And so began new experience number 12 – taking a trampoline fitness class at Skyzone trampoline park in Columbia, MD.
My partner-in-crime for this one was supposed to be Rebecca, but she came down with a virus the night before. “I want to see a lady with vomiting and diarrhea jump on a trampoline!” Said no one ever.
So I flew (heh. See what I did there?) solo for this one.
The “Sky Core” class and nearly all of the “open jump” times were booked solid a full two weeks out, so I signed up for something called “Skyrobics.”
I arrived at a big warehouse structure that holds multiple trampoline areas — basically, groupings of 30ish trampolines, separated by roughly two-foot wide non-trampoline borders. Each group was partitioned off from the rest. I checked in, got my class sticker (which no one looked at once and which fell off half way through class), and made my obligatory “sky socks” purchase. Just $1! And they may well double as “megaformer socks,” so that’s a bonus right there. I mean, just look at these babies.
Where don’t I want to wear them?
I was then loosely waved over to a central area with tables and lockers and told that if I “hung out in the general lobby area” it would be apparent where class was. Which is how I ended up in the Sky Core class initially. And how a number of Sky Core takers ended up in Skyrobics. (At least the Sky Core instructor told us at the start of class, vs. the Skyrobics instructor’s post warm-up clarification.)
The warm-up entailed the longest consecutive period of jumping and covered what I imagine are all the basics: Up-down, side-to-side, front-to-back. I’m not sure what else there was because that’s about all I got through before it became apparent that I really should have taken my own advice about hitting the bathroom early and often before starting. Clearly the Kegels didn’t work. (I didn’t do any Kegels.) Of course the bathroom was on the complete other side of Skyzone, but I made it back by the end of the warm-up.
The rest of Skyrobics didn’t necessarily differ drastically from normal aerobics classes, but there’s just something about being on a bouncy surface that makes it more silly and fun. So the usual squats, lunges, tricep dips, planks, crunches, etc., felt a little different and required a bit more effort to maintain balance. Also, some squats and push-up sequences used the trampoline for extra resistance by incorporating push-down-into-the-trampoline pulses.
Just in case you’re wondering, plank walk-ups pretty much suck equally whether you do them in a gym, at home, or on a trampoline.
In between each mini-circuit, we would have what I’ll call a “just bounce” section. I suppose it replaced the “run in place” part of usual fitness classes, but on a trampoline, was like a bouncy, fitness palate cleanser.
Once we did a whole fall-on-your-butt-and-bounce-back-up-to-your-feet segment, which I loved. The more advanced move involved turning in the air so that you would face opposite sides. I couldn’t make it the full 180 turn, but ended up doing more of a 90 + 90. So I guess that makes me just an intermediate butt bouncer.
We concluded class with the apparently “signature” “sky jump” move, which is kind of a like a star jumping jack – jumping in the air spread eagle – over and over. Or, if you might be concerned with peeing yourself one hop/one squirt at a time, then you can incorporate a little safety bounce in between each sky jump. We do those star jacks in my body conditioning class sometimes, but sky jumps are SO.MUCH.BETTER. Aside from the butt bounces, it was my favorite part of the class. Particularly when I figured out how to not pee myself.
I had so much fun that I want to go back and try Sky Core. For Skyrobics we stayed on our own particular rectangle of trampoline, but Sky Core seemed to involve moving around from rectangle to rectangle to rectangle, and used additional props like balls that you had to throw and catch while on the move.
In sum, if you’re looking for what is perhaps a bit goofy, but fun, exhilarating, fitness alternative, I recommend checking out a trampoline class.
Just pee first.
A lot.
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