Forget Knee Strengthening and Back Strengthening Exercises: Just Do Rebounding Exercises

You know those boring knee strengthening and back strengthening exercises. They’re repetitive and sometimes even painful. Wouldn’t you rather do something fun? I sure would! That’s why I do rebounding exercises instead. Here’s how Qibounding, a form of mini trampoline exercise, can help your back, knees, and joints.

A couple years ago, I fell down some steps and broke my ankle and leg in four places and tore up the ligaments in both ankles. I also injured my lower back and both knees. I had two surgeries and was in rehab for months.

In physical therapy, I started with your typical knee and back exercises. Then I got a new physical therapist, and he put me on a Qibounder. Talk about night and day. The typical strengthening moves are so dull I have to make myself do them. Rebounding, though, was fun. And my back, knees, and ankle joints loved the exercise.

The key to having a good experience with a mini trampoline is in the bounce. A high quality, soft bounce rebounder like the Qibounder absorbs 85 percent of the impact of every bounce. Tighter trampoline exercisers don’t do that.

Here’s why this type of exercise helps your back, joints, and knees:

As you age, your spinal discs lose red blood cells. Once you’re an adult, these cells are gone, so they can’t nourish the cartilage in your body. The only way you get nourishment to your cartilage is with the up and down movement of your body.

Unfortunately, most of the ways to get that movement, like running and aerobic dance and other sports, puts jarring stress on the joints. It makes matters worse instead of better.

With a soft bounce rebounder, you get this movement, this contraction and extension of your cartilage, in a gentle way. Your joints are basically sucking in nourishment from this movement.

If, like me, you’ve had an accident that injured leg or ankle joints or your back, rebounding helps because the unstable surface of the bouncing mat trains your unconscious motor program to fire in a way that helps you strengthen these parts of your body. It’s great for ankle injuries because unstable surface of the trampoline re-trains you in proprioception, which is your ability to adjust for balance.

As you bounce, your body is making minute muscular adjustments to keep you balanced, and that strengthens your whole body, including your back and knees. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather enjoy the fun of doing rebounding exercises instead of boring old back strengthening exercises and knee strengthening exercises. In the resource box below, you can find out more about the Qibounder my physical therapist recommends.

Forget Knee Strengthening and Back Strengthening Exercises: Just Do Rebounding Exercises by Ande Waggener