Beginner Rebounder Exercises
One of the greatest aspects of rebounding is the fact that there really is no wrong way to do it as long as what you’re doing on a particular day feels comfortable and safe to you. Remember, with rebounding, and unlike any other form of exercise, you’re working on the whole body at the same time. Sure, you can focus on particular areas of the body, but even then, the rest of the body is never being neglected.
I’m now going to share with you some of my favorite rebounder exercises. Both Cellerciser® and bellcon® offer excellent workout videos so I would advise checking those out. You can always purchase and/or subscribe to these later. In the meantime, here are a list of rebounder exercise to get you started:
The Health Bounce
Also known as The Baby Bounce, this move simply involves standing in an upright, but comfortable and relaxed position with your arms down by your sides and legs about shoulder width apart. Lift the heels of your feet off of the mat and bring them back down. The balls of your feet and your toes never leave the mat, only your heels do. If you have a balance bar, feel free to place both hands on the bar while you’re bouncing. If you’ve never been on a rebounder before and/or you suffer from a balance issue, I would heartily recommend you start with the Health Bounce for at least a week or two. Start with only a few minutes each day and listen to your body! Your body will tell you when it has had enough for that day. Once you start to feel tired/fatigued or start to feel unsure of yourself, stop and slowly step down off of the rebounder. Use the balance bar if you have one to assist you in stepping off. Once you begin to feel more comfortable, try to work up to 5 to 10 minutes per day. Once you reach 5 to 10 minutes per day without feeling tired or fatigued, you can attempt some of the more challenging exercises.
Even if you are active and in good physical condition, use this Health Bounce as a warmup period each day before you get into your actual workout. I personally do about two minutes per day of the Health Bounce to warm up before I start my actual rebounder workout.
Don’t let this exercise fool you. Some very remarkable things are happening during the Health Bounce! Even with this gentle bounce, you are exerting about 0.25x the normal gravitational force on your body and every area of your body, down to the cells, are beginning to respond to this force. Your lymph system is being stimulated as the millions of one-way valves throughout your body open and shut with every bounce. The repeating opening and closing of these valves are sucking old lymph fluid out of the cells and bringing fresh lymph fluid in. Also, it doesn’t take much to begin to stimulate the inner ears and the cerebellum of the brain, which are ultimately responsible for balance.
The Standard Bounce
This is similar to the Health Bounce except your feet will be leaving the mat entirely because you’re jumping higher. Stand in an upright but relaxed position with your arms down by your sides and feet about shoulder width apart but lift the heels of your feet with more force so your feet come up off the mat entirely before you come back down. How you land at the bottom of the bounce is up to you. Most people come down on the balls of their feet because that is most natural way to land when you jump. Landing on the balls of your feet and then transitioning back on your heels (which happens in a split second), is how you instinctively land on a hard surface without feeling a jarring effect or injuring yourself. However, if you land on the rebounder mat “flat-footed”, that’s okay too because the rebounding mat and spring or bungee system is designed to absorb the impact. Once you get used to this motion, try bending your knees slightly once you land and back on the way up to start jumping even higher.
With the Standard Bounce you’re going to be experiencing some real weigh bearing resistance on your body. You’re also going to be getting some cardiovascular challenge, particularly if you’re bending your knees and engaging your legs more during the jump. Once your legs, shoulders (they’ll be engaged too because of the amount of weight bearing resistance with this jump), or any other part of your body feels like they’ve had enough, lighten up on the intensity (height of the jump) or go back to the Health Bounce.
Never try to jump as high as you can on a rebounder. I know that sounds counterintuitive to the Standard Bounce but if you try to jump as high as possible on each bounce, you’re eventually going to lose your form. If this happens you may land wrong (putting more weight on one leg than the other at the bottom of the bounce) or you may jump at an angle on the way up. The point of the Standard Bounce is more knee and leg engagement than the Health Bounce but always in a controlled manner.
Jogging in Place
Just as the name implies, this involves stationary jogging. However, unlike regular or treadmill jogging, your feet and knees suffer little to no impact. Jogging on a rebounder does feel different than regular jogging, so please take it slow and easy until you get used to the feeling. As for form, whatever feels most comfortable to you. However, try to keep your upper body upright and spine aligned—no slumping of the shoulders while you’re jogging.
This exercise is great for cardiovascular fitness. I personally do four rounds of jogging followed by four rounds of the Standard Jump on a “cardo only” day. After two minutes of the Health Bounce, I’ll jog until I’m just about out of breath and my legs are tired. I then do the Standard Bounce until I get my wind back. I repeat this four times. This is a great cardiovascular workout if you don’t have much time that day.
Advanced Rebounder Exercises
These exercises are going to be a little more challenging so please attempt these only after you’ve gotten the feel of your rebounder and you’ve developed your form and balance while jumping.
