Active kids are always on the go, running and jumping everywhere. That means self-loading exercises like jumping jacks naturally fit into your playtime, and you can even do them just for the fun of it as a fun way to burn off excess energy. But just because you've grown up doesn't mean you have to stop doing this type of exercise. Jumping can be fun, and perhaps even more important, they provide useful health benefits at any age.
How many calories do jumping jacks burn?
Jumping falls into the loose category of calisthenics, or exercises that emphasize using your entire body as a unit with your own body weight providing resistance as you increase your heart rate or develop muscular strength and endurance. That type of muscular effort of the whole body translates into a great calorie burn.
The use of calories depends on a number of factors, including body weight and level of effort. Although it is difficult to set a precise burning calories for each individual, a series of estimates of Harvard Health Publishing throws a great esteem: if you weigh 70 kilos, estimate that half hour of calisthenics moderate burns about 167 calories s; If you weigh 84 kilos, the same half hour of exercise will burn about 200 calories .
If you turn the dial up to "vigorous" intensity, a 70-pound person will burn about 298 calories in half an hour , while the same exercise would burn about 355 calories for someone weighing 84 kilos.
To find out how to consider moderate or vigorous intensity exercise , especially with something like jumping jacks, try rating your training on a scale of zero to 10, where zero is inactive with no activity and 10 is the most difficult exercise you can imagine.
What benefits does it bring to health?
One of the biggest benefits of exercises like jumping jacks is that you can do them almost anywhere and you don't need any special equipment to do them. The same goes for other calisthenic exercises, such as rock climbers, burpees, and push-ups, which can easily be combined with jumping jacks as part of a comprehensive full-body workout.
This exercise is classified as an impact workout because your feet lift off the ground. This type of exercise is known to be beneficial for bone density , with a 2015 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology being one of the more recent claims.
However, while impact exercises can be helpful, repeated impact can also be harmful for some people with joint conditions or low bone density. That's one of the reasons it's always important to consult a professional before starting an exercise program.
If you choose to do low-impact jumping jacks, stepping to one side at a time instead of jumping, it will greatly reduce the concussion aspect of the workout, but still reap the benefits of a physical workout, which can also help. reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
How long should I do the jumps?
Even if you really love jumping, doing about 30 minutes of moderate jumping five days a week , or 15 minutes of vigorous jumping each day, could quickly overwhelm you. But that's roughly the amount of exercise you need to meet the WHO physical activity guidelines to improve your health. And if you're trying to lose weight or reach other fitness goals, you probably need even more.
Combining other exercises with your own weight will do a lot to increase your levels of fun and interest. Some popular exercises that you can add to your jumping jacks training include dips, push-ups, burpees, rock climbers, side jumps, etc.
Different types of Jumping Jacks
To do basic jumps, stand with your feet together and your arms at your sides, with your knees soft. Simultaneously, spread both feet and swing your arms out to the sides until they are above your head. Jump with both feet together and move your arms down to the starting position to complete your first jump.
You can add a lot of variety to your training by incorporating different types of jumps beyond the basic version. For example, if you're doing high-intensity intervals to lose weight or build conditioning, you can do step jacks during the lower-intensity recovery intervals that are in between high-intensity bursts. Step jacks are also a great low-impact way for beginners to get started.
Step Jacks
Stand with your feet together, your knees soft, and your arms at your sides. Shift your weight to your left foot and kick your right foot to the side. At the same time you do this, move your arms out and up until they are over your head, or almost, like for a normal jumping jack.
Put your right foot back in the center. As you do this, swing your arms out to the sides. Repeat the movement on the other side, standing on your right foot while tapping your left foot to the side and at the same time moving your arms outward. Continue alternating back and forth until you've reached your desired rep or time goal.
For another variation, move your feet forward or even behind you instead of moving them to the side.
Star jumping jack
Begin by squatting slightly, bringing your arms together and down in front of you, near the knees. Then explode in a leap, spreading your feet out to the sides and extending your arms up and away from each other, as if each limb were the point of a star. Return to the starting position and continue jumping until you've reached your desired time or rep goal.
Other types of Jumping Jacks
There are almost endless ways to spice up your jump training. Other variations to explore include press jacks (pressing a medicine ball overhead each time you spread your legs), squats (jumping feet in and out, as with a normal jumping jack, but maintaining a continuous squat position "down" at all times) and crossed (allow your arms, legs, or both to cross as you return to the midline of the exercise).
What muscles are exercised on jumping jacks?
The exercise, which involves spreading your arms and legs like a starfish, and then bringing them back together, increases your heart rate and stimulates blood flow to a variety of muscle groups throughout your body.
Cufflinks and Core
The gastrocnemius and soleus muscles make up the calves and span the back of the lower legs. The muscles insert near the knee joint at the top and combine at the Achilles tendon to join the heel at the bottom. They cooperate to plantar flex the ankle, which is the movement that lifts the heel off the ground. Calf muscles contract each time you jump when performing jumping jacks and again each time you land to soften the impact between your feet and the ground.
As with most sports activities, the core muscles help stabilize movements during jumping exercise and also help maintain balance. The core muscles that help during jumping jacks include the abdominals , rectum, and transverse abdominis, and obliques, hip flexors , such as the psoas major, and the lumbar muscles, such as the lower erector spinae.
Abduct and adduct the hips
The gluteus medius muscle is the main abductor of the hip, allowing you to spread your legs when you jump, and the gluteus minimus helps. These are two of the three muscles that are often referred to as the glutes or glutes. Both muscles attach to the ilium located in the pelvis at one end and the greater trochanter, the bony bump on the outside of the hip, at the other end.
The hip adductors include four muscles cross the interior of the hip joint: the short adductor, the long adductor, adductor magnus and gracilis. Each of these muscles attaches to the pelvis and to the inside of the femur, or thigh bone, at the bottom, except for the gracilis, which attaches to the inside of the tibia bone, just below the knee, instead of the inner thigh. These muscles cooperate to bring the legs together during the return phase of the jumping exercise.
Arm abduction and adduction
The middle part of the deltoid and supraspinatus muscles work together to abduct the shoulder joint, moving the arm sideways, away from the body. The anterior muscle attaches to the top of the acromion, just above the shoulder joint, at one end, and to the upper outer humerus of the upper arm at the other. This last muscle follows a similar path.
These muscles contract to arch the arms from the sides over the head during the initial phase of the jumping exercise as you spread the legs.
The shoulder adductors come into play when you lower your arms to your sides. A variety of muscles in the upper chest, back and arms act as adductors of the shoulder, including the latissimus dorsi and teres major in the back, both heads of the pectoralis major in the chest, the triceps in the upper part of the arms and the coracobrachialis on the shoulders.
