Your inner and outer thighs, called adductors and abductors, add shape and definition to your legs, but their function extends beyond lower body eye candy. These important muscle groups stabilize your knee joints and move your legs toward and away form the midline of your body. The dome-shaped Bosu -- resembling a stability ball cut in half -- facilitates exercises that challenge your abductor and adductor's movement and stabilizing functions.
Using the Bosu
The Bosu has a rubber dome side and a flat plastic side, but the dome side provides the most effective shape for an abductor and adductor workout. Bosu exercise integrates strength-training with balance skills, and the dome's inflation determines the degree of balance challenge. A heavily inflated dome provides more stability than one that is less inflated. Choose an inflation that challenges your standing leg stability, without radically distorting the form and technique of the exercise. As your balance skills improve, add challenge by slightly deflating the dome. Most of these exercises are challenging, so only perform as many repetitions as you can in clean form.
Stabilizers and Mobilizers
Bosu challenges your balance, so any exercise that involves standing on the device works the abductors and adductors of both legs. The standing side leg lift exemplifies this theory. Stand upright at the center of the Bosu, with your feet facing directly ahead. Lift your right foot, and move your right leg away from the center of your body. This engages your abductors. Your adductors engage as you draw the leg back to center, but meanwhile your left leg wobbles to maintain your equilibrium. The abductors and adductors of your left leg therefore activate to prevent you from falling sideways. The standing side leg raise provides effective abductor/adductor strength and balance training for anyone who often has to stand on a crowded bus or subway, where similar strength and balance forces come into play.
Stability Sequence
The lunge and reach sequence is the brainchild of certified instructor Justin Price, owner of the BioMechanics training facility in San Diego. Price trains clients to alleviate pain by correcting their movement mechanics. This sequence addresses the ability of the adductors and abductors to stabilize your knees, even against outside forces. Stand with your right foot at the center of the Bosu, and your left foot on the floor behind it. Bend both knees, lift your left heel and swing both arms to the right and in front of your body. Remain in position and move your arms to the left. Straighten your legs and repeat.
Abductor/Adductor Squat
Stand with your right foot at the center of the Bosu dome, and place your left foot on the floor, in alignment with your right foot. Bend both knees, push your hips back and perform a squat. Straighten both legs, contract your left inner thigh and cross your left leg in front of your right. Perform a full set and then switch sides. To work your outer thighs, kick your leg out to the side, away from the Bosu, as you straighten your legs from the squat.
Bosu Scissors
The standing exercises might be too challenging for people with knee injuries. These non-weight-bearing exercises offer a viable alternative. Sit upright on the Bosu, leaning slightly back and placing your hands along the sides of the Bosu for support. Contract your abdominal muscles to protect your lower back, and straighten both legs, lifting them off the floor. Slowly open your legs to a V position, then contract your inner thighs to bring them together.
Side Lying Exercise
Place your body in a side-lying position, with your legs extended, your right hip on the Bosu and your right elbow on the floor for support. Keeping both legs lifted from the floor, contract your left outer thigh, and raise it a few inches from your right thigh. Return with control. The outer thigh or abductor of your left leg is the mover, but the adductor or inner thigh of your right leg functions as a stabilizer, which helps keep your pelvis in alignment.
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