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Who can remember the number of jumping jacks they did while they were in high school? It has to be quite a number right? Jumping jacks were the go-to exercise for most physical education teachers. Did you know you can use jumping jacks to lose weight? How many calories do jumping jacks burn ? Are jumping jacks recommended to most people?
Jumping jacks have many benefits apart from helping you. The fact that they can actually be done anywhere at any time makes them an important exercise to include in your working routine. The other good thing about jumping jacks is that they exercise the whole body at once. Jumping jacks belong to a category of exercises referred to as calisthenics (2).
Do you think there is a right way and a wrong way to do jumping jacks? How many calories do jumping jacks burn in a minute? What muscles do jumping jacks work on? Are there people who are not supposed to do jumping jacks? These as well as any other questions you might have about jumping jacks will be answered in this article, so make sure to stick around till the end.
Yes, there is a right way to do jumping jacks. Maybe the reason jumping jacks haven’t been giving you the expected results is because you are doing them wrong. It is easy for most people to assume jumping jacks don’t have a right way of doing them but they actually do. Here is how you do jumping jacks (6, 7):
Easy, right? Now all you have to do is repeat these steps for about one thousand times every week and wait for your results. Something tells us, some of you are lining up to click off the article because one thousand is quite a whopping number. Before you leave, you need to know that there are certain factors that determine how many calories we lose in a given training session (4).
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The larger you are the more calories you are likely to lose. Hence people on the heavier side will be expected to lose more calories than small people. This is even true in regards to the calories each person loses while at rest. Larger people will lose more calories while at rest compared to smaller people.
Yes, your sex does affect the number of calories you lose. Men lose more calories than women. This is because men have more muscle mass than fat mass. This is not the same for women as they have more fat mass than muscle mass. Hence a man and a woman doing the same exercise, with the same intensity will result in the man losing more calories than the woman.
There is nothing you can do about this. There are some people who will automatically lose weight or gain weight quickly because of their genes (10).
There are reasons as to why jumping jacks are recommended to almost all the people in the fitness world and even people who do not work out on a regular basis. Jumping jacks do a lot of good to your body. Here are some of the benefits of doing jumping jacks (1).
Jumping jack is an aerobic cardio exercise. What this means is that you use oxygen to meet the energy demands and stimulate heart muscles. Jumping with both feet while simultaneously raising your arms overhead increases your muscles’ demand for oxygen. This in turn promotes your whole cardiovascular system, including your heart to work harder. The heart has to work harder to pump enough oxygenated blood and also bring back carbon dioxide loaded blood from the cells. This slow but steady exercise helps keep the heart healthy by providing a good workout for it (1).
Jumping jacks help build strength and increase overall fitness. It is for this reason they belong to a category of workouts referred to as calisthenics. Jumping jacks like most calisthenic exercise work several muscle groups (1). Which muscle groups do jumping jacks work?
Jumping jacks work your hip flexors as well as your glutes and quads (9).
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Yes, jumping jacks will help you lose all the extra fat in your body (3). In order to lose weight, exercises have to be part and parcel of your lifestyle. Exercises help you lose weight by increasing your body’s metabolic rate and in the process helping you create the calorie deficit needed to trigger weight loss. The more intense the jumping jacks, the more calories you will lose.
According to some estimates from Harvard Medical School, a one hundred and fifty five pound person will lose one hundred and sixty seven calories from a thirty minute session of moderate-intensity calisthenics. If the same person were to do a thirty minute session of vigorous intensity calisthenics, the person would now lose two hundred and ninety eight calories. The higher the intensity the more calories you burn.
Jumping jacks help improve your bone mineral density. This helps you have better, healthier and stronger bones. In addition to that, thanks to the repetitive loading on your lower body, exercises like these can boost bone strength (1).
This is yet another thing that makes this exercise such an important add-on to your workout routine. The fact that they can be done anywhere at any time makes them so advantageous (8). They don’t require any equipment. All you need is enough space and you can start working that extra weight off.
Jumping jacks are all about coordinating your limb movements with your jumps. This helps improve the coordination between your limbs and your brain. It helps you develop a sense of timing rhythm, balance, and posture.
When you jump and move your arms upwards and downwards, your brain stimulates the release of serotonin. This is also known as the ‘feel-good’ hormone. The release of adrenalin also gives you a rush of excitement. When these hormones come together, they are responsible for making you feel better as well as lowering your stress levels (8).
Warming up before you start your workout is always a good thing. Doing this exercise will help you relax the muscles in your limbs, your back, your core, and your face. After doing a set of thirty reps, you will be ready for your next warm-up exercise.
This exercise can also level up your flexibility. A sedentary lifestyle wreaks havoc on the muscles and ligaments, so if you have a desk job, you are less likely to be as flexible. If you’ve been shying away from exercising, it is likely you will be unable to do simple workouts once you decide to get back in the groove. Jumping jacks enable you to be more flexible by increasing your range of motion.
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What really matters about an exercise is how much weight it can help you lose. Jumping jacks are relatively easy and often preferred to hard exercises. So how many calories do you burn from doing jumping jacks?
As discussed earlier, you are more likely to lose more weight if you are larger. It is also by default that the longer you work out the more calories you lose. Here is how many calories you lose doing jumping jacks for a specific period of time (5):
Yes, there are. The following people should not do jumping jacks unless they have been advised by an expert.
That is how many calories jumping jacks burn. If you add jumping jacks to your workout plan, you are more likely to lose even more weight. It is good to remember that there are factors that will affect how many calories you burn. If you find that jumping jacks are not giving the expected results, it is always good to consult an expert. For more positive results, try to increase the intensity of your jumping jacks as much as you can handle. The higher the intensity, the more extra pounds you are likely to lose.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any medical conditions. Any action you take upon the information presented in this