Fuse Total-Body BOSU

Hey team, it's time to fuse. It's Erica Quest and this is a total body workout using the BOSU balance trainer. It's gonna shake up the way you feel more traditional Pilates exercises, plus throw in a fitness fusion feel for you. It'll challenge your brain, body and balance using the 3D capabilities of your body and the BOSU balance trainer together as a team. So guess what?

It's time to fuse. Come up to standing with me. If you're down on the ground, place that BOSU balance trainer out in front of you. And just take a look down at your feet. Think about your tripods of support, your big toes, your little toes, your heels.

Try and just find where you're at in space in standing. Give me a nice deep drink of air in. On that inhale and then exhale. Gimme a hip hinge and a forward fold. Find that dome with your hands.

Just notice how it feels. Test the waters, right? Just feel that lay bile surface. Take an inhale here, maybe bend your knees a little bit, straighten your knees, and then roll yourself all the way back up. Good. I'm gonna bring you down to kneeling in just a moment, but let's do a few more of those.

So lift those arms up. Give me that forward fold. Place your hands down on the dome, bend those knees, straighten the knees, and roll yourself all the way back up, just acclimating to where we're at in space with our bodies right now in this moment. And I got you. So hip hinge, come all the way down, bend those knees, straighten those knees, roll yourself all the way up.

And on this next one, we're gonna bring our knees down onto the dome. So inhale, those arms lift. You're gonna give me that nice hip hinge. Hands go down onto the dome. As you bend your knees, come even closer to the dome and place the knees down.

You'll see that my knees are down. Right about the apex of the dome on each side. So from here, reach your energy towards me. We're gonna backstroke a little bit. So take one arm up, take a backstroke, look back behind you, see how that changes things in your body and reach back forward.

Other side, please, as you come up and over. Woo, I'm already starting to feel that gushiness underneath my knees and how it changed thing, changes things. Imagine if your knees were actually down on the floor right now and how that would feel totally different, right? You wouldn't be getting that movement in your body and having to negotiate where you're at in space as much. So this is backstroke.

Getting some nice shoulder mobility here, some hip pinging, just starting to warm up your nervous system. Give me four more and breathe. And three, breathe how it feels naturally too. If I coach the breath, that's great, but if it doesn't feel good for you, I want you to do what feels great for you in this session because it's about fusing Pilates based exercises with the use of this BOSU balance trainer. So from here, bring one knee on top of the dome, extend the other leg.

Out, take your arms out to the T position. We'll do a side bend a few different ways. So from here, can you take a side bend, reach towards your long leg and over bring yourself back up and do that again. So just getting a little dynamic mobility through the side body, stretching out that side and seeing how your side is feeling today, and creating that nice energy through your fingers that reach up and over. Now we're gonna change the lever length, meaning the length of your arms by bringing your fingers back behind your head and do that again.

So side bend with me, then take them all the way out. Maybe you exhale here, bring yourself back up. Good. Three more. We'll do like four to five on each side. Again, just getting you warmed up in all planes of the body so that you feel ready to head where we are headed in this fuse total body workout.

Last two. And I might give you a bonus repetition here every now and again. So I'm just gonna say congratulations and I'm sorry all at the same time if I miss out on my account. But I think that gets us to the other side. So go ahead and switch your knees, extend the other leg out.

And remember, each side is different. So don't judge yourself. Just start that side bend, reach towards that leg the first time. Ooh, get a little hip opening happening. And then you can start to come across the body.

Again, feel that nice arcing movement of that top arm as you reach up and over and bring it back home. You got one more of these and then we are changing up that lever length. Or you're gonna bring your fingers right behind your head. So here we go. We're gonna go up and over, extend out, bring it back home and down.

And inhale as you take it over. Maybe that feels good. Reach out long, bring it back up. Two more. I got you team. As you come up and over and reach and use that waistline to really bring yourself back up to that high kneeling position if you can.

And reach, good. Bring it back up and all the way down. Let's move on to a bit more spine mobility. I'm gonna have you bring both knees down onto your dome, keep your toes tucked if that feels good for you, walk your hands out onto the floor in front of you. Now, you may need to make micro adjustments as we're going through here, meaning the knees might need to move a little bit.

The hands might need to move a bit, and that's totally fine. From here, exhale if you want to, and drop your tail. Start to round the spine into that cat stretch. So a bit more spine mobility here. Movement of the spine if you will, just feels good.

And into a bit of back extension. Take the range of motion that feels good for you as you're doing this cat. And as you're doing this cow, think about pushing the floor away with your hands. And if you wanna challenge yourself, maybe you choose to take your toes up off the floor. So now just your knees are on the dome and just your hands are on the dome.

