Your clients love your studio or club, but your trainers and instructors are faced with perpetual challenges to continually develop fresh, new programming. By adding a mini-trampoline to your equipment options, they will quickly discover this is one of the most effective multifunctional fitness platforms that can easily be incorporated into virtually any modality, including functional training, barre classes, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and more.
Amplify Your Functional Fitness Programming
Here are three examples of how using exercise trampolines for functional fitness maneuvers boosts benefits for exercisers:
- Box jumps. Effective, but jarring to the body. Jumping from the floor onto a trampoline provides a resilient landing that not only alleviates the stressful impact, but also forces the body to stabilize more. Trainers can progress this maneuver by adding a squat jump after landing on the trampoline surface.
- Battle ropes. A great total-body workout. Deepen this move by standing on the trampoline. The force thrown into the ropes also transfers down into the elastic cords of the trampoline and rebounds through the exerciser’s legs. This intensifies each movement and challenges the body even more.
- Jack planks. Excellent and core-focused total-body exercise, but harsh on the wrists. Doing these on the forgiving surface of a trampoline is much more comfortable and responsive — the more power exerted into the trampoline, the larger the hop (and it’s more fun).
Fuel Barre Classes with Mini-Trampolines
Whether you want to add variety to your barre classes or simply challenge your clients more, adding rebounders to barre delivers cardiovascular benefits and magnifies the effectiveness of isometric and balance movements.
Low-impact cardio. Though highly effective at toning through low-impact maneuvers, barre classes typically lack cardiovascular elements, and it may even take the entire class for some participants to reach their optimum fat-burning zone (70 to 80% maximum heart rate). By incorporating a cardio warmup that is easy on the joints, instructors enable exercisers to reach that zone quicker, while still being gentle on their bodies.
Intensified stabilization. Boost the effectiveness of almost any barre move by simply standing, lying or kneeling on the trampoline surface. For moves like a Tendu, the plant leg is challenged significantly more to hold still due to the instability of the trampoline. Ballerina squats on the fitness trampoline require more engaged control of the entire body, especially the core.
Enhance HIIT, Strength Training, Dance and More
No matter what style of exercise classes you offer, mini-trampolines can easily be incorporated. Club owners can capitalize on this opportunity to provide instructors with a versatile multi-tool that, with a bit of creativity, delivers an effective workout that is more fun and more comfortable for every client — including kids, Millennials and active agers.
Forrest Bless is VP of marketing at JumpSport Fitness, which provides specialty programming and certifications in trampoline fitness, and manufactures JumpSport Fitness Trampolines. For more details on integrating trampoline programming into your club or studio space, contact Forrest at training@jumpsport.com. For more information about JumpSport Fitness, please visit jumpsportfitness.com.
