Mr Pig presents... the wobble cushion

Hi, Mr Pig here again after what seems like quite an absence. Here's Susie's latest piece of kit: the wobble cushion.

The idea is that it is very unstable so you engage lots of underused muscles in order to balance on it. It works the legs and core deceptively hard. Susie has started using it to progress the gym session, by doing her single leg exercises on it. It's very hard work.

Here's her session from this morning:

1 mile treadie 8:58
Ball bouncing - left, right, centre - on wobble cushion. 30secs each leg x 3
Bend knees, forward onto toes, straighten, lower onto heels. 2x5kg dbells. 6 reps each leg x 3
Single leg dips on cushion. 10 reps each leg. 5 reps x 2 each leg with 10kg barbell. 10 reps each leg 15kg barbell.
Dead lift. 41kg. 10 reps x 2
Standing from seated 15reps x 2 each leg.
Cushion on step box. Dip to touch toe on floor. 15 reps x 2 each leg
Lunge. 2x9kg dbell. 10reps x 2 each leg.
20 crunches on gym ball
10 dorsal lifts on gym ball
20 asymmetric crunches on gym ball
Side raises on gym ball 10 reps on each side
Head and shoulders on gym ball, raise leg, 10 each leg
Hanging knee raises with ankle weights 3x10
Face up, shoulders on floor heels on gym ball. Single leg hamstring curls 5 each leg
Face down on gym ball on step, holding step, raise legs 2 x 10
Sit on gym ball 1 min
Kneel on gym ball 1 min
1 mile treadie 8:40
Full stretches

...and now a word from Susie:

Generally the running has been going well. I'm back to daily running and will soon start doubles. Blogwise, I'll start doing the weekly summaries, and maybe summarise what I've been doing since the injury. I've been strapping my leg, but have started alternating runs without strapping. For the last few days my leg has felt absolutely 100% - something which hasn't been the case since the injury, largely because the gym work has been working my calves really hard and I've done a lot of runs on tired legs. It's all coming together now though!

Merry Xmas

How remiss of me! A belated Merry Xmas to you all!


(And in answer to Highway Kind, yes, she really did say "He hates joggers". Fortunately, the yorkie was wearing a muzzle or I really would have had to kick him - that muzzle was making repeated contact with my legs)

Woof

"Yap yap gnrrrraaarggg!"
"Get off!"
"I'm sorry, he hates joggers"
"Yeah? Well I hate dogs!"
"Grrrrarfarf"
"Come here!"
"I will kick you!"
"Gnrrraargh........"


Yo ho ho!

The treadmill from hell

I have a love hate relationship with treadmills. They are useful tools used in the right way. They are useful for gym warm-ups. They are useful for examining running form, or at least that's what you can claim when looking at your gorgeous self in the mirror as you run. If you get bored with running (I don't!), you can watch videos as you run. They are warm in the winter, although I'd suggest you just wear more layers if