I love trampolines. Love! And since I needed something fun to do for my birthday I invited a bunch of my friends to the trampoline park Tuesday night.
It was great workout and my friends had a lot of fun. My husband might have had the most fun.
We went to the local trampoline park. It has lots of trampolines, with some tumble tracks, a foam pit, dodgeball courts, a small dunk trampoline and a ninja course with a rock climbing wall.
Flip!
I've been able to flip now for a year and a half. But I flip into the foam pit or a gymnastics mat. I have never tried flipping landing on a trampoline. I was scared of rolling my ankle. I tried flipping on the Olympic trampoline at TSNY. I was feeling brave at the end of our jump time and I tried it when no one was looking.
Jump. Wait. Flip.
And I landed on my feet. First try.
I didn't hit my head and my flip wasn't too low.
AND my husband tried a front flip for the first time. He got it on his second attempt.
To outdo him, I tried a handspring to front flip. I almost got it. Not quite, but close enough to want to go back immediately.
I didn't turn the workout app on my watch on, but I burned at least 250 active calories and had so much fun. I should really start going back every other week or every two weeks.
A little over two years ago (two years and a week) I started my fitness journey with a fitness class at Aerofit. I was hooked. So today I took one of the first Rush fitness classes. (Rush is the expanded version of Aerofit.)
Picture of Rush from their FB page
There were 6 people in the class, one of which was an employee, and three teachers.
The class started with some stretching, then it was in four parts.
1. Cardio on the trampoline.
2. Intervals on the ninja course
3. Handstands on the dodgeball course/ tricep dips/ pushups on the benches
4. Abs back on the trampolines where we started.
Cardio consisted of jumping high, jumping jacks, some of Alex's favorite bring your knees up and slap your knees. Each exercise was about two minutes each.This was good cardio. I got tired fast and babied my overused knee. (I wore a brace and numbed it with voltarin gel before class.) I would have preferred more variety of exercises for 60-90 second bursts. I get bored fast.
Then it was over to the ninja wall. The circuit was 10 pushups, climb across the rope net, wall sit, swim across the foam pit, lunge back to the starting point, and repeat four or so times. This was super tiring. People were complaining. (The day after and my shoulders and killing me for doing too many pushups.)
We did some tricep dips on the benches. Well the instructor and I did. Everyone else had that glazed look in their eyes. Then it was incline pushups for 2 minutes. (More pushups!) We did some handstands against the barriers on the dodgeball course. I got a few good holds. Then some bearwalks.
Then it was back over to the trampolines for abs. We started with buttdrops, did some scissors and popcorn jumps and that was it.
I stayed around and did some bounders and played on the trampolines into the foam pit for a bit and headed out right at 10 a.m.
Verdict: A relatively new class that I'll be interested to see how it's polished up in coming months. I love trampolines and want to incorporate them into my fitness routine. We'll see if this class—or open jump makes the cut.
Pros: I was tired afterward. The variety of the trampolines, the ninja course and the dodgeball course was nice. All of the exercises were very doable. No need for super skills. The instructors were right there with the tired participants.
Cons: There was lots of down time that could have been better used. It seemed a tad unorganized with all of direction changes. Also, I would have liked to use more of the ninja course. Can we run across the spinning log? Climb across the rock wall. Will you show me how to do the spiderman climb? Also, they didn't use the vertical trampolines. A cardio warmup of just running laps might have been more interesting than 5 minutes of jumping in place. There were also too many pushups. We did a few different kinds and it was too repetitive when we could have done different exercises and worked on different areas.
I didn't love the class. It didn't have that same magic Aerofit classes had, but I'll give it time, but honestly I probably won't be back for a while for the class. I think I could do a better workout on my own.
Today I tried a Skyfitness class at skyzone. The kind you might have seen on Keeping up With the Kardashians (the episode where Khloe has some camel toe, but still wears tight pants and short tops.)
Granted, I've been taking trampoline cardio classes for a year, but I wanted to try another gym and see what their classes were like.
