Class #778

BOSU® Mat Challenge

30 min - Class
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Pilates Anytime is proud to welcome Erika Quest to our site with this Mat class utilizing a BOSU® ball. Erika shares her joyful energy as she tests your balance and proprioception with Pilates exercises on the BOSU®. This class goes quickly and you will get the workout you came for!
What You'll Need: Mat, BOSU®

About This Video

Jul 20, 2012
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Transcript

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Okay, welcome everybody. So thanks for watching my class. My name is Eric AQuESTT. I'm here with Meredith and Bridgette and we're going to do a Bosu class. If you don't have this particular prop, you can certainly feel to omit it as you see fit. There are going to be certain areas where it might be best if you have it and or at least an arc or a small stability ball handy.

So from here we're going through a level two, three class and we're going to start standing. So I encourage you to just step up onto your Bosu and you want your feet about hip width distance apart. So if you look down, Woo and find that your center of gravity shifts, your feet are going to be on the outside of the Bosu logo. So you're looking for that bulls-eye there and being on the outside there. So standing up nice and tall and just kind of feeling how it feels to be on top of this moving surface and the biofeedback that comes upwards through your bony structure and through your feet. So from here, I'm just going to ask you to inhale, lift your arms up overhead. And as you're here, think about where your visual field is. Exhale, reach wide and down. So the more you look down, the more you're going to essentially be in fear.

So I want your visual Cortex as lifted as you can keep it, and I want you to think about those feet. Trust your feet and really feel those ankles. Okay? Try and quiet them as much as you possibly can and exhale down. Good. Last one. Inhale, you lift and exhale. Come on down. Shifting your center of gravity a little by a reaching your arms forward.

See what happens to the rain from here, let's go into that older nerve stretch. You're going to flex your wrists, open out slightly, lifting that clavicle up and exhale. You curl slightly through the spine and how the big beach wall, again, inhale you open up and exhale. Check in again on your system. What's happening through the feet. Have you lost something from side to side?

Think about your visual core trek cortex. What's happening in your neurotransmitter's? Good. Last one. Inhale you open and exhale, you squeezed forward. Good arms. Come back down to the side. Now from here you're going to start to bend and straighten the knees with the arms. So inhale, reach those arms up and lower the knees down. Exhale, press that nice thick air down towards the floor and straighten.

Inhale you Ben. Good. Just challenging you a little bit more. We're going to do three more of those and then we'll stay low and we'll stay low and just have fun with it. You guys. That's half of the battle with this guys just to enjoy it. And last one. So stay low here. Hold it now, just the arms. Inhale and exhale. You reach. Good.

Last four and reach. Good. Last three, find a spot on that wall or whatever's in front of you to really stabilize. Good. Hold there. Good. Lift back up. And now of course we're going to go to one side. So take the arms up. And from here you're going to inhale. Look down to your right as you reach back behind you. Good.

Come back up to your starting position and go to the other side. Good and you lift. So again, we're happening to shift a little bit here. Think about what's happening through the feet. Try and quiet them as much as you possibly can. Good. And you lift the last four and good and lift.

Last three. Reaching. Looking at those fingers as best as you can. Challenging your appropriate reception, getting some heat through the body. Good and lift. Last one here. Bend those knees, reach down. Good and lift all the way back up. Come out to the tee position. Good. Take the arms up back one last time and then stretch over to one side ever.

So slightly good. Back up to center. Other side. Good. All the way back up. You can go ahead and release the arms and step off of your boasts. You don't know. I'm going to have you flip this guy over so that your dome is down on your mat.

We're going to begin in a supine matter here after you're standing warmups, so go ahead and lie down onto your mat and you're going to take your feet and bring them up onto your platform. If you're looking at your Bosu platform, you want your feet hip width distance apart on the outside of the plug, and then just go ahead and lower yourself all the way down. So having the dome down is going to really change how you feel this through the body. And we're going to start with some pelvic curls. So take an inhale to prepare. Exhale, tip the pubic bone towards the face, tuck the pelvis, wish that imaginary grape. Continue to peel up onto the shoulder girdle. Inhale at the pause at the top, and exhale, roll all the way down and I'm sure you already feel your hamstrings and your gluteals and that's a good thing. Inhale, pause at the bottom and exhale. You articulate. Remember the spinal column is a spaghetti noodle here.