It's gonna feel totally different. And that's the beauty of using a balanced tool like the BOSU. Give me two more please. And exhale feels good for me when I round my spine. And inhale feels good for me when I extend.

And last one, as you exhale, you round Good and inhale as you extend. Now we're headed out into a little bit of upper body here. So what I'd like for you to do is do a little bit of a walkout pushup. Bring your hands back close to the base of the dome, and you're gonna find a nice stable core, meaning you're not going to Zumba class. So we're not in Zumba class right now.

You're gonna stay nice and stable. And what I want for you to do is walk your hands forward, give me one pushup and straighten. Walk your hands back. If you can't go that low, that's totally fine. You're gonna give me the range of motion that feels good for you.

As you walk out, you bend, you straighten, and you walk in. If a tricep pushup feels better for you, meaning your elbows come closer to your ribs, then let's try that for you as well. Good. Your range of motion is your range of motion. Just know that. One more please as you do that walkout pushup, bend straighten, and walk back in.

And we're gonna change it just by way of changing one knee onto the dome and extending one leg out. So we've changed your contact points. Now you're gonna walk back out and as you bend and straighten the elbows, that free leg is gonna go with you. Feels a little different. So you're gonna get a little bit more work on the back of that leg that lifts towards the ceiling.

Good. One more please as you walk forward, you can notice that I am keeping my toes on the floor with the knee that's on the dome. And that's completely fine. Do what feels good for you. Other side, I'm adjusting my knee, walking forward, bending and straightening into that walkout pushup. And again, each side might feel a little different on the leg that's lifted, so don't judge it.

Just notice how your body is feeling. Yes. Whew. I'm nice and warm. I hope you are. And I think we did four total. So we'll do four total on this side.

It's a wild world here of balance and changing how things proprioceptive. That's just a fancy way of saying where you're at in space. It really, really means something. All right, great. So we're moving into seated position.

So what I'd like for you to do is, if your bow suit's on a mat, you're gonna move it a little bit closer to the other, or one end of it and have a seat. I'm calling this seated crisscross, but it's not gonna be the traditional crisscross that you are typically used to if you do Pilates, right? I want you to actually sit a little lower than the apex of the dome and cross your legs. So we're already taking a look at where you're at with your hips. Place your hands down onto the dome or the floor if you need more help.

And simply just kick back and criss, uncross and recross the legs. So it's like a little mini pretzel. So you're unpretzeling. And then you're repretzeling as you go through. And if you know me, we're gonna level this up, but we're gonna teach this in what I call the part-part hole method.

So you're like, oh, Erica, I got this. I'm crushing it right now. And yes you are. So if you're willing and you want to, can you release one hand and start to see how that feels for you? And you're like, ooh, I'm doing okay. So can I release the other hand?

And can I find that moment of air time? Ooh, yes you can. I did. And try and keep that head forward. If you turn your head, you're gonna challenge yourself even more.

So this is your seated crisscross. You're almost in that little like nanosecond of an open leg rocker or nanosecond of a teaser in this position. Give me three more please and I'll bring you back down. We're gonna go into some spine stretch in just a moment. You've got one more after this.

And last one here. Give it a rest. Bring yourself up to the apex of the dome, legs go nice and long. Let's take a moment here and take a nice deep breath in. Let that inhale lift you up towards the ceiling.

You wanna feel that nice internal suspension and your arms are gonna float out in front of you. From here, you're gonna inhale one more time. As you exhale, you're gonna nod the chin down and dive forward towards your toes. Yes and then roll yourself all the way back up. I'm probably aging myself, but this reminds me of my president's exam.

When I was in elementary school, there was this silly exercise where you had to put your feet up against a box and see how far you could go. And you know what? I'm telling you what if I had a BOSU or something I could sit on top of back then I probably would've maybe got an a plus. I can't remember my grade back then. Give me one more and then we're gonna start to add in a little bit of reaching of the arm.

So you're gonna rebuild your spine here, take your arms up to your shoulder or to your ears and then gimme a little hinge back. Find it, send your energy line up, come back up and over. So spine stretch, roll it, bring your arms up to your ears and reach it. Good. Sit up, dive forward, roll it up and arms to the ears and reach it back. You got it. And up and over.

Roll it up. Arms come to the ears and you reach it back. We're gonna add in a little bit more balance here momentarily with an exercise that I call the sprinter. So give me one more. As you reach up and over, roll the spine stack, stack, stack.

