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Rebounding
For Health!
I’ve been
rebounding off and on for 20 years, but something happened
in 2002 that changed my life! The Rebounder I’d been
using, like the half dozen or so that I went through, was
an inexpensive, cheaply made model. Of course, I didn’t
realize that until I finally got inspired to buy a quality
model.
Having done my
research on all the available Rebounders on the market, I
decided, without question, to go with a ReboundAir Rebounder,
seeing as how the company is operated by Al Carter, none other
than the father of Rebounding. Since Rebounding was his brainchild
and so he obviously knows more about it than anyone else,
I chose his company to deal with.
When I received
my Quarter-fold Rebounder and set it up beside my old one
for a test bounce, I couldn’t believe the difference.
My old Rebounder felt like jumping on a piece of thin plywood
suspended between cement blocks. Jumping on the Quarter-fold
ReboundAir was like being a kid again jumping on a big soft
bed. I instantly felt my joints decompress and was able to
take an incredibly deep effortless breath, something that
is sometimes difficult for me to do.
I then realized
why my Rebounding had always been sporadic; simply because
even though I was getting some positive effects from the activity,
there was considerable jarring and compression happening throughout
my body.
I am a Structural
Release Realignment Therapist and so am always judging and
critiquing exercise regimes and tools based on my knowledge
of body mechanics, and the either positive or negative repercussions
created by the particular thing in question. Rebounding makes
more sense to me than to any other form of strengthening exercise
I’ve come across.
For one thing,
it’s an integrated full-body exercise; meaning that the
entire muscular-skeletal systems are brought into play during
the workout. All the pieces are not only being used but they
are being taught how to work together in a functional dynamic
manner. This is an extremely important aspect to consider.
For illustration,
look at the bulky, jerky, disorganized, disjointed movements
of a bodybuilder in the gym. Their bodies get like that because
they build their muscle strength one muscle, or muscle group,
at time; with linear, isolated repetitive movements. The musculature
as a whole, as well as the skeletal pieces, never learn how
to work together. Try to picture the muscle-bound gym person
climbing a rope, swimming, or even running. They have created
a non-integrated body that is fine for showing off specific
muscles, but is an example of non-functional strength and
not the way I want to go.
Working out with
small weighted balls (3 to 10 lbs.) while jogging in place
on the Rebounder is the most effective, and least detrimental
form of cardio-vascular and muscular strengthening exercise
I know of. It is a very concentrated form of exercise. I do
a 20 minute routine on my Rebounder and I sweat more than
I do during a 20 mile bike ride. Also, on the bike ride, think
about what parts of your body are actually moving: your legs
and your lungs. And your legs are making only one simple,
linear movement a million times, while the rest of your body
is immobile; once again a perfect example of repetitive, linear,
isolated strengthening activity; wreaking havoc on your musculature
and your skeleton.
We build our bodies
by our activities and trust me when I tell you that those
choosing repetitive linear isolated strengthening activities
are building structurally distorted bodies with very thrashed,
painful musculature to go along with them. I’ve worked
on every type of athlete and non-athlete over the last 20
years and I’m basing my observations and judgments on
my direct experience of the condition of their bodies.
My main focus since
1982 has been primarily Flexibility and Balance and I have
achieved an unquestionable understanding of both of those.
For the last few years I’ve been widening my focus to
include toning and strengthening activities. Let me say here
that the problem with any kind of strengthening activity is
the fact that to strengthen a muscle, you shorten the muscle.
All muscles cross joints, attaching bone to bone. When you
shorten / strengthen a muscle you pull the bones closer together,
compressing the joint and creating less space there. That
translates into a loss of flexibility.
Remember, flexibility
is not about the length of muscles, it’s about the space
in the joints. Anyway, the joints never get compressed symmetrically,
that’s impossible, so the result of any strengthening
of the musculature always ends with asymmetrically compressed
joints and less flexibility. That said, I am always looking
at how much structural damage occurs as the expense of strengthening,
at the expense of flexibility.
Until I discovered
Rebounding with weighted balls, I was using and recommending
the Total Gym® to my clients. It seemed to at least offer
a more circular range of motion during the workout and gave
a bit of stretching, or lengthening after the compression.
Well, after a few Rebounding workouts my Total Gym® is
out the door. Even with what it had going for it, after each
workout I had to struggle to gain back the flexibility sacrificed.
I notice little to no loss of flexibility after my Rebounding
sessions, even though it was a total body workout.
My workout consists
of 20 minutes using a combination of 3 and 5 pound (soft)
balls, and a 10 pound medicine ball. I then do a 3 minute
ab-solutely awesome abdominal workout sitting on the Rebounder
in a pike position and then with my feet off the floor, knees
bent, with the 10 pound ball. My body has changed shape with
this workout more than any other activity I’ve ever done.
After a year of
regular workouts on my Rebounder I am thrilled with the results
and very happy to have a comprehensive, non-damaging strength-training
routine to add to my flexibility routine, Flextasy! the Functional
Flexibility System®. I recommend Rebounding to all my
clients, family, and friends and I highly recommend it to
you too.
----Blue Dunn
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