BOSU You...

So.

Have you ever seen one of these BOSU balls? Well, I don't suppose they'd really qualify as a ball seeing as they're only half a ball resting on a flat plastic base. I swear, I'd never seen one either, and there's been about 30 stacked in the aerobics room at the gym...apparently when I'm all Pumping Iron and whatnot...I'm too busy concentrating on not passing out to notice the simple things around me.

Last night at Pumping Iron this is what the bulk of our crazy aerobic weight training took place on (oh Meg. you may want to thank yourself that you weren't there...I'd like to say that it was tonsoffun, but then...I may be stretching the truth a bit)

Our trainer and fearless leader is one of my favorite instructors at the YMCA...she's absolutely adorable, with a killer body, and kind of looks like Sarah Jessica Parker. And, she's really good at what she does. She asked who had never used a BOSU ball before and a few of us raised our hands and she got all clappy and goody! - like.

I should have known then that I was in trouble...

I'm under the distinct impression that I don't have the best balance in the world, and as I placed a non skid mat under my BOSU so that it wouldn't move (WHA?!?! Although, I'd be the first to laugh at myself if I went skating across the room on this thing) climbed up and determined that I would be fine as long as I didn't move.

She said it was harder if you don't move.

Crap.

She also said that the more pumped up they were, the harder they were to use...she pointed at me as she said this seeing as I was precariously perched on top of a ball that hardly made any indents when I climbed up there (and with my weight this was not a good sign) and me...madly flapping my arms around like some sort of deranged bird that had flown into the room...so, I had to switch BOSU's. I contemplated standing at the BOSU stack rack tapping my chin for the rest of the class so that I could choose my BOSU, rather than get back up on the BOSU and try to exercise...but, there's an exercise Drill Sergeant that lives in my head that told me to walk it off and get up on this thing...

Which I did. I walked it off. I marched it off...and at one point, I jumped it up and off. But, I most of all, I just tried to modify my movements enough to keep from falling off completely (because, of course, you can do all the same things you do in a Step class on this ball, only you have to, "...keep your core tight to help your balance!!! And for godssake, stop flapping your arms...you're not a bird, and you're scaring everyone!!" [Ok, that last part was only in my head...]) Including the part where I was lifting weights while resting on my knees on the top of the BOSU ball "...without feet touching the floor, if you can because it's harder!!"she cheerily yells out (yeah, cause' I'm all about the hard in this class...which has been aptly named "The More Than One Nalgine Class" by Megan) all while lifting weights all over the place...when I noticed that I was starting to get a lot lower towards this thing, with my legs starting to spread out in a very indecent sort of way. I quickly determined it was the ridiculous amount of sweat pouring off of me that was now running down my legs and making my knees all slippery...so there was the added fun of balancing, lifting weights, and moving my knees around...because now I was apparently on a BOSU Slip-and-Slide. It was at this point that I was silently cursing the thought of, "why didn't I think to bring some sort of knee pads? Or better yet, Knee Suction cups?" (along with the thought, "why do I feel the need to humiliate myself in front of other people...or worse yet, A mirror?") I quickly looked around the room to see if anyone else was having that problem.

And of course, they weren't.

How could this be?

My therapist says there's only 2 reasons that we compare ourselves to someone else.

To either feel better or feel worse.

She totally forgot to mention the BOSU reason.