Those songs from House of Pain and Kris Kros from the 90s telling us to jump around may have been some of the best advice we got back then! If you remember jumping around on the dance floor or on the playground to these songs, then this blog is for you!
The benefits of adding jumping to your exercise routine are many! While you may be reluctant to do so for fears for injuries, the truth is that jumping can improve every aspect of your fitness and then some.
Benefits of jumping:
Build muscles and improve strength: Well, this makes perfect sense. When you are jumping you are using large, major muscle groups in your legs, but you are also using key core muscles to stabilize yourself. As we get older, it is so hard to keep the muscle we have and even harder to build more muscle and improve strength. Jumping is a fun way to improve both muscle strength and size.
Improve bone strength: As we get older our bones start to weaken even with minor trauma. You can combat that with regular physical activity. Jumping provides regular stress to your bones which encourages them to strengthen. And any physical activity will improve blood flow and that includes increasing blood flow to the bones assisting them in maintaining their health.
Improves balance and coordination: Both of these areas begin to decline as we age, mainly because we start to lose that connection between our muscles and our brain. Jumping requires many muscles to work together and improves that connection between your muscles and your brain; therefore, strengthening that connectivity. The more we strengthen those connections the more our bodies will remember what to do if we do lose our balance. It will automatically correct itself without us having to think about it.
Improves heart health and builds endurance: Jumping improves your endurance levels if done consistently. It improves blood flow which brings oxygen to various parts of the body which helps alleviate tiredness and breathlessness while doing daily activities. This increase in cardiovascular activity will also strengthen your heart which is so very important as we age.
Helps reduce injuries: Jumping not only strengthens muscles as I mentioned before, it also helps improve elasticity of tendons and ligaments. This increase in elasticity decreases the risk of injuries.
Improves cognition: Our cognitive levels decline as we age and this decline seems even more pronounced in those with a sedentary lifestyle. Jumping stimulates brain cognition and if you add in jumping rope that cognitive connection gets even stronger because your adding more complexity to the jump.
Stress reducer: Physical activity has been shown to increase serotonin levels which is our feel good neurotransmitter. This can help alleviate some symptoms of anxiety and depression is some people.
Improve your immunity and detox process: Jumping can stimulate the lymphatic system by increasing lymph flow which can keep our immune system healthy to ward off pathogens and disease. And while, blood flow brings nutrients to our bodies, the lymphatic system eliminates metabolic waste and toxins from the body. It essentially takes out the trash. Improving your lymph flow through your body is key to health and jumping has a clear benefit in doing so.
WOW! So many reasons to add jumping to your exercise routine. No matter what reason seems to call to you, I hope decide to add a few jumps in your daily routine.
Here are a few key tips:
Start off slow: You don’t have to go for the gold right off the bat and try and jump onto a box. Start off by just a few pogo jumps on the ground or a few squat jumps between work meetings. It does not have to be long and intense. Use a rebounder (small trampoline). These have been shown to have great benefit, especially for endurance and the lymphatic system and it is easy on the joints if that is a concern.
Advance and change it up: As you get more comfortable with some stationary jumps, like the pogo or squat jumps, add in some jump roping and slowly advance to some low box jumping. All of it counts and the different types of jumps add different dynamics and benefits. So, mix it up!
Whatever you do, JUST JUMP! JUMP, EVERYBODY JUMP!
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