Trampoline & Weight Loss

Although any kind of cardiovascular exercise can get your heart rate up, there are some that are more effective at accelerating your heart rate and promoting weight loss. Jumping on a trampoline can do the first, but probably is not ideal for the second.

  1. History

    • Studies have been done about how much energy is exerted when jumping on a trampoline, but it has been years since they were completed. A 1981 study found that jumpers could burn more than 7 calories per minute, but a 1988 study concluded that the leg and foot positioning of a jumper determines how many calories are actually being burned.

    Expert Insight

    • During a 1990 study, researchers monitored women's fitness levels as they jumped on a mini-trampoline. They jumped for 30 minutes a day, five days a week for nearly three months. Researchers compared this to the fitness levels of the women when they jogged for the same amount of time over a period of three months. They found there were no changes in body composition. This suggests jumping on a trampoline does not promote more or less weight loss than jogging.

    Benefits

    • Jumping on a trampoline can be fun and also effective at working out your leg muscles, but there is not enough cardiovascular work being done to assume that it is effective at promoting weight loss.

    Warning

    • Although the body is made to run and jump, not everybody's body can do these things. It may be safer to seek a weight loss method that does not involve all of the risks associated with jumping on a trampoline. If you have weak knees or ankles, you could injure yourself and thus make losing weight harder.

    Time Frame

    • A workout that burns between 300 to 500 calories a day is considered to be a good workout for promoting weight loss. In order to burn that much on a trampoline, you would need to jump somewhere between 40 and 70 minutes.