Have a Go on a Pogo

Give your fitness regimen some extra bounce with a familiar childhood toy-the pogo stick.

For the past six weeks, Nichelle Hubley, a fourth-year kinesiology student at Canada's Dalhousie University, has been leading a dozen Halifax elementary students in a workout-and-sports routine designed to test the health benefits of using a pogo stick.

"We're testing cardiovascular fitness, leg power and balance-all things we think it's reasonable to presume would improve through these sessions," she explains in a university press release. "My research interests are in kids and physical activity, but not necessarily in traditional organized sports. This is an opportunity for a very different kind of physical activity."

Pogo-stick workouts have become increasingly popular in school gyms and youth fitness centers in the United States, according to Flybar, a California-based pogo-stick producer that donated 32 pogo sticks for Hubley to use in her study.

The kids, aged 10 to 13, were recruited from local schools to take part in the session twice a week for six weeks. Their favorite sport? A pogo-centric edition of dodgeball. ::Dalhousie University

Difficulty level: Easy