Pogo jogging is an exercise done on shoes that simulate having a trampoline under each foot, making you bounce while you jog. You do the jogging while the shoes provide the bounciness because they're fitted on the bottom with a large plastic oval springs, or stilts, that initiate an intense rebounding effect with each step. Researchers say pogo jogging burns more calories than most other aerobic exercises. Adherents --- including TV celebrities Kim and Kourtney Kardashian --- also make it look like a lot of fun.
Rebounding
Pogo jogging is a kind of rebounding exercise. Rebounding strengthens the body as the body works against gravity. A 1979 NASA report, published in the "Journal of Applied Physiology," calls rebounding "the most efficient and effective exercise yet devised by man." Rebounding is typically practiced on a mini trampoline. It's often used in physical rehabilitation as a way of building muscle strength while minimizing impact on joints and bones.
Benefits
Rebounding, and by association pogo jogging, offer a surprisingly vast array of health benefits, says CBS Morning Show fitness reporter Minna Lessig. Among them are improving the body's lymphatic system which, in turn, improves the immune system. It strengthens the skeleton and even tones the skin. The mechanism behind these benefits are acceleration and deceleration, Lessig says. Every time your body speeds up to jump and slows down to stop it produces stress on every cell in your body. As a result, every cell gets stronger with each jump.
Kangoo Shoes
Making shoes that would allow patients to benefit from rebounding while undergoing physical rehabilitation was the goal of Denis Naville when he invented Kangoo Jumps in Geneva in the early 1990s. People attending a sports fair in Paris, where the shoes were unveiled in 1994, however, saw that the shoes had applications beyond rehabilitation. Soon, they were being marketed for specially designed aerobics classes and as a weight-loss tool because using them burned more calories per hour than jogging.
Kardashians
When Kim and Kourtney Kardashian were photographed pogo jogging in Kangoo Jumps in 2010, the shoes and the exercise entered the popular consciousness through pictures of the two sister bouncing down the beach in Miami. It helped promote the exercise as a weight-loss solution because Kim Kardashian had recently shed some pounds. Comments on the pictures of the pogo jogging Kardashians included how "slamming" Kim's body looked and also, how much fun pogo jogging looked.
References
- The Independent: Get high for World Move for Health Day;May 8, 2010
- Kangoo Jumps; Product Development; Duane Jud
- CBS News: Exercise on the Rebound; Minna Lessig; August 2000
- The Atkins Diet Pictures; Pogo Running Shoes, a Enjoyable Way to Get Fit and Lose Weight; March 2010
- HollywoodBackwash; Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Pogo Running; April 2010
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