Trampoline Workouts

I honestly love rebounding. If you aren't entirely familiar with what that is, it is basically jumping on the trampoline. And I know many people who are my age or a little older probably have difficulty jumping for various reasons, such as our bladder weaknesses, equilibrium issues, and other things that are a sure sign of our age.

But despite all of that sometimes in the early morning or late evening, I like to borrow my children's toy, the trampoline in our yard, and just start jumping. As you know, I like to exercise with my heart rate monitor so that I can make sure I am getting a good enough burn for my time.

Tonight, I enjoyed a 20 minute rather easy workout with a 148 heart rate average. Not too shabby. If your kids have one... give it a try! Trust me when I say that 20 minutes can really work up a sweat!

You Are Your Own Gym

I've been doing "You Are Your Own Gym" workouts the last week. It's a three DVD system with three workouts on each DVD. There is a beginner, intermediate, and advanced DVD. If you do the warmup and cooldown, they are probably 20-25 minutes for a workout. I typically do my own warm-up and cool-down and don't use the stretches on the DVD. 

I did the intermediate Friday/Saturday and I was super sore Sunday! So, tonight I moved on to the Advanced Circuit Training on the advanced DVD. As you can see below, it was four exercises--Iron Mikes (basically jump lunges), Bouncing Push-ups (gag), Jack Knives, and Hip Raisers. Each exercise is 20 seconds long with a very short transition time and then a 20 second rest after all four before you do the next round. Eight rounds. Eight. Long. Rounds.

Honestly, they are somewhat repetitive. Even between levels, you see some of the same exercises. But, I do find them to be effective (or at least, I am sore in places that I am not typically sore!).  I still run and do other aerobic exercise or weights, but this is a nice one to add to my arsenal.

Overall, for the 18 minutes or so of active workout, I maintained an average of 142 bpm with top heart rate of 168. I'm pleased. As I get better at these type of workouts, I feel like I have to work really hard to get heart rates up that high (unless I am running or doing lots of jumping) so this was a great workout with TONS of sweat. I'm a mess!!

I ordered this from Amazon.com-->  

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-Own-Gym/dp/B00AM7EQYC/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y