Instead of beating up on your abdominal muscles everyday and running until out of breath, let me introduce a method of strengthening your core muscles efficiently and instantly. If you have never heard of BOSU, time to make that equipment your favorite toy in the gym. Go to it, touch it, rub it, and train with it!

Last week, while still doing multi-sports training for triathlon, I have created a core-strength training protocol for my weight training program. I have designed a program to challenge my core muscles more in every single weight training exercise that I perform. How? The title of this entry tells it all: using BOSU. I flip the BOSU (please visit the link above if you haven’t and have no idea what a BOSU looks like) upside down and stand on the flat surface while performing exercises. The idea is to keep you off-balance in the beginning and train you to stabilize yourself with core strength. While my weight training program stays fairly simple and self-explanatory, it might take some times for me to get used to working out on a rounded surface.

Here’s the look of my simple 45 minutes weight training program:

• Dumbbell bench press (on a stability ball): 35 lbs., 2 x 12 superset with squat (on the BOSU): 70 lbs., 2 x 12
• Push-up (on the BOSU) : 2 x 12 superset with single leg squat (on the BOSU): body weight, 2 x 10
• Inverted hamstring 1-arm row: 25 lbs., 2 x 10 superset with front lunge with twist: 8 lbs. medicine ball, 2 x 10 each side
• 1-arm clean and jerk (on the BOSU): 15 lbs., 2 x 10 each arm superset with lateral raise: 15 lbs., 2 x 10
• Pull-ups: 2 x 10
• Abs: leg drops and dead bug coordination

Endurance Training:

• 20 minutes of interval training on each elliptical and treadmill

BOSU…coming for you this Thursday for the second round!