Class #1015

Pilates with the BOSU®

65 min - Class
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Description

Elizabeth Larkam teaches a Mat class on the BOSU® that will challenge your core in a new way. She uses weight changes that will test your balance and make you feel more grounded when you come back to the floor. Exercises like Spine Stretch and Single Leg Stretch activate your core differently when you are trying to stay stable on the BOSU®!

After this class, Elizabeth and Norris show how you can move on the BOSU® gracefully in BOSU® Dance
What You'll Need: Mat, BOSU®

About This Video

Mar 23, 2013
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Transcript

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Welcome to Palladio's anytime. I'm Elizabeth Arkham and I'm here with my colleague North Tomlinson Norris. Tom Wilson is the owner of Ciran Palazzos in Chicago. Norris and I have been close colleagues since 1999 and we're delighted to bring you Polonius with the Bosu. The very first time that we did this program was a good 10 years ago when I made the first v h a s v h s tape. It's so old, I can't even say it.

Um, with Pilati is on the Bosu. This is an expanded program because of course I've studied with many people and learned a lot and intend to bring it to you with this program. For this program, clearly you'll need a Bosu. You'll also need a need, a folded padded mat that has a nonskid capacity as well as the capacity to cushion your elbows, your hands, your wrists, and to cushion your knees. In addition, since you'll be kneeling some of the time, please do put a cushion underneath your knees to keep them from, to keep them comfortable. Now we'll be in a variety of positions on the flat side of the Bosu. And the rounded side of the Bosu.

It's my intention to only turn the Bosu over once in our workout so you won't be feeling like you won't be feeling like a Bosu wrangler. We'll just get a lot done in each position. Here you are on all fours. You'll have your forearms on the Bosu with your elbows in line with your shoulders and your upper arms perpendicular to the [inaudible] Bosu. Now you can have your tuck. You can tuck your toes under a few wish or have the tops of your feet down.

As you're comfortable, you can have your palms down or palms towards each other. Don't have your palms up, I think because that will make your thoracic spine sag towards extension. Now here you are with the light from your chest bone between your forearms. As you inhale, rock your weight forward to your hands. As you exhale, rock your weight back towards your heels, keeping your spine parallel to the ground. Shifting your pelvis over the head of the femurs twice more. Inhale forward.

Exhale to go back clarifying a neutral pelvis neutral spine. Now land in the center and shift downstage Norris, you'll shift to your left. I'll shift to my right and then rock your weight upstage towards the ocean. We'll rock away from the ocean and rock towards the ocean. Twice more. Moving the spine towards um, away from the ocean, moving the whole spine towards the ocean, away from and towards. Come to the center.

And now shift diagonally to your right and shift. I only to your left knee north won't call left and right. Um, um, opposite for you and me. We'll just, you shift your ride. I'll shift to mine and et Cetera. Shift diagonally front, um, right back, left front right now. Make a semicircle around to the back and shift your way. Dog and the left front diagonal, right back.

The light from your chest bone goes above your left hand and your right sitting bone aims back beyond your right toes back on that diagonal. Now having worked the diagonals will take a circle back towards your heels, towards your left elbow, towards your left hand, towards your right hand, towards your right elbow, towards your right heel. And once you'll notice is not as a bow. Sue starts to circle. That's all right. We'll do two more in this direction. Keeping your chest bone up to the ceiling.

Now reverse and let's see if it comes back the other way. Wait on your left elbow. Left knee weight on your right elbow. Right knee. The Bosu Creek writes itself as we come back to the center. The light from your chest bone going all the way around. Now level your Bosu steady the Bosu, and now it's time to shift to your right and shifting to your right.

Hover your left knee off the ground. Hello to your lateral pelvic stabilizers on the right side. Put your left knee down and shift your weight to the left and move your pelvis around the head of your femur and hover your right knee off the floor. Inhale to shift. Exhale to anchor. Press your elbow points down.

Keep the Bosu on a tilt as you hover your pelvis over the head of your femur. Inhale to shift. Why? To the side of your left lung. Exhaling. Anchor on the outside of your left pelvis. Hover your right knee, one more each side just because it's so interesting to notice the difference between sides maintaining a neutral pelvis neutral spine. If you had a helium balloon on your cock six your tailbone, it would be floating straight up. Now Hover to your right side. Stay on your right side of your right knee and then rock the Bosu to the left side and the right side.

Keeping your left knee hovered broad and across your collarbones and draw your lowest front ribs in. Inhale to shift your weight to the left side. Keep the light from your chest bone over your left forearm and then move the bow soup, rocking it from side to side to side to side. Come up from here. Now as her Fonda saying, as fascinating as that is, it's truly time to move on. Now you're going to come to lie on your back and for this we're going to put the nonskid mat on the ground, so I'll be lying on here on my back and put the knee pads up on the Bosu.

So coming to lie on your back, you'll now, instead of being responsible for the motion of the Bosu working through your shoulder girdle in your arms, now you're going to be moving the Bosu, coordinating the movements of your pelvis, your lumbar spine, and your feet. Come to lie on your back with the soles of your feet on the flat side of the both suits, adjusting our shorts. Okay, now we're going to stay in Supine here and rock the Bosu pressing weight towards your toes and rocking towards your heels. Inhale away. Exhale towards Plantar endorsee flection at your ankles, putting weight towards your toes and weight towards your heels. Once more here, now place your palms on your thighs and sway your knees to your right and the boasts who will tilt to your right and sway your knees to your left. Norris and I are going opposite each other. That's for obvious reasons, but it makes it easier for the cuing here.

Nice Way and nice way. Now this would be an example of using a sort of a distal cue. I'm suggesting that your knees way and your pelvis is following. Now keep your, put your hands on your pelvis and keep your pelvis steady and instead of your pelvis instead of your knees swing, keep the light from your knee caps directly towards the ceiling. When you put weight on your right foot, the Bosu will rock to the right.

