AngieFitnessTV: Rebounder Muscle Mix + Core

Rebounder Muscle Mix + Core is part of AngieFitnessTV‘s Bounce & Lift program/series. There is supposed to be 7 workouts in this series but unfortunately, there isn’t. I did ask Angie about it on her Facebook rebounding page and she said she would create the missing workouts–so fingers crossed! I am especially interested in Cardio Bounce + PHA Total Body, which is one of the workouts that did not get created. Two things I love–rebounding and PHA workouts. I cannot wait for her to create one that combines two of my loves. Angie creates a plethora of workouts for the home exerciser; I’m sure it is very hard to get to everything she wants to create. I do understand–not in the creating of workouts, but in doing them! My Wish/To Do list of workouts is enormous and currently Angie’s workouts dominate that list. I love her workouts! I do all of them but some of my favorites are her rebounder workouts.

Anyway, back to this workout. This is an interesting cardio + strength workout. Angie gives you an excellent and unique workout that hits most of your muscle groups in some fashion. Plus we meet a new furry guest–a super cute dog was hanging around Angie’s rebounder. I think she said her name was Avril but I am not sure. Another of the many things I love about Angie’s workouts is that I am pulling out all kinds of equipment I haven’t used in years. This is another one that uses my pilates magic circle. Until Angie, I hadn’t used that thing in years! You also use a pilates or playground ball in some interesting ways. One was early on, during the cardio, you place it between your thighs and hold it there while doing jump moves. This was harder than I thought it would be! It definitely worked my legs more than I expected. I did not burn a ton of calories during this workout, but then again, it is only 38 minutes. I finished it off with one of Angie’s extended stretch routines done on the rebounder: Trampoline Extreme: Flexibility & Stretch. Between the 2 workouts I burned nearly 300 calories. Obviously the majority of those calories were burned in the course of this workout. Due to the structure of this workout, the graph on my FitBit shows my heart rate fluctuating a lot. It got into my peak heart rate during the interval circuit, it was in the my cardio zone during all of the bouncing and lowered into my fat burning zone during all of the strength/balance/core work. Overall it was an excellent workout and I really enjoyed it.

I do have a little aside I want to mention. Anyone who follows this blog knows I have bad feet. A drunk driver hit me head on 11 years ago and shattered my heels. I have 2 plates and 12 screws in each heel. I wear expensive (but not orthotic) shoes that give me support and ankle braces any time I am working out. This has been my life for years and I am used to it. I can do just about everything I could do pre-accident–plyometrics, running, etc. It mostly affects my balance. But in order to do all of those things, I need the support of high quality shoes and ankle braces. Until the rebounder. When I rebound I wear yoga socks and it is the most amazing thing. I truly believe the rebounder is good for my bad feet! I mention this because in Angie’s earlier rebounder workouts she wears shoes. In fact, in Trampoline Extreme: Flexibility & Stretch, which I did immediately following this workout, she says she has weak ankles and so has to wear shoes when rebounding. Then in this workout, she is barefoot and says she has strong ankles and feet. What happened in the 2 years between the two workouts? Maybe rebounding strengthened them? I don’t know but I found it interesting because I believe that the rebounder is strengthening my damaged feet. When I started using my first rebounder (an inexpensive spring bound rebounder) I wore my usual shoes and ankle braces. I believed the jumping would hurt my feet without them. Then I upgraded to a Bellicon and wanted to take care of it since it was a lot more expensive than my other rebounder. So I decided to try doing it barefoot. I really didn’t expect it to be doable for me so I was amazed when it was–and it feels good on my feet! In fact, yesterday I was on my feet all day and was hobbled by the end of the day. This is normal for me. I even have a cane and crutches at home I sometimes have to resort to if I am on my feet constantly all day. No big deal. I pop some ibuprofen and cross my fingers they will be better the next morning. And they usually are. Well, this morning I was still limping a bit and still had some pain. I questioned whether I should don my ankle braces and shoes this morning due to my residual pain. But I decided to go with my yoga socks as planned. Within a few minutes of bouncing the pain disappeared. I am not joking! Buying a rebounder was the best fitness investment I have ever made.

Rebounder Muscle Mix + Core is 38:21 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 3 minute cool down/stretch. Equipment: rebounder, resistance tube with handles, pilates or playground ball and pilates magic circle.

Each exercise is done for one minute.

1. Place pilates or playground ball between thighs and bounce, holding ball between thighs
2. Keeping ball between thighs, hop forward 4x then hop backwards 4x
3. Bounce side to side, 4 hops in each direction
4. Hop forward then back then side to side (2 hops each direction)
5. Twist hop side to side (ball is still between thighs)
6. Hop on rebounder with jumping jack arms
7. (toss ball to side) Double jack legs; changes to single jack legs; add jack arms
8. Jog on rebounder with hammer curl arms

Intervals (45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of recovery):

1. Fast jumping jacks
2. High knee runs
3. Scissor runs, raising and lowering arms in opposition
4. Hop side to side
5. Jump forward and back
6. Tuck jumps

Balance:

1. Balance on one leg with other knee raised, alternate legs, standing on each for about 8 seconds
2. Repeat #1 but with one leg extended out to side, also you are balancing for longer on each leg
3. Repeat #2 but lifting leg behind you

Strength & Core (loop both handles of resistance tube under the front leg of rebounder):

1. Get on knees on rebounder and hold the tube in both hands, keeping torso straight, lean torso back then forward
2. Still leaned back slightly, still holding tube in both hands, do upright rows
3. Still leaned back slightly, hold tube in one hand and do single arm back rows
4. Sit on rebounder, legs extended with knees bent, hold tube with both hands, elbows extended out to sides and tubes are between your legs, holding tube taut under chin, do sit ups
5. In same basic position as #4, lean torso back, hold tube in one hand and do back rows in this position
6. Repeat #4 but this time hold tube in both hands with palms facing ceiling and elbows close together
7. Repeat #4 but this time each time you lean back, raise one leg, alternate legs
8. Lay on floor with heels on frame of rebounder, raise and lower hips in bridge
9. (get magic circle and pilates ball) Place pilates ball between knees, feet on frame of rebounder, holding magic circle in both hands over chest, raise and lower hips in bridge while also pressing into magic circle with hands
10. Still on back on floor beside rebounder, lay calves on rebounder, knees bent and pilates ball still between knees, still holding magic circle in both hands, do full sit ups, reaching magic circle to feet
11. Stand on rebounder with pilates ball between thighs and holding magic circle in both hands, jump on rebounder while pushing in on circle
12. Continue jumping on rebounder, ball still between thighs, still holding circle in both hands, shift circle side to side as you jump; jump changes to hip twist jumps
13. Continue jumping on rebounder but torso is facing side, holding magic circle in both hands but facing the front, raise and lower the circle (raise from hip to over head)
14. Face forward again, continue hopping (ball is still between thighs) and circle magic circle
15. Continue hopping on rebounder while squeezing in on magic circle
16. (get rid of magic circle) Remove ball from between thighs, continue hopping on rebounder and pass ball around body, passing ball from hand to hand around waist

For more info on AngieFitnessTV and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.