I invite you to learn a little bit about an exercise I’ve been doing lately called rebounding. When I first heard this term, I immediately thought it had something to do with basketball (you know, grabbing a rebound after a missed shot). Then when I heard it described, I immediately thought of women wearing tight leotards from the early 80’s wearing leg warmers with a giant Richard Simmons style perm.

I guess I was wrong.

When I really learned about the benefits of rebounding I was astounded.

As somebody who has spent countless hours in the gym since 1997, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t see how it was any better than walking, running or doing the stair stepper machine. Plus I lifted weights, I wasn’t about to do that girly exercise.

I finally gave in and I’ve been doing this rebound workout consistently now for quite some time. I’d say it’s been about 8 months.

My typical jumping and exercise program on the Bellicon is about 25 minutes per day 7 days a week. At my gym, they just got a great little rebounder (mini trampoline). When I’m in between my sets of squats, dead lifts or inverted rows, I’ll either stretch or jump on the rebounder.

I typically jump up and down on the rebounder for about a minute or two at a time. But I get on it after every heavy set. My total rebound time might be 10 to 15 minutes when all is said and done.

I’ve found that after I’m done jumping on it, I feel a sense of satisfaction. My legs and feet feel light like I’m floating. I get the same feeling if I run on the treadmill for a while and then suddenly get off. I also get that same feeling if I wear ankle weights and then take them off.

But the feeling after rebounding seems to exist all over my body. I suspect that it has to do with my head and sinus cavity accelerating and decelerating on the ascending portion of the jump. Whatever it is, it’s somewhat addicting because it’s such a great feeling.

There are a couple people in my gym who think I’m crazy for using it or they think it’s stupid. I just laugh inside because they’re trainers and supposed to know which machines are good, and they neglect arguably the most beneficial piece of equipment in the entire gym.

Their loss.

When starting any new health practice there has to be a period of learning in order to keep the motivation going on the days when you aren’t excited about doing it. I believe rebounding might be one of the most incredible exercises that a human can do. In 30 years from now, I want to look back and say that I’ve been rebounding for 30 years and will probably look and feel amazing because of it.

The same principle applies to why I do yoga, lift weights, meditate, eat and take care of myself the way I do. I want to look back and feel amazing when I’m 80 because I did all of these things.

Every day I wake up and the first thing I do is thank God for all the blessing He’s given me, my health my life, my body and I want to honor Him in all that I do. And one very small component of my life happens to be my health.

So now, I’d like to briefly talk about the 5 main reasons you should get a rebounder and start accelerating your health to another level.

It Helps Increase Bone Density

Osteoporosis is a condition that many people are afflicted with today. We know that bone density and bone mineralization are laid along axial lines of stress. When we rebound there is an acceleration and deceleration that happens on each jump. The average person can accelerate and decelerate approximiately 100 times per minute.

The G-force that occurs is about 2 times if you do the health bounce (feet don’t leave the mat) and 3 times your weight if your feet leave the mat 6 inches. This means if you’re holding 10 pound dumbbells while you’re jumping, you’re really adding about an extra 30 pounds of stress to every cell and muscle in your body.

Because the accelleration and deceleration impacts every cell and muscle in the body, it acts as a whole body exercise and helps to put angular stress on every bone that is attached to your muscles.

There’s a pretty popular study done by NASA when astronauts returned from space and they began using rebounding to regain bone density. When they were in space away from gravity of the earth, they lost a significant amount of bone density.

Rebounding was used as a main strategy to help rebuild bone mineralization and reverse osteoporosis that was occurring in astronauts. The study was done in 1980 and found in the Journal of Applied Physiology and can be found here.

NASA said, “…for similar levels of heart rate and oxygen consumption, the magnitude of the bio-mechanical stimuli is greater with jumping on a trampoline than with running, a finding that might help identify acceleration parameters needed for the design of remedial procedures to avert deconditioning in persons exposed to weightlessness. “

Journal of Applied Physiology 49(5): 881-887, 1980

Listen below to my thoughts about why I love the Bellicon rebounder so darn much! 🙂

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It Helps To Detoxify Your Lymphatic System

According to the research I’ve done, the 3 main components of rebounding (acceleration, deceleration, gravity) cannot be duplicated in any other exercise. Your lymphatic system in your body is one of the main ways your body accumulates toxins, poisons and heavy metals and uses minerals like glutithione to help get rid of these toxins. Having a healthy lymphatic system is critical for your health.

We accumulate toxins every single day. We breathe mercury from coal fire plants, and we’re exposed each day to endless toxins. If our body had no way of getting rid of these we would simply get cancer and die. Think of a nuclear power plant reacting like Chernobyl and the entire city trying to use one freeway to flee. That’s like your body only have one way to detox. When we rebound we open up one of the main channels of detoxification.

Your body uses the skin, the lungs, the bowels, the liver and the lymphatic system to help remove these poisons fromo harming our bodies.

There is no other exercise that helps the lymphatic system function well.