You want to really feel each and every bony structure rolling up and rolling down. Exhale, you rolled down. Make sure on every exhale that you're really blanketing that spinal column with your abs. Exhale, Tuck the pelvis and rule up. Inhale, pause at the top and exhale. Roll all the way down. Bone by bone. Again, at the top here, you want to make sure that you do as best as you can coming up into hip extension, but not so much that you're throwing the rib cage forward and allowing the lower back to decompress and exhale. You roll all the way down. Yes. Feel those hamstrings in those gluteals. Heat up last one here, and you're going to stay lifted. Exhale, roll up and hold.

Now keeping your feet on that platform. You're going to inhale, hinge at the ankles, go into Dorsi flection, so pull the toes up towards the knees and exhale. Push your Bosu away. Big Toes. Stay on that platform. Inhale, you hinge. Good, and exhale, push away. Nice Meredith. Good. Inhale, you hinge. Good. Exhale, push away. Engage those glutes, engage those hamstrings and push away. Last two. Inhale, hinge, and exhale, press and last one here. Inhale and exhale.

Hold it now. Inhale, lower your hips by two inches. Release the glutes. Exhale, engage those glutes. Lift the hips, backups, a little pelvic pulses here. Seven more. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Six. Good, and five. Nice for weight. Each would equally three and two and no on hold at the top.

Inhale. Exhale, roll. Oh, all the way down. Good. Tailbone goes back down. I was going to have you do three sets, but how about we do two? Inhale, prepare and exhale. Tuck the pelvis and roll all the way out because my hamstring can certainly feel this at the top. Goes straight into those ankle hinges. Inhale, pull the Bosu dome towards you. Exhale, push away through those big toes. Good. Hinge and press. Good.

Hinge and press. Put pressure through the palms of the hand. Try not to tense up in the neck. Good. Three more am press last to inhale and press. Last one. Checking on your hips. Are they still lifted? Hold there. Now release your glutes. Drop the hips by two inches. Exhale, engage them and push up. Eight good. And seven.

Nice. Six and five last four 30 and two and last one. Hold at the top. Take one last inhale and exhale. Roll. Oh all the way down. Nice and slow. Hug your knees into the chest at the bottom. Do a little mini circles so that your lower back can release here a little bit.

Reverse directions with the knees. Good. And then you can roll off to one side and find your, boast you again and we're going to flip it over. So place your Bosu platform side down, dome side up, and you're going to take your twoish and bring it. Not all the way against the base of your boasts. You a very regressed version would be to be able to do this with your tush on the floor and that's fine. But depending on your spinal column link, we're going to want you kind of low towards the base here.

I'm a little over five, nine so I'd like my twist kind of by that first concentric circle. Depending on how tall you are, you may be up a little higher, you may be down a little bit lower. Okay, so your feet are going to be about hip width, distance apart. Parallel. We're going into a basic chest lift and I'm going to give you a disclaimer. We don't do 85 of these, so just bear with me. Fingers in her lace back behind the head.

You're actually getting nice and warm really fast. Inhale, you're going to lower back. Lengthen out the front body. Exhale, get 20% of that air out of the lens first to help you lift, engaging that rectus abdominis. Inhale and exhale. You live. Good. Now queuing you out through the top of the crown of the head. I want you to reach backwards almost slightly and then arc. Ah, good. That's three. Let's go to six of these. Inhale and exhale. Good. Last two. Inhale.

