiance with it. I love my rebounder.


Here is the direct link to the trampoline topic posted.

Over there is a link to sources for dvds and books for this type of workout.

OK I lied just a little bit... :-P I've done it once (of maybe half a time): a few weeks back the fitness studio I was at did an introductory class because they were going to introduce it into their program of regularly scheduled classes. So I did half a class which constituted of 15 mins or so of bouncing. And I didn't really feel it the next day at all... which is why I'm thinking 30, or perhaps I was doing something wrong? We were just bouncing with music and doing a bit of coordinating arm and leg moves (kind of like an aerobics class... but on a trampoline).

Edited to add: Thanks for the other post and the link. I will start with the health bounce but am wondering what else to do for 30 mins :) esp without music :-/

flowerbud, paleorchid started her exercise program with a rebounder, so anything would have made her sore at the start.  But you've been exercising for some time, and it will be much harder for you to get sore, although some ways of bouncing may well make your calves scream at first.  A good reason for you to proceed gently anyway is that many people get dizzy at first from rebounding, and it is possible to lose balance ungracefully (i.e., fall).

It's an aerobic activity, not strength-training, so ongoing muscle soreness isn't expected, no more than anyone who (say) jogs or swins every day gets sore muscles from those after they're used to a routine.  It's more to get your heart rate up and your lungs pumping.

You really don't need someone to give you "a routine'.  I don't have one, and I bounce my butt off for an hour at a time some days ;-)  It rarely makes me sore anymore, but my feet still start to go numb if I bounce high for a long time.

Just get on it and play.  You'll find moves you like.  Turn your brain off.  If your body doesn't feel like moving, just stand there :-)  Let yourself be a kid again.  That includes taking off your shoes and socks!  In a gym they won't want you to do that (for "health reasons"), but-- just trust me on this --rebounding is more enjoyable with bare feet.  For example, you can do subtle things with bare toes to change some aspects of the bounce.

With no imagination, you can, e.g., walk in place, jog in place, run in place, or sprint in place.  You can do those at a steady pace, or switch among them in interval-training fashion, or even use it for HIIT.  Get bored with that, do jumping jacks.  Do jumping jacks but change the leg split from in-out to front-back (one leg front, other back, then alternate), or diagonally, then all of those in turn as if your legs were at opposite ends of a minute hand on a huge clock.

Skip rope on one.  Skip rope really fast.  Or pretend to, without a rope.

Try bouncing on your butt, holding your body in a "V" shape.  Get real good at that, and you can even get your butt off the matt without using your arms to help (I can't do that yet, but I've seen it done).

Try bouncing on one leg.  Try bouncing on one bent leg.  Bend it more.  That can get very intense, and make you sore indeed, so don't jump into it.  It's possible to generate over 3 Gs of force at the bottom of the bounce, so it's possible for your body to temporarily feel 3x as heavy as it is, and that can be very hard on a single bent leg.

Bounce with both legs bent, with fingers on your thighs, and slowly increase the bend.  Feel the thigh muscles tighten at the bottom of the bounce, like steel cables.  They really feel the G force.  Straighten up and move your fingers to your abs, but keep bouncing.  Huh!  They contract too, even if you try to stop them ;-)

Bounce very gently and swing your arms.  Side to side,  Back and forth.  In circles.  Reach over your head and s-t-r-e-t-c-h.  Make ridiculous "muscle poses" while you're bouncing.  Feel the gravity ebbing and flowing, jerking muscles against bones.  Breathe deeply.  Clasp your hands behind your back, straighten them, and raise them both up as far as they go.  All kinds of stretches with a gentle bounce going are relaxing and effective.  Pretend you're Bruce Lee (the late kung-fu movie star) and beat up some bad guys -- kick front, kick back, kick to the side, punch, swing around.  Do the Twist.  Grab a hula-hoop and try to do that while bouncing.