When you put weight on your left foot, the Bosu will rock to the left with your palms on your thighs. You can feel that the light from unique caps goes directly at the ceiling. Now you could lying on your back, make a circle weight on your heels, weight towards your left foot weight on your toes to the forefoot and weight to the right heels. Rock to the left. Rock forward and rock to the right. Reverse to the right, forward to the left and back to the right. Forward to the left and back.

Now this action of a being supine, lying on your back with the soles of your feet on the Bosu was a preparation for a neutral bridge. That's where we're going now, but I just like to, I'm going to sit up north, so sit up and take a look at the bow soup. Ha Ha and excellent. I'm delighted to say that we seem to have come back to the center line here with the pointed areas of the Bosu parallel to the camera. Alrighty. Come to lie on your back and it's bridged time now. Short's adjustment now for bridging.

You can certainly start with your arms down by your sides. Eventually they will be up with palms together, but we'll start with the palms down or arms down by your sides. As you inhale, it's the neutral pelvic bridge lift up. Now as you exhale, rock towards your heels and puts your pelvis down on the ground. As you inhale, rock to your toes and the front of your pelvis goes up to the ceiling. There's a neutral bridge with Plantar flection. Exhale to lower.

Put weight towards your heels. Inhale to lift, sending the weight towards the souls of your toes towards your forefoot. Once more here, land on your heels. Land in a neutral pelvis, neutral spine. As you inhale and lift your pelvis, the low front ribs drop away from the ceiling. Now land your pelvis back in neutral. Now have the intention of keeping your ankle steady, so don't do your best not to rock the Bosu. At least forward and back. As you inhale, lift up. Stay up in a bridge.

Tilt both knees to your right and the both who will rock to the right. Tilt both knees to the left and the Bosu will rock to the left. Continue this action now. It's more of a distal cue rocking the boasts. Who with your knees come back to the center and land your pelvis.

Place your palms on your thighs as you inhale. Lift in a neutral bridge now staying in neutral. Keep your thighs a fairly steady and put weight on your right foot and put weight to your left foot. The light from your knee caps shines approximately to the same place on the ceiling. A little more load to each initiate each side to the right side, to the left side. The pelvis stays fairly steady.

Land your pelvis and spine in neutral. Now in a bridge, in a neutral bridge, we'll make a full circle. As you inhale, lift your hips up and as you exhale, stay there. And with straight arms, interlace your fingers. Place your hands in front of the bottom of your chest bone. As you inhale, rock to your toes. Exhale, roll around to your heels. Roll the Bosu to the side, to the toes. Roll the bolster to the side, to your heels. Once more in this direction, have the intention of keeping your hips up. Reverse. Roll around the other side. Steering the boat Sioux with your feet.

No small amount of connection. One more here with the soles of the feet, your inner thighs and your pelvic floor. Turn your palms up to the ceiling. Roll down your spine. Each vertebrae gets a turn set up for just a moment. Make sure that the Bosu is angled straight to you. And now, um, we'll just, we'll finish one more action with rotation of the pelvis over a single femur head. Here you are in a neutral spine lying on the ground.

As you inhale, lift your pelvis straight up. Now squiggle your left foot a little closer to the center. Stand firmly on your left foot and take your right toes to the ceiling. Having the intention of keeping the Bosu steady, rotate your pelvis to the right land, the back of your right pelvis. And as you inhale, screw your light bulb foot into the ceiling.

It's as if your leg was a corkscrew. Unscrew from the ceiling and then up twice more. Moving your pelvis around the head of your femur and last one. Now land both feet and lands your pelvis, the new side of weights. As you inhale, lift up in a bridge. As you exhale, squiggle your right foot a little closer to the center and your left toes towards the ceiling. Exhale, turning to the left. Inhaling, bringing your left foot up towards the ceiling. Twice more.

Notice if your when your pelvis is moving around the head of your right femur. No small amount of work for your entire right leg, your entire right side. Now land your foot and land your pelvis on the ground. There are a couple of things I want to bring to your attention. And listen, I didn't want to stay up there and uh, and run the gas out of my right hamstrings while I discussed matters with you. So just to remind you that in the future when you interlace your fingers and have your hips up, when you rock the Bosu to the right, press your right hand to the left. When you rock the Bosu to the left, press your left hand to the right. Here's why that is.

When you rock the Bosu to the right, you're loading, um, the lateral pelvic stabilizers on your right side. When you push with your right hand to the left, that brings a vector of force or connection from your lower right ribs to your left side of your pelvis. So you're creating a diagonal of stability from the top to the, from the pelvis, from the ribs to the pelvis, as well as from the pelvis to the ribs. Alrighty, then that's what I wanted to share with the group. Now Roll to either side. Come up from here. Okay, so you've just been in supine. It must be time for. And to get ready for arm plank, leave the mats as they are and come onto your knees on this mat.

Bring the bows to, let's see, maybe I think we can leave the boasters where they are and bring our knees just a little forward. All right, now spin the boast to spend the boasts who around so that the pointed parts are uh, underneath our hands. There we go. Now minimizing your risk compression. You have, um, just the heel of your hand on the outcropping of the Bosu handle here. Now this quad repaired work is going to be a preparation for an arm plank. As you inhale, move your whole torso towards your right and as you exhale, move your whole torso towards the left or vice versa. As you XL move to your right. As you inhale, move to your left. Now the inhalation, we'll encourage a lateral translation, whereas the exhalation encourages you to avoid shifting your weight to the side.

