Feel the bounce

"Urban Rebounding" springs into local fitness clubs

by Sarah Lariviere and Leslie Robarge

TOTAL REBOUND: Healthworks employees show off proper trampoline technique -- knees bent, weight on the heels, no back flips allowed.

The '90s saw a series of fitness gurus ride into Boston, in person or in infomercials: Billy Blanks, with Tae Bo; Johnny G, with Spinning; Baron Baptiste, with Power Yoga. Now comes the first guru of 2000: J.B. Berns, who brings us the high-intensity, low-impact trampoline workout he calls Urban Rebounding.

Yes, trampoline workout. This isn't like playing in your best friend's back yard: the goal is to bounce down, not up. (In fact, Berns won't even refer to it as a trampoline. It's a rebounder.) The idea, says Berns, is to create an aerobic exercise where energy is concentrated in the legs and abs, not the knees. And, of course, it makes working out fun. "I think people have the innate desire to jump up and down on Mom and Dad's bed," he says.

But the desire to spring up as high as you can also makes a trampoline workout tricky for the first-timer. At Healthworks, the gym where Urban Rebounding classes are held, we're told at the beginning of the class to stay low by imagining an invisible ceiling no more than a few inches above our heads.

Bouncing in time with the rest of the class seems impossible in the beginning; all the up-and-down motion makes you feel like Super Mario. But, like any workout, it's actually fun once you get the moves down. If you're in relatively good shape, you finish the class with muscles that feel tight, not sore.

Right now Urban Rebounding is available only at Boston and Cambridge Healthworks Fitness Centers, but Berns says that it should be coming to Bally Total Fitness and the Boston Sports Club in the near future.