Designed by David Weck in 1999, BOSU balls are hemispherical inflatable balls with a flat plastic bases. Standing for "both sides up," a BOSU can be used either dome side or flat side facing up and is designed to challenge your balance, coordination and core muscles. BOSU balls are suitable for home use and are also often found in gyms and group exercise studios.
What Is the Core?
The core is the collective term used to describe your abdominal muscles, lower back and waist muscles. These muscles work together to support and stabilize your spine. Although all of the muscles within your core can work independently to produce movement, they are frequently required to work together when you work out using a BOSU ball.
Benefits of BOSU Ball Training
BOSU balls provide an unstable environment for performing a variety of core exercises. This instability means that your core muscles must work far harder than usual--especially compared to performing similar exercises on the floor. The curved dome of the BOSU ball increases the range of movement possible at your spine when you perform exercises such as sit-ups or crunches. This makes these exercises much more demanding and therefore productive. Most BOSU ball core exercises also challenge your balance. The combination of core conditioning and balance is vital in sports such as ice hockey, soccer and martial arts, and water sports such as canoeing.
Advantages of BOSU Balls
BOSU balls are much lower to the ground than stability balls--also called Swiss balls, balance balls or fit balls. This means that falling from a BOSU ball is much less likely to result in injury than falling off a Swiss ball. Although BOSU balls do wobble, their hemispherical design means they won't roll out from underneath you as you workout. While Swiss ball and BOSU ball training are comparably effective, many of the BOSU ball exercises are easier to master than their Swiss ball equivalents. The two-sided design of BOSU balls makes them much more versatile than a standard Swiss ball. The hard side is suitable for standing on, which adds a whole dimension of core exercises that are not possible when using a traditional stability ball.
BOSU Ball Disadvantages
BOSU balls are big, heavy and are not easily deflated for storage or transport. The hard base means that, even when you have let out all the air, they are still big and unwieldy. BOSU balls are quite expensive and, as of October 2010, cost around $120.00. Because of their weight and size, shipping costs can be prohibitive if you want to purchase a BOSU online or by mail order. If the inflatable dome becomes damaged, the whole BOSU must be replaced, as it cannot be separated from the base. Although this is unlikely, it is a factor you should consider if you want to perform your core exercises outside.
BOSU Ball Exercises
There are a wide variety of exercises that you can perform using a BOSU ball. Some exercises are designed to specifically challenge your core whereas others use your core muscles incidentally. Traditional core exercises such as planks, side planks, crunches, V sits and bicycle crunches are very effective when performed on a BOSU and non-core exercises such as push-ups and squats become much more demanding on your core when you perform them in conjunction with a BOSU ball.
References
- BOSU Fitness: Introduction to BOSU balls
- AsktheTrainer.com: BOSU ball exercises
- "Get On It!: BOSU Balance Trainer Workouts for Core Strength and a Super Toned Body"; Jane Aronovitch, Miriane Taylor, and Colleen Craig; 2008
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