It Helps Balance, Reaction Time & Coordination

When you’re rebounding you’re actively engaging your mind/body connection using your ocular nerves and inner ear canal. This helps to stimulate and strengthen your balance, timing, coordination and reaction time.

Because your body is moving in directions that it cannot prepare for on some of the bounces, it helps to put your physiology in a kinesthetic state of learning and reacting.

It Strengthens Every Cell In The Body

Rebounding effectively causes every cell in the body to move up and down. By doing this the nucleus of the cell must remain in a gel like state and the cell membranes must strengthen themselves in order to keep the cytoplasm inside the cells strong enough to keep all the inner contents of the cell from being damaged. These are things like Golgi bodies, ribosomes, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulums, lysosomes and more.

There is no other exercise that puts the stress of gravity and g-force onto all individual cells in the body. Rebounding helps strengthen your ocular nerves and muscles (eye muscles are very weak). What other exercise or piece of home gym equipment can workout your eyes?

It’s More Fun Than Other Exercises

I’ve been enjoying my rebounder now for quite some time. I have to say it’s one of the best exercises I’ve ever done. I want to be clear though that although doing the health bounce is amazing and jumping up high does help build small amounts of muscle, it won’t bulk you up the way strength training does.

Many people enjoy jumping up and down on mini trampolines like rebounders because it helps with weight loss, it’s great for balance for older seniors and seems to have an increased effect of getting rid of cellulite.

I do it more for health reasons, how it makes me feel (it releases endorphins like crazy), and because it’s fun. I really enjoy it. I don’t enjoy lifting weights as much but this is something I actually enjoy. When I get on I’ll usually watch UFC (ultimate fighting championship – I love Brazillian jiu-jitsu) on mute and listen to health related interviews at the same time. Essentially I’m doing 3 things at once and time just flies by.

I’ll never give up doing yoga or weight lifting but this is something new that I won’t give up either.

If you’re looking for a way to be healthier and detoxify your body, rebounding has to be a part of your protocol. If you’re looking for a way to build bone density because you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia, then I strongly suggest you start rebounding right away. You would also want to add strength training to your exercise program as well as rebounding.

29 More Benefits Of Rebounding

The G-force that occurs on the body due to acceleration helps strengthen the musculoskeletal system.

About 85% of the impact on the joints are mitigated unlike doing jumprope or running.

The ability to manage your BMI (body mass index) improves as well as your muscle to fat ratio.

Increased circulation and oxygenation for improved organ and tissue health

Becuase bouncing helps to increase cellular circulation that allows teh capillary count in the muscles to increase which then diminishes the distance between these capliaries and other target cells in the body.

Rebounding causes the heart to become stronger over time so that it can pump more blood easier.

Regular rebounding over time helps to decrease the resting heart rate of most individuals.

The acceleration and deceleration helps to strengthen the heart even after heart surgery.

It helps to create the a healthier red blood cell that’s able to function at higher efficiency

Over time rebounding helps to reset your resting metabolism and metabolic rate so you burn more calories even when you’re not exercising.

The up and down action of rebounding causes large muscle groups to contract which causes a rhythmic compression of every artery and vein in the body. This helps to increase ciruculation and increase blood flow and oxygenation of tissues which in turn helps to lower blood pressure and puts leess strain on your heart muscle.

It helps to improve lung capacity and respiration

The height of the arterial pressure that’s needed for exercise is reduced by rebounding

Rebounding decreases the amount of time blood pressure rises after intense exercise

Bouncine helps to lower the amount of volume of blood that could stagnate and pool in the veins which cause edema in the extremeties.

Rebounding longer than twenty minutes at medium intensity 3 or more times per week increases the mitochondria within the cells and that helps endurance athletes in particular.

Rebounding allows the body to achieve an alkaline ph in the body more easily.

Rebounding helps to decrease the amount of free form cholesterol in the body as well as leves of triglicerides.

Rebounding lowers low-density lipoprotein (bad) in the blood and increases high-density lipoprotein (good) holding off the incidence of coronary artery disease.

Cellular repair and tissue repair are enhanced when one rebounds on a regular basis.

A deeper and more relaxed sleep is another benefit of rebounding on a regular basis.

Mental synapses are improved and increased by rebounding.

Improves the body’s response to PMS for women.

Rebounding helps to decrease the amount of flus, colds and stomach ailments.

Regular rebounding has been shown to decrease cellular atrophy due to aging.

The reaction time necessary for propreoceptors located in joints is improved with rebounding. The transmission of nerve impulses along the mylen sheaths to and from the brain, spinal chords and muscle fibers is improved with regular rebounding activity.

Rebounding allows the brain to respond better to the vestibular apparatus inside the inner ear which helps improve balance in the body over time.

Along with improving spinal alignment and posture, regular rebounding has been shown to help relieve joint, back and neck pain over time.

The digestive peristalsis is re-calibrated and improved by a regular rebound practice.

All in all, I don’t care what people at the gym think, they’re missing out on one of the best exercies we as humans can engage in.

Have you done it yet? If so, what kind of rebounder do you have?

I am in love with the Bellicon Rebounder. Click here to check it out!