Jill of All Trades

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This week, our Jill of All Trades, Jill Washburn, shows us her workout that she does on the trampoline in her own backyard. Jill says that it’s fun, it’s aerobic, and it’s also a great strength workout. One of the reasons that the trampoline is such a great workout is that, no matter how hard you try, you never land exactly the same way twice. So, the body is constantly making micro-corrections, so that you can still maintain your balance. That means that every little muscle fiber is working, even if you can’t feel it. If you’ve never been on a trampoline before, or haven’t been on one in years, you’ll be surprised at how quickly it can make you out of breath. Here’s Jill’s workout. It takes her about 30 minutes to run through it, and she does it year-round. First, Jill starts with some easy bouncing and a warm-up with simple ballet moves (basically Third Position, alternating feet). From there, Jill moves onto some strength work. Beginners can start with a knee bounce, and then come back up to the feet. You can do those in an alternating series. Jill has progressed to a knee bounce, into a butt bounce, back up to the feet. She’ll do these in series. This is a great core workout, as you have to really work the abs to pull the feet through to get to the butt bounce. Jill does about 40 of these, usually breaking them into sets of 10 or 20. After that, Jill does another strength move, handstands, that target the arms and shoulders. It also helps build the core muscles, front and back. Jill says that, even if you can’t do a handstand on the ground, you may be able to do one on the trampoline. The bounce of the trampoline will help propel you up so that you can do it. If you cannot manage to do a full handstand, you can just do a donkey kick. You’ll still get the same results. Jill starts the handstands by bouncing on hands and knees, first, and then pushes up into the handstand (or donkey kick) on the next bounce. The last bounce is back on the hands and knees again. Jill does these in series, as well. She’ll do as many as 80 of these, breaking them into sets of 10 or 20. After the handstands, it’s back onto the feet and Jill just tries to bounce and hold her arms straight out to the side. Sounds goofy, but it’s harder than you think and it’s a great strengthener for the upper arms and shoulders. She often throws a little side-to-side motion into the bouncing. That helps work and tone the hips and thighs. Almost done! The finishing moves are just a couple of big butt bounces, coming back up onto the feet. Jill says she tries to “stick the landing”, much like a gymnast would. That means landing and not moving the feet from where they land. It’s usually pretty tough and you will feel the muscles working all up and down the legs, trying to hang onto the landing. Jill says that she usually does 5 – 10 of those. That’s it! The Backyard Trampoline workout. Jill swears by it. She says it’s often do-able even when injuries are preventing you from doing other workouts, like running or biking. It’s also great for when you’re time-crunched, or can’t get to the gym, or if you just need to switch up your normal routine. Jill says to feel free to get creative. You may think of other great moves on your own! PROJECT RATING: Easy – Medium (depending on how you choose to do it) To watch Jill take you through the workout steps, just click on the video player above.

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