We’ve talked about gut health now in our past two episodes. And we have learned a lot—like how central it is to your overall health and how it affects your immune system, mood, and of course, digestion. We broke down the key components of gut health—motility, microbiome, and inflammation. And we talked about the most important things you can do to improve it—with supplements, mental health care, and diet changes. We also talked at length about the connection between gut health, hormones, and menopause. As we get older and experience shifts in our hormones, we can see big changes in our gut health that makes all the things you do to maintain it even more important. Our guest last episode, Dr. Slater, left us with an amazing tagline: “Move your body, move your bowels.” Physical movement is a huge part of keeping your digestive system active and healthy and that is the main topic of our episode today.

As you might know by now, I am veteran of the fitness world, having taught all kinds of workout classes for over 30 years. Today, I’m talking to you about a very fun and very different kind of exercise that is usually reserved for kids—bouncing on the trampoline! My guest Steve Carver is also a fitness world veteran, and when he found himself in a situation where he was burnt out, stressed out, and suffering from severe stomach pain and bloating, he found an unexpected solution to his health problems in rebounding—which is the fancy term for bouncing on the trampoline. As you’ll hear, rebounding not only gets your heart rate up quickly, it compresses your body and gets all kinds of fluids moving, which is great for lots of things, including your lymphatic system—which impacts your immune system—and of course, for gut health! It’s also very hard to do without a smile on your face, which produces happy hormones that have all kinds of benefits for health. But also, it’s just a good time, and as Steve says, “the best exercise is the kind that you will do!”

I was so into the idea of rebounding that I am getting my own personal trampoline from Steve’s company, JumpSport, and you can too! If you use the code DrKris10, you’ll get a 10% discount. So enjoy the episode and stay tuned to my Instagram where I will be sharing some of my own rebounding fun in the coming weeks!