Running on a treadmill or taking a spin class can feel like a chore, but what about getting your cardio workout from jumping on trampoline?
New research out of the American Council on Exercise – or ACE – suggests that a standard trampoline workout could help you burn up to 11 calories a minute.
“This research found that mini-trampoline exercise enables a workout sufficient to improve endurance and expend calories. We also saw that participants consistently thought the workout was easier,” Dr. Cedric Brant, ACE’s chief science officer, said in a statement.
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For the ACE study, scientists recruited 24 healthy and active college students. They had to have their maximal heart rate and oxygen levels documented while running on a treadmill before the experiment began.
Then, the volunteers took part in a 19-minute full-body trampoline workout as their heart rate and oxygen uptake levels were recorded again. Every five minutes they had to report how they were feeling about the exercise.
Turns out, men burned about 11 calories per minute while women burned 8.3. That’s as many calories burnt from running at a pace of 9.5 kilometres per hour, or from playing a game of football or basketball.
The workout got the college kids’ heart rates going just like running or cycling would. Under guidelines, it’d be classified as moderate to vigorous physical activity.
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But the trampoline workout didn’t seem as onerous as other exercises.
“This may be due in part to the fact that trampolines are a unique form of exercise and participants felt comfortable on them very quickly,” Bryant said.
And don’t forget, they’re fun: “We must not undervalue the ‘enjoyment factor’ – it’s the key to long-term fitness commitments and helping people sustain healthy life choices for the long term,” he explained.
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Trampolines are also easier on the joints. The experts said that one downside of running, for example, was that it could lead to orthopedic injuries. Trampolines helped to absorb the shock.
Read the full findings here.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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