Trampolining is one of the best exercises you can do – it provides fun, low-impact cardio that is more effective than jogging or a similar workout on solid ground. But what does all that really mean? And how many calories does jumping on a trampoline burn? Keep reading if you want to learn more about trampoline training, or you are just looking for some variation to keep your daily workout interesting.
Whether you are bouncing with your kids on the backyard trampoline, or doing a guided trampoline workout on a rebounder, you will burn lots of calories and find that it is good for your body in all sorts of other ways too.
It’s not just about burning calories – there are so many health benefits to trampolining! Here are just a few.
Good For The Heart
Trampolining is a great cardio workout. This means that not only does it burn calories, but it improves your circulatory system and promotes heart health too.
Improves Core Strength
Trampolining is one of the few exercises that works your whole body. It is particularly good for core strength, because you have to use your core at all times to maintain balance!
Core strength is vital to prevent back pain, improve balance, and for general fitness.
Helps The Immune System
Your immune system is your first line of defense against illness and toxins. A core component of this is the lymphatic system, which consists of a fluid known as lymph. A trampoline session increases lymph flow up to 15x, thus improving the functioning of the immune system!
Easy On The Joints
Running or jumping on solid ground is a high-impact activity, causing shocks to travel up your legs and strain your joints. When exercising on a trampoline, the trampoline itself absorbs most of the shocks. This means less strain on your joints and lower risk of injury.
Trampolining And Losing Weight
We have established that a jump on a trampoline is great for your body. But what about losing calories?
What Is MET?
The MET, or the Metabolic Equivalent of a Task, is the rate at which a person expends energy relative to their mass, while doing a particular physical activity. An MET of 1 is equivalent to a person’s energy expenditure while sitting still. An MET of 2 is double that, an MET of 3 is three times that, and so on.
What Is The MET Of Trampolining?
While both are great for your body, there is a big difference in MET between jumping for fun and doing a vigorous workout.
Recreational Trampolining
Jumping recreationally has an MET of approximately 3.5. You can calculate the number of calories burned doing any physical activity with the following formula:
- Calories burned per minute = (MET x body weight in kg x 3.5) ÷ 200
Therefore, for an adult weighing 120 lbs (54kg), the equation would be:
- Calories burned per minute = (3.5 x 54 x 3.5) ÷ 200
Which comes to 3.3. This means that in a 30 minute jumping session, you would burn 100 calories!
As you can see, the number of calories burned depends on your weight. If we put 180 lbs (82kg) into the formula:
- Calories burned per minute = (3.5 x 82 x 3.5) ÷ 200
We get 5 calories per minute, so approximately 150 in 30 minutes.
Moderate Trampoline Workout
The MET of a moderate intensity trampoline workout is around 4.5. Therefore, if you weigh 120 lbs (54 kg), the equation would look like this:
- Calories burned per minute = (4.5 x 54 x 3.5) ÷ 200
Which comes to 4.3 calories per minute, and approximately 130 in 30 minutes.
As always, simply plug in your body weight to the formula. By doing this, we can see that someone weighing 150 lbs would burn 160 calories, and someone weighing 180 lbs would burn 195.
Vigorous Trampoline Workout
Studies have shown that an all-out trampoline workout has a very high MET of around 8. By plugging this into the formula, we learn that a 120 lb person would burn 225 calories, a 150 lb person would burn 285, and a 180 lb person would burn 345.
Some trampoline parks claim that you can burn up to 1000 calories in one hour from their classes! However, the exact number will depend on your weight.
What To Bear In Mind About Trampolines And Calories
The METs for burning calories above are averages, and the exact number for any workout depends on many factors. Therefore, we cannot tell you exactly how many calories you will burn in one session on the trampoline mat. What we can say is that a vigorous jump session will result in lots of calories burnt! And unlike other types of high-intensity physical activity, even though you’ll burn calories, it won’t cause any strain on the joints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jumping On A Trampoline A Good Workout?
Jumping on a trampoline is definitely a good workout! It is a more efficient way to exercise than most cardio activities, meaning more calories burned for the same time spent exercising. On top of that, it is great for your lymphatic system, promotes heart health, improves core strength and much more!
Is Trampolining Good Exercise For Weight Loss?
Trampolining is a very good exercise for weight loss. As mentioned above, the number of calories burned trampolining is higher than when doing the same activity on solid ground. However, you probably won’t lose weight simply bouncing recreationally – but 30 minutes of squat jumps, seat drops and other trampoline exercises should do the trick!
Is Jumping On A Trampoline Bad For Your Knees?
Jumping on a trampoline is not bad for your knees. In fact, it is the perfect workout for you if you have sensitive joints. This is because the trampoline itself absorbs up to 80% of the shock from the impact of jumping. Exercises like running can cause knee strain because of the impact from the hard ground, but trampolining is gentle on your joints.
Conclusion
Working out on a trampoline is a great way to change up your workout routine, and it is beneficial in a whole host of ways. But how many calories does jumping on a trampoline burn? As a very rough estimate, a 30 minute moderate-intensity trampoline workout will result in 50-220 calories burnt. A more vigorous workout will see you losing calories to the tune of 300-445 in the same time, depending on your body weight. If you don’t have a trampoline to jump on yet, no problem – we have compiled a list of the top 8 trampolines here.
