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The Bosu Balance Trainer targets your core muscles and will help with balance and coordination. Here are a couple of exercises to try, first the Full Crunch. Sit on the dome forward of the bull’s eye and draw the knees into the chest, hands behind the head and make sure you’re not tipping forward or back. Squeeze the abs and lift the shoulders and hips off the dome in a full crunch. lower and repeat for 8-16 reps.

Doing the V- Sit, you sit with hips slightly forward on the dome and place your hands behind you. Lift your legs up into a V and lean torso back, keeping back straight ( don’t collapse) and abs contracted. Lift your arms and hold for 20-60 seconds. Always remember to keep your body in proper alignment during each exercise.

Balance is as important for successful sports participation, as it is for everyday activities and protection from falls at any age. Body balance is derived from a healthy nervous system along with strong muscles and healthy joints. You can improve all-around balance with practice and the Bosu Balance Trainer, which is an excellent piece of equipment to do this with. Here are a couple of beginner exercises to try; First stand upright on a flat surface and close your eyes for 20 seconds, if you have stable balance in this position, lift 1 leg off the ground, it can be knee up or heel up, then lift arms to your side or front to balance if necessary and hold for 20 seconds.

Next if you can do this using your arms to balance, then try it with your arms at your side. After standing on one leg with your eyes closed for 20 seconds, try a one-legged squat to the point where the thigh makes an angle of about 45 degrees with the lower leg,(about a quarter of the way down). After you have mastered these challenges, you can now try them on a Bosu Balance Trainer and take them to another level.

If you want to target cardio and lower body endurance which will challenge the heart rate, then these are a couple of exercises on the Bosu Balance Trainer you will want to try. The Squat Jumps has you standing on the dome with feet on either side of the bull’s eye and squat as low as you can, knees behind the toes, then push back up and jump up, taking the  arms overhead. Land with knees bent and repeat for 30-60 seconds. Lower body endurance and cardio are worked on in this exercise.

Next, the Power Lunge has you face the balance trainer and place the right foot in the center of the dome, lower into a lunge (the front knee should be behind the toe). As you press up, jump up and switch legs in the air, landing with the left foot on the dome, right foot back and continue jumping and switching legs for 8-16 reps. Your heart rate will be challenged along with the lower body. Always remember to keep your body in proper alignment during the exercise.

After learning how to use the Bosu Balance Trainer here are are a few more beginner exercises. To start, stand in front of the Balance trainer and place the right heel on the dome, then return to start and repeat with the left foot, moving as quickly as you can and allowing the heel to bounce off the dome. You can make it harder by adding a jump and switch the feet in the air.

Next from this exercise, step the right foot on top of the dome, push back and repeat with the left foot moving as quickly as you can. You can make it more difficult by bending into a lunge, or you can even add a hop as you push off the dome. Both exercise can be repeated for about 30-60 seconds, and you will get a good cardio workout with combining these with other exercises.

When using the Bosu Balance Trainer it is best to learn some basics, because it can be a great tool for working on balance, stability and core strength. Starting with the basic stance, you stand with both feet on the dome, placing them on either side of the bull’s eye. Just by simply standing you’ll feel your feet moving and your torso contracting in order to find your balance. By raising your arms or just closing your eyes you can add difficulty to this basic movement.

From the basic stance, try and shift weight from foot to foot using your arms for balance, while keeping your shoulders and hips straight. You can make this more difficult by either marching or running on top for 30-60 seconds. Learning these beginning techniques will help you progress into more difficult exercises which will help you in everyday activities.

In loosing weight, just strictly doing aerobic, cardio type workouts seem to have limitations because muscle tends to be lost along with the fat and keeping the muscle you have or even better, increasing muscle should be your goal. A circuit program has been described  as one in which you move from exercise to exercise quickly in order to maximize the intensity and variety of the workout. Interval training is broadly defined as repetitions of high- speed/ intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity.

Combining interval training and circuit training including weights and cardio, provide a useful workout for general fitness and weight loss. Exercises that can be done in circuit include dumbbell arm curls, overhead presses, along with a walk, or a good jog on a treadmill, and step ups which can be performed on a Bosu Ball to help with balance and coordination. Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbbells are a great way to perform your weight training portion of the circuit because they provide you with what 30 dumbbells can do with just this easily adjustable and durable  pair.

I have found that after doing some research the Bosu Balance Trainer can help you improve on many thing we take for granted. It can help you with something as simple as your balance, because the balance trainer is never stable, you are constantly engaging the small stabilizer muscles in the upper and lower body to keep you in place. Another thing it can help you with is Kinesthetic awareness which means your awareness of how the body is positioned at any given moment. This awareness can often decline as we age, so the Balance Trainer can help you stay connected with how your body moves.

Proprioception, which is how your body responds to external forces to keep your joints in the right position. When you stand on a Balance Trainer, all of your muscles are forced to contract to keep your joints in proper position. This can help in making normal activities easier. The Balance Trainer can be very versatile and add fun to your workouts, and we will be looking at workouts with the Bosu Balance Trainer in future articles.

The latest and greatest in Balance Training is The Bosu Balance Trainer Home Version, it is actually an exercise ball that has been cut in half and has a stable and unstable side and the word “Bosu” means both sides up. When you have the ball side up there are many options including standing, sitting, squatting and using it-like you would step for aerobics, but the difference is that your body has to constantly shift and contract to stay aligned. This will definitely help with your balance and coordination along with burning calories.

When you turn it over you have many choices including using it for a bench for strength training, doing pushups, or just trying to sit on it to test your balance. The Bosu Trainer will help in strengthening all your muscles of your body especially your stabilizer muscles and the great thing about it is that you can be a beginner or an elite athlete and get a terrific workout. It’s a very durable product and comes with a DVD, inflation pump and exercise manual, I would definitely give it 5 Stars.