So we could stop here and have a discussion about scoliosis, but I'm not going there, not to this moment. So, um, you can shade your breath accordingly or you can inhale to shift. Exhale to stay there and hover your knee. Hmm. Inhale to shift to Xcel to anchor hover and lymph moving t 12 and the sacrum to the right. The light from your chest bone is towards your right hand and hover your left knee.

And then t 12 12th thoracic vertebrae on the sacrum moves to your left, but wait to the heel of your left hand and hover your right knee this time. Shift your weight towards the right hand. Now stay there in a hover and have the intention to keep your elbow straight as she rocked the Bosu from side to side. The news side of waits shift to the sole central access moves leftward hoe and hover your right knee off the mat and then maintaining the pelvic stability with the lateral left pelvic stabilizers. No small amount of work for the Anterior Oblique sling system.

And we're not even talking about scapular stability and keeping your thoracic reflection there. Now having prepared for this, for the, for the plank, Tuck your toes under and here you are. With your lowest front ribs collected up to your spine. It would be fine to have a modicum of a posterior pelvic tilt and spine fluction. Shifting your whole central access to the right, pushing off with your right foot and shifting the whole central access to the left. Place the sole of your left big toe firmly and shift to the right and back to the left. Come to the center, Park your knees down. Inhale, take a breath. Exhaling, Tuck your toes under and we're back into the plank.

Now shift your weight to the right and hover your left leg off. And Inhale, shift. Put your left foot down. Shift your weight to the left and hover your right leg off. Inhale to shift. Exhale to anchor, making a strong connection from your right foot towards your left hand. Inhale to shift, making a strong connection from your right shoulder blade to the back of your left pelvis. Come down from that now and as you might imagine, there's yet another variation to go.

Then we'll be done with this particular chapter. As you exhale, slide your shoulders down and Tuck your toes under rock to your right. Lift your left foot up and while you maintain the weight on your right toes, your right foot rock the Bosu from side to side, collecting your lowest front ribs, all your abdominal layers supporting tuck your left toes under and rock the Bosu, pressing the weight through the little finger side of your left hand. When you go left and the little finger side of your right hand come down from that. Now again in a flight, it was not the best time to discuss it, but that will be a clear line from the heel of your hand along the lateral side of your arm to the serratus anterior and the other on the Rambo serratus complex and other things to keep your shoulder girdle organized. Now it's going to be time to uh, sit on the top of the flat side of the Bosu with your feet just a little wider than shoulder with no, it will be line stretch forward, keeping the Bosu steady. Inhale to prepare. As you exhale, nod your nose downward.

Bring your gaze behind the cheekbones of your face and have the intention of keeping the Bosu steady with your sitting bones while you slide your fingers along the floor in front of you, bringing the your cheek bones of your face towards the sitting bones of your pelvis. Inhale to prepare. As you exhale, roll up, drawing the front of your abdominals to the back of your spine. Inhaling, perching high on the sitting bones. As you exhale, nod your nose downward. Bring your gaze to see behind your cheekbones. That gives your nervous system the information. It's time to go into fluxion roll forward, bringing the cheekbones of your face towards the sitting bones of your pelvis. Inhaling here as you exhale, keeping the Bosu steady equal weight best you can on both sitting bones. Now, place your hands over the sides of the Bosu and tail wagging or lumbar spine side bending. As you inhale, rock to the right.

Put More weight on your right sitting bone. Press Down with your right hand. Pull up with your left hand. Inhale to come to center. As you exhale, press down with your left hand. Pull up with your right hand. Bring your right ear to listen to your hip joint. Inhale, the light from the top of your head is towards the ceiling.

Exhaling side bending. Inhaling, exhale, side bending. We'll add onto that. Inhale to be perched up high and your sitting bones. As you exhale, sitting bone rights sitting wound down. Reach your right arm out. Reach your right hand up and over to the top of your head. Push down with your left hand and right yourself. This comes from the, I'm a little teapot series. Just kidding. Okay. Aiming your elbow up towards the ceiling, poking your elbow up.

We'll give more length to the tissues that just had to, um, that were just holding you up to the arm plank. Exhaling side bending, bringing your palm to the top of your head and may be to the side of your head. Inhale to come up. Pulling up with your right hand, pressing down with your left sitting bone. Broadening between your ribs, a long distance from ribs to pelvis. Now we'll add onto that. Inhale aming your right sitting bone down, pulling up with your left hand. Stay over in side bending. Bring your top hand to the top of your head. Now leaving your weight to your right sitting bone.

Rotate to face the Bosu and then rotate to face the ceiling side. Bending with rotation side bending with rotation. Bring yourself back to center. Reach up to the ceiling. The new side awaits. Inhale to side bending. Exhale, the palm comes to the top, the side of your head. Rotate to see the Bosu turning your rib, shoulders, head, neck and eyes to the ceiling to see the ceiling. Sorry.

Rotate to see the Bosu and then turning. Remember scanning the heavens for signs of intelligent life. Come all the way up from here and come down. Now we've given your arms a little bit of a rest. After all that plank work and it's time to weight.

Bear on your hands and knees again. This time in Quadra pad on the flat side of the Bosu and you'll have your weight on your knees and your weight on your hands. So here you are on all fours on the Bosu and um, it's likely that uh, everything else you've done before has prepared you for this but probably not sufficiently. So buckle up. It's a little bit of a wild ride as she inhale. Shift your weight forward to your hands. Exhale, shift your weight back to your knees, shifting forward to your hands.

Think tail up and spine long and then shift your weight back to your knees twice more. The idea is to make a direct transfer of weight forward and back with even weight on both hands, right and left and both knees. Now it's time to rock from side to side. Shift weight to your right hand, right knee and shift weight to your left hand. Left knee. Have the idea to go directly to one side and directly to the other. When you first try this, there's a tendency to make sort of jagged a transfers in lines.