Take the arms to the ears. One last, reach back, finding that nice stable core, and then bring your arms down. Great job. So we're moving into the sprinter in a moment. We're gonna first start with the rollback to the reach to stand. Okay? Don't worry, I got you.

I'll get you through the whole thing. So what I'm gonna say to you is your tush or your bottom might need to be closer to the base of the BOSU. Make micro adjustments that work for you. You don't wanna have too much hanging off the back. So let's test the waters here together and let's try for a rollback. All right.

I mean, I feel pretty good, so I'm gonna stay with this. Okay so, I'm gonna take a nice roll back here. I'm gonna reach, I'm gonna bring my arms back forward and I'm gonna come back up. Now before we start to come up to a standing position. What, Erica, you're gonna make us stand?

Yes, I am. Let's do a little bit in rotation if you don't mind. So I'm gonna roll back and now I'm gonna open my door and look towards you and reach and come back forward and back up. And other side, please. As you roll it back, rotate, reach, look how far you can go on one side and then kind of try and compare that to the other side, right?

No judgment, just notice it. We oftentimes have a strong side, and I like to say a smart side in our bodies and our smart side has been kinda like a little lazy, I'm not gonna lie. Our whole life, rotate, reach. Good. Now we're gonna go back to that straight roll back and you're gonna prepare yourself to come up and stand. So start a roll back here.

You're gonna come back forward, see how it feels to squat to stand. You made it. Have a seat, come back down, try and park your bottom right where you did before. Oops, I went a little bit too high, but that's okay. I can make that micro adjustment on my next one. So now we're adding in a little lower body as we come all the way down, roll it back, move your feet a little closer to the base of the BOSU if that helps you.

Okay, so remember you might need a little assistance to get into this lower body piece and let the BOSU help you. Good. Let's do two more of these. As you sit down and get into that low squat position, reach it back. This is total body. You're working your lower body, you're working your trunk, and just having your upper body arms out there. You're getting work on those arms as well.

Good. And stand it up. Now I've got a little bit of a party trick for you and I know you're ready for it. So have a seat. Yes. We're gonna start with what we just did. So what I'd like for you to do is you're gonna roll it back, you're gonna stay low and you're gonna come forward.

Place your hands down. Are you with me? You're ready. Hop it back into a plank position. Come back and have a seat on your dome.

Oh, did you make it? I hope so. And reach, good. Lift those arms. Come forward, find your plank position.

Boom. Hit it. Come back, have a seat. Roll back and reach. You got two more. Come on and down and plank and back with those feet.

Have a seat. Oh no. Did I go too high? A little bit, but that's okay. I can make it, come back forward. Plant those hands, find your plank position and back down and have a seed.

I hope you did well. So we are into more bridging here. We're gonna work lower body strength and power in a different way. You got some total body workout with that squatting, that planking, loading up the arms. But for now, bring yourself down onto the floor.

Oh, sorry, I lied. We're gonna actually move back up onto the dome. Come with me, I promise I'll get you where you need to go. One quick little balance exercise before we go onto the dome with the shoulders. So come on up with your arms and bring one leg up.

That opposite arm to the leg that's lifted is gonna come down. And you're gonna make a fist. Yes and then from here, I want you to imagine that you're a runner and you're gonna sprint. So you're gonna sprint and switch. And for me, I can tell I need a tiny micro adjustment.

So try and find a little bit of air time here is you switch and switch and switch. It's like you're running on your back, switch. If your neck does not like this either omit this exercise, rest your head on the dome and I'll be right with you for eight, for seven, for six, for five, for four. Be strong for two, for one. Very nicely done.

Now you can move down onto the mat. Your feet are on the stable surface, your mat or your floor. And we need to find a good position of your shoulders. So as we come up into a bridge position, let's be safe about it. You will have the bow suit behind your head and your shoulders.

But when I ask you to bridge up, test the waters, let's make sure that you don't have any neck tension and that you're in a nice long line here from your knees towards your neck, right? So you're just hip hinging as you press through your feet, engaging the glutes, engaging the backs of your legs. So this is a really efficient way to also get some lower body strength and power happening. If squatting or lunging is a little more challenging for you, good. You're doing awesome.

Let's do three more. Power bridge. And last two, I think they're also called hip thrusters in the lamb of fitness. Last one here. Now let's change what's happening on your legs.

Can you cross one ankle over the opposite knee? Press into that inner thigh on the leg that's lifted. So you feel that nice stretch and that stretch through your gluteal on the side of that leg. And now let's take that single leg bridge in this what I'm calling a figure four position. Okay, so you're driving down into that foot that is on the mat or your floor.