Keep that lower back on the Bosu. You may feel like you need to pull your pubic bone up towards your nose a little, and if you are slipping, feel free to adjust. Good, so now we're going to take this into rotation. Lean back for me. Cuddle onto the boasts. You with one arm. Keep the fee where they're at for now. Inhale, stretch back to center. Exhale, you're going to rotate armpit towards opposite hip bone. Good. Again, inhale and exhale. Great. Just two more and you'll see why.

Okay, good. Last one here. Inhale, focus on that breath and exhale holds here. Now take your opposite knee to your elbow. That's bent up into tabletop. Great. We're going to add in this leg. You're going to inhale, lengthen out that leg, stretch back. Open the elbow. Exhale, lift and arch in. Good. So switch that leg, Bridgette. There you go.

Inhale. Exhale. You Go. Good. Inhale. Just two more exhale. Make them count. You guys chase the burn. Inhale and exhale. Good, excellent lather, rinse, repeat. Other sides. So here we go. Adjust if you need to a little bit. I do know that you can slide a bit, especially as you get a little slippery.

Take that opposite set of fingers back and away we go. For Four. Inhale, you link them back. Exhale, arch. Good, nice, high, arking diagonals. Here you do not want to crunch. So we're lifting in length. Good. Last one. And away we go. From here, you're gonna lift that opposite leg. Here we go. Inhale, create that nice long line. Exhale arch. In. Three more. Inhale and exhale, go. Good. Last two and last one here. Good. Excellent. So let's move out of the ABS and we'll go into some gluteals. All right, so you're going to turn around and again there's a little bit of a sweet spot for everybody.

So what I'm going to say to you is we're going to have our pelvis on or near the apex and your forehead's going to be down on the floor and you have options with your arms. So our muscle focus here is our gluteal, not our lower back. So you really want to watch that. If you're feeling it too much in your lower back, you likely need to slide your pelvis forward a little bit. So two options with your arms. You can be up on your forearms should you like to, or you can be down with the elbows, right and your forehead on the backs of your hands. When you find your position.

Or if you have to adjust during this, that's fine. You're going to lift the legs up, point your toes, bend the knees, and bring them into a frog position. On an inhale, you're going to lower the quads down and on an exhale, you're going to keep the heels kissed together and lift using your Tush. Remember, your lower back should not be involved in this, so you want to keep that slightly posterior pressure with the pubic bone into the apex of the Bosu you dome or the Stability Ball or the mat or the arc, whatever you're working with, so that you're engaging your glute Max and not your lumbar spine. Exhale, you lift good five more and squeeze. Remember at the top you want to really visualize that you're holding on to a $100 bill or you're winning lottery ticket numbers in between your Tush last one. Hold and stay lifted. Now we're going to go into extended frog, so I want you to split the legs and reach wide. Exhale, squeeze straight across, and then bend back into frog. Good reach. Why?

Exhale schoolies and bend reaching out, up and over through those toes. Schoolies and then good. Inhale, reach, exhale, squeeze. And then last to reach schoolies. And then the last one is your abdominal wall still engaged. And then we reverse those straight out through the mid line. Squeeze, open out, bend the knees, tap the heels together, keeping the hips externally rotated at all times so that femoral bone should be spun inside the ears of Hell vis good and bend and tap.

Exhale out through the mid line. Open the legs wide, bend the knees, tap the heels and reached in the midline. Open out and bend and tap last to reach. Open Bend and top and last one, reach open bend. Then tap. Let's do a few openings here. So extend the legs all the way back out the position of the feet. Inhale, just open the legs. Exhale, squeeze straight field the labs drawn down the back. I was starting to feel a little bit in my neck here, so I want you to check in on your scapular stabilization.

Schoolies remember, nice thick marshmallow cream in between those legs or pillows or you're doing these underwater so they're nice and active. Four more schoolies and three, use those glutes ladies. Last two and one. Hold there. Gimme little beats, 10 and nine. Eight keep the quads lifted. Six five, four, three, two and arrest. Go ahead and let those legs rest down, slide back a little bit just so that you can again take that nice stretch over the Bosu with your lower back, rock, the pelvis, back and forth, just so you can get that nice feedback. Good. And then just press yourself up and over today's show stretch for just a moment.