Atlanta traffic is unpredictable so we left very early. It took an hour to get there and we were super early. The manager signed us in and printed out our tickets (to jump afterwards). I signed up and paid online the night before.
Your first Skyfitness class is $5, and after that $10 each. Or you can buy a monthly membership for $20. Classes are offered at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday.
There were 13 people in our class. There was a high school aged guy, 3-4 older couples, and a lot of 30-something women, maybe teachers. Most people came in pairs.
The instructor, Josh, was a beefy guy who I guessed played high school football. The class started with some light stretching, balancing on one foot, stretching shoulders, ankles, legs etc. The warm-up was 10+ minutes of running mans, jump up and touch your knees, side-to-side jumps, lunges, pulses, jumping front to back, tracing all the corners, butt drops, There were pushups, plank holds (where my feet slipped because of the socks), butt drops (but no spins), jumping jacks, donkey kicks, jumping really high for a minute—to get your heart rate up. I was definitely ready for a water break when it came.
The third part of the class was cardio. 60 seconds of laps around the trampoline, 60 seconds of curls with a band, or 30 seconds of lunges and 30 seconds of tricep dips on the floor. Then it was back on the trampoline, where we raced up and down the lanes for 30 seconds, while our partners did a sidestep with the band. We took the bands back to the trampoline and did some leg extensions, push ups, planks etc. There was also popcorn (back bounces), V-ups and butt-ups for abs. The class ended with 7 minutes of stretching.
After the class, we stayed to jump. We went to the foam pit and flipped until some 10-year-old boys showed up. Then we tried the basketball court and attempted to dunk the basketballs. We went back to the main trampoline to jump. I wanted to flip, but wasn't rotating enough and it wasn't happening. Kids also kept jumping across our pads (though the trampoline was pretty empty.) We went back to the foam pit and tried to flip some more. I kept under rotating. And Matt finally figured out how to dunk! And that was our 30 minutes.
I liked that there was a clock on the wall that counted down the seconds. We need that at my gym.
Socks: I would prefer to jump barefoot. I really hate socks. (I'm a Southern girl and would rather be barefoot or in flip-flops.) The Skyzone socks didn't bother me for the most part. The didn't bother me at all while I was jumping. They did make holding planks harder in the class (I kept slipping on the sock) and the foam pit foam tends to stick to them.
Quick Guide:
Verdict: Fun way to burn a lot of calories. You will get your heart rate up.
Thoughts: It was a good class. It got my heart rate up. There was nothing too confusing for me. Most of it was super easy. I rather thought I killed the class—jumping higher than most of the pros, etc. But there was no high-five from the instructor after class. The participants filed out and he put up the equipment. I missed the personal touch from the instructor, or maybe I just wanted to be told awesome job.
And overall, an Aerofit class is more fun. (Skyfitness also didn't use the walls at all). Alex's classes are brutal, but when he's singing Britney Spears off key it just makes the class more fun.
Atmosphere: Standard workout class. The attendees seemed very quiet. The instructor seemed to be a no-nonsense trainer.
Intensity: The first 10 minutes are the hardest. It will get your heart rate up. If you're new to working out, just take it easy. Do as much as you can and watch the others. If you're a pro, you won't have trouble with the class. It isn't too hard. And there were two water breaks built-in.
Price: $5 for a first class and $10 afterwards is pretty good.
What to wear: Workout clothes and the socks they sell there. I wouldn't wear anything too baggy. I like to wear capris and a tank.
If you go: Ladies, make sure you pee before you jump. Trampolines do weird things to bladders.
Would I do it again: Aerofit doesn't offer Friday or Saturday cardio classes anymore. (There is a noon class I can't make, but no Friday evenings or Saturday noon.) If gas wasn't $15 a trip, I'd consider it. Until then I'll wait until Aerofit expands. I've heard rumors of a basketball court, tumble track, climbing wall and foam pit.
