Wouldn’t it be nice to get your heart rate up and start improving your fitness without the sore knees, hips, and feet that running can cause? Wouldn’t it also be nice to actually enjoy exercise, rather than feeling like a chore?

Trampolining is a great way to work the muscles and cardiovascular system without being hard on the joints. And trampoline exercises are a fantastic way to improve health, fitness, and well-being for everyone from the beginner to advanced, no matter your age.

Today we’re going to take you through some of our favorite trampoline exercises for general health and fitness.  All you need is a trampoline or a rebounder and you’ll be ready to get started. Take a look at our list of the top-rated trampolines.

Lower Body Strength and Conditioning

Trampolining is lower-body dominant: these lower-body strength and conditioning exercises are a great example of how a beginner can use the instability of the trampoline to their advantage.

Whether you’re looking to improve your fitness, train the body for sports, or improve your performance in trampolining/gymnastics these exercises are a great choice:

#1. Single-Legged Bounces

Taking a hip-width stance, with the weight in the middle of your feet, bounce on one leg. Switch legs throughout to ensure that you’re training both legs evenly.

Single-legged bounces are only going to be helpful if you’re doing them right. Stabilising the knee and hip is the main challenge with this exercise. Be sure to keep the knee and ankle ‘soft’ to cushion your landing.

Note: avoid landing on a locked knee, as this can cause too much impact through the knee and hip joints. Ensure that your knee stays in line with your toes and does not “collapse” inwards – this increases injury risk and makes the exercise less effective.

Key Benefits

• Improve your balance: How often do you train moving on just one leg? Single-legged bounces develop balance and stability on a single leg, an under-developed skill in most people.

• Condition your ankles: Bouncing on one leg is a great way to start developing strength and resilience in the ankles, knees, and hips.

• Challenge yourself: One of the best reasons to perform the single-legged bounce is simply that it is more difficult. In exercise, more difficulty tends to translate to better results!

• Develop foundational strength: There are many skills in many sports that require the ability to balance on a single leg. Single-legged bouncing on a trampoline is a great way to train this skill for beginners.

What Muscles Does It Train?

The muscles and connective tissues of the legs are the main focus of the Single-Legged Bounce.

• Gluteus Maximus and Medius

• Quadriceps

• Gastrocnemius/Soleus

• Tibialis Anterior

Summary

This is one of the simplest skills you can perform on a trampoline, but it has profound benefits for anyone that wants to develop light footwork, strong ankles, and start to develop overall athletic balance. If you can’t balance and bounce on a single leg, you’re going to be unprepared for sports and athletics!

#2. Single Leg Squats

To perform this movement, stand on the trampoline on one foot. Keeping the knee in line with the toe and the back flat, lower your hips (back and down) as far as you can go without the knee collapsing or losing your balance. Keep the buttocks active and be sure to remain as stable and controlled as possible.

Note: when performing a single-leg squat, avoid rolling the weight into the front of your foot. You should also be sure to avoid the knee collapsing inwards. Be sure to keep the back as flat as possible – you can put your hands out in front of you to maintain your balance throughout the exercise.

Key Benefits

Once you’ve developed the necessary balance and strength through Single-Legged Bounces and Squats, single leg Squats are the next step in developing balance, stability and strength.

• Boost strength and power: Single-legged squats are a great way to develop strength and power.

• Develop stability and balance: Especially when performed on a trampoline, single-leg Squats are a great way to develop control over the knee – a key part of sports performance and injury prevention.

• Improve longevity and healthy aging: Improving single-leg balance and strength is a great way to maintain strength, mobility, and independence as you age.

What Muscles Does It Train?

The single leg Squat trains similar muscles to both the single-leg bounce and the squat. Obviously, this movement is all about the lower body, but using a single leg challenges the core to balance the body.

• Obliques

• Transversus Abdominus

• Rectus Abdominus

• Gluteus Maximus and Medius

• Quadriceps

• Gastrocnemius/Soleus

• Tibialis Anterior

Summary

Single-leg Squats are a great way to improve leg strength and stability through the lower body. The most important benefit is stabilizing and controlling the knee and hip during a single-legged knee bend. This is a great way to develop leg and hip strength, whilst reducing the tendency to “cave in” at the knees.

#3. Single-Leg Hip Thrust

Take a firm stance on the trampoline, with your weight in the rear of your foot. Raise one leg until the top of the thigh is parallel with the floor. Keeping your back flat and your knee in line with the toes, push the bum back and bend forwards at the hips – as far as you can go. From this position, reverse the movement by hinging at the hips and push the knee “through”, squeezing with the buttocks to finish the thrust.

Note: be sure to keep a flat back throughout the movement and keep the weight centered through the heel of the foot: avoid rounding the back or falling into the toes. When lowering, focus on hinging the hips – this is a key movement that you need to learn for improved performance and health.

Key Benefits

Developing an effective pattern of hip hinging is a great way to develop overall fitness and performance. Single-Leg hip thrusts are a great way to develop this pattern and, in combination with single-legged bounces and squats, develop overall balance and control of the knee.

• Learn the hip hinge: Developing the ability to hinge at the hips is an essential part of improving sport performance but, more importantly, is necessary for proper spinal health. If you learn to hinge at the hips, rather than rounding the back, you’re likely to experience less lower back pain and debilitating injury as a result!

• Develop knee control: The hip thrust develops the glutes and hamstrings, big players in the posterior chain. These muscles are essential for balancing the demands on the knee and hip joint, and are key to staying healthy and developing explosive power.

• Improve control and stability: We’ve mentioned the benefits of single-leg movements for control already. However, the combination of unilateral training with a hip hinge and hip thrust is a great way to develop overall co-ordination and movement quality.

Summary

Developing your ability to perform the Single-leg hip thrust on a trampoline is a great way to develop all-round athletic ability and co-ordination. This exercise has many “moving parts” and the individual pieces of the movement are challenging.

Performing this movement on a trampoline is a great way to add balance and stability training to an already-difficult movement. The movement from knee bend to extension and thrust is a great way to challenge the different muscles surrounding the knee and hip. This exercise is more challenging than the single-leg squat, but provides a great choice for developing overall athleticism and fitness.

Core Strengthening Exercises

Olympic trampolinists and gymnasts need amazing core strength to perform advanced techniques, and you can develop the same amazing core strength with practice.

The following core strengthening exercises strengthen the muscles of the abdomen – a huge benefit whether you want to perform amazing feats of gymnastics, or just look great.

Whew. That’s it for this post!

Trampoline exercises can be a great way to begin training for core strength, conditioning, and improved stability and balance.

These simple exercises are our favorite because they have benefits to beginners, and provide a great way to start developing the skills necessary for training in bodyweight sports.

If you’re looking to get fitter, lose weight, or start training towards sports, these trampolining exercises are an amazing choice.

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