Kind of like an etch a sketch, gone berserk. Now come back to the center and shift your weight diagonally, right front hand and left back knee. It's a diagonal transfer and I assure you I use that cue. Etch a sketch, gone berserk a long time before the previous presidential campaign. So don't think that I picked it up from the that party. Okay, now shift your weight back to your knees and we'll take the new diagonal.

Shift your weight left front and then right back. Inhale left front. Exhale right back. Twice more. All be left front. No, really all be right back last time. Left Front and right back. Now it's a full circle. Shift your weight to your left knee, to your left.

Hand to your right hand to your right knee. Here we go. Around the clock. Left knee, left hand, right hand, right knee reverse. Go back in time. Right knee, right hand, left hand, right knee, right knee, right hand around the world, left knee and left hand. Give your knees a wide base about greater trocanter with the part and locate your right hand in a moment. Press wait clearly through your right hand so that keeping the Bosu steady, lift your left arm forward and bring it back in and now it's your right hand.

That's getting ready to go. So in anticipation of that, press down strongly with your left hand and we'll do that again. Oh, there she goes. Off the edge. As you inhale, bring your hand forward, exhale to come down. Plant your weight firmly on your left hand and your right knee, creating a diagonal to stand on, and a diagonal to move from. Press weight through your right hand and your left knee. There's a diagonal to stand on and bring your left hand forward. Arm forward. Now we'll do something similar with the knees.

Planting your weight firmly on your left knee and your right hand as you inhale, hover your right knee up as if you could put the sole of your right foot towards the ceiling. Exhale to come down planting weight firmly on your left hand, your right knee as you inhale, hover your left leg, the sole of your foot towards the ceiling. We'll do that again. Meanwhile, back at the lowest front ribs, collect them up so the TL junction gets a lot of support and last time creating a diagonal to stand on. Whoa. And a diagonal to move from. Keeping the light from your chest bone steady on the ground. Now, no surprise to you. It's lifting one arm and the opposite leg simultaneously.

So buckle up here and it will be your left hand and your right knee plant your right hand and your said your left hand, your writing plant, your right hand and your left knee. Create that diagonal and then simultaneously lift and hover and come down and then simultaneously lift and hover. Putting weight to the little finger side of your hand. No, I don't mean to be a social, I know I haven't looked at the camera in a long time but you try it looking to the side. Okay, come up. That's pretty bad. Anyway, there I am. I realize you're here and with us. I just hope that we're giving you a clear visual that this movement is possible.

I'm just not easy and takes a lot of focus. Talk about core control. You have to create the clear core control before you move. Okay. Are we going to lift the same side, leg and arm? That would be a note. Okay, so good. Alrighty, now been there, done that over it and surely moving on. Okay, it's time now to turn this Bosu over to its flat side and the round side up. So flip the Bosu. Here you are seated on the very top of the Bosu and it will be the spine stretch forward again and spine stretch side, getting accustomed to a different sitting a surface.

Now here your sitting bones are hugging the dome of the Bosu so you have an opportunity to um, feel that you could rock towards the back edge of your sitting bones or you could rock to the front edge of your sitting bones. We'll do that a little bit. As you exhale, it's a posterior pelvic tilt and spine flection. As you inhale to pure weight to the front of your sitting bones and the light from your chest bone lifts a little bit. As you exhale, aiming your sitting bones towards your heels. Internal rotation is paired with on spine fluxion. External rotation is paired with spine extension as in they go together like chocolate and wine.

Exhale to curl down and inhale lifting your chest bone and lifting your gaze. Once again here, getting accustomed to the kinesthetic acuity of your pelvis. Rocking over the Bosu. Now it's a spine stretch forward. Nod your nose downward. Roll your head, neck and shoulders down.

Have the intention of the cheekbones of your face coming to the sitting bones of your pelvis and then roll right back up. Once again, spine stretch forward. The light from the top of your head shines along the ceiling, the wall, and then the light from the top of your head. Aims in the direction of the ground. Have the idea of keeping your sitting bones directly anchored on the Bosu and come up. Now a side bend to your right side.

Bend to your right. It's your right elbow that's aiming towards the ground. Bring your left hand to the top of your head or the side of your head. Stay inside bending. Rotate to face the ground. Put weight on your right hand. Rotate to the ceiling. Once again, exhaling, flection and rotation. Inhale extension and a little bit of rotation. Come all the way up from here.

Now have the intention of aiming down through your rights sitting bone as you side bend to the left. So now that you're organized, at least with your pelvis on top of the rounded part of the Bosu, it's time to go into a side leg kick and side leg circles for that. Norris and I are going to separate the bow sues just a little bit. So move them away from the center and then reached for an elbow pad and come so that your Norris, you'll be facing upstage. You'll be facing the train tracks where the ocean used to be.

We trusted still there. Okay. Now here you are with your greater trocanter in exactly on the top of the boast to adjusting so that you can be in a side plank. Now we'll start with um, with the preparation for side leg kick, bending your top knee. That's your ceiling. Me. As you exhale, bringing your forehead and your knee towards each other. And as you inhale, take your leg back behind you into extension as you exhale, points your foot and bring your knee and your forehead each other. So it's spine fluxion. And as you inhale, take your leg back into spine extension, Dorsey. Flex your foot.

Now press your forearm into the mat so that you create a good support for your shoulder and use your ceiling hand to hold onto your ceiling knee. Exhaling bringing your forehead and knee towards each other. Slide your hand to your ankle, to your foot, and take your leg back behind you. Turning your chest bone, your gaze down to your supporting arm. Exhale, bringing your forehead and knee towards each other. And then she inhale, go back and write about, now continue this action. You're saying be yourself, but wait a minute. First you're giving me the Bose too.

