After the initial excitement wore off, the trampoline Yaffa Vilensky bought her daughter fell out of use. But then Yaffa discovered it.

"One rainy day, I decided to jump a bit before work to stretch my bones," Vilensky explains. "I climbed on the trampoline and started jumping, and I didn't want to get off." Though until recently, trampolines were considered little more than oversized child toys, over the past year they have been entering the realms of recreational sports and fitness.

Jumping on a trampoline is a very young sport; the last Olympics was the first to recognize it as an official event. The Israel Trampoline Association was established eight years ago, and not every Israeli city has a sports club with a trampoline. But in cities where trampolines are available, they have become very popular. Last summer, the Wingate Institute, Israel's National Center for Physical Education and Sport, offered the nation's first course for trampoline instructors.

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The trampoline may owe its new popularity to the TV series "You Are What You Eat," broadcast on BBC Prime and Yes Stars, in which nutritionist Gillian McKeith fixes the dietary habits of obese British families. In addition to designing a detailed nutritional plan for every person she treats, McKeith recommends that clients place a trampoline in the living room or the backyard and jump as much as possible. She says a few several-minute sessions on a trampoline are enough to start getting the body in shape. At the end of each episode, slimmer and fitter participants declare that the plan changed their bodies, souls and lives.

Aerobic fitness

Vilensky, age 44 of Holon, says her life also changed dramatically after she discovered the trampoline. When she first got on her daughter's trampoline, she was a billing agent for a major company. "I worked in an office and never got out of my chair," she says. Five years ago, she took a course at Wingate, "Fitness Coaches for Physical Activity." She now teaches trampoline fitness classes in her home, and works as a personal trainer.

The sight of five adults jumping on a trampoline immediately makes the observer smile - along with the jumpers. The class begins with a brief warm-up before participants get on the trampoline. Vilensky hands out wrist weights, "so that no one drops a free weight on his or her foot." Then, she tells participants to begin jogging in place on the trampoline, to the sort of music found at every aerobics class.

After two minutes, the students begin doing jumping jacks, "to strengthen shoulders." They do this for 30 seconds, and then "rest" by jogging in place for two minutes. Every exercise is repeated in three sets of 30 seconds, interspersed with two minutes of jogging. After three sets, participants proceed to the next exercise: jumping back and forth with their ankles together. After about half an hour, Vilensky relieves participants of their weights - not to ease their burden, but to shift attention to legs and buttocks.

They forget it's exercise

Edna Erlich, 66 of Sha'ar Ephraim, also teaches trampoline at Maccabi Ra'anana. At first, almost all her students were children, but they brought adults in their wake. "Parents of children who trained with us saw how much fun it was, and they asked to join," she says.

Ten years ago, the Maccabi Ra'anana Association brought three trampolines to Israel - two standard trampolines for fitness training and one official Olympic Trampoline (the latter costs NIS 70,000). Two certified trampoline instructors had just arrived in Ra'anana from the former Soviet Union, and Maccabi opened one of Israel's first trampoline courses.

"I consider physical activity to be a source of enjoyment and, only later, a competitive sport," Erlich says. "After they get on the trampoline and get used to it, it becomes so much fun that adults and children forget they are actually exercising."

Erlich says that to perform exercises correctly, one needs to be strong and in shape. But one does not need to be fit to begin. "That is all built while jumping and beforehand, in the 20 minutes of floor exercises."

Vilensky adds, "The advantage of trampolines is that they do not harm joints like running. So you can break a sweat and exert yourself, even if you're not very fit."

Nitza Shalom, a 55-year-old elementary school principal in Holon, discovered this. "Up until four months ago, I walked around the neighborhood to stay fit," she says. "But I wanted to strengthen my muscles and improve my fitness. I was alarmed when Yaffa said 'trampoline.' I had never run or jumped in my life. How could I start at my age? But I climbed on the trampoline and immediately started having fun. It's an addictive feeling. Since then, I have been jumping."