What’s round, flat, and gives you a great workout all over? A BOSU® ball! While it might look like an exercise ball cut in half, a BOSU ball can provide an intense full-body workout by adding the element of instability to your movement. No matter which way you turn them, BOSU balls are great balance trainers because they have a soft dome on one side and a solid, flat platform on the other. This two-faced fitness tool gives you an unstable surface that you can perform exercises on, engaging the core and a variety of other muscles in the body.
You might have seen BOSU balls at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club and wondered how they’re used, or maybe you grab a BOSU ball every time you visit our Thornton gym. Regardless, please don’t hesitate to ask any member of the AFAC staff about how to add some BOSU ball to your workout.
What is a BOSU ball and where did it come from?
Making its debut in 2000, The BOSU® Balance Trainer was invented by David Weck. At first, “BOSU” was an acronym that stood for “Both Sides Up,” which meant that the BOSU ball could be used on either side — the round dome side or the flat platform side. Today, the name “BOSU” has evolved to mean “Both Sides Utilized.” A company called Hedstrom Fitness manufactures all BOSU products, including BOSU balls, in the U.S.A. at their facilities in Ashland, Ohio.
BOSU training embraces many fitness goals including expanding movement, reshaping the body, and strengthening the mind.
What are the benefits of BOSU ball training?
Over the last two decades, BOSU balls have become a popular fitness tool for people from all walks of life, from Olympic gold medalists to patients in rehab recovering from an injury. BOSU balls are known for building strength, enhancing flexibility, delivering killer cardio workouts, and fine-tuning skills for particular sports.
Fitness experts love BOSU balls because of their versatility. They help you coordinate your muscles and nerves for any unstable situation you might find yourself in everyday life, especially in our Rocky Mountain area where hiking and climbing are a regional obsession. Plus, BOSU balls can assist with strength training, stretching, and other types of training.
They add an extra intensity to many types of training
Whether you’re working on upper body, lower body, cardio, or core training, doing any exercise on a BOSU ball will level-up your balance, strength, and stability over time.
You’ll exercise muscles that are often neglected
Because of the BOSU ball’s unstable surface, regardless of what exercise you’re performing, you’ll engage muscle groups big and small to balance yourself. The wobbly surface forces you to use muscles that you wouldn’t normally engage if you were doing the same exercise on a flat, stable surface. Those tiny stabilizing muscles in your core, arms, legs, and feet will get a workout they’ve never had! And strengthening those tiny muscles can help you avoid injuries in the future, as well.
You can do any exercise on a BOSU ball
BOSU exercises can be performed with the ball flat-side up or ball-side up. Each side offers its own level of instability, but the flat-side up position is more challenging.
Examples of exercises that are more challenging and effective on a BOSU ball include:
- Standing (yes, just standing on a BOSU ball can be tough, particularly when you first try it)
- Lifting dumbbells or barbells (forcing your muscles to stabilize as you guide the weights through the full range of motion is quite difficult)
- Pushups
- Planks
- Squats
- Lunges
- Oblique crunches
- Mountain climbers
- Glute bridges
- Shoulder taps
- Burpees
- Barre classes
- High intensity interval training (HIIT)
That means exercises you’ve been doing for years — those reliable exercises you can do without a second thought — can be effective again because you have to focus on not falling off the BOSU ball.
They add variety to your workout
Using a BOSU ball is a simple yet effective way to modify your same-old exercises, adding variety that will help to keep you entertained and interested in your exercise program, which alleviates boredom.
Fitness experts agree that you always want to be confusing your body and your muscles to prevent yourself from falling into an exercise rut. Doing the same exercises over and over will cause your muscles to adapt and you’ll stop making progress in your fitness journey. The BOSU ball is a great tool for switching things up and challenging your body in different ways.
They help you overcome shakiness
Most of us don’t stand on an unstable surface every day, so standing on a BOSU ball for the first time might feel shaky as your muscles try to figure out how to stabilize themselves. As a beginner, you will probably want to hold someone’s hand or a wall for support. Or, you can place one foot on the BOSU ball and the other on the ground at first. After a few tries, you’ll feel proud that you have your BOSU ball stand nailed!
They help you stretch and become more flexible
The rounded top of the BOSU ball provides you with excellent support for abdominal and back stretches. Just recline over the soft dome and relax your muscles, which extends them differently than traditional stretches. You can also do calf stretches and more by using the flat side up as a slant board.
Learn more
Adventure Fitness Athletic Club has several BOSU balls in our gym for our members to use during their workouts. To find out more about how to incorporate a BOSU ball into your fitness regimen, or to learn why AFAC is the best gym in the Thornton area, talk to our team. You can also call Susan at 720-849-0245 or email her at susan@adventurefitness.club.
To read more articles from Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, check out our Adventure Corner blogs by clicking here.