So I thought for sure we were going to have fitness and then you tell me that it's PyLadies is on the Bosu. Okay, I could go there with you, but now you're doing a gyro. Canisius move on the bows. Who like stop it already. That's okay. It's still a good preparation for where we're going. The pilates mat, exercise side, leg kick. Now both legs are out straight and both hands are down on the ground. Lift up your lower ribs and lift up to your waist. Behave yourself.

We're back to Palladio's length and your top waist and shorten the bottom waist. It's the sidelight kick. As you inhale, bring your heel forward. As you exhale, reach through your toes. Take your leg back, lift up your ribs, lift up your waist, turn your head, neck and eyes to the ceiling. As you exhale, look down towards your supporting arm, your supporting elbow. As you inhale, turn your ribs, shoulders, head, neck, and eyes to see the ceiling above you. Side leg circles. Exhale forward. Inhale up and around.

Lift up your ribs and lift up your waist. Exhale to come forward. Inhaling up and around the back. Reverse the direction. Now exhale to go back. Inhale, lift up your ribs and waist, creating a ground force with the outside of your greater, with the side of your greater trow canter on the ground.

Lift up your ribs and lift up your waist. Come down from it. Now push up. Turn around the new side of weights. Here you are on the new side with your greater trow canter nestled right into the top of the Bosu and adjusting your elbow pad so your elbow can be directly in line with your shoulder. Now with both legs out strange outstretched, a reminder to use your ceiling hand to lift up your ribs and lift up your waist, bringing this shoulder a long way from your neck and ear. Now bending your top knee. Bring your hand to your knee.

As you exhale, bring your knee in, forehead towards each other, holding on to your Shin, to your ankle, to your foot. Take your leg back behind you as if the sole of your foot could go beyond the top of your head. Exhale to come forward. Rounding your spine forward. Inhaling, lift up your ribs and lift up your waist. Take the longest possible arc as if the sole of your foot could nessel the top of your head on a very long giraffe neck. Twice more. Exhale, spine flection. Inhaling on the way to spine extension, looking down towards your supporting elbow.

Exhale to come forward. Inhale to go back. Now both legs out straight for the sideline leg kick, lift up your ribs, and then place your palm down on the ground. Inhale to come forward. Good Heavens. I hope my toes could barely clean the windows. Exhale to go back. Inhaling, bringing your heel forward, making a footprint on that nice wall.

Exhaling, reach back. Take the longest possible arch. Zip Up from pubic bone up underneath your chest bone. It's time for side leg circles. Inhale, lift up your ribs and waist. Take the longest arc around. Exhale to come forward. Inhale, look up to where the ceiling meets the wall. Reverse the direction. Start now. Don't wait. Connect for pubic bone up underneath your chest.

Bone up and around again, pressing your elbow, your forearm down into the ground. So your shoulder is a long way from your neck and a long way from your ears. Push up from that spin around. So Norris, you and I will be facing each other now and I think that we'll just get rid of the knee pads and I think we'll keep this, um, same distance apart here. So here you are with your heels about sitting bone with the part. Now sit, I'd say squarely, but it's very round. Sit on the top of the Bosu. Yeah, and we're going to count down the rings. Uh, one, two, three, four. Now the third and fourth rings of the Bosu are the location where I suggest you Nessel your sacrum.

So come down until your sacrum is pressed into the third, the fourth ring. Now for every body there's an optimal location. If when you get here, it feels to you that you are sliding downhill fast, then you need to come up a little bit higher. Those of you who have followed the Palladio's curriculum on the ladder barrel, we'll be familiar with this. Um, an advanced short box exercise from the four reframe the reformer on the ladder barrel. We're now bringing it onto the Bosu and the Bosu. Unlike the ladder barrel, like the ladder barrel, the boasts who has a convex surface into which you can press your sacrum. Unlike the ladder barrel, the boasts who is a little bit more like a Jello and yields a lot, that makes a not such a clear ground force for your sacrum and your lumbar spine, which is why I'm going to such great lengths to explain where you should be on the Bosu. It would not be prudent, in my opinion, to be at the apex of the Bosu because then once you get down here, it's too much squishy going on and not enough stable ground force. Okay.

That was not my best lecture, but doing my best. Okay, now cross your arms across your torso. Inhale to prepare. As you exhale, steer your sitting bones towards your heels. It's opposed to your pelvic tilt. Can Spine flection now, right about now, your thoracic spine. We'll see. We'll get to the apex of the Bosu. If you were to go further, you might spill into thoracic extension. Don't go there. Not yet, but soon. Come up. Inhale, perching high and your sitting bones.

As you exhale, nod your nose downward. Bring your gaze along the floorboards, along your knees, along your thighs, and come down here. Inhaling, moving your gaze to the ceiling. Exhaling your eyes are the advanced team of your spine. Move your gaze behind the cheekbones of your face. Perch yourself up a little bit higher and interlace your fingers.

Cradle your neck so that the little finger side of your hands are at the base of your skull. Inhale, sitting high in a neutral pelvis. Neutral spine. Elbows Open. As you exhale, aim your bent. Elbows forward. Nod your nose downward. Aim your sitting bones towards your heels. Roll back now supporting your head. You could go further in the direction of spine extension.

As you exhale and you're bent elbows towards the ceiling, nod your nose downward. Draw your heels towards the Bosu and bring yourself up. Always be safe with this one. Never going past the point of no return. Exhaling sitting bones towards your heels, elbows towards each other. Inflection as you inhale, press your spine, all the vertebrae into the boasts, Bosu suction, your vertebrae and your sacrum into the Bosu. Nod your nose downward.

See behind the cheekbones of your face, sliding your chest bone towards your pubic bone. We'll add rotation to your right. As you inhale, turn to your right. As you exhale, roll down post steer, pelvic tilt, and spine fluxion. Inhaling, drawing your heels towards the boasts who open into extension. Exhaling, nodding your nose downward, sliding your left ribs towards your right inner thigh coming up through center. Inhale, turn to the left. As you exhale, roll back down along the Bosu. The Post years.

