Like most people, I find that when I try to make large, sweeping upgrades to my health and wellness routine, they rarely stick. I may make it to a few 6:00 a.m. workout classes or cut out sugar for a week or two, but it’s only a matter of time before I accept my fate as a person who eats Snickers and hits the snooze button.
That is why the idea of “micro habits,” or the concept of making smaller, more sustainable changes, appeals to me. I was on the lookout for tiny habits that could easily fit into my life in 2026, when I came across the social media trend of jumping 50 times in the morning. It stood out because, frankly, it seemed like a wellness hack a six-year-old would try to sell.
The practice was popularized by Kathryn Smith, a surgical athletic trainer and self-described lazy person, who posted a video about jumping first thing in the morning, which blew up on TikTok. Smith states that jumping up and down, ideally 50 times, does everything from boosting circulation to facilitating lymphatic drainage. It wasn’t Smith’s initial video that convinced me to try jumping immediately out of bed, so much as it was the many, many follow-up videos from others who’ve endorsed the method.
“This can be good for you since jumping is a light aerobic exercise that quickly elevates heart rate, increases blood flow and boosts the nervous system to feel more awake and alert early in the day,” said Dr. James Lyons, MD. Jumping also boosts endorphins and provides some “bone-loading stimulus,” which is good for overall skeletal health.
At the same time, “jumping does come with some concerns,” he warns. Most notably, there is a risk of fainting for those with underlying conditions like Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Comments on Smith’s posts have also argued that jumping could lead to knee pain, dizziness and even fainting.
Given that I did not have a history of fainting or other cardiovascular issues — and I don’t have any neighbors living below me — it seemed like a solid micro habit to try for 30 days. So I tried it for the last month to get a good jump on the New Year. Like with most things jumping and health-related, I encountered some ups and downs.
At First Jump
For most of my adult life, I have been a person who reaches for coffee the moment I wake up, and in more recent years, I reached for my phone as well. I was hopeful that getting a few jumps in first would help me prolong diving into two addictions immediately and start the day from a more natural place.
One of the more challenging parts of starting a new habit when you roll out of bed is remembering to do it when you’re half asleep and predisposed to doing something else. Admittedly, for the first week or so, I ended up jumping after letting my dog out or making coffee. Per Dr. Lyons’ advice, I started with 10 to 20 jumps at first to see how my body took to it. “Ensure that you’re well hydrated and warmed up, listen to your body, and if you feel dizzy, stop,” he added.
Combining the jumps with drinking water right away is also an example of habit stacking, a term coined by author James Clear in his bestselling book Atomic Habits. Essentially, it’s when you piggyback small healthy habits onto other established, automatic routines like getting out of bed. I wake up. I drink water. I jump.
Once I got the hang of it after a week, I was up to 50 jumps in the morning. I did not experience dizziness, but my knees were noticeably more tender on days that I did any other leg workouts. Plyometrics, or workouts that incorporate jumping, are popular among athletes because they can make muscles more agile and explosive while improving overall balance and coordination. However, for regular people just trying to work up in the morning, jumping can cause microtears in tendons, inflammation, pain and, in some cases, lead to a condition called patellar tendinitis or “jumper’s knee.”
I was hopeful the initial strain would wear off as I became more consistent with the habit, but as the weather got colder, my joints stiffened and made the pain worse. When this started to impact my workouts, I cut back to 30 jumps in the morning, which helped alleviate some strain (along with Ibuprofen).
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I struggled to stay consistent with jumping first thing in the morning, but I found that jumping 30 to 50 times later in the day helped snap me out of the inconvenient afternoon slump. Also known as the 3 p.m. slump, this is a natural consequence of your circadian rhythm in the afternoon, around 1 to 4 p.m., that can be exacerbated by stress, diet, poor sleep or an irresponsibly large lunch. Who hasn’t needed a food nap every once in a while? That said, jumping was a much more productive habit than eating a gyro and falling asleep.
According to Dr. Ian S. Katznelson, MD, a neurologist at Northwestern Medicine, movement in general can curb this mid-day fatigue by getting your blood and oxygen pumping. Theoretically, jumping would fall into this category. Katznelson similarly recommends drinking enough water and eating a healthy and balanced diet, whether you’re jumping or doing another exercise.
As helpful as my afternoon hops were, they were a bit out of step with the viral trend I was trying to accurately evaluate. For this reason, I only did these jumps in addition to my morning ones, and this time I rarely drank the water that both experts suggested. So in retrospect, it makes sense that my knees started hurting.
After the Jump
Jumping first thing in the morning was beneficial, but I don’t expect this practice to become a long-term addition to my morning routine. Still, I could definitely incorporate it as an occasional go-to when coffee stops working late in the afternoon, and I need to shake things up.
However, I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to change up their morning routine in a small way. Even though I was not 100% successful at jumping right out of bed for 30 days in a row, it was a relatively easy habit to stick to more often than not.
Lyons agrees that most of the benefits associated with the 50 jumps trend “likely come from the broader aspect of having an active lifestyle.” If jumping is too hard on your joints, makes you dizzy, or just isn’t your thing, he recommends going on a short walk outside first thing in the morning, for about three minutes, because the exposure to natural sunlight “resets your circadian rhythm and gets blood moving.” If you have time afterward, Lyons suggests doing some dynamic movements, like arm circles, lunges, squats and torso twists, for about five minutes to wake up your muscles.
For mornings when it is too cold to go for an immediate walk outside, or those days when you just don’t want to get after it, it’s good to have jumping in your back pocket as an option. Although doing 50 jumps every morning was not as life-changing as viral videos suggest, I would recommend trying it for 30 days, simply because sticking to a healthy habit for that long feels good — even if you don’t jump on the bandwagon.
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