Do you know what a bosu ball is? The bosu is a great fitness tool that is both challenging and engaging for your home workout or at the gym. A bosu is a half round ball on a flat surface. The texture of the top half of the bosu is like that of a balance ball. The idea of the bosu is to use it to engage your core muscles to maintain your balance while performing various exercises including push-ups, squats, bicep curls, triceps curls and more.
The first time I used a Bosu ball I was working out with my personal trainer. I thought she was nuts. And you know what? I was right – a bosu ball is nuts – but it works. For example, if you turn the bosu upside down so that the ball side is against the ground and the flat edge is face up, you stand on the flat edge and bend your knees slightly in order to help maintain your balance. Then using hand weights, you begin performing you bicep curls.
While the curls will work on your biceps and arms, the balancing on the bosu requires that your core muscles engage to hold you steady. If you’ve never performed this type of exercise before, it’s advisable to have someone on hand to spot you because I stumbled off at least three times before I got the hang of it.
Bosu pushups require that you keep the ball face down and the flat edge face up. You place your hands on opposite sides of the flat side, rest your feet on your toes and hold your body at a diagonal incline and then you lower your body down until your elbows are at 90 degrees and then up again. Be sure to inhale on the push up and exhale on the push down. The bosu will force you to engage your core in this as you maintain your balance and still perform the push-ups.
The bosu allows you to use a variety of exercises that isolate muscles and still engage the rest of your body in performing them. The bosu is a great tool for your home workout equipment and for your next gym visit – check out the bosu.
So, do you bosu?
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