Finest processes are pressing into the Bosu. Plant the souls of your feet and draw your heels towards the Bosu. Exhaling. Drawing your right lung towards your left inner thigh. Now we're going to go all the way around the world. Inhale to rotate. As you exhale, shoulders descend post to your pelvic tilt, collecting your lower ribs to your pelvis.

Here you are back in thoracic and cervical extension. Rotate to the left, drawing your left heel towards your right sitting bone. Rotate and come up. Inhale to perch high on your sitting bones. As you exhale, rotate aiming your sitting bones towards your heels. Roll back. Now drawing both sitting bones towards your heels. Go back into spine extension. As you exhale, aim your gaze to the right corners of your eyes, sockets that tells your nervous system.

It's just about time to come up and be done with that. Alrighty, we just finished a demanding exercise. Four of the deep abdominals, the deep front line, the superficial front line, all the connective tissue on the front of your spine. Now it's time to take a little intermission and lengthen across the hip joints. To give the hip flexors a little bit of arrest, come to lie on your back so that your whole spine is supported by the boat with their pelvis, your lumbar spine, your thoracic spine is supported by the both Su and then make your way down so that you can have your head resting on the floor as well. Okay, now moving stuff out of the way, Ben, both knees and your spine is supported in, in, in extension. You can have your hands on your pelvis to start as you inhale, slide your right leg away from you, maintaining a little bit of internal rotation with your right leg. As you exhale, slide your right leg back, standing on your right foot. Inhale and slide your left foot away, taking the longest possible reach at the same time, keeping the back of your ribs snuggled, snuggled right down on the Bosu, bending both knees.

Now take your arms high above your head with elbows bent. Resting your arms on the ground as you inhale. Slide your right leg away from you. As you exhale, slide your right leg towards you. As you inhale, slide your left leg away. Now, sorry to inform you that this is still an abdominal exercise.

You haven't let the lower ribs pop up off the Bosu. Instead Nessel your lower ribs down on the Bosu, encouraging the obliques, the intercostals to keep the integrity of your spine. Now both legs slide away from you with an internal rotation. Having the intention of both big toes pressing firmly in the direction of the ground and reach your ride your both arms high above your head on the ground. So here you are with a long distance from your soles of your toes to the pads of your fingers. Still creating, uh, the integrity of your spine by drawing your low ribs towards your pelvis.

Okay, Ben, both knees roll to your side and come on up from there. Now you and I will face each other a gain and it's time for. Let's keep on this diagonal. It's time for the single leg stretch on the bow Su. So you are down a couple of rings from the top of the Bosu and come to find your balance point. Here you are on your back drawing your right thigh towards your torso and your left leg out. Find your bounce yet adjusting your balance point.

We'll just note that this exercise is a lot easier for me than it is for Norris because clearly Nora is a center of mass is higher than mine. He's much more developed in his upper torso and my center of mass is a little lower. So north has as per usual when working with me, the harder job of the two of us. Okay, so here you are, have lying on your back and drawing your right thigh into your torso. Now you could Dorsey flux your right foot and hold onto the little toe side of your foot. Drawing into that inhale here. Exhale, switch. Inhale here. Exhale, switch. It's a little bit of a wild ride, but we can manage. Exhale, switch. Inhale here. Exhale, switch, scissor, your legs.

Inhale here. Woo Hoo. Exhale, switch. Keep your gaze at the a, at the knee that's going away from you. Here you're laughing thinking like how long can she keep this up? Sort of a breaking down the uh, brain to leg connection. Good. Bring your knees in and come up from here.

Pause a moment and consider the situation when you have, uh, the single leg stretch with both knees extended. Clearly the lever legs are longer than the conventional single knee stretch. So it's no surprise that when you have two long legs scissoring away from center on a very unstable surface, that there would be some play in your torso, your trunk. Please be safe and recognize that there's plenty, just plenty of work to be done in this version. Keeping both lever legs short and then, yeah, and then adjusting. You're a center of balance and going to the long leg here. All right.

We have a lot more moves to do and you have a long and healthy life ahead of you, so don't blow it on this exercise. Now we can also do the single leg stretch and the single straight leg stretch with rotation of the spine showering. Here you are nestling your sacrum into the roller into that. That would be a Bosu. Bring your right knee into your torso. Interlace your fingers and cradle your neck, turning your lung, your left lung towards your right inner thigh. Inhale here.

Exhale, switch. Inhale here. Turning your gaze to see the floor on one side and turning your gaze to see the floor on the other switch. Inhale here. You could continue that or the single straight leg stretch. There's a little bit of assistance here, maybe with your hands towards your leg and you can feel just how much hip flection is needed. Six seven. It's a wild ride. Seven end and eight time for an intermission.

Come to line your back so that your sacrum, the postier spinus processes, the area between your shoulder blades is suctioned into the Bosu. Rest your head, the back of your head. In contact with the ground arms above your head. Inhaling, sliding your right arm and your right leg away from center. Exhale, bend them both in. Stand your ground on your right leg as you slide your left arm and your left leg away from center.

Now slide both arms and both legs away from center. Inhale to fill up y to the back and sides of your lungs. As you exhale, relax your arms. Let your elbows bend towards the ground and why to the side collecting your low front ribs and reaching the souls of your big toes in the direction of the ground. Now Ben, both knees roll a little bit to your side and make your way up from here. You've prepared a bit for spine extension and now we'll take that on.

So come to lie on your front, on the Bosu Norris. I think that you and I are a a good distance away from each other. So I think we'll be fine here. Come onto your front. And once again, um, Norris has the more difficult job to do because he has his weight, um, for his mass in the upper body. So we're going to be here with your arms alongside your torso.