Bounce up and down with both feet leaving the mat.  Try to do it while keeping a fixed, slight bend in your knees, using just your core muscles.  Or just pushing off with your toes.  Then try to do it by only flexing and unflexing your legs at the knees.  Then try to do it without using your legs, just by pumping your arms up and down intensely, getting a rhythm going, higher and higher.  Try any two of those at a time.  Try three at a time.  See how long you can float in the air.  Try to increase your "hang time".

While bouncing in the air, simultaneously turn your body slowly so you face a slightly different direction on each bounce.  Go all the way around clockwise, and then again in the other direction.

Grab two cans of soup and do 200 arm curls while bouncing.  Because of the G forces, mixing weights with bouncing is advanced stuff, and nothing else feels quite like it.  As far as your muscles can tell, whatever you're lifting is literally changing weight by a factor of 2 or 3 about 100 times a minute.  Try to lift something truly heavy, and that's a surefire way to pull a muscle (i.e., don't even think about it).  Light weights can be fun, though.

Do something unexpected.  Surprise yourself!  Sometimes you'll like it, sometimes you won't.

When you can't think of anything to do next, just go back to a "baby bounce"/"health bounce".  Do that shifting weight from one leg to other on each bounce.  Notice that makes your arms and/or hips want to swing in time.  Help them along by exaggerating the swings.  Oops!  You just discovered another new thing to do :-)

If you want someone to tell you what to do, get one of the videos, DVDs or books at:

    http://www.jump4health.com/

I'll probably do that myself some day, but so far I spontaneously find something new each time I try it.  Of course there are certain moves I go back to over and over, but they slowly change over time.  This is entirely a free-form exercise -- what a shame it would be (to me) to stick to one routine.  If you want to get bored to death, buy a stationary bike instead ;-)

Rebounding is my main form of exercise!

If you enter "urban rebounding" in a search, there are a ton of videos that have different routines. African dance, Hip-Hop, Ballet, Yoga, Box and Bounce, Interval... I can't remember all of them.

I've been rebounding for a year and a half now... and I have been super-pleased with the videos I got, because I have not become bored yet.

Anyway, I am glad to see some other rebounders here! It seems there aren't that many of us.

   There really ARE Rebounders here!!! LOL!!! I've wondered, sometimes...! :-) 

    I LOVE it- stretch bands- small- are really nice, too. Nordic style walking was recommended to me, as well. Leg lifting and fast beat music are awesome motivators for me :-)

    Doing good paleorchid!!! Great to see you posting progress!!!

    Thanks for the link blackthorne, that's new to me.

   WOW tgpish!!!

Thanks so much to all for all the great ideas! It looks like I will be trampolining for the first time tomorrow morning and I am excited :) I don't have music, but hopefully I should be able to keep up a good rhythm without it?

Also, I wanted to know if any of you have bounced with a HRM. From reading posts on here it sounds like there are some discrepancies between figures in the activity database. For those of you who have measured, how would you say 30 mins of rebounding compares with 30 mins of jogging, say, wise of max/avg heart rates and calories burned?

Edited to add another question: Covert Bailey in The New Fit or Fat ranks Mini-Trampolining as "moderately low" for "long-term fat-burning potential". It is the lowest of the indoor exercises in that regard. The book says that "for the already fit, it may not provide enough of a workout". ...opinions?

flowerbud, I'm afraid there's no way to guess what Covert Bailey (or anyone else) thinks "mini-trampolining" is.  As I tried to hint at in reply #3, there are an enormous number of things you can do on one.

In general, across those things you can do either on a rebounder or on solid ground, research has shown that you burn a few more calories doing them at the same pace and for the same time on a rebounder.  This is presumably because rebounding needs to recruit more stabilizer muscles (to retain balance).  The increase in calorie burn isn't large but is real and measurable.

For example, I bet Bailey thinks jumping rope is a fine aerobic workout (else he's nuts ;-)).  Well, you can also jump rope on a rebounder.  Better, since rebounding is much easier on the joints than pounding your feet against solid ground, I think many people are more likely to keep at it for a longer time on a rebounder.

