[gatsby]

i noticed, meg, tht you use the bosu ball for squats too. a trainer at the gym showe it to me, i had never heard of it before. he showed to use it with a medicin ball that i put out in front of me as i go down, he says it's just for balance. i said this before but what was funny was he couldn't fond the 8lb ball to show me so we used the 10lb ball. well that went ok but afterwards he said something like "so just use the 8lb ball if it turns up next time" ???? nedless to say i always use the 10lb ball.
my point is i never saw anyone use the bosu with a barbell or dumbells (actually i've never seen anyone else use it but me and my sis). sounds a little dangerous how stable do you think i should be before i try. my legs don't shake anymore. and can i use dumbells and how?
is there a bosu web-site?

thanks
gen

[Meg]

Gen -- I love the Bosu ball! There are so many cool things to do with it. Yep, there's a web site and here's the section on exercises: http://www.bosu.com/scripts/cgiip.ex...l?article=2408

When I do squats on it, I'm standing on the flat part with the rounded part on the floor. I've seen it done the other way too (standing on the rounded part). My legs shook like leaves in a hurricane when I first tried it and I could barely just stand up. Gradually I started doing squats with no weight and worked my way up to the 27# weighted bar. It's not that heavy so I do sets of 25. It's amazing how much my balance has improved.

I don't think I'd ever try squats with an Olympic bar (45#) on the Bosu just because that bar is so heavy and ungainly and there's no squat rack to set the it on (I suppose you could use the Bosu ball with a squat rack ... ). If you want to try with DBs, maybe use 8s or something light like that and see how stable you feel. I've found that you want to keep your balance centered on the Bosu when you go down in a squat, unlike a traditional squat where you want your weight on your heels and your butt out.

We've got a trainer at our gym who can do one-legged squats with DBs on the Bosu, but I seriously doubt that I'll ever be able to do those!

[Mel]

I use it a lot, and with clients. You can do anything on it ( well, amost). My favorites are barbell rows standing on one leg, and bicel curls standing on one leg. Switch legs between sets. At first, I looked like a tap dancer. I'm getting better. Head trainer can also do one legged squats on it- doesn't even look hard when he does it I can barely do them on the floor; that's usually where I end up!

Mel

[MrsJim]

Hey there - I just started using the Bosu about two weeks ago in my Pilates class. (there was a bunch of them in the corner and of course I HAD to ask...I should've known better after finding out about the Fitness Circle, which looked innocent enough...but then we started working out with it... ) We've used it three times now (my gym doesn't seem to have them as yet) and I'm at the point where, if I just stand on it, I can stay on top...but doing other stuff...well, it's still a challenge.

Ah well, one of the main reasons I started doing Pilates in the first place was to work on my balance, so I guess I'm doing just that!

If I had one at home, I'm sure that it would become a favorite sleeping spot for our kitties!

[gatsby]

thanks for the web site. i'm going to check that out. 1 legged eh? hmmmm that's just nuts
i use it upside down too. i'll try using db or a light barbell. i only squat 35lbs on the floor so i'm not even at the olympic bar level there yet. but i will be someday i love squats!!!
actualy your balance improves very quickly on it. i think it's good for strengthning all the little stabilizers and you expend more energy using it. i really like doing exercises that use several body parts like squats, lat pull downs ...

thanks again
gen