Jumping Like A Kid!

When attending the 10-day Healthy Lifestyle program at the Living Foods Institute, bouncing on the rebounder is one of the daily recommendations of that program. This information peaked my rebounding interest, and now I’ve become so in love with the concept of rebounding that, recently, I’ve been jumping — like a kid — many times throughout the day.

In fact, last week Friday after returning home from my son’s 6th-grade graduation (or “Empowerment” ceremony as someone referred to it), I entered the door, kicked off my shoes and jumped — in brown dress and all (pictured here). I was jumping for joy about the heart-warming, unique graduation we had just witnessed. Another part of me was simply jumping as a form of celebrating life. Additionally, of course, I was jumping for health……jumping to cleanse my lymphatic system.

“Your heart circulates your blood continuously, delivering nutrients, oxygen, and hydration to your cells. But what about your cell’s waste products?” asks Don Bennett, DAS, in his book Avoiding Degenerative Disease — under the section Jump for Joy! Bounce your Way to Better Health.

“Unlike your blood,” Bennett continues, “your waste system’s fluid (lymph fluid) does not need to be moving every second, so it doesn’t need a ‘continuous duty’ pump. But it does need to circulate. And that’s your job! As you move around, the lymph fluid is moved from the cells, to the lymph nodes, and on to the ‘dump’. But if you don’t move enough — if you are less active than children — your metabolic garbage container isn’t being emptied on a regular basis. And that can spell trouble (lingering waste products are a major contributor to degenerative disease),” says Bennett.

“Although running is good for the lymphatic system,” Bennett explains, “over time it can take a toll on your joints (and on your heart believe it or not). So, on balance, running is not the best way to move your lymph fluid around. Skipping, ‘spirited walking’, and rebounding are your best choices. Time to take a cue from kids — jump!” he says.

And to think that only a few minutes a day gently bouncing on a rebounder are needed to really put this lymphatic-flushing system into motion!

Bennett states that rebounding is “so gentle when compared to running’s forceful pounding that it’s the exercise of choice for astronauts returning from the weightless environment of outer space.”

How does it work?

According to Bennett, “At the top of each bounce, you are momentarily weightless, and at the bottom of each bounce, you are actually resisting the Earth’s pull more than you usually do. This alternating weightlessness and multiplied gravity produces a pumping action which pulls out waste products from the cells, and forces into them oxygen and nutrients from the bloodstream.”

Although I’ve been bouncing on my rebounder a few minutes at a time off and on throughout the day, I realize I probably haven’t been jumping on the ideal rebounder since “all rebounders are not created equal,” Bennett informs his readers. Perhaps I should have waited until I could get the one of choice, but one day I got such an urge to jump — rebounder-style — that I darted out and got the first one I could get my hands on. I keep it centrally located and find myself making pit-stops at it regularly.

Since it is so easily transportable, I’ll be off to carry my rebounder outdoors and delight in jumping under the great blue sky and bright, warm sun as soon as I’m done with this post. Oh how fun! How fun!

And, by the way, not that my active pre-teen son doesn’t move his body enough already, but the rebounder is yet another body-moving tool for him, too. Although he was initially disappointed that the rebounder doesn’t bounce the way a standard trampoline does, that certainly doesn’t stop him from using it.

Well, it’s my turn to use it now. So off I go…….

In Rebounding,

Penny