• Could this dance craze have you jumping for joy on the scales?

Could this dance craze have you jumping for joy on the scales?

BoogieBounce is on a trampette with handles

It’s been around for about three years, but I first heard of it was when my friend Monica from school texted me the other day to see if I fancied doing BoogieBounce. I jumped at the chance (sorry, pun intended). If you can imagine an immersion heater with thick cladding, that’s what my body is like these days. No matter how little I eat.

BoogieBounce seemed a sensible craze to try given that you burn an estimated 500-800 calories per session, and our instructor Nicola shed 6 stones since starting two years ago.

BoogieBounce is exercise done in the dark to loud disco, soul, grime and reggae music – with a disco ball licking blues, reds and greens up  the walls and across the ceiling of your local sports hall, and fans cooling you as you jump repeatedly for an hour on a mini trampoline or trampette. You have handles to grip, and you follow the teacher as she jumps, twists and stretches on the tarpaulin base.

An age-old problem
Any middle-aged woman who’s had kids knows the perils of climbing onto a children’s trampoline for a bounce after too many Chardonnays on a summer’s evening, (or indeed coughing too heavily or laughing too hard). “Ladies, there’s a toilet nearby,” Nicola tells us. “Make sure you use it.”

Luckily, my bladder got used to the motion, and half way through stopped showing me up.  Unfortunately, my trousers did not. Remember, if this blog inspires you to put your postcode into the website and find a session, do not under any circumstances attempt BoogieBounce in yoga pants. For the whole hour, mine kept snagging on the metal springs, and I would  follow the instructor – “arms up, bounce down” – while discretely performing a Quasimodo-style bend to uncouple myself from the trampette.

Hairy pits
After about 20 minutes of not daring to raise both arms fully from the handles for fear of falling, I managed to balance enough to do just that, throwing them up proudly only to realise that my teenage  son’s habit of borrowing of my lady shave meant I had darker pits than the Kellingley Colliery. Doing BoogieBounce in the dark has its benefits. The biggest being that no-one can see you.

I’ve been back since, dragging my husband – who thinks it’s more of a woman thing. And talking to anyone who’ll listen about having found my exercise calling. Hopefully, with regular attendance, I will shed some of my cladding without doing my knees in. I haven’t weighed myself yet, but I suspect I’ll be leaping for joy in a few weeks. (If my friends haven’t had me kidnapped and shipped off to Japan for being so bouncy with enthusiasm).

Thank you to Nicola for being an inspirational teacher. Read her story.

Find out more about it here in the UK.

It seems to exist in the USA, Spain, Australia and South Africa, but might require a local google search where you are.

 

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