The Gravity of the Situation

When people first learn about rebounding exercise, they often encounter a very long, very diverse, very impressive list of benefits that, for many people, piques their interest, but for others, like me, it makes them extremely skeptical. How is it possible that such a childishly simple exercise like bouncing can do all of that? The answer is simple: gravity.

Your body thrives on gravity and nothing provides it better than bouncing.

From our very first steps, our bodies are working against gravity to grow. Just watch a toddler who’s learning to walk: all of that teetering, toppling and picking herself back up again, all of that fighting against the pull of the earth, is how her muscles, coordination, and balance are developed.

Even as adults, without a substantial amount of daily gravitational conditioning, our bodies suffer. This was clearly demonstrated during the first space missions when human beings went without gravity for the first time. Scientists discovered that astronauts, upon their return from space, had lost significant amounts of muscle mass and bone density due to the zero-gravity environment. To combat this, NASA researchers began looking for the best exercise to get those astronauts back into shape and discovered that bouncing on a trampoline engaged every muscle in the body and improved cardiovascular fitness significantly faster than anything else.

Unfortunately, these days people aren’t fighting gravity nearly as much as they used to. We spend more time sitting than ever before in human history: in cars, at desks and in front of one type of screen or another. The destructive, even deadly, effects of inactivity are at an all-time high, making the need for an effective antidote greater than ever. Exercising on the bellicon provides a gently powerful dose of gravity that’s perfect for fighting the effects of inactivity, providing everything we need to stay fit, healthy and strong.

It’s easy to understand why rebounding offers such a long list of benefits when you consider how unique it is, and how it’s proven to be superior to other types of exercise in several, very different ways which, when combined, create an extraordinary collection of advantages. For instance:

1. Unequaled cardiovascular/aerobic conditioning (Rebounding has been proven to increase cardio fitness twice as fast as running):improves endurance and overall fitness; greatly accelerates fat-burning for weight control; strengthens the heart; reduces stress; improves sleep patterns; helps prevent or control diabetes; enhances mood, cognitive abilities, and creative thinking; increases longevity and overall quality of life.
2. Full-body muscular engagement: improvement in muscular strength and tone throughout the body, accelerates fat-burning, dramatically increases vertical jumping ability.
3. Vertical, weight-bearing exercise: strengthens bones and fights osteoporosis and osteopenia.
4. Pliable exercise surface: dramatically improves balance and proprioception even for people with challenges in these areas.
5. Extremely low-impact: protects and conditions joints, discs, and vertebrae; combats osteoarthritis through gentle conditioning. Allows people of all ages to enjoy the benefits without short or long-term problems associated with most full-body exercises, particularly with the bellicon, which has exceptionally low impact, even compared with other rebounders.
6. Targeted core strength: enhances athletic abilities; adds support to the muscles, discs, and vertebrae of the back.
7. Unique gravitational effects (bouncing alternates between multiple G-forces and zero gravity): dramatically increases lymphatic flow and significantly improves the immune system’s ability to flush toxins, bacteria and dead cells from the body, fighting illness and disease; bolsters the digestive process.

In a nutshell: working against gravity is what exercise is all about, and rebounding exercise harnesses and distributes gravitational energy to your entire body better than anything else, giving it the resistance it thrives on. Every aspect of our muscular, cardiovascular, lymphatic, circulatory, immune, digestive and skeletal system benefits…often uniquely and dramatically so.

If you’ve been skeptical about rebounding, I hope this has helped to clarify why the list of benefits is so long and why it’s not so crazy. If you also happen to be someone who’s been searching for the perfect all-in-one exercise, I’m pleased to say you’ve found it.