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Hi, David Weck here.
Today, I'm going to teach you an exercise with the BOSU Elite called the Flat Jacks. It's a core training exercise, I'll go over it and then we'll break it down.
You're going to get into a supine plank, my heels are going to stay on the ground, the heels, hips and shoulders are going to be in a line, hands are down with the palms up. Keep the palms up and do a jumping jack motion with the arms. Here, I'm increasing the lever length to increase the intensity and core stabilization and it gets easier as I bring my arms down. I want to rep that, between 10-20 reps is a good range to really set your core.
The key point in this exercise is we want to maintain breath control. If I can talk and relax my face throughout the exercise, what I'm doing is teaching my body to have core stability and also have everything else in reserve. It's a low threshold strategy where I'm doing the minimal amount possible to maintain core stability. That's the goal; when I get up off the ground, I have everything else in reserve and I have a good position I can maintain.
Every little quarter inch makes a difference here on where I position myself. If I slide down just a half of an inch, that's a lot easier than if I were to slide up just a half of an inch. There is a transition point where the heels will come off where I do the movement. So at about a quarter of an inch up, I'm at the cusp of where my heels are just about to raise up. If I come up even further, you can see my heels raise. What you want to do is you want to get to the point where you're just before that transition so that the heels are on the ground the whole time and master that.
To take it to the next level for core strengthening, you want to add a little weight to your feet. You can have a friend holding your feet, here I'm using a weight vest; the key is to have the weight on there to counter them lifting. Now I can go further back and really intensify the workout. Don't go so far back that you're so tense where you would struggle because that's not going to carry over so well to movement. It’s down here where you're nice and relaxed and you can keep the straight line through the body. Come up, relax while maintaining strength. Control the breath and relax your face while maintaining strength. If you wanted to increase the intensity even more, you can put small weights into the palms and that will increase the effect even further. When you're done with that movement, stand up and feel what's just happened. You want to have that core stability that doesn't cost you much so everything else is in reserve and you can move your body like an athlete. That's our Flat Jack on the BOSU Elite.
The last thing point I want to make is the BOSU Elite, because it is so firm, intensifies that exercise compared to doing it on the original BOSU ball, where you're going to sink more into it and get more cushioning and support. This will make that an extremely intense exercise with tremendous value in terms of it's carry over to movement. That's the Flat Jack with the BOSU Elite.
