Anyone familiar with "BOSU"?

[Joni O]

I tried one of these atthe Midwest Mania Expo last year. Whoa! It has a lot to do with balance and stabilization. All I know is that is felt like it would take a lot of practice!

[ARTmethodfan]

Originally posted by Lannette


The darn thing didn't come today! Maybe tomorrow. I'm getting to the point where I'll probably run down the driveway and hug the UPS driver when he arrives with it.

As soon as it arrives I promise I'll try a couple of step sections from different tapes and report in. Hopefully I won't be too bruised and battered from falling off of it half a million times in the process!

Lannette

Hopefully you won't get bruised and battered chasing down the UPS man!!

[Lannette]

Hopefully you won't get bruised and battered chasing down the UPS man!!

LOL! I'm also waiting for a reboundair so I just might chase down any brown truck that ventures anywhere near my road.

I love my UPS man. he looks a little like a cute little frog in a brown suit. He visits often and brings fun tapes and fitness toys and even leaves my dogs each a bone when he delivers a package. Let's hope he doesn't disappoint me tomorrow!

Lannette

[ARTmethodfan]

LOL - your UPS man sounds like quite the character - nice of him to leave bones for the dogs.

Little does he know but he'll disappoint legions of VFers too. I want to hear about your BOSU!!!

[KarenP]

Originally posted by Nat
Hopefully you won't get bruised and battered chasing down the UPS man!!

Actually, I'm more worried that the UPS man will end up battered and bruised!

Lannette, I vote that you try out the instructional tape a few times before trying a step tape. Like Joni said, it takes a bit getting used to, though not as long as she implies!

[Lannette]

I'm not good with video reviews but I'll try to give you guys an idea of what this one is like.

The bosu itself is blue and the same as the one I tried in our offsite physical therapy department.

The book is, as promised written for the health or fitness professional. Nice discussion/review of functional training and the concepts that go with it. I can get into this more if anyone is interested. The book then goes into Program design and has pictures of various exercises, some from the tape some not in the tape and some variations of what was shown in the tape. At the end there are sample programming modules listed. These may actually be the exercises shown in the video. (I've only done it once and didn't write them all down.)
I'll definitely use the book but understand that I love exercise physiology and can eat drink and sleep it.


The video: Nice clamshell case. It can definitely be used as a workout tape. I proved this today;o))

Intro = 1:20

They then spend 5 minutes talking about the bosu, how it is used, how to inflate (very simply) general guidelines and safety.

Warm-up and acclimation is first. This section is 8-minutes long and basically warms you up (are you surprised? heh heh) and gets you used to working on the surface of the bosu. Basically it's moves to get your HR up (step-ups for instance) alternated with dynamic balance moves.


Module 1 is titled Athletic Drills and is 19 minutes long. Lunges, leaps interspersed with balance drills and exercises such as push-ups done with the bosu flat side up. (I did these full body and think they were challenging but not too terribly hard but then I love push ups.) A few stretches at the end.

Module 2 is Focused core conditioning and is 9:15 in length. That sounds short but it was plenty. Basically suppine, prone and side lying core work done on the top of the bosu. Similar to using a Swiss ball but because the bosu is more stable you can do more variety and can lift your legs off of the floor.

Module 3 is Total body conditioning and comes in around 8 3/4 minutes long. Like the other sections this one has an interval feel to it. I really had fun doing the hops. First you do 8 two footed hops on top of the ball to get you all the way around in a circle. Then you do it with quarter hops and finally with half hops. It's really a challange to take off, turn, land and stick your balance each time without ever leaving the surface of the bosu. Ends with a stretch.

Module 4 is called Rythmic Conditioning. It's 9:00+ total minutes long with 6 minutes of step movements followed by stength and stabilization moves. They state that this is the section that would be appropriate for a group fitness class.

After this there is a short montage of moves done with multiple bosus. It was fun to watch but there isn't a second bosu in my future quite yet.....well maybe at some point after DH gets over this Bosu and the Reboundair. LOL! The tape is a bit longer than the stated one hour with the workout being less than an hour.

I liked this workout. Candace Copeland demonstrates the easier variations while a young and very athletic woman does the more difficult ones. Douglas Brooks interjects additional tips and programming info. This format worked well for me.

The tape can be used as a total workout or an individual section added on to another workout. I like this.

I do a lot of T-Tapp, CC ski and also teach a dynamic balance segment in each of the 7 cardiac rehab classes I do three days a week so my dynamic balance is pretty good. I was able to do pretty much all of the more advanced variations shown but I can see that you could really push even these moves to make them harder. Someone with bad ankles or knees would want to go slowly with this because it pushes the stability envelope. I think it would ultimately strengthen but the instability of the bosu does make injury a possibility if there are preexisting issues. They do mention that good supportive shoes are a must.

I'm afraid that this post is too long so I'm gonna send it and discuss using the Bosu as a step with step tapes in a separate post.

Lannette

[Lannette]

First of all there is definitely potential. I was afraid it would be too tall but since it moooshes down when you step on it you end up with a height of between 8-10" once you've moooshed.

BUT, I had a major duh! moment once I got the thing blown up and did my first up up down down on it! Wellll duhhhh!

It's only the size of the Firm step up boxes, new fanny lifter or the novel notion cube. Not sure how you'd transfer a Cathe tape to this. My initial thought was that you'd have to do the across the length of the step stuff on the floor. Then I thought of two bosus set apart the length of a club step, then I thought of my bank account and the pulsing forehead worry wrinkle that DH gets when I go on a major spending spree and then I decided not to think about it....for now.

So I think you could do Firm cardio stepping on it easily. I feel confident I could do it now even after only one go at the bosu. BUT anything that requires a club step will also require more thought. I do think you could set it off to the side and move to it for certain step moves if you knew a cathe tape really well or say do the thousands of power 15s, 7s etc from the Xpress tapes on it. I'm not going to think beyond that for today.

I had already worked out before this thing came and then did the bosu workout tape that came with it so I'm pretty well cooked here but am willing to answer or try to answer any and all questions.

Lannette

[Caroline Kim]

I'm glad you liked it and now I am jealous of you. They had a convention special at Cardio Classic - $99 for the Bosu, book and video. The video sounds very similar to the class Sara Kooperman taught. As always, I'll just have to wait until it catches on more and the price comes down (or maybe I'll ask for it for my birthday in October!)

[Lannette]

Hi Caroline!

That sounds like a wonderful price if it was for the professional package!

I would think the price would eventually come down. It will either catch on and come down or not catch on and be liquidated. LOL

My sons both tried it tonight and also really liked it. We spent about an hour downstairs laughing and have a great time experimenting with it.

I love birthdays and have been known to ask for my birthday gifts as early as 6-months before the actual date. <hint hint>

Lannette

[ARTmethodfan]

Lannette -

You knew I'd be here, didn't you?!?! I'm a little jealous

Ooh - the BOSU sounds like fun! As you start to use it with tapes (and your son's permission ) - please post and let me know how it goes. If you could also tell me if it makes it much more difficult than doing the workout on the floor - I'd appreciate it.

I'm looking forward to reading updates. And also hearing about your Reboundair.

Enjoy,
Nat