On The Rebound: - Enlightenment.Com

A Conversation with Al Carter
In March of 2004 I had a phone conversation with Al Carter who, as the above timeline
suggests, can rightly be called the “Father” of rebound exercise. Mr. Carter’s two books
on rebounding (The Miracles of Rebound Exercise (1977) and The NEW Miracles of
Rebound Exercise (1988)) have sold more copies than any other books on this subject.
Mr. Carter has otherwise played a crucial role in scientifically studying and theorizing
about rebound exercise (see Chapter 25), in bringing rebounders to the attention of the
public and celebrities (Jack LaLanne, Bob Hope, Tony Robbins, etc.), and in founding
and working with companies that construct quality rebounders.
The traditional explanation for the peak and decline of rebound exercise, given by Carter
in his books and repeated in our phone call, is that once rebounding became suddenly
popular in 1980, there was a flood of cheaply made rebounders that came into the country
and drove out the existing manufacturers. What was left were extremely inferior quality
rebounders which broke down and, more importantly, did not give people the type of
“bounce” and experience that they were looking for. Compared to a high quality modern
rebounder, which generally cost at least $200 as of this writing, these units were poorly
constructed with insufficient springs and mats that provided a completely unsatisfactory
experience. People bought rebounders for $30 to $50, took them home, used them a few
times, and then the units either fell apart or fell into disuse.
There is, in fact, a good deal of truth to this explanation. Even taking inflation into
account, there is just no way that a $30 rebounder is going to provide a serious, reliable,
and effective health and fitness experience to almost anyone. But I knew that there had to
be more, and so in our conversation I asked Al Carter what else might be going on.
He said that he had asked himself this question over and over again: “Why haven’t we
been discovered? Why is rebounding not found in all universities where classes in health
and fitness are taught?”
The answer, he believes, is that exercise experts – professors of physiology and anatomy,
professional trainers, coaches, and so on – are so used to aerobic training and strength
training through weights that they simply can not see anything else as a viable alternative
(no less a superior one). People become very used to doing things the way they have
always been done, and in the world of health and fitness that essentially means aerobics
and weights, with perhaps a few “new” things thrown in like yoga and Pilates (once they
have reached sufficient popularity). As a whole, then, the exercise industry, and therefore
the public at large, is not willing to try something new … especially when that new thing
is “too easy.” Exercise, Al Carter told me, “is supposed to be hard … you have to sweat,
you have to be miserable to feel good … this is the mentality ... people get on a
rebounder and often don’t even break a sweat yet. But what does sweat have to do with
building muscle? Many times you break a sweat mainly because the body has to put up
with the trauma of hitting a hard surface!”
So far we have two reasons for the decline of rebound exercise: (1) disappointed
expectations because of inferior product brought to bear by market forces; and (2) the
On the Rebound, draft 1.0, © 2004 Jordan Gruber, All Rights Reserved; Confidential, Please do not Reproduce - 26 -