Rebounding: An exercise for your immune system!

An amazing fact- twenty minutes of rebounding exercise equals 1 hour of running! Further, rebounding exercise can reduce your body fat, firm your arms, benefit the shape of your legs, hips and abdomen, improve your balance, stimulate your lymphatic system, protect your joints, strengthen your muscles and bones without the trauma of hitting a hard surface, provide an aerobic effect for your cardiopulmonary systems, revitalize your body when it's tired, and generally put you in a state of mental and physical wellness! Sounds too good to be true? Let us explore this a bit.

So what is rebounding?

Rebounding exercise to put it simply is bouncing on a mini trampoline. Unlike regular trampolining, the aim isn’t to bounce high or perform gymnastic tricks, but to perform a series of small, controlled movements. The idea of rebounding has been around for a long time, in the 1980s NASA studied its benefits while trying to find an effective way to help astronauts recover and regain bone and muscle mass after being in space. Astronauts can lose as much as 15% of their bone and muscle mass from only 14 days at zero gravity, so NASA needed a way to help reverse this damage. When the astronauts were tested while running on a treadmill, the G-force measured at the ankle was over twice what it was at the back and head. This means that the foot and leg absorb much of the force when running. On a trampoline, the G-force was almost identical at the ankle, back and head and at a lower level than that of the G-force at the ankle on a treadmill. This shows that rebounding can exercise the entire body without excess pressure to the feet and legs.

How Rebounding Works

Many types of exercise are done to target specific muscles or just to increase cardiovascular function. Rebounding is unique since it uses the forces of acceleration and deceleration and can work on every cell in the body in a unique way. When you bounce on a rebounder (mini-trampoline), several actions happen:

· An acceleration action as you bounce upward

· A split-second weightless pause at the top

· A deceleration at an increased G-force

· Impact to the rebounder

· Repeat

The action of rebounding makes use of the increased G-force from gravity based exercises like this and each cell in the body has to respond to the acceleration and deceleration. Rebounding is extremely beneficial for the lymphatic system as it makes the lymphatic fluid move. The main lymph vessels run up the legs, up the arms and up the torso, thus the lymphatic fluid moves only in one direction. Therefore, the vertical up and down movement of rebounding is an effective way to pump the lymph fluid. The lymph system bathes every cell, carrying nutrients to the cell and waste products away. Contrary to blood which is pumped by the heart, the lymph is totally dependent on physical exercise to move. Without adequate movement, the cells are left stewing in their own waste products and starving for nutrients, a situation which contributes to arthritis, cancer and other degenerative diseases as well as aging. Vigorous exercise such as rebounding is reported to increase lymph flow by 15 to 30 times. 

The rebounding motion stimulates all internal organs, moves the cerebral-spinal fluid, and is beneficial for the intestines. Many immune cells such as T-lymphocytes and macrophages are self-propelled through amebic action. These cells contain molecules identical to those in muscle tissue. All cells in the body become stronger in response to the increased "G force" during rebounding, and this cellular exercise results in the self-propelled immune cells being up to 5 times more active. These immune cells are responsible for eating viruses and bacteria. Jumping on a mini-trampoline directly strengthens the immune system, 

Benefits of Rebounding

A zero-impact exercise, rebounding provides many benefits for you and your body:

· It increases the capacity for breathing. 

· It circulates more oxygen to the tissues.

· It helps combat depression. 

· It helps normalize your blood pressure. 

· It helps prevent cardiovascular disease. 

· It increases the activity of the red bone marrow in the production of red blood cells. 

· It aids lymphatic circulation, as well as blood flow in the veins of the circulatory system. 

· It lowers elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels. 

· It stimulates the metabolism, thereby reducing the likelihood of obesity.

· It tones up the glandular system, especially the thyroid to increase its output. 

· It improves coordination throughout the body.

· It promotes increased muscle fiber tone. 

· It offers relief from neck and back pains, headaches, and other pain caused by lack of exercise. 

· It enhances digestion and elimination processes. 

· It allows for easier relaxation and sleep. 

· It results in a better mental performance, with sharper learning processes. 

· It relieves fatigue and menstrual discomfort for women. 

· It minimizes the number of colds, allergies, digestive disturbances, and abdominal problems. 

· It tends to slow down aging.

