My Near-Daily Practice For Over 5 Years
I have been rebounding – bouncing up and down on a high-quality rebounder or “mini-trampoline” – for nearly five and a half years on a near-daily basis. With average sessions of about 45 minutes, I have found rebounding to be a fun, safe, easy, consistently enjoyable, and highly effective form of exercise.
By listening to music with a good beat, my rebounding time passes quickly and ecstatically. Since a quality rebounder takes about 85% of one’s weight, I’ve been able to avoid repetitive stress injury to my joints and soft tissue, despite intense daily workouts. (Unfortunately, in any given year, roughly half of all serious runners injure themselves.)
I have a set of “basic bounces” that I tend to do every workout, including twists, arm circles, jumping jacks, running in place (you can really pump your legs high!), one-legged bouncing, and working with hand weights (for a great upper body workout). I also improvise, going with the beat, and come up with some new moves nearly every session.
Physical and Metaphysical Benefits
Rebounding works on many levels. Physical benefits include the strengthening of the immune system through increased lymph flow; aerobic, cardio, and respiratory training benefits; and increases in strength, coordination, balance, and flexibility. Other claims are made for rebounding based on the acceleration of the body past one gee-force – and I do think that there’s something to this – but to date there’s no hard proof.
Just as important as the physical benefits, when attention is placed on breath and the life force known as “chi” or “prana,” rebounding can easily become “ChiBounding,” a form of “integral practice” that incorporates meditation, breath work, visualization, mudras, and so on. I am hopeful that many individuals with bodywork, healing, and athletic knowledge will make substantial contributions to ChiBounding.
Resources: Current and Coming
My goal is to share rebounding and ChiBounding with millions of individuals. I plan on developing a small book or pamphlet within the next year, along with associated video training materials and an expanded website. In the meantime, here are some rebounding resources that you might find helpful:
- A F.A.Q. on equipment choices and options. Because they are so much better than anything previously available, I am at this point mainly recommending the ultra-high quality unit that makes use of bungee-bands.
- A one-page list of “Nearly Everything You Need to Know to Start Rebounding” (this will download as a Word document)
- A few rebounding videos (amateur quality video, but gives a good indication of at least what one person’s rebounding/ChiBounding practice looks like).