And now we're going to go into some more planking and some front support and some leg pull variations. But today we're going to do them with the Dome side down. So I want you to go ahead and flip your dome over. I'll give you a couple of hand positions here. So my guys usually like to be on the outside here because of their chest strength. So it gives them a little bit of a wider grab. That's totally fine.

You can also have the palms of the hands. I like to spread the fingers out so you can translate the load through the wrists and the wide parts of the boasts use so that the risks are stacked above the elbow and the shoulders. So you want that nice relationship. So when you're nice and stable through the shoulder girdle, I'm going to have you come and find the plank position. Stay nice and long through your thoracic spine. Make sure that you're not jetting the chin or the cervical spine.

And if you have to slightly tuck your pelvis posterior to keep your lower back and decompress, that's totally fine. So here we go. Front support variation. You're going to inhale, tap the dome with the knee. Exhale, send it away. Other side, tap and press. Good, nice and stable through that shoulder girdle, getting that shoulder work in and press trying to keep your both to as stable as you can. And press good. Tap and press last for tap and press. Last three. Good.

Press two and press. And one. We're going to take a break after we rotate. So now you're going to pull that knee under towards your elbow and press. So you, what happens with that dome? What happens with that upper body? Stay with me and rotate and press. Good.

Pull and press. Engage. Those old bullying's a little more good. Last four under am press three, press hen too, and exhale and hold here. Drop the knees down and just roll those risks really quickly. This is your mini break and now we're going to go into a variation of what we just did with a top and a leg support or a front supports. So excuse me, a leg pull front. So from here, palms of the hands, come back into that position which you prefer. Come back out into plank.

Nice. Long exhale here. You're going to start with what you just did. So exhale and then you're going to reach under tap and then reach back. Stay on this side and reach. Tap and reach. Good. Tap and reach gets a lot harder to stabilize that dome.

Last to tap and to reach. Last one, tap. Hold it here. Leg pull, front, top, and lift. Tap and lift. Good. And lift. Exhale on the up. Inhale on the down. Good. Last two and last one. Good. From here, we're not breaking. We're going straight into the other side. So rotate under and tap. Good and reach. Good. Tap and reach.

Exhale, tap and reach. Checking on your shoe Childers. That's for three more. Five and reach six and reach whoo seven and reach eight here. Tap Down, lift up with that glute. Tap and lift.

Six lift five lift bore. Good. Three and two and one. Excellent job. Knees come down. Sit back on those heels for a moment. I'm sweating a little bit. I hope that you all are too, and we're going to flip your dome back over and now it's time to break this up with a little bit of functional elongation. So all face forward.

Let's go into some nice spine stretch and we're going to add in the extension here. So you're going to sit up nice and tall on the apex of your boasts. You don't, even though we're elongating here, we're still working hard, so perched up on those sitz bones, you're going to reach forward with the palms of the hands. Take an inhale to prepare. Exhale, curl the chin into the chest, pull the tummy into the spine, roll down and reach. Here comes your extension. On the inhale. Inhale, reach long through those fingers. Keep your sake from reaching backwards. At exhale, dive over the toes, pull the tummy into the spine. Shoulders are low as you restack.

Good again. Inhale, exhale, roll down and reach. Inhale, extend. Find those points of opposition with the fingers in the sacred. Exhale, dive over. Pull the tummy into the spine. Rolling back up. Good. Focus on anywhere that you may be having a little bit of extra tent or attention. Think about where you really need to put that breath. As you exhale, dive over, pull the tummy into the spine, roll up and restock. Last too. Before the soft good and reach. Inhale, extend. Exhale, dive over, keeping your knees nice and straight if you can. It's great to be up a little higher to stay out of the hamstrings and the hip flexors. Last one. Good and inhale.