Yeah, and here we are finding just the right balance point really somewhere between the bladder and the diaphragm. You'll find your sweet spot. Here you are in your front and your palms along your thighs. Now hovering your legs will take the leg part of swimming in parallel. Inhale, exhale.

Inhaling legs in parallel in your hip joints. Now externally rotate at your hip joints and that will be a little bit easier because external rotation of the hip joints prepares your spine well for spine extension. Now internal rotation that your hip joints, big toes brushing past each other, the light from the top of your head shining across the room. You'll notice that in internal rotation it's necessary to use all of your abdominal layers more to support your spa. Now rest on the ground. Okay, bending both knees, bending both elbows, top of your have a forehead towards the ground and rest here. Inhale to fill up wide to the sides and back of your ribs and lungs.

[inaudible] pressing your belly into the boast to exhaling. And that will come up from here. No. Make a note that how comfortable that is and it's time to move on. Push up from here, Norris. We're going to the regular swimming now, which means we just need to bring this both to further away from each other. So you and I won't collide with hands and hands and fingers come to lion.

Your end game. This time your hands will be reaching out, mom. No, you're going to have more weight forward than you had before. For that reason, it's probably beneficial to move your pelvis back a little bit on the Bosu and then do a bit of a test run. You see planting the forehead would follow if I didn't move back enough. And then do a test to find your, your sweet spot, your center of balance on the seesaw. Inhale. Exhale, reach a little longer. Those of you who follow the original, this work may think of, you might think of Joseph [inaudible] on the step barrel balancing in swimming here, which is a phenomenal feat. He did so well. External rotation, big, uh, heels brushing past each other and thumbs away from center.

Inhaling to lift your chest bone. Exhale to keep it up internally. Rotate, pitch and tow your thighs. Exhale, reach a little longer, much more work for the thoracic extensors here. Time to rest. Then both knees bend both elbows. It's jellyfish time.

Now let's see if you could float in a warm ocean. Inhale to fill up the back and the sides of your lungs. Exhaling, let go in your jaw and your throat and your chest bone and making your way up. From here. We have a couple more exercises in spine extension for this next one, it's going to be the single leg kick. For that, you'll need a couple of maths to cushion your elbows, your forearms. And this is going to be like so come for, it's not your grandfather's or your grandmother's single leg kick.

No indeed not. Interlace your fingers and you'll have the front of your thighs, um, on top of the Bosu. Now tuck your left toes under to create a ground force for your left toes. Bending your right knee. Bring your right heel to your hip once, twice now drive a posterior pelvic tilt spine fluxion and lift your right thigh up, aiming the sole of your right foot to the ceiling. Come down from there. Anchor the sole of your right toes. Inhale heel to your hip once, twice. Exhale.

Press your forearms down and hover your whole left thigh up off the Bosu. Inhale, heel to your hip. Once. Twice. Exhale. Press your elbows down, your forearms down. Drawing your low front ribs up over your right thigh. Off the ground. Puts your right leg down. Inhale heel to your hip once, twice.

Exhaling planting your footprint on this print footprint on the ceiling. Now we're going to do something similar without the ground force of your toes, so both legs are out. Stretch. Neither foot is on the ground. Flex both feet. Heel to your hip once, twice. Exhaling lifting your right thigh up and down. Heel to your hip once, twice. Press through your right foot.

Hover your left leg twice more once, twice. Press your elbows towards the Bosu. As you lift your right leg once, twice without the ground force of your foot. It's makes much more many more demands on the connection of low ribs to pelvis. Come up from here now and uh, we'll take the bow and uh, probably not rocking in bow but maybe inadvertently. Alright, so here you are with your a front on the Bosu and holding on to one foot.

You'll note that your forehead can go forward faster than you'd like. So back up just a little bit until you can hold on to your ankles, your shins, your feet. Okay. No I choose one of them would be fine because this si your center of mass is so much higher than mine. This is just hard to do. All righty, so take a hold of one or the other. There we go. Cause I know in Yoga class you're fine with this.

Now send the soles of your feet to the ceiling and here you are. Meanwhile, back at the abdominals, that's gorgeous. Lift them up, pressing your collarbones wide, sliding your right shoulder blade towards the left side of your pelvis. And your left shoulder blade towards the right side of your pelvis. That's right. Rocking a little bit. Six and twice more here. Okay.

Now Ac let go. And the last jellyfish rest it's time. Now for the last chapter of this endless Bosu PyLadies on the Bosu, sort of like an infinity pool. It just keeps going. So we'll take a standing now and for that, um, please arrange your Bosu so that you can hold on to something that's very steady. Norris and I are going to do the same. We're going to go hold onto the window. We're back now and back with the bow sous next to a stable surface, a steady wall to get on the boats who safely hold onto the wall and plant one foot firmly in the center of the Bosu holding on.

Bring the other foot next to it and then squiggle your feet a little wider apart and with your hands firmly on the wall. Bend both knees, steer your knees forward over your second third toes, keeping your knees bent. Shift your weight forward to your forefoot and back to your heels, to your rear foot. Inhale to shift forward. Exhale to shift back. If you're feeling quite confident, you can hover your hands just barely off the wall. When you feel exceptionally confident, you can bring your arms down by your sides, but by all means, be ready to catch herself should something unusual happen. Now holding onto the wall, shift your whole central access to the right so it's a tilt to the right.

And then tilt to the left as if you were a ship on the sea. Tilt your axis until cheer axis. Have the idea of keeping both knees bent, both knees spent. So it's a tilt here and a whole weight shift to the right side and to the left. Now steady yourself and um, minimize the tilt and put weight to your right foot and weight to your left foot.

