Trampolines have evolved to be safer and bouncier, providing maximum fun with minimal risk. A trampoline may look like just another toy for the backyard, but it is so much more than that.
There are many beneficial health reasons for having a trampoline – such as:
- Encourages Play
- Improves Balance and Coordination
- Improves Confidence and Self-Esteem
- Low Impact Form of Exercise
- Can Help Your Child Lose Weight
- Excellent for Your Mental Health
- Can Help Improve Academic Scores and Learning
- Strengthen Your Heart, Lungs, Bones, and Muscles
- Improve the Immune System
- Encourage Positive Associations with Being Outdoors
Keep reading for a breakdown on why every child should have a trampoline, or at least access to one.
Related Reading: How Much Do Trampolines Weigh? [36 MODELS EXAMINED]
Encourage Play
I can see you rolling your eyes through the computer screen. “Well of course they encourage play,” you might be thinking. But, the play aspect is a little more important than merely providing some entertainment for your child.
Trampolines encourage play in a way that doesn’t involve technology or staring at a screen. At the same time, it is exercise disguised as play – teaching your child that exercise and getting your heart rate up does not have to be a “chore” or inherently boring.
This can result in long-lasting benefits, as your child learns that not all entertainment can be found on an iPad or a phone, and that exercise can be fun and exciting.
Improve Balance and Coordination
Even if your child is not inherently clumsy, it is still important for them to develop excellent balance and coordination skills.
When your child jumps on a trampoline, they are focused on their continuously changing landing position, which challenges them to develop bilateral motor skills.
In turn, these motor and coordination skills improve other aspects of your child’s life, including their ability to learn, reading comprehension, and day-to-day activities.
Moreover, the action of rebounding on a trampoline actively stimulates the vestibule in their middle ear, which is directly tied to balance.
Improve Confidence and Self-Esteem
Regular physical activity helps children develop better self-esteem, better leadership skills, and can help them feel more confident.
Physical activities like rebounding develop important skills like strength, coordination, logical reasoning, and endurance.
Trampolines offer a resilient surface that encourages children to (literally and figuratively) bounce back, even if they did not land a jump perfectly or execute a trick the way they wanted to.
Trampolines are especially ideal for children who are not interested in sports, as rebounding provides a sense of immediate accomplishment and can give children the self-confidence needed to engage in other activities.
Rebounding on a Trampoline is a Safer, Long-Term Form of Exercise
Rebounding on a trampoline is a low-impact activity that is safer on your joints than high-impact activities, like jogging or playing basketball. In fact, rebounding is sometimes used to help people recover from joint and soft-tissue injuries.
Rebounding has also been shown to relieve back, neck, and knee pain over time.
This means that your child can safely rebound on a trampoline even at a young age without significantly increasing the risk that their joints will be fragile or damaged as an adult.
Can Help Your Child Lose Weight
Child obesity continues to rise, predominantly due to sedentary lifestyles and poor diets.
Asking your child to run 5 miles every day is nearly impossible – many children are not thrilled to do a structured physical activity! However, rebounding on a trampoline can help your child lose weight because it is exercise without feeling like exercise.
According to one study by NASA, 10 minutes of jumping is equivalent to 30 minutes of running!
Excellent for Your Mental Health
The action of rebounding on a trampoline decreases stress both by lowering cortisol and by increasing the production of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins through exercise.
In turn, the production of these hormones helps improve mood and sleep. Although it is not a cure, it can be a highly beneficial tool for children who suffer from mood disorders or are highly anxious.
Can Help Improve Academic Scores and Learning
Rebounding on a trampoline encourages a child to focus without it seeming like a pain or a chore. Additionally, the exercise-disguised-as-fun can help decrease stress, which can lead to behavioral issues in class.
It can also help young children safely “get out” their pent-up energy, which can lead to fidgeting, restlessness, and lack of concentration.
Studies also show that students who regularly exercise solve problems and multi-task more effectively, and often have improved reading and math scores.
Strengthen Your Heart, Lungs, Bones, and Muscles
Studies have shown that rebounding on a trampoline strengthens bone density, joints, tendons, and ligaments.
Strengthening these areas can help prevent conditions like osteoporosis, as well as drastically reduce the severity of arthritis. Because rebounding also promotes blood circulation, it also helps improve the cardiovascular system (i.e. the heart).
Exercising on a trampoline naturally increases your heart and pulse rate, which increases the flow of oxygen throughout your body.
Regular exercise on a trampoline can even decrease your heart rate and blood pressure.
Improve the Immune System
Although children are resilient, they also seem to frequently bring home new strains of the cold and flu every year. A trampoline helps improve their immune system in several ways.
First, it reduces stress hormones like cortisol, which can have a negative impact on your immune system.
Second, the continual jumping on a trampoline promotes movement and circulation throughout the whole body, which in turn allows the lymphatic system to drain.
Regularly draining the lymphatic system helps toxins flow naturally to the liver and the kidneys and out of your body, thereby boosting immunity.
Encourage Positive Associations with Being Outdoors
Trampolines are a surefire way to get kids to go outside more often. Not only will they be more regularly exercising and giving their eyes a break from computer screens, they will be enjoying the fresh air and getting vitamin D from the sun!
Most importantly, however, the positive experiences that your children will have on the trampoline will begin building the foundation for positive associations to being outside.
This means that your child will be more likely to continue the habit as they grow older by integrating outdoor activities into their lifestyle (whether it’s merely going for a walk, or regularly participating in an outdoor sport).
Final Notes
We hope you see now why every kid should have a trampoline. This list is not exhaustive either, more benefits could be added. We just wanted to sum up the top 10 we found.
And when a child trampoline, so do their parents, which means even adults can reap these benefits.
Perhaps our next post should be why every ADULT should have a trampoline!