7 Reasons Why You Should Start Trampoline or Gymnastics

Trampoline has gone through it’s fair share of rumours pertaining to the perceived positive effects of bouncing up and down. The big one being obviously that everyone is looking to lose weight. In this article I will discuss some of the realities of why trampoline based workouts are great and why they can suck too. After reading this you should know if it is right for you!

1)

Weight loss/ Cardio: Most people forget that trampoline is exercise just like running or elliptical or any cardio based movement. Yes, you will not lose as much weight as you would when doing a 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training session ( HIIT). If you are interested in learning more about HIIT please leave a comment and I will write another article. Most would be very surprised to discover how hard trampoline can be once you bounce for 15 minutes straight. I have seen 240 lb men who can bench and squat double their body weight who have had to fly off and rest for 20 minutes because of a cramp they have gotten after 5 minutes of bouncing. They were only doing seat drops and back drops lol. To get a little more technical there is an increase in capillerization (formation of new capillaries) that allows blood flow to reach muscles quicker by taking shorter paths. It would be an interesting study to see what means of training increases cardio the most. I may be inclined to believe that trampoline would be better for cardio then traditional methods due to the fact all muscles need to be squeezed during trampoline so that you don’t fold in half. This causes a higher overall recruitment of muscles which causes a higher demand for oxygen rather then the normal amount needed for walking or jogging. Not to say muscles are not activated during running but it is not to the same degree because there is a lot less flight time. ie, less gravity to fight against. The body will have to make up for this extra utilization of oxygen by increase heart rate initially. Then the body realizes that that is too hard to maintain so it brings down the heart rate by increasing the amount of blood actually pumped out per beat.That is when you get the lower resting HR because the more blood being pushed out causes more preload (end diastolic volume) which causes an actual “stretch” within the heart muscles which increases the amount of blood being pushed out. The body thinks this is awesome because it wants to work less and less so it will keep trying to increase the amount of blood ( ie, oxygen carrying cells)pumped with less effort. This has been shown to go to ridiculous levels. For example the average resting heart rate ( BPM) is 72. An average athlete is 50-60.That is where I fall under.

Then you have the VO2 max records of about 80+ ml/kg/min who have a resting HR of under 35. Ie Lance Arm strong. My V02 was 64 last time I checked. By the way, Volume of Oxygen consumed is measued in ml/ kg/min.

Therefor I use 64Kg x 64ml= 4096 ml (4.096L) of oxygen every minute when I am at my max workout load. That is over a gallon of Milk every minute. HAHA I hate milk!

Enzymes are also creased when ANY FORM of exercise is increased. The body breaks down Carbs, Fats, and Protein. The main energy sources for exercise is Carbs followed by Fat and then protein is the last choice. Protein is only used after all the other substrates are used up. This is seen when athletes ” hit the wall”. This is simply when an athlete has gone through all the oxygen, carbs and protein available to the body and literally has nothing left. It can happen very quickly when you are focused on a 4 hour marathon. It takes longer to make energy from fats because you have to move the fats out of the storage deposits in the body before they can be used. Simply the fats are broken down into specific parts and these parts mix with other molecules in the oxidative metabolism pathways and creates energy. This is why it actually takes longer to lose wight then to gain muscle mass. The pathways are different. Yes, people are fat for many mental and genetic reasons as well but thats for another day.

The body uses mostly oxidative pathways just to bounce on a trampoline so these fats that are broken down need the be moved and attached to other molecules such as Acetyl COA which is the precursor to the Kreb cycle. Don’t worry Links are at the bottom if you care. It is not necessary that you know that however. All of this changing and transportation of fats uses other transporters and enzymes. These enzymes increase in numbers when the stress builds up. The more cardio you do the more enzymes, including transporters get made to counteract the new stress. Evolution on a micro scale is called adaptation. Your muscle fibers also change. That’s again for another day.

