I Tried This Easy, NASA-Backed Exercise For A Month—Here’s What Happened

When my children got a mini-trampoline for Christmas last year, I didn't anticipate it ending up in my office, but here we are.

After learning about the many supposed benefits of rebounding—a NASA-backed exercise involving jumping on a trampoline—I decided to experiment for myself. Here's what I discovered.

Understanding Rebounding

Rebounding is a low-impact aerobic exercise performed on a mini-trampoline. NASA’s research has highlighted it as an exceptionally efficient way to give your health and fitness a boost. According to their studies, rebounding can even be more effective than running because it’s easier on the joints while still engaging the entire body.

Also according to NASA, it not only improves coordination and balance but also stimulates the lymphatic system, which flushes out toxins, bacteria, dead cells, and other waste products from the body.

Other Benefits of Rebounding

Muscles: Rebounding works the abdominals, legs, butt, and deep back muscles, contributing to improved strength and endurance.

Cardiovascular Health: The exercise boosts cardiovascular endurance while being gentle on the joints. It helps build stamina without causing excessive strain on the body.

Balance and Coordination: Regular rebounding enhances balance, coordination, and motor skills, which are beneficial for daily activities and overall fitness.

Pelvic Floor Health: Some evidence suggests rebounding can support pelvic floor health by engaging deep core muscles that help prevent urinary incontinence and stabilize hip joints.

Starting My Experiment

I'm always down to try new fitness hacks, especially if they're cheap and efficient, so I decided to incorporate the recommended minimum of 10 minutes of jumping per day and see what happened.

First, I moved the kids' trampoline into my office so it would be impossible to ignore. My oldest daughter was initially offended, but then she got excited about the idea of an "experiment." However, I should note that it's probably way safer to go with an adult trampoline, like this one, but I survived.

Next, I set two daily reminders of my phone with the label "rebound for five mins." Since my schedule is already pretty complicated, I purposefully kept this new routine simple: Dedicate five minutes to rebounding in the morning and another five minutes in the evening. That's it. I opted for no strict time-frames or complex jumping routines—just mindless, gentle bouncing twice a day for five minutes.

It Really Is Easy

Most days, I used the trampoline before breakfast and again before winding down for the night, but sometimes I found myself squeezing in a few extra minutes of jumping while I waited for files to load or other similarly mundane tasks.

There are lots of different ways to rebound, but I found that the simplest approach had a lot of benefits, such as requiring no prep or extra equipment and leaving me feeling refreshed after each jumping session. The best way I can describe the afterglow is similar to how you feel after a quick walk in the sun, or a good stretch, or maybe a shot of espresso. Just five minutes of rebounding definitely perks you up, but it didn't interrupt my sleep when I did it in the evenings. I think it's because the rhythmic bouncing has a soothing, almost meditative effect and helps take the edge off.

Another benefit of having the trampoline in my office is that my kids occasionally joined, with each of them taking turns when I was finished. The new fun distraction let me finish up a few things while they were busy bouncing.

The Desk Treadmill Addition

I was also recently influenced by Evie's Managing Editor, Anna Hartman, to get a desk treadmill after she raved about hers, and it quickly became another cherished part of my office setup.

Combining the treadmill with rebounding basically made it impossible for me not to move my body almost all day long, and I felt 10 times more productive whenever I spent parts of the day walking and jumping.

The Results

At the end of my month-long experiment, the benefits of rebounding were pretty obvious. I had a noticeable increase in daily energy and more consistent calm throughout the workweek, and I also realized during a recent boxing workout that my coordination and balance have improved quite a bit.

But really, more than anything, I'm just happy I have another enjoyable way to give my brain and body a quick and easy reset when needed.

Closing Thoughts

The simplicity of rebounding made it easy to weave this into my daily routine, and integrating the desk treadmill was the cherry on top. I've never burned so many calories while also getting my work done, and my only regret is that I didn't start incorporating these fitness hacks sooner.

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