· 20 minutes of rebounding=1 hour of running for cardiovascular workout

· AND IS GREAT FUN!

Plus, unlike many other aerobic activities, rebounding places no strain on the joints of your body. Rebounding is suitable for all ages and abilities! Stabilizing bars can be fitted which may help if you feel unsteady or are elderly, disabled or handicapped. Exercising on a rebounder trains your sense of balance and helps establish better co-ordination and kinesthetic awareness. Start with a gentle bounce, moving on to higher jumps as you gain confidence.

Fast your way to good health

It is an established fact that South Asians  are at a high risk for diabetes and heart disease. Why is that?  The is due to a condition known as insulin resistance that is highly prevalent amongst South Asians. Excess insulin in the blood is the underlying cause for insulin resistance. A carbohydrate rich and grain based diet that rapidly raises the blood sugar is the main culprit. One of the hallmarks of insulin resistance is excess abdominal fat which is one of the trigger factors of chronic inflammation and the root cause of almost every imaginable chronic disease from accelerated aging to heart attacks and strokes to Alzheimer’s.

Molecular and genetic evidence has identified a gene associated with insulin resistance known as ENPP1. South Asians compared to any other ethnic groups have an even more aggressive version of this insulin resistant gene due to a mutation called K121Q. Now, why did this mutation occur? Evolutionary biologist and geneticist have a theory known as the thrifty gene theory. South Asians, who were used to living in a year round feast-famine cycle, inherited a gene that predisposed them to store body fat during times of famine. Famine has been an intrinsic part of South Asian life for thousands of years particularly during agricultural times when the unpredictable monsoon pattern often resulted in droughts, killing millions of people on a regular basis. The extra body fat was intended to provide energy when food was scarce. Researchers think the intensity and duration of these periods of famine may have made South Asians more susceptible to the gene. In modern times famines have been made redundant due to the green revolution that introduced drought resistant genetically manipulated wheat. Yes, this solved the hunger problem but now we have to deal with a host of health related issues.

So how do we make ourselves healthy given the genetic predisposition we have to insulin resistance? The answer lies in intermittent fasting. Most of us are familiar with the practice of fasting as culturally we fast for many reasons- for the devotion to a deity or perhaps to honor a departed family member.  Modern research has shown that by mimicking the periods of feast and famine cycle by intermittent fasting produces a number of biochemical benefits.

·      Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity: This occurs due to the body switching to burning fat instead of sugar during fasting.

·      Normalizing ghrelin levels, known as the hunger hormone.

·      Lowering triglycerides levels.

·      Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production. HGH is a fat burning hormone and plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process.

·      Reducing oxidative stress that decreases the accumulation of free radicals in the cell.

·      Boosts production of BDNF (Brain derived neurotrophic factor) that helps make new neurons and promote neural health.

Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term that covers a wide array of fasting schedules. Generally it involves cutting calories in whole or in part, either a couple of days a week, every other day or even daily. Briefly listed are the different kinds of fasting schedule

·      5:2 fasting- eat normally for five days with two days of fasting interspersed between the feasting days. On fasting days cut the food to one-fourth your normal daily calories with plenty of herbal teas and water.

·      Alternate day fasting- here you feast one day and fast the next day. On fasting day you can have just one meal of 600 calories. When you include sleeping time, the fast can end up being as long as 32-36 hrs.

·      Everyday fasting- here you simply restrict your daily eating to a specific window of time, such as an eight-hour window. This method is much more easier to comply once your body has shifted over from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel.

Intermittent fasting is the most effective way to shed unwanted fat and eliminate your sugar cravings. Since most of us are carrying excess fat we just can’t seem to burn, this is a really important benefit. When sugar is not needed as a primary fuel, your body will also not crave it as much when your sugar stores run low. But compliance is a critical factor in any of these approaches. Yes, you will get hungry but your hunger will be appropriate and you will be surprised at how much less food will completely satisfy when you no longer need to rely of stored sugar in your body for your primary fuel. Fast with conviction and determination and you will notice that food craving literally disappear. Why not give it a try- fast for a Hindu god, Gurunanak, Mahavir, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Allah, your beloved saint/guru, a lost loved one or whatever person, spirit or ideal inspires you! Lastly please note that people with any of these conditions need to be cautious or avoid fasting- if you are diabetic, hypoglycemic, pregnant or nursing, have cortisol dysregulation.