Re Bounder / trampoline queston or debate

[Craig]

Hypothetical question only as I prepare to retire to get some sleep.  You you really feel the step count from a trampoline/re bounder counts as steps or should those really be listed as something else. My personaly opinion is it should be a different type logged in work out. Not really stepping there on that. Thanks for any and all input . 

[Colinm39]

@Craig We had a dialogue on trampolines the other day and we agreed the step count was accurate but the VAM is normally inflated. The straight trampoline activity seems to give calories at about a walking speed of 90 steps/minute but the jogging on a trampoline is more likely the calorie burn. 

🙂 Colin Martin

[Mary]

I'm fine with tramp 'steps' but I know that it gives an inflated calorie burn.  Bounce/jog for 15 minutes, look at your calorie burn, then manually log it and you'll see.  Which makes sense because your torso motion is exaggerated by the surface.  You'd have to expend a lot more energy to make yourself move like that on the ground, which the Fitbit thinks you are.  

[slysam]

Interesting. I kind of like jumping and will sometimes jump rope for exercise. I can't do it long due to the impact and my coordination. I have noticed my Fitbit One (and Ultra and classic) seems to credit very similar often matching my Polar heart rate monitor's calorie burn. So I thought Fitbit was quite good with repetitive jumping. I have thought about getting a rebounder, the main reason I haven't is storage space and I already have my small place filled with too much fitness equipment (just small things like weights, jump ropes, aerobic step, ball, etc no machines). Is it overcrediting due to momentum i.e. you keep bouncing even if you don't use your muscles? Or maybe because you would jump higher than you can with your own muscle power? I could see that being the case on a larger trampoline. 

The only workouts I have personally felt my fitbit overcredits is if I use the elliptical with zero resistance and go as fast as I can. I think with this machine it is due to the momentum factor, the machine is moving my body faster than I would run in response to me quickly moving with no resistance or impact. Fitbit's estimate was still less than the gym machine's but more than my heart rate monitor. Also sitting and bouncing on an exercise ball seemed a little inflated. Once I tried it when my foot hurt, I tried sitting on a ball, bouncing and doing some fast boxing movements to try to get an aerobic workout. That wasn't too bad, but after someone posted a question I tried just bouncing without the upper body movements and saw it did credit 1-2 steps per bounce and the calorie burn was higher than my HRM.  Neither are rebounder related but I guess they are just examples of momentum effecting things. 

[Mary]

I don't even think it's momentum so much as your motion is being aided by a device and the Fitbit assumes you're unaided/unimpeded.  A treadmill or elliptical with a little resistance is also a device but I think most are similar enough to walking/running on ground that the Fitbit counts it ok.  

"Or maybe because you would jump higher than you can with your own muscle power?"

Yes, for that energy expenditure.  It's MUCH easier for me to jump to touch a ceiling fan 20 times in a row on a rebounder than on a same-height step.  The elasticity of the platform launches you up.

[Colinm39]

@Mary@slysamIt is definitely the type of motion which affects the outputs. Some weeks ago I posted how I achieved 100% VAM on my exercise ball. I use the ball occasionally as part of my lower back issues and I had accidentally had my Fitbits clipped on. The Ultra and the One, and I had to go looking at my activities to see where my VAM had come from.

So yesterday I did a 16 minute test so that I could reply to this post and both the Ultra and One had the same calorie burn

My BMR  1580

Bounces/minute   91 average

Average Speed 3.96 kmh (2.46 mph)

VAM 16 minutes (100%)

Heart Rate 45% (70bpm) of Max

Calories 114 and 115 respectively.

The end result has a calorie burn equating to me walking at 7.25 kmh (4.5 mph), close to jogging. At my age with my back issues that would be wonderful...

My HRM would have been useless because it was giving me readings well under any aerobic gain and RPEE was nil...A nice relaxing exercise ball routine reading posts.

Let's enjoy our foray into the Community morass

[Fascinating]

I bounced 5 minutes on the trampoline and my heart rate was up to 119 but I only got 215 steps. Maybe I stopped to rest a few seconds? Maybe I am in worse shape than I thought? I am actually underweight.  I am still feeling it though over an hour later.  My concern is how I track it? I hit the 2 seconds before and after, but now I can't find the record to mark as Trampoline time. Maybe I will go read my manual again. I am using the New Start program. It can be found around different sites online. My Fitbit is really helping with my 8 goals. Nutrition tracking Exercise tracking Water Tracking Sunshine - While exercising Temperance - balanced life Air - fresh while exercising outside Restful sleep tracking Trust in a higher power - ok not so much but 7 of 8 is not bad for a device so tiny. Fascinating