Lengthen through your fingers and exhale, dive over and come on back up. Palms of the hands face forward into the saw. From here, twisting on your longitudinal access on an inhale. Exhale, dive down. Pinky finger to Pinky toe. Good. Inhale, lift back up and back to center. Good other side. Inhale, exhale for breath pattern here. Good. Inhale, back up and back to center. And now that you're up on this balance Treanor make sure that your hips are staying as square as you can. Keep them. You may feel some speed wobbles here. As you're rotating around the spine, try and quiet those. Lift back up. Good. Back to center.

Last two, twist. Exhale, dive down. Good. Lift back up and back to center. Last one. Inhale. Exhale, dive good. All the way back up and back to center. Good. Go ahead and relax the arms. Roll the shoulders a little bit and now we're going to go into everybody's favorite, which is double leg stretch, single leg stretch and crisscross. So this changes everything, right?

An exercise that's oftentimes in the intermediate category now goes way up there with this balance trainer below you. So let's explain the sweet spot here. So it's going to be a little bit different. You want to have your lower back connected to the apex or near the apex of the Bosu Dome and how you're going to find if you'll be able to extra suit, execute these exercises. And don't worry. We're not going to do 8,000 maybe 7,999 is it gonna lift the knees up into table two tabletop so I can already feel that. I might need to adjust the tiniest a bit. And again, your adjustment can be very minute.

She should be able to hold this putting pressure onto the tops of the knees. Good. Let's go for some double leg stretch and see how we do. Inhale you reach. Exhale, come back. Good focus. Think of those points of opposition, your toes and your fingers. Two more reach at Paul. Last one.

Reach in to single leg stretch. Inhale, exhale. Put pressure on those hands. Adjust as you got it ladies. Four, three, two and one. Now old fingers in a release. Back behind the head. Extend one leg out. Rotate into criss cross. Okay, you got it. Five, four, three, two and one. Come up to sitting and take a little mini break.

Nicely tie, so straight into the teasers. No break. And the teaser variations here today are going to be with the palms of the hands back. Some of your male clients or male students here may want to have your hands on the floor and that's perfectly acceptable. And again, so you want to go ahead and find your sweet spot. Bend your elbow softly lifting the knees up into a tabletop position. So from here, all I want you to do is inhale, extend the leg out, lean back, exhale, pull.

Good. Get that air coming out of the lungs on every exhale to really recruit properly. Last two, last one. Good. Now from here, come back out and now we're going to inhale. TAPPA leg. Exhale, pull up. Stay with me. Tap and up.

Tap and up. Top and up. Four more. You got this? Lift. Three. Good, nice and long through those toes. And the piece de resistance. Here we go, we go. Inhale down. Exhale, pull. Four more. Good, nice straight knees. Last two and last one. Good job. Take a break. Bend those knees.

And it's time for lateral. So from here we're going to set you up a little bit different. I'm going to have your knee kind of close to the bullseye or the apex, but you want to make sure that that set of toes can be tucked under back on the floor. We're going to go into some side kick, kneeling. This is a really challenging position to be in. Well you want to do is you want to lean over to the side and put your hand on the floor. Yes, you want to make sure that your shoulder is stacked above your wrists and then that top leg can compare lot to the floor.

You're going to then take your top fingers, bring them back behind the head. On an inhale, you're going to flex your foot, pull it forward, exhale, point your toe, press back. Good. Flex and pull. Point and press. Good point and press. This is four and press last three.

Good to press and one and hold here. Pulses up 10 times ten nine a. Use that oblique and abductor, five four, three, two and one. Good job. Other side. So we're going to go ahead and move. Place that other knee near the apex of the dome.

Tuck the toes back under. Reach over. Find that knife relationship from your shoulder to your elbow to your risks. Every side is going to be different of course, and you're going to flex that foot. Pull forward, points your toe, press back. Remember you want to try and keep that leg parallel to the floor so no dipping through the center. Last two, press back. Last one, press back. You got it. 10 pulses, 10 and nine.