So it's a unilateral bridge. And then can you come up and gimme a little kick, figure four and back down. So drive it up, kick, figure four back down. I have my hands on the floor to help me stabilize a little bit more because my shoulders are on a dome that is very gushy and lower. You got one more up and reach and lower back down.

Good. Let's do about six to eight on the other side so that we're about even. But first press that knee away. Give yourself a moment. Maybe take a breath. I'd like to take a breath.

And here we go. So drive up and down. So before we release the leg, you wanna notice how you're feeling on this side? Wow. Totally different side for me. I don't know about you, but I'm like putting way more pressure in my hand that's closest to you right now.

So let's kick that leg and see where we go. Kick and bend and down and lift and kick and bend and down. I think we did four or five. So let's get three more of these out. Why not?

And two. And kick. Remember I said congratulations and I'm sorry all at the same time if I give you a bonus repetition. And for the sake of reorganizing our nervous system, put both feet back down onto the mat, take your arms up and lift your hips and lower them down. Nice and stable here, lift them again, up and down. One more.

Bringing yourself back into your body after we challenge you with some different angles of the legs. All right, so we are moving on. We're gonna move on to our side body. I just need a little space. So I'm gonna bring my BOSU down into the center of my mat and I'm bringing my hip up onto the dome or near the dome.

Here's how you're gonna test it. I want you to see if you can extend both legs out nice and long. Now watch this arm that's on the floor, right? We're not at home or maybe we are at home, but I don't, you know, it's not time to like just be lazy about this. So press into your forearm and really feel the side of your body.

Fire up. Super important. And then start to lower and lift your legs. You can see I'm already going into a balance. I just want you to start with some side lifts. These are not easy, but they're gonna really work your waistline, which you're gonna love.

It's a great way to get some work on the side of your core because that's just as important than the front as well as the back and all the angles that we like to work on. Give me three more. We'll get two about eight of these and then we're gonna have a little bit of fun with releasing that top arm. So take that top arm up. Sneaky, sneaky, Erica.

You thought you just had eight? No, you got about six to eight more. And then we're gonna go into the star and lift. Good. You got three more. And last two and last one, hold it.

Keep your balance if you can, take the top leg up and down and up. Energy line long through that top leg, right? Imagine you're power washing whatever's out there to the side with your big toe. You got a nice stream of water coming out of it. I think that's like four. Let's get to four more.

Four and last three. Good. You got two more. Remember, we got the other side to do. Last one. Hold it, three circles forward. Teeny tiny.

Yeah, three circles back. Teeny tiny. Excellent job. Great and we're gonna finish up on your hand with some knee bend oblique. So bring your hand up onto the mat or the floor.

Your forward arm is gonna go on the front of the dome. The bottom leg can stay down. And I just want you to simply, simply all relative, kick forward and then kick back. So we're kicking forward and back. So I want you to test the waters here.

So you're like, I got this. I'm good. Yes, I'm always talking to myself. So I hope it's okay that I'm talking to you. And then maybe start to see if you can then oppose that leg with the arm. Right?

So we're hitting the obliques here by using that leg so many ways that we can target the trunk and the core and actually whole body through using this balance trainer and just actually working through Pilates and Pilates inspired exercise, for three. And then we got the whole other side to do two, good. And one, you did fantastic. So do me a favor, let's turn right on over. I'm gonna bring my other hip on so that I'm still facing you and we'll see how we do on the other side.

Remember, let's set ourselves up for success. Press into the floor with that forearm and start to lower and lift your legs, right? So you're increasing the wrinkles on your shirt on the upper side. And then you reach and lengthen them as you lower the legs down. So you're getting that side bend.

Good, excellent. And lift. We did about eight or so of each of these. So I'm gonna try and keep us honest. And you got two more here.

And I know where you're headed already. You're like, I got it Erica. I'm gonna release my arm up to the ceiling because you can. And here's the deal. There's this beautiful thing in the body that when you do something on one side, sometimes the other side is like, I'm crushing it already.

It's like such a rockstar. I don't know about you, but I'm like, oh yeah, I totally already feel this side working. It's already hooked in, which is super, super cool. Last two and last one here. And where'd we go next to the star?

Don't worry, there's not a pop quiz. I'll get you through it as you lift and lower that leg. Just give me that nice long energy through that top leg, right? Woo. Had a little weeble wobble on my part. That's okay.

Perfection is not necessary, especially during movement. Last two. Good. And last one. You got three circles forward. Two and three, just three to the back and two and one.

