New workouts pop up every day, and wouldn’t it be nice to try before you buy? In our “Last Night’s Workout” series we sweat, stretch, and shimmy our way through the latest exercise crazes and report back to you so you can find the best one for your skill level and fitness goals.
The Workout: JumpDance, the signature trampoline fitness class at JumpLife. Picture a high-speed, aerobic dance class—but on your own personal trampoline. With club mixes bumping and disco ball turning, this 45-minute workout combines a few minutes of lower intensity movements followed by a few minutes of very high-intensity “sprint” portions (in true interval training form). And it will make you sweat. Kind of like Pilates, where small movements are actually more effective, the more controlled your bounce is, the faster and more intensely you can move. So you can squeeze in as many of those high knees and fast feet as humanly possibly during the sprints, giving your quads and glutes something to really scream about.But that weight and resistance comes without the hard impact you get from other workouts, such as running. President and CEO Montserrat Markou started teaching trampoline fitness classes to her acupuncture and massage therapy patients who were searching for a low-impact workout that wouldn’t exacerbate their existing ailments, such as back or knee pain. When she saw how well it worked for them, she decided everyone should experience this exercise. “I realized it’s not only for people that have these problems, but it’s just an amazing form of working out. You really get a good workout without any kind of pain or soreness afterwards,” she says.
The Goal: An intense cardio workout that will also help you tone. “You can lose up to 600 calories in the 45 minutes depending of course on your weight and fitness level,” Markou says. “Apart from that, you’re constantly toning because you’re using your core to stay stabilized on the trampoline.” You’re automatically doing it the whole time without even realizing it. “And the beauty of that is you’re using your deeper core muscles,” making it great for relieving lower back pain, too.
The Location: Right now, there’s only one JumpLife studio in NYC’s Soho neighborhood, but Markou is hoping to expand. Along with JumpDance they also offer JumpGym, a more traditional class sans blacklights and club beats that adds in some more upper body work, too.
The Price: First-timers can take a class for $15. After that, it’s $28 per class, and you can buy classes in packages to discount them a bit. Visit the JumpLife website for class times and pricing information.