Eight feel that heat in the body and five, four, three, two and one. Good job. Take a break. So basics one in swimming. You guys ready? Little back extension for us to finish out in leg. So you've done a great job. So let's go ahead and again find your sweet spot on your Bosu.

Here's what I love about doing swimming on the Bosu. Like it can be very intimidating because it's unilateral back extension, but I find that for most bodies, if it's an arch barrel or it's supposed to, as long as you set yourself up successfully for basic swan, meaning your toes are on the floor here and you can lift and reach, pull back and lower, you're almost perfectly set up to eventually go into swimming. So let's see if we do it. Okay, so you want your toes just barely touched down. When you're low, bring the fingers in her lace and back behind the head. Elbows are wide, lots are down. Four breaths. Inhale, you lift. Exhale, reach forward with the hands.

Inhale, pull back behind the head and exhale, lower down. Adjust as you need to. Inhale, lift, exhale, reach. Just preparing our bodies for swimming. Make sure you're keeping that lower back decompressed. Really focusing on the mid back extensors and you lower.

Inhale, lift. Exhale, reach. Inhale back behind on. Exhale lower. Now let's try it. Lift up. Let's see. Reach forwards. If you're in the proper position, you should be able to lift those back. Legs Up. The glutes are activated and we swim right arm, left leg, left arm, right leg, nice and slow. I don't care how you're breathing right now.

Just breathe. Reaching, finding the points of opposition out through the fingertips and out through the toes. Good. And eight. Let's speed it up a little. Trying to avoid the wobbling of the both to seven, six, five, four, three, two and one. Arrest all the way down. Feel the pelvis over the Bosu. This should feel really nice on the lower back.

Okay, good. Take a nice couple of deep inhales into the back and the bottom of the lungs here. Rocking your pelvis back and forth. Good. One more. Inhale. Breathe all of your air out at the lungs on the exhale. Good, and let's come on up to standing and just finish with a roll down.

So just standing next to your, both you dome arms are nice and relaxed down by your side. Take an inhale, draw the arms up overhead, exhale with the fingertips. Begin to dive forward, arching down, relaxing your arms. It's like your arms have 50 pound weights in them right now, and they're really, really heavy. It's not about how far down you go. Good. Nice. Deep breath of gratitude into the lungs.

Say thank you to your body and exhale, pull that to me into the spine, blanketing the spinal column. As you roll in, articulate all the way back up. Restacking with more length in between each and every vertebra. Interlace the fingers back behind the lower back. Exhale, stretch the fingers down to the floor. Open the clavicle on the heart center and you're all done.

Comments

Lauren P
7 people like this.
Yes I definitely got the workout I came for. That was wonderful - short, sweet, intense, fabulous cues....thank you!
Erika Quest
1 person likes this.
Thank you so much Lauren! This is my first class on Pilates Anytime, so I very much appreciate you viewing and responding.
2 people like this.
Erika has such a natural gift for cueing and her energy is inspiring. She has created such an innovative program. Please- lets have more Erika!
3 people like this.
Loved the pacing along with the outstanding cues. A terrific workout. Thank you! Hope you will return for more classes.
Erika Quest
Thank you Sue and Sherry! Your replies warm my heart and I'm thrilled you enjoyed. Another 30 minute BOSU class as well as a 45 minute reformer are coming in the near future! I'm honored to be a part of this amazing community!
So much fun and such HARD work!! We were sweating our butts off and trying to look graceful at the same time! Thank you Erika, wonderful class, spectacular teacher
Love the Bosu!
2 people like this.
Thank you Erika for a great workout. Happy to hear there is more to come !
Erika Quest
Thank you Brigitte for participating and to both you and Shulamit for your lovely comments. It was so much fun shooting these sessions and your feedback is important and helps us teach sessions that are relevant and enjoyable!
6 people like this.
This exactly what I needed today. I love the BOSU...would love to see more classes using this dynamic prop. Thanks for a great workout!!
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