Since Zoe Ball completed the Sports Relief cycling challenge almost eight years ago, the radio presenter hasn’t shared much insight into her exercise routine. But in a new post, she revealed she spent a week incorporating daily rebounding at a retreat in Portugal’s Algarve.
In a video compilation showing various activities, the 55-year-old films while bouncing on a mini trampoline, with the retreat’s website stating that daily rebounding takes place ‘as it’s gentle on the joints, and the sessions are so fun, you won’t even realise you’re exercising’.
Instagram @zoetheball
Besides Zoe, everyone from Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha to Eva Longoria have been beating the rebounding drum, and with good reason.
Part of the renewed interest stems from a landmark NASA study, in which researchers compared treadmill running with trampoline exercise. It found that, for similar levels of oxygen uptake and heart rate, rebounding generated greater biomechanical stimuli while placing less impact on the body – and showed that 10 minutes of rebounding could be up to 68% more effective than 30 minutes of jogging.
@zoetheball//Instagram
Zoe Ball spent a week at Jason Vale’s Juicy Escape Retreat in the Algarve
In other words, it offers an effective cardiovascular workout without the impact on your joints that you’ll get from running, making it a solid choice for people looking to improve fitness without placing any stress on their knees, hips or ankles.
Here’s what the other research says, and why you should try it.
Rebounding benefits
- It can improve balance and coordination: As you bounce on the unstable surface, your balance, coordination, and functional mobility improves. Indeed, twelve weeks of rebounding was highly effective in improving balance and mobility in women over 50 with osteopenia, according to a 2019 study out of the Clinical Interventions in Ageing.
- It counts as cardio: For an American Council on Exercise study, 24 college students participated in a rebounder workout, during which their average heart rate was at 79 percent of their heart rate max – within the benchmark range for cardio workouts.
- It burns calories and can aid weight loss: On average, women burn 9.4 calories per minute while on a rebounder, which is approximately equivalent to running six mph on flat ground or biking at 14 mph, according to the American Council on Exercise. In part due to the calorie burn, rebounding can help promote weight loss, according to a 2018 study in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.
The science is a reminder that getting your heart rate up and improving your fitness doesn’t always have to mean pounding the pavements – it can mean bouncing on a trampoline. No wonder Zoe’s a fan.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.