What actually happens when you jump

The NASA study everyone quotes

The sentence usually goes like this: NASA found that jumping on a trampoline is 68 per cent more effective than jogging. The study behind it does exist. Four researchers led by Ambuj Bhattacharya published it in 1980 in the Journal of Applied Physiology, funded by NASA, which was looking for a way to counter the muscle and bone loss astronauts suffer. Eight subjects ran on a treadmill and jumped on a trampoline while the researchers recorded vertical acceleration at the ankle, the lower back and the forehead, along with oxygen uptake and heart rate.

We find the results more interesting than the number that came out of them. In running, peak acceleration was always at the ankle and therefore higher than at the back and the head. In jumping, it was spread evenly across the body. And at comparable oxygen uptake and heart rate, the mechanical stimulus on the trampoline was greater than in running.

We did not find the 68 per cent anywhere in the study abstract. So we are not going to print it here.

How many calories a class burns

In 2017 an Italian research group measured a complete trampoline class: 18 slightly overweight women, 46 minutes of class, breath-by-breath gas analysis on the body.

The result was 6.9 kilocalories per minute and 317 kilocalories for the whole session. Average heart rate was 132 beats per minute, which was 72 per cent of what the same women had reached in a maximal test beforehand. By the standards of the American College of Sports Medicine that counts as vigorous exercise, not moderate activity.

Your own hour will differ. The heavier you are, the more you burn. And if you go along with the intervals instead of riding them out gently, you end up higher.

Why the training is called easy on the joints

The 1980 measurements help again here, because they explain the sentence instructors say most often. Easy on the joints does not mean that no forces are at work. The forces are in fact larger than in running. They simply arrive in different places.

When you run, every step hits the ankle first and the shock travels up from there. On a jumping mat the landing is slowed over a much longer distance and the force is spread across the whole body. On a bellicon the mat hangs in rope rings rather than on steel springs.

Anyone with problems in the joints, the spine or the heart should talk to a doctor first. That holds for every sport.

What was measurable after twelve weeks

In 2019 a research group in Innsbruck split 40 women between 56 and 83 years old with osteopenia into two groups. One half trained twice a week for twelve weeks, 45 to 60 minutes on a mini-trampoline, with balance, strength and jumping exercises. The other half did not train.

After the twelve weeks the training group stood on one leg 33 per cent longer. It was 19 per cent faster in the timed-up-and-go test, got up from a chair 36 per cent more often and walked 25 per cent faster. Fear of falling dropped by 15 per cent and bone density at the femoral neck was two per cent higher. In the group without training, none of these changed to any relevant degree. Standing up and walking speed actually got worse.

What cannot be concluded from this

All three studies worked with mini-trampolines, not with bellicon JUMPING. The groups were small: eight, 18 and 40 people. And they looked at specific groups, namely overweight women and women over 56 with osteopenia. Those numbers cannot simply be transferred to everyone else, and none of the three studies is a promise of a cure.

What they do show is still worth something. The stimulus is measurable, it is spread differently than in running, and training regularly over a few weeks changes something.

Try an hour yourself

If you want to know how it feels: bellicon JUMPING runs in more than 1,000 towns across Europe, and our map shows the classes near you. If you would like to teach yourself, the way in is the bellicon Academy.

Sources

Bhattacharya A, McCutcheon EP, Shvartz E, Greenleaf JE: Body acceleration distribution and O2 uptake in humans during running and jumping. Journal of Applied Physiology 49(5), 1980, pp. 881 to 887.

Cugusi L, Manca A, Romita G, Bergamin M, Di Blasio A, Mercuro G: Exercise intensity and energy expenditure during a mini-trampoline rebounding exercise session in overweight women. Science & Sports, 2017.

Posch M, Schranz A, Lener M, Tecklenburg K, Burtscher M, Ruedl G, Niedermeier M, Wlaschek W: Effectiveness of a Mini-Trampoline Training Program on Balance and Functional Mobility, Gait Performance, Strength, Fear of Falling and Bone Mineral Density in Older Women with Osteopenia. Clinical Interventions in Aging 14, 2019, pp. 2281 to 2293.