Achieve Fitness with These
Fun Rebounder Exercises
Rebounder exercises are a great fun workout that you can do at home. It can even double as something for the kids to play with.
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Here are some rebounder exercises to try.
Run in Place to the Music aka Interval Workout
My all time favorite workout and best pick me up on any day is to basically dance on my rebounder to a list of songs on my computer. When I'm finished, I've worked up a good sweat, my legs and arms are that good kind of sore like after I've been running with the jogging stroller, and I'm inspired to take on the world.
In fact most of the winter, I end up doing rebounder exercises unless I can get out and do a run on my own withought having to take E-man out and have him sit in the cold. I even trained for a half marathon last winter mostly working out on my rebounder.
I have an iTunes list called "Workout Music." It consists of slow recovery songs and fast songs that make me want to kick butt! Some of my favorites are Tina Turner's entire soundtrack for "What's Love Got to Do with It," Linkin Park's "Point of Authority," Gnarles Barlkey's "Run," "Crazy," Ray Charles "Hit the Road Jack," Joe Cocker "My Baby Wrote Me a Letter," "Sing Sing Sing" by the Schenectady band, and Stik-e and the Hood's Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya.
I alternate between a fast song and a slow song and for 30-60 min I dance, run in place, jump rope, do jumping jacks, take breaks sometimes on the slower songs and do crunches, then get back on the rebounder and keep on going.
Sometimes E-man likes to join me and we dance together, or he bounces on his pony and I bounce on the rebounder.
Bounce and Jump
To warmup, cool down at the beginning of your workout or between intervals, just simply jump up and down. Start with more of a bounce where your feet don't even come up in the air at all, then add a little more bounce graduallay until it is more of a jump.
To get your arms warmed up as well, add some arm circles, jabs, punches, and then pick up some weights and hold them in your hands as you jump.
Exaggerated Running in Place
Run in place on the rebounder instead of running outdoors. This is a nice break on your joints and feet but still a very affective workout. To make it even more affective, exagerate your moves.
Kick your feet hard behind you to the point that you are kicking your own butt, or bring your knees up really high towards your chin. Take advantage of the bounce of the rebounder.
Kick Boxing and Boxing Rebounder Exercises
Here are some great kick boxing moves you can do on the rebounder.
Kick your own butt. This is an easy move and really affective. When you're done, you will really feel it in the backs of your thighs especially. Just alternate feet and literally kick your own butt. The harder you kick and the closer you get the balls of your feet to your actual but, the better.
Front Kick
Side Kick
Back Kick
Squat and jab. And now my favorite rebounder boxing move. Squat down as low as you can, keeping your abs tight and making sure your knees don't come out in front of your toes. You want to maintain a 90 degree angle. The lower you sit into the squat the better. Then alternate hands throwing jabs and punches.
Jumping Jacks
Jumping Jacks are a simple and affective exercise, and done on the rebounder, you have less wear on the feet and joints (and on your neighbors ears if you live in an apartment on the second story or higher in an apartment building).
Alternate rebounder exercise to the classic juming jack is to bring your arms up to your chest in front of you, elbows and rists together hands in a fist, palms facing towards you instead of clapping your hands above your head or alternating between the two.
Jump Rope
Jump rope with an actual rope is a great rebounder exercise if you're good at that and have a high enough ceiling. But if not, no worries, you can just go through the motions of jump roping without the actual jump rope. The higher you jump and the wider you swing your hands, the better the workout!
Ab Workouts
Here are three rebounder exercises that I find to be highly effective in toning the abs.
1) Sit down on the rebounder with your feet touching the ground. Then lift your feet off the ground about one foot and, holding your stomach in, bounce up and down from your butt. The higher you bring your feet off the floor, the more you will feel this in your abs.
2) Start in the same position as the exercise above but now do a bycicle crunch instead of bouncing.
3) This one works out the abs and the arms. Sit in front of the rebounder, your hands holding the edge of the rebouner, your sitting so your butt is just higher and just in front of the rebounder, then slide your butt onto the rebounder, sit down and then slide your butt back to the starting position. Repeat. If you do this exercise right, you will feel it in your abs and your arms. Make sure to keep your ab tight the whole time.
Speaking of ab exercises, did you know that you can improve your posture and give your abs a good workout just by consciously holding your abs in during just about any workout you do. Try this next time you go for a run. ;-)
Get a Cardio Workout DVD
If you need some extra motivation or more ideas, you purchase just about any cardio workout dvd and workout to it on the rebounder.
Choose a Rebounder
If you are not sure which rebounder to buy then check out our rebounder types here.