Same thing goes for stuff like running in place, and so on.

"Baby bouncing" burns very few calories and can be done for hours without even breaking a sweat; sprinting in place will get your heart racing like a fire engine quickly.

In short, what you get out of a rebounder workout depends entirely on what you put into it -- and there's no way from here to guess what Bailey put into it (assuming he even tried it).

I make it  to 10 minutes at a time now rebounding.  I dance all around on that thing and if I get semi-tired then I just walk in place a minute then pick it back up.  All this from someone who could barely make 2 minutes at a time. I aim for 7-9 times per day now and I feel great because of it. 

Also wanted to say yep I think we are certainly  a small group or at least it seems like we are hiding well!

Take care everyone!


PaleOrchid

Also, I wanted to know if any of you have bounced with a HRM.

Yes, I use an HRM.

From reading posts on here it sounds like there are some discrepancies between figures in the activity database.

The database can only give a generalisation, based on your age, weight, height, and sex... whereas the HRM gives it based on weight, height, age, sex, and heart rate.

The calories burned rebounding will depend on the type of activity, as mentioned by tgpish.

When I am doing regular "basic" rebounding, I burn maybe 150 in half an hour. But when I am doing advanced or interval, I may burn 250-300 in half an hour (Understand the calories presented are for me, and I am small and in my mid-forties... so I burn a lot less than "regular" people would).

I think we are certainly  a small group or at least it seems like we are hiding well!

Well, I've put rebounding in my interests, on my profile. Maybe if we did that, others might find us.

I don't understand why more people aren't doing this... it's fun, and it doesn't hurt my feet and ankles like regular aerobics and jogging can sometimes do.

I never thought about adding it to the interests. Great Idea!  I agree...I think if people just gave it a chance they might never leave the thing alone.

I got a cheap one because I was not sure how I would like it but eventually want to get one with a soft bounce.  Mine is not so soft at all. :(  But still I manage to have fun  and have a reason for a good foot rub at the end of the day.

Rebounding was a fad in the USA in the early 1980s.  Unlike most people on Earth, I'm old enough to remember that ;-)  Millions of units were sold, and at its peak there were over 100 manufacturers in the USA alone.

Lots of old-timers in the business blame that for its rapid decline:  most models sold were cheap, and even dangerous, but "the cheap drives out the good".  For example, springs were weak, and the mats were often made of cheap canvas that distorted quickly (if it didn't outright tear), leading to major nastiness like turned ankles.

The good news is that current high-quality models are engineered very well, with "space-age" materials like Permatron used for mats, specially-designed hefty springs, and frames that won't bend or crack unless you run over them with a steamroller.

So what's holding it back now?  I'm not sure.  Maybe that high-quality units sell for upward of US$200.  Maybe because too many people believe "hey, if it's fun, it can't do any real good".  Maybe because the 1980s fad fizzled out too quickly to attract much serious research.  Maybe because too many rebounding sites today are too full of dubious "new-age-ish" claims, even outright absurdities.  Mabye even some of each ;-)

Whatever, PaleOrchid, you should be a poster girl for rebounding!  Look at how fast you've made progress -- it's amazing.  The first time I saw you post here was just a few weeks ago, and you were showing classic signs of someone who despaired of  ever being able to get fitter.  Ha!  You're not only doing it, you're having real fun with it.  And it only gets better :-)

BTW, some people prefer "hard bounce" designs.  My understanding is that most like "soft bounce" better, and I know I certainly do.  I bet you also would, based just on your weight -- the "soft bounce" designs are, as the name implies, less jarring.  They typically have double-tapered barrel springs, so that they resist very little when your feet first make contact, slowing you down at the bottom of the bounce more gradually.

