Used Bosu Ball to Improve Balance?

[tcritte]

I was in our community center fitness room today and saw a guy using a Bosu Ball to balance legs (one leg bent in air while balancing on other) and some other squats -- it looked to me like he was trying to get ready to surf or ski.

 

Anyway, it looked to me like a good way to improve ankle and leg strength and balance.

 

Has anyone used one to improve Ballet balance? If so, results? If you considered then changed your mind, I'd like to hear about that too!

 

Thanks,

Tracey

[nzdancer]

Our gym just got them this week. They looked really interesting to me, and I am going to try a class to see how to use them. I will report back, but in the meantime, if anyone else has tried them, I would love to know of your experience.

[Dance_Scholar_London]

I had the experience that balance is different in any kind of sports and artistic exercise. I have done tight wire walking for a couple of semesters and there is a huge deal of balancing involved, otherwise you fall of the wire. However, the muscles used where completely different from ballet. It still is (was) great fun and complemented my ballet training in some way or the other :-)

[tcritte]

I don't understand a sport vs. artistic exercise categorization . I do understand that muscles, center of gravity, leg and torso control, arm placement etc. are different based on what type of balance you wish to achieve.

 

For example, I can hold a one-leg balance on a flat foot much much longer than on relevé. In addition, my left leg seems to support better than my right -- I found this occurring after I had physical therapy to strengthen my ankle after a sprain. This is when I first became interested in using gym/resistance equipment to help with strength.

 

I am looking at Bosu ball as a tool for helping me improve the strength of the ankle and my control over the hip, leg, knee, ankle supporting leg NOT as a tool to help me perform a particular type of balance. Specifically because being on this apparatus will cause you to be "wobbly" until you learn to control it.

 

Anyway, I'll report back after I've tried some balances myself.

 

 

Tracey

Edited September 8, 2006 by tcritte

[insidesoloist]

A physical therapist who saw a lot of dancers in her practice once had me use a bosu ball while recovering from an ankle injury. She asked me to balance on the compromised leg for longer and longer periods of time, adding on challenges like trying to throw myself off balance by moving my arms and doing cambres, etc. By the end of my time there I was doing promenades with my uninjured leg in developpe. She said at the time it was mainly to help me regain that fine sense of stability we all need in our ankles, but it also was to help me regain strength.

[undertutu]

I wonder if you get the same ankle strengthening from standing on a pillow with the other leg in the air. That is what my PT gives for sprained ankle recouperation.

[insidesoloist]

My PT told me her reasoning for using the bosu ball is that it has a flat board balancing space on it, simulating a floor, albeit a tipsy one. Her logic was that your floor should always be flat and your sense of proprioception and muscles should help you balance on that flat surface.

[tcritte]

I went and bought one of these yesterday -- I am taking it back TODAY.

 

I tried it out just for initial balance. I tried balance with the flat on the floor; then with the ball on the floor. While I was able to balance that when quickly out the window when I moved.

 

I am scared of novice use at home. -- I can just see me cracking open my head trying to learn to balance and move. I'd seriously need to be in a padded room or practicing standing in front of a barre before I'd use this for leg balances @ home.

 

Tracey

[Guest silvery_stars]

I use the Bosu thing in physical therapy for my knees. I love it, but I always use it between the two grab bars, or my therapist spots me. I'd buy my own if I had the money and the room for it!

[tcritte]

I think I would have been less scared of the BOSU if I was on my knees; only because I'd feel safer being closer to the ground when trying to catch myself if/when thrown off balance.

 

I also used grab bars when I was in PT but was balancing on a different type of board. I don't have grab bars at home; however, I do have two kitchen counters that are "arm-reachable" apart that I could have used to hold onto. Didn't like the feel of the BOSU enough imagine that I would use it often enough to justify its cost.

 

I am considering eventually trying it at the community center. There are waist-high ledges there I could use for balance.