Now your access stays straight up or that's the intention and there's still a weight shift. Putting a little weight to the medial part of your right foot and then await weight to the medial part of the left foot as if you were quote edging on your skis. So now we're butchering metaphors. Good Heavens. We've got ships in harbor you on seas, but the important thing is here is to shift your weight towards the medial part of the foot that you are standing on. Now, keeping your knees bent. It's a diagonal weight shift. Hold onto the wall to get ready. Right forward and left back.

All be right front. No, I'll be left back twice. More diagonal, right front, left, back weight to the little toe side of your right foot. Wait to the little toe side of your left foot. Now the new diagonal awaits left front and right back. Always when you have a new diagonal or a new move, first to have your hands on the wall, then you have a your hand slightly off the wall and then you bring your arms down by your sides. This is that etch-a-sketch moment, keeping it clear. Circles come next back to your heels, to the left foot over to your toes and to the right foot, the rear foot, the outside of the left foot, the forefoot, and then back reverse direction.

When you stand to the right. I made a mistake twice now that I need to repair. When you shift your weight to the right, I was saying go to the little toe side of your right foot. That would be a no, I made a mistake there. Sorry. Plant your right big toe when you're standing on your right foot. Then ques weight onto your forefoot and then plant your left big toe. When you shift your weight to the left, back to your heels, pelvis, making a circle around your feet with your knees bent.

Now come up to standing and shift your weight so you have a staggered stance. Your right foot will be forward a little bit and your left foot will be back. So with a staggered stance, you have diagonal right front and left back, right front, left back twice, more, right front left, back, and the game. Now keeping your feet as they are intend to go left front and right back. There won't be such a great, I need to use a lot of wall to help me help myself here.

You need to use a great deal of skill here. That's about beyond my skill level. And as you can imagine just a little bit beyond the stability of my left knee. All right, now the new dog and a little weights using the wall for support. Shuffle your feet so that now your right foot is back and your left foot is forward throughout this. Keep the soles of your toes firmly anchored.

So now your right toes and your left heel are about even with each other. Both knees bent. Inhale to shift. Left Front, exhale to go right back. I'll be left from and I'll be right back twice more forward, diagonal, back and forward. Keeping your feet as they are. Shift your pelvis to the right and then back to the left, right front, back, left, right forward, back, left.

It's probably about as fascinating as watching paint dry, but to do it. That itself is interesting. Now come back to the center of the Bosu [inaudible] actually with your feet about shoulder width apart, shoulder with the park and now keeping your knees extended throughout the tops of your inner thighs towards each other, keeping your knees straight, not letting them bend. It's a tail wag and a lumbar spine aside, bending. As you inhale, press weight down onto the big toe side of your right foot.

Exhale, center. Inhale, press down on the big toe side of your left foot and center. Continue this action making an arc of the Bosu from side to side. Have the idea that t 12 the 12th thoracic vertebrae and your chest bone, they could stay fairly steady at the central axis while the pelvis and lumbar spine do a little tail wagging aiming your right sitting bone to the left. You're left sitting bone to the right, right sitting bone to the left and left sitting bone to the right with knees straight, rock to your toes and rock to your heels. Rock to your toes.

And your heels are a reminder that your chest bone is directly above your pubic bone, which I trust. It has to be to keep your central axis organized. Now ideally keeping your knees straight, make a circle of the Bosu, shifting your weight to the forefoot, to the side of your foot, to the rear foot and the side of your foot. And it is normal and expected that the boasts who will make a little creep on the ground reverse direction, shift to the right shift back, shift to the left and forward. There always are differences between sides and there always will be and it's useful in these circles to notice when you quote cut corners, she said to yourself, so do your best to polish the inside of your sphere, to polish the inside of your aura and make a note to yourself when you're cutting a corner and then go back around and smooth it out. Now fascinating is that is, I think it's time to dismount.

So bring your feet close to the center of the Bosu stand. Keep both hands on the wall, steady climbing off here. Alrighty, super. Thank you so much for joining us here you are standing on the regular floor and it's so boring to be back to the flat earth. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll look forward to seeing you again on Palladio's anytime. Bye now.

Comments

Ronda P
2 people like this.
Thank you Elizabeth and Norris for such an innovative and interesting routine on the Bosu! I enjoyed each moment!
1 person likes this.
A joy to watch as well as hypnotic to hear.
Heartfelt thanks to my Pilates partner Norris and to Kristi Cooper and the Pilates Anytime team for all your support in making this program. Such a pleasure to bring new perspectives to new and familiar moves while applying Pilates principles to the BOSU.
love all of Elizabeth's routines, but always have trouble hearing her. Is there a way to boost volume for her to compensate for her gentle voice?
Thank you Suzie. I'll look into what we can do for you. We don't want you to miss a moment of her rich sentences, full of both humor and tons of information.
Susie, I appreciate your compliment and apologize that it is difficult to hear me. The Pilates Anytime audio engineer is superb. Perhaps he can help? I grew up in a large family and learned at an early age that I could calm myself and others with particular vocal tones. As a teacher I intend to resonate compassion. Next time at PA I'll up the volume.
2 people like this.
Just love Elizabeth's quirky comments throughout her teachings - and so innovative! Thank you so much :)
Elizabeth! I love your lessons! You are ironic and super professional. I'd like to have all your knowledges! You have to come and teach in my Studio when you will come to Italy the next time!!!! Thanks very much!
I would love to be in your studio Cristina. We can do the BOSU dance together! Italy has a very vibrant, intelligent Pilates culture with a dramatic flair. For several years Rome was my second Pilates home. All best to you and your colleagues.
2 people like this.
I cannot get enough of Elizabeth's insight, wisdom, creativity and humor. Her work always illuminates my habitual compensations. Thank you so much!
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