Overhead Press while Bouncing
Have you ever done an overhead press with dumbbells? The form and motion on this exercise is quite similar except you’re not going to have any weighs in either hand. Stand on the rebounder with your back straight (no rounded back or slumping of the shoulders). Pretend that you have a dumbbell in each hand and get into the starting position for an overhead press (if you are not familiar with an overhead press, please search “how to perform an overhead press with dumbbells” using your favorite internet search engine). Now, from here, begin bouncing as you would with the Health Bounce but with your arms in the overhead press starting position. Once you get the feel for being in this position, tighten your both of your hands into fists and tense up both your arms. With your arms and fists tense and while bouncing begin to move your arms upwards, just like you were doing an overhead press. Once your arms get to the top (your arms are straight and your elbows are locked out), bring your arms back down to the starting position. Remember, this is all done while jumping. Repeat this until you feel your arms and/or shoulders fatigued, and/or you start running out of breath.
This is a great exercise for the upper body but please practice for as long as it takes to build proper form and rhythm. You’ll notice that when you’re at the bottom of a bounce, that’s where the most weight resistance will occur. Depending on how slowly you’re progressing through each press, you might bounce three or four times. The more slowly you progress through each rep, the more focused, isometric resistance is on the arms and shoulders, which is the point of this exercise. The more quickly you progress through each rep, the focused resistance become more isotonic and the more it becomes a cardiovascular exercise.
I recommend starting slowly and finding the rhythm that is most comfortable for you. Once you learn how to control the movements, you can begin jumping higher (more like the Standard Bounce where your feet leave the mat). This will place even more focused resistance on the arms and shoulders as you progress through each rep.
Seated Bouncing
This exercise will target the abdominal muscles just like sit-ups and leg raises do. However, the movements will be quite different. Begin by sitting down on the rebounder with your legs hanging over the edge of the rebounder and your feet planted on the floor. Place both your hands, palms down on the mat, on either side of you and tilt your upper body back slightly. With the assistance of your hands on the mat and while keeping your feet on the floor, start bouncing. You’ll soon notice that the main reason you’re bouncing is because of your abdominal muscles. Once you become stronger and more comfortable with this movement, take your hands off the mat. You’ll now notice that the only reason you’re bouncing is because your abdominal muscles are engaged. Once you build up some strength here, you can raise your feet off the floor while bouncing. This will create the ultimate focused resistance on your abdominal muscles.
Regardless of what level seated bouncing you’re performing, continue until your abdominals feel fatigued and/or you run out of breath.
Ski Jumps
In my opinion, there is no better rebounding exercise for the legs than this. This exercise, however, takes a fairly high level of skill so please take some time to develop your strength, coordination, balance, and familiarity with rebounding before attempting this.
Begin by standing on the rebounder normally and in an upright position (back is straight). With your feet together, bend at your knees slightly. While keeping both feet together and knees slightly bent, jump from one side of the rebounder mat to the other, all the while keeping your feet together and keeping your knees slightly bent. Continue to jump side to side until your legs are fatigued and/or you run out of breath.
Start out by having your knees only slightly bent. As you gain strength and familiarly with this exercise, start bending your knees even more as you jump. You’ll notice that the more your knees are bent, the more quickly your legs wear out. This is because the more your knees are bent, the more isotonic tension and focused resistance is being applied to your entire legs.
Never jump so far from side to side that you land on the springs or bungees of your rebounder. This could potentially injure your feet or toes.
My Routine
I vary my routine from day to day. I also combine some callisthenic (bodyweight) as well as kettlebell exercises into my normal workout routines. However, my purpose here is to focus on rebounding so I’ve listed for you my “rebound only” routine below. This really hits all the major muscle groups in a focused manner but remember, with rebounding, everything is always getting exercised!
Warm Up
- Health Bounce (1 minute)
- Standard Bounce (2 minutes)
Cardio
- Jogging in Place (until I’m out of breath)
Resistance Training (I try to do four rounds of the following):
- Overhead Press while Bouncing (until my arms and/or shoulders are tired and/or I’m out of breath)
- Mixture of Health Bounce and Standard Bounce (until I regain my breath and I feel sufficiently recovered from the previous exercise)
- Ski Jumps (until my legs are tired and/or I’m out of breath)
- Mixture of Health Bounce and Standard Bounce (until I regain my breath and I feel sufficiently recovered from the previous exercise)
- Seated Bouncing (until my abs are tired and/or I’m out of breath)
- Mixture of Health Bounce and Standard Bounce (until I regain my breath and I feel sufficiently recovered from the previous exercise)
Cool Down
- Health Bounce (1 minute or until I feel sufficiently recovered to step off the rebounder and walk about normally)
I also do high intensity interval training (HIIT) on my rebounders to change things up from time to time. You can check out my post talking about HIIT on a rebounder by clicking here.
For an even greater upper body workout, I incorporate light weights. You can check out my post that talks about what kind of weights, how heavy of weights, and how I use them by clicking here.
Are you ready to try this revolutionary form of exercise? The bellicon® and the Cellerciser are the two best rebounders you can purchase. Click the links below to purchase yours now!