The absolute top of the "soft bounce" line now appears to be new models by Bellicon (a German company, I think), which use 36 little specially designed bungee cords instead of springs.  I've heard rave reviews of those, but haven't been on one.  At about US$600, I'm not keen on buying one on faith alone :-(

That's funny... I saw the mini-trampolines in the 60's.  I did not see a resurgence where I lived in MA in the 80's. Most people I knew were into aerobics, as was I.  As you said, it must have been short-lived.

blackthorne, it only lasted for a few years -- almost like a "Dutch tulip craze".  While this brief "History of Rebounding" is obviously slanted toward JB Berns, I think it's mostly accurate (& it places the US fad in the 1981-1983 range).

Oh, I certainly believed you, tgpish. I just felt like I must have missed it somehow, which turns out to be a very good thing! One thing I would have loved to miss was doing high impact aerobics on a concrete floor with unacceptable shoes... but we did not know then, then same way my mother's generation knew little of vitamins.

You're right... it is obviously slanted towards Berns, but then, so am I. The workout videos are quite creative. I'm biased. :-)

Berns' rebounder itself is good... but probably not the highest quality one made. I figured I could get away with using the gym quality one.

Hey, I think Berns is great!  Nobody else has done more to (re)popularize rebounding, and the rebounders he sells are at a very attractive price point compared to other good units -- although I can't say I like some of the sleazy ways it's marketed.  For example, as sold here:

    http://www.urbanrebounder.com/

Unless you look very carefully (you can't actually find this on that page), it's very easy to miss that by ordering there you're also agreeing to:

    $29.95 per month plus $3.99 shipping and processing, billed
    to your same credit card

forever after, to ship you vitamin pills(!) every 60 days too.  Awfully expensive for vitamin pills?  Na,

    That?s an incredible 50% OFF the already low retail value

LOL.

But I digress ;-)  For technical comparisons, visit the websites of competitors -- Needak, Rebound Air, and Dave Hall compete on the "high end" of the US market, and all (IMO) make very high-quality units.  FWIW, I bought a Dave Hall model this year, and, of course, absolutely love it.  All three of those manufacturers (along with Bellicon, mentioned earlier) use Permatron mats, which appears to be a good part of why they cost substantially more than an Urban Rebounder.  Worth it?  If you ask them, absolutely ;-)  I've never used a mat that wasn't Permatron, so can't give an informed opinion on that.

Yes, the marketing is so very nasty...

I bought mine through a reputable third party, instead of one of the Urban Rebounding sites... that way, I didn't get vitamins or extra charges, and I could return it with no problems if it didn't work out.

I am glad you brought that up... a lot of people could get caught unawares...

When the time comes for me to get a new rebounder, or perhaps even just the mat, I will keep your suggestions at hand!

Wow!!! Hello fellow rebounders! I was googling today about rebounding and NEVER thought I would end up back to where I've been already for so many answers. Here's my question:

I am on week 3 of daily rebounding. I rebound for 30 minutes at a pretty high intensity ever morning when I get up (followed by 10 push-ups and 20 sit-ups). I have also been watching what I am eating...since I started rebounding, I've GAINED 5 lbs. All of my clothing fit better on me and my boyfriend said I don't shake as much, but I am gaining weight!!!! Can anyone help me understand what is going on??? I know it seems crazy, but I also know people here can certainly relate to how depressing it for the scale to go the OTHER way!!! 5'2" and WAS 175lbs and now 180Lbs

I just bought a Rebounder after looking at all your posts!!!  I'm getting tired of the elliptical and the stair master!  I put a RUSH on it!!  =)

I CAN"T WAIT!  I've been thinking about it for some time now....It's my early 30th b-day present to myself!!

I have also been watching what I am eating...since I started rebounding, I've GAINED 5 lbs.

contessa420, it could be anything... if you changed your diet at the same time you started rebounding, it could be sodium causing water weight gain. If it's hot and humid where you are, it could be fluid retention. It could be the development of muscle... if your clothes are fitting better, but you weigh more... muscle weighs more than fat. Are you drinking enough water?  Any medications or change in medications?

Rebounding has never made me gain weight, it has only made me lose. If I were gaining, I'd be looking at every factor... because that sounds unusual. Not worrisome, just unusual. :-)