Brett Stewart - Weights on the BOSU® Balance Trainer: Strengthen and Tone All Your Muscles with Unstable Workouts

WEIGHTS on the

BOSU

Balance Trainer

Strengthen and Tone All Your

Muscles with Unstable Workouts

Brett Stewart and Jason Warner

Ulysses Press

Text Copyright 2013 Brett Stewart and Jason Warner. Design and concept 2013 Ulysses Press and its licensors. Photographs copyright 2013 Scott E. Whitney except as noted below. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Published in the United States by

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN13: 978-1-61243-162-8

Library of Congress Control Number 2012951895

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions Editor: Keith Riegert

Managing Editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Lily Chou

Proofreader: Lauren Harrison

Index: Sayre Van Young

Front cover design: what!design @ whatweb.com

Interior design and production: Jake Flaherty

Interior photographs: Scott E. Whitney except pages Rapt Productions

Front cover photographs: man Eliza Snow/istockphoto.com; woman Anthony Mayatt/istockphoto.com

Back cover photograph: Scott E. Whitney

Models: Brian Burns, Tricia Burns, Lewis Elliot, Mary Gines, Brett Stewart, Kristen Stewart

BOSU is a registered trademark of BOSU Fitness, LLC, and is protected under United States and international laws and is used under license from BOSU Fitness, LLC. The views expressed in this book are not endorsed by BOSU Fitness, LLC, and the author(s) of this book are in no way affiliated with, or sponsored by, BOSU Fitness, LLC.

Please Note

This book has been written and published strictly for informational purposes, and in no way should be used as a substitute for consultation with health care professionals. You should not consider educational material herein to be the practice of medicine or to replace consultation with a physician or other medical practitioner. The authors and publisher are providing you with information in this work so that you can have the knowledge and can choose, at your own risk, to act on that knowledge. The authors and publisher also urge all readers to be aware of their health status and to consult health care professionals before beginning any health program. This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked events, brands or other products mentioned or pictured within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The authors and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality events, brands and other products mentioned and pictured in this book.

To our amazing wives, Kristen and Anne Marie. Youve proven to us time and time again that youre incredibly adept at the most demanding balancing workout everbeing spectacular, selfless mothers.

Contents

If youve set foot in nearly any gym, toning studio or rehab facility, then undoubtedly youve seen a BOSU Balance Trainer, its bulbous, blue, malleable dome beckoning you to hop on and test your balance while the solid black platform allays any fears of it being too unstable to support your weight. At first glance a BOSU Balance Trainer conveys everything youll come to learn as fact in this book: Although completely unassuming, this cute-as-a-button marvel of simple technology all at once delivers a core-blasting, muscle-quivering challenge capable of working every muscle in your body to develop strength, agility and a toned physique.

Over the last decade, BOSU Balance Trainers have seemingly become one of the most successful pieces of exercise equipment sold worldwide and they can be found in more gyms across the globe than any other single brand of exercise equipment that doesnt contain a weight. The BOSU Balance Trainer is one of a kind in form and in function: The blue half-dome resembles a stability ball that has been split in half and secured to a black plastic serving tray, yet its revered as the training tool of choice to develop core strength, stability and flexibility by athletes all over the world. As a go-to tool for trainers and physical therapists seeking to help their clients work their full body in many planes and stretch and strengthen major and supporting muscles, the BOSU Balance Trainer is unmatched in success and popularity.

Pairing weights with the unstable surface of the BOSU Balance Trainer reinforces the beneficial nature of lifting, twisting, pulling and pushing weights through an enhanced range of motion on multiple planes. By utilizing a BOSU Balance Trainer, the recruitment of supporting and stabilizing muscles is magnified to deliver a higher metabolic effect as well as boost muscle growth through time under tension on a non-uniform surface. Quite simply, youll work more muscles more quickly while performing easy, repeatable weighted movements. By recruiting more muscles for stabilization, youll also increase your metabolic rate and burn fat more quickly than just lifting weights alone!

Who should read this book? Women. Men. Athletes. People recovering from injuries. People with too little time to get to the gym. People looking for a no-fuss, no-muss workout they can do with very little equipment in their living room. Really, anyone looking to improve their life and overall fitness level.

The BOSU Balance Trainer is an extraordinary device that allows a wide range of exercises. Combined with weights, itll take your fitness and body to whole new levels. Theres a reason why the BOSU Balance Trainer is a staple in so many physical therapist offices and weight rooms: It just plain works.

In , we start you off on your journey into Weights on the BOSU Balance Trainer by explaining what the BOSU Balance Trainer is, why and how you should use it, and why weights are necessary. We also answer some FAQs. We then prepare you to get into the workouts by providing some common-sense information, a recommendation to see your doctor and basic goal setting before you begin. Jason also talks in-depth about his rehabilitation on the BOSU Balance Trainer after a serious sports injury.

starts off with some BOSU Balance Trainer basics, and then lets you practice with the BOSU Balance Trainer before explaining why and how you should diligently practice your form to build up a foundation to make your exercises safer and more effective. Once youre ready, we dive into the Basic and Advanced Programs, which are designed to build muscle, shred your core, develop outstanding agility and balance, train your entire body for sports conditioning and build explosive power and strength. We also include a section on maintaining your physique after completing the Basic and Advanced programs.

Over 40 challenging and exciting exercises are described and illustrated in . Theyre complemented by some extra credit advanced moves to supplement the program, as well as a few of our favorite extreme exercises to perform on the BOSU Balance Trainer. These are some of our favorite total-body moves to activate nearly every muscle from your fingertips to your toes.