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Hey I'm David Weck here and today I'm going to teach you an exercise we call the Bow Bends.
This is a side bending exercise that will give you tremendous lateral stability, and tremendous range of motion through a side bending motion. The side bend is very important and when both sides are strong you can sort of create a stale mate that will create tremendous core stability.
So Bow Bends look like this. It's very important we stack vertically we don't want to open up because that's going to make it more abdominal obliques. So I keep my pelvis nice and perpendicular to the floor, upright here. I can scissor the top foot in the front, I reach over the top of the BOSU ball, clear this spot on my arm. I reach all the way over, my palm is up. And I'm going to feel, from the insertion into my humerus lat all the way to down to the pelvis in the back. And I stretch.
Now I come up and I keep, and I keep the palm up, and I reach and I drive as far as I can right there. And I don't want to open up; I want to keep it here and I'm driving. When I get to the top of range of motion, I just keep driving. That's position one. I come here, and I let it go. Big stretch and range of motion in the hail; activate and connect the mind and the muscle all the way into that attachment.
Now phase 2 is here, I drive it up, I get to that position 1. Now from there BOOM, I put that hand out, that's a counterweight, makes it much tougher. I'll show you 3 and 4 which is here (lifts top leg up)- that's 3, and Position 4 is close the eyes. And you just keep driving up, driving up.
And when you finish that exercise, stretch it and release. And what you'll feel on that exercise is, you'll feel that amazing tie in through the lat. The lat is a super muscle that connects the upper body to the lower body and it is so powerful that it will help you run, it will help you rotate, throw, punch, everything. And now, athletically there may be a circumstance where you have to really reach and go for it. You obviously get the other side [for non-dominant side training]. And that lateral stability through the lats when you clamp them both down, you're just so much more stable. And when you lift a leg, it's just boom, I have total balance and stability because the lats are tied in.
We call that the Bow Bend. You want to hold each position about 30 seconds. And you get to that top range and you just keep going. When I'm training somebody, they're hand is here (places above BOSU Ball), and I'm put my hand here, and I move it and say go get my hand, and I'm really incentivizing because you get that full tie in and you don't feel that thing burning. And it activates. And it will help you with movement, stability, etc. So it's the Bow Bend (obviously to both sides). Position 1, Position 2, Position 3, and then Position 4 is close the eyes. That's your Bow Bends with the BOSU Elite.