Good. Bring yourself up. And let's finish with those oblique. So remember that bottom leg stays down, top leg is gonna kick forward and back end. You probably noticed or if you didn't notice, I'll let you know on the other side, my arm that's on the floor is doing soft little bends with this and that's totally fine. Let's start the arm to leg opposition with your upper arm now, good.

Kick and reach. Can you make it bigger and bolder in your body, right? We're oftentimes taught to play small. I want you to play big here. Four more and then we've got our last and final stuff to do together in the prone position.

Last two. Good, and one. Good, excellent job. From here, I know what you're thinking, you're like, but are we gonna do any planking, Erica? Yes, we are.

Thank you so much for asking. Let's turn our domes over to do this. And the dome is gonna be down and your platform is going to be up. So bring yourself to the end of the mat that works the best for you. Place your hands on the wider parts of your bow suit.

If that doesn't feel good, like grabbing on, you can absolutely place your hands on the platform. You're gonna get a lot more rocking and rolling here. First, let's just play with playing because this is a whole different ball game, right? And in plank we wanna focus on keeping the trunk still, but this is gonna throw us off. So send one leg back behind you and bring the other leg out to meet it.

Did you make it? I did. I'm not gonna ask you to spell the letters of your name right now. Don't worry. From here, now that you've found your plank, can you make a small pizza slice with your feet and bring one leg up along the side of the inner thigh, rotate it under, thread the knee, tap the floor, come back and flip it. Woo. That changes what's happening on that upper body.

Yes or yes? Try the other side. Come under reach and tap back and down. Two more, up. We don't have to do a ton to be effective team.

Come back. Yes and down, last one, up. Thread that needle, touch. Come back under and down. Bend those knees.

Take a nice little child's pose moment if that feels good for you. Just let that low back release and breathe into the back of your lungs. Great. Bring that BOSU closer to you. And from here we're gonna finish with a little bit of back extension with swan drive rocking. Then we'll go into a frog rocking and some seated, some seated breathing.

So I'm gonna turn and place my pelvis atop my platform. What? This is crazy, Erica. So when you get here, I just want you to notice sort of where you're at in space. Place your hands out in front of you, your legs long behind you. Bend your elbows, lift your legs, right, are you there?

Your foreheads down, press into your hands, lower your legs and find your swan. This nice supportive platform in the rolling surface of the bow. You is so nice for this exercise. Your legs can be closer together if that feels good for you. Further apart, if that's what your back wants.

I'm not judging you, so don't judge yourself, 'cause the goal of this exercise is to really get into the back of the body here. Now let's start to play with releasing an arm. So you're gonna lower down. As you press up, can you reach one arm forward? Good. As you press up, can you reach the other arm forward?

You did it. Let's try that again. One more each side. And you probably know where I'm going because now we're gonna release both arms and we're gonna play. So have a little fun with this. Let's rock.

And you're doing a little bit of pressing or throwing and touching here. Rolling on that surface area of the dome. And it's just so fun to do this traditional mat exercise with some space and some grace underneath our pelvis. Last one, good job and rest. Let's go ahead and come off of the platform.

However it works best for you is fine by me, but I want you to leave the dome down. I'm gonna take a quick child's pose here, pressing that dome forward before I bring myself up to a standing position. So come and stand behind your BOSU balance trainer, widen out your base of support and even point your toes out and your heels in. Give me a nice big frog squat. And I want you to hook your elbows in between your knees.

And I simply want you to just start to rock forward and rock back. This might be a bigger range of motion for some of you than it is for me. We call this frog rocking. It's like a nice little hip opening experience. And that's fine.

Just one more, just bringing ourselves back down, bringing the heart rate back down. And last and final, we're gonna have a seat on top of the platform. Yes we are. Okay, so you can stay right here with me because this is all about breath now and down regulating your nervous system since you just got a good sweat on with me. But I'm gonna try it.

So I hope you'll come with me. Let's cross one leg up and the other leg up onto the platform. Woo. And see if we can find our balance. And yes, remember micro adjustments are absolutely welcomed here. And again, if you can't sit this cross-legged, just put your legs down on the floor.

But I'm here and I'm here with you now. So let's just take a moment to breathe and see where we're at in space and notice sort of what's happening on that surface area underneath you. Maybe you could visualize that you're with me right now and that you're out on those waves that are breaking behind me. And just use your breath. So lowering that nervous system, calming your body, calming your mind, take a nice deep drink of air into those lungs.

On that exhale, let all of that air go. Thank you so much for joining me with this total body fuse class using the BOSU balance trainer. I hope that you'll come back and join me again.