Children love to play and they need exercise. Thus any form of exercise that will work for them should enable them to have fun while burning their excess energy. What better way to achieve this than on the best kids trampoline
Kids need to stay active to be healthy but to pry them away from the TV and their video games, exercise should be exciting. You can engage them with mini trampoline exercises for kids on an exercise trampoline.
Getting Started
Before you engage your kid in trampoline exercise, ensure that he wears proper attire. It is clear from advisable to wear breathable clothing. It is better to jump on the trampoline with bare feet.
It is not advisable to exercise immediately after a meal as it can cause indigestion. Wait a few hours after eating to start your exercise.
It is recommended that kids spend 60 minutes daily on exercise. Spreading the duration of exercise into smaller sessions throughout the day protects the children from being over-exerted.
Start the workout sessions with warm-up exercises to prepare your kid’s body for exercise. Like with other activities, you need to be patient with your kids when they do not get the correct form of the routine. Practice makes perfect. The more they work out the more they will understand how to do them right.
The best trampoline exercises for kids are highlighted below. They are easy and fun.
1. Sit-ups
The classic sit-up is an excellent exercise kids can perform on the rectangle trampoline. The bouncy surface of the trampoline adds to the fun of the workout. Sit-up strengthens the muscles of the lower back, chest, neck, and abdomen.
The best way to help your kid get this is to join in the activity. Let your child learn how to do sit-ups by watching you do them. Below are the steps:
- Lie on the trampoline on your back and bend your knees.
- Hold the back of your head with your hands.
- Lift your chest toward your thighs with your feet still on the trampoline.
- Slowly lower your body back to the trampoline
There are other variations of this exercise like the legs-up sit-ups.
2. Jumping jacks
After a while, your kid might get bored with only bouncing up and down on the trampoline. So, spice things up with jumping jacks or star jumps. These are best on an 8ft trampoline.
Jumping jacks can help your children build their muscle strength and enhance their cardiovascular fitness.
Let your child spread his arms with and legs wide while up in the air and then bring them straight back down when he lands. The child can try to jump higher with each movement.
A variation of this exercise involves clapping the hands together while making the jump. Encourage your child to keep breathing steadily during the exercise. Where you have more than a kid performing this exercise you ensure there is enough space to extend their hands without bumping into one another.
3. The Bounce Kick
You can add a kicking motion to your child’s jump on the trampoline. Let your kid extend his left legs like a kick while in the air and land with both feet on the trampoline. He should extend his right leg on the next bounce. The bounce kicks can be repeated. This makes bouncing on the trampoline more interesting. We recommend doing these on a 14ft trampoline.
The bounce kicks are good for developing balance and strengthening leg muscles.
4. Push-ups
This exercise equips children with the stability and mobility the shoulders need for everyday activities like carrying a heavy bag or throwing a ball.
This is a bit different from the traditional push-ups on the floor. When you perform this exercise on a trampoline, you can use your arms to push up into the air. Let the kids do warm-up exercises that can help loosen their muscles like the baby crawl or bear crawl.
Let your child lie on the floor and assume the normal push-up position. The back should be straight with the toes and arms touching the trampoline. Help your kid keep the elbows loose and push up into the air and use his arms to control the rebound movement.
5. Yoga
You can increase your child’s flexibility and mental health and balance with yoga poses. Getting kids to do yoga might seem challenging at first because of their restlessness. However, doing yoga on a mini trampoline for kids will take the exercise to a whole different level of excitement.
There are many easy yoga poses children can perform on the trampoline. Let each session be playful and interactive. With time your kids will be able to do yoga exercises on their own. Some examples of yoga exercises you can teach your children are:
The happy baby pose: let your kid lie in his back and hug his knees to his chest. HeshouldHold his feet with both hands and rock like a baby.
The warrior pose. The child should stand on one leg with the other leg extended to the back. He should slightly bend forward and extend his arms as if he is reaching out.
The bottom line of this exercise is to help your child improve his balance. Children love games so challenge your kid by timing how long he can stay upright on the trampoline while doing these yoga exercises.
Benefits of Trampoline Exercises for Kids
There is more to mini trampoline exercises for kids than just to keep them occupied or entertained. You are doing tremendous good by installing an indoor trampoline for kids in your home. Some of the advantages of rebounding for kids are highlighted below.
- Relieves stress: trampoline exercise helps to suppress the stress hormones and stimulate the release of endorphins which helps them to feel happy.
- Better balance and coordination: when children jump up and down on the trampoline, their center of gravity keeps shifting. Their body’s response to this shift gives them better coordination and balance.
- Safe outdoor fun: exercise on a trampoline is a safe way to expose kids to fresh air, sunlight, and more vitamin D. It is an effective alternative to inactive play in front of the television.
- Anxiety control for children with autism: trampoline exercises help to reduce the anxiety and stress that is common with autistic kids. Bouncing on a trampoline makes them calm down when they feel overwhelmed.
- Better self-esteem: learning new skills helps kids to have confidence in their abilities
- Boosts cardiovascular system: exercise on a trampoline elevates the heart rate.
- Low Impact on Joints: when compared with other forms of exercise on the ground, trampoline exercise is more gentle on kids’ tender joints.
Is Trampoline Exercise Safe?
Trampoline exercise is relatively safe When done correctly and where parents follow safety precautions.
Trampoline use carries the danger of serious injuries not only for adults but especially for kids. Smaller and younger children are particularly vulnerable to getting injured. To prevent this, children younger than six years old should not be allowed to be on a trampoline
Most injuries come from children doing flips on the trampoline or when children bang into one another. Many of the injuries include sprains, dislocation, fracture, and head injuries
Safety Precautions
If you have concluded that the benefits of using a trampoline far outweigh the risk, then there are precautions you need to consider.
- Confirm that you set your mini trampoline at floor level to reduce the risk of injury from falling from an elevated surface.
- Cover the trampoline springs with protective pads and place safety mats on encircling landing surfaces. Put net enclosures to prevent the risk of falling from the trampoline.
- Always check your trampoline regularly for damage. Try to repair or change any parts showing wear and tear.
- For outdoor use, place your trampoline at a safe distance away from trees or other dangers.
- Do not allow a child younger than six years old to use a trampoline. A study shows that kids younger than 6years old are more prone to bone fracture.
- Only one person should be permitted to use the mini trampoline at a time.
- Kids trampoline with handle offer more safety for young children.
- Always supervise kids when they are jumping on the trampoline. Remove any ladder or chair nearby to prevent kids from having unsupervised access to the trampoline.
- Do not engage or allow children to perform possibly dangerous moves like somersaults on the mini-trampoline
- Inform your child’s doctor about trampoline workouts
Conclusions
Trampoline exercise for kids is an awesome and effective exercise when performed safely. In addition to the list of exercises mentioned in this article, try to be creative and get your kids bouncing to their favourite music.
Children benefit a lot from being active. Their rapidly developing mind and body deserve a healthy boost from regular exercise. More so, it helps them cultivate a healthy lifestyle. Without a doubt, the benefits of trampoline exercise for kids outweigh the cost of purchasing a trampoline.
