Why you should try trampolining classes in London this autumn

Like the thumping EDM soundtracks they are set to, trampolining classes at Oxygen Free Studios in Acton are all about the drop. “Getting airborne is the easy part,” says my instructor, Melissa Revell. “It’s sticking the landing where you have to concentrate”. Legs held in a straight pencil, focusing with laser-like precision on hitting the same spot with some semblance of regularity, gravity and my six-foot-plus frame wrestle in mid-air like characters in a Warner Bros cartoon caper. Gazing down contemplatively as I reach my apogee, I realise too late that we’re probably going to need a bigger mat.

This, though, is great cardio. Most of the exercise I do is along a horizontal plane (I mean running, you saucemonkeys) but I am no longer afraid to explore the vertical. Neither is the British public. The popularity of trampolining has soared since 2010. Bouncing away calories in high-intensity, low-impact cardio workouts that exercise your core, improve all-over muscle tone and lift your heart rate, the bottom line is that trampolining is fun. More than 140 trampoline parks have opened in the UK in the past two years alone. The centre I’m at, Oxygen, has helped more than 950,000 people take up trampolining — with its Acton centre welcoming more than 360,000, making it the most popular centre in the UK (they have another new place in Croydon).

For an hour, Revell and I work on star jumps and mid-air splits before moving on to passing a medicine ball between us on separate mats as we jump. We’re taking a one-on-one class and I spend too much of her time trying to master a butt bounce: landing with my legs perpendicular to my body and hands at my side, springing up again then repeating the process. I am an elastic man, I think, before being brought back down to earth as I come off the mat again.

Trampolining, of course, has its ups and downs. The Sunday Times reported in June that there were almost no trampoline injuries before 2010 but more than 6,000 since 2014. Revell, therefore, is careful in her coaching. You don’t run until you can walk, and you don’t leap until you can land. Co-ordination and agility are at the heart of what trampolining aims to improve. You quickly learn to control the co-ordination of limbs while bouncing and to adjust the position of your body accordingly. It’s important to stay relaxed, and to fall into a natural body position, Revell tells me.