Those who try and sell you a trampoline fitness class by telling you, you can burn 1000 calories do not know the reality of the situation. A HARD HARD HARD workout for 1 hour will burn maybe 500 calories at a really intense advanced work out. A trampoline work out is a whole series of small bursts of energy repeatedly. You will NOT burn as many calories as a high intensity work out but that is not the crux of the trampoline workout. We will get to it shortly. Remember resting does not burn calories as highly so look at it this way: If your goal is turn lose weight then your body is not adapted to do that based on the fact you require it in the first place. If the body is not adapted to it then it is not efficient at breaking apart those vacuoles that hold fat and transport them. You have not created the necessary enzymes to even lose weight yet. That is why people start and get demotivated so fast. They have to give the body a good month before the body says “ Ok guys, looks like we have new orders from the top guys, lets start making transporters and enzymes”. That is the secret to weight loss. Weight watchers and all these pills and stuff, is all garbage and plays to your ignorance of how the body actually works. The only way to lose wight in a healthy manner is to work your ass off. Make your body follow a new directive. Sure you will get headaches and tummy aches and soreness and a billion other reasons to let the body keep doing what it wants. Those responses are just like crying babies. They just want to make their life easier and will cry until you say “ FINE, have your stupid cheesecake you dumb brain”. You may laugh but I'm not joking at all. Thats why people give up, they do not realize that the body is fighting you on it and you have to win. Sure you can lose but who wants to lose when the path is so straight forward?

This is the golden egg or the Crux of trampoline for the average Joe: You will be so happy to learn tricks and to bounce around and have fun you will forget that you are losing weight. It turns the stressful endeavour of weight loss into a game and everyone loves games. Instead of focusing on the soreness of the muscles or on the fact you would rather be doing anything else Trampoline parks have created a way to play your way to weight loss. Sure you won’t burn a million calories in a day but you will actually have the incentive to go back the next day. It is not longer work, but a fun activity with the kids and the family.

2)

Spatial Awareness: Spatial awareness come from three semi circular canals within the ear. These have fluid inside of them and based on the movement of the fluids that sends a signal to the brain saying that you are facing a certain way. If you are up side down the fluids go upside down. This causes a signal to the brain saying “HEY I’m upside down, yippie” . If the signal builds up and the brain literally overloads on the signal then dizziness occurs, head aches, nausea sometimes vomiting. Then the person has to rest and gain control over the fluids before resuming. After a while of flipping and twisting the body learned to control this signal and it becomes weaker so more signals can be tolerated and therefore you can be upside down longer before you feel dizzy, you also recover faster. You may think spatial awareness does not matter for you but it d

oes. Here are a few examples that you may be able to relate to.

“Approximately 40% of migraine patients have some accompanying vestibular syndrome involving disruption in their balance and/or dizziness at one time or another”. - See more at: http://vestibular.org/migraine-associated-vertigo-mav#sthash.USzepCY4.dpuf

“It is an exercise-based program primarily designed to reduce vertigo and dizziness, gaze instability, and/or imbalance and falls. For most people with a vestibular disorder the deficit is permanent because the amount of restoration of vestibular function is very small. However, after vestibular system damage, people can feel better and function can return through compensation. This occurs because the brain learns to use other senses (vision and somatosensory, i.e. body sense) to substitute for the deficient vestibular system”. - See more at: http://vestibular.org/understanding-vestibular-disorder/treatment/treatment-detail-page#sthash.VPdJ0w8t.dpuf

These quotes basically say that if you have migraines or any vestibular based illness that by forcing your body to go through the motions you will learn to adapt by using other senses such as sight to help reduce the pain and overcome the illness to a degree. Will trampolining help your vestibular issues such as vertigo and migraines ? Well this article discusses it briefly but not much research has been done on this concept yet. I sure would love to do a few studies of my own. Any takers? http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/278/

The body is quite simple. It is very good at adapting to any situation. It even regenerates! Every time you get a cut or a scratch, the skin goes through a clotting cascade that creates no skin in that area that is slightly tougher then the skin before it. “We don't want that to happen again” the brain says. This is why Gymnasts get calluses on their hands. Over and over the body says,”Ok clearly we are always going to be destroying the cells on the hands, let’s add reinforcements”. The rest of the body does the same thing in it’s own way. If you start slow and build your way up in anything you will learn it. Just don’t expect to jump half way up the latter and not fall down every time.

The above article briefly mentions that just by standing on a trampoline you will begin to reinforce the necessary pathways that will help to override the vestibular disabilities. Again I have no idea how great the benefits really are but basic logic states that it is better then doing nothing.

3)

Joint stability: A lot of people have lax joints and don’t even know it. There is a degree of anatomical variability that goes with this but a large portion of people with lax joints only have them selves to blame. For example flat footed people are not different then anyone else, they just don’t use their muscles on the medial side of their leg like the flexor digitorum longus or their arch muscles on the bottom of the foot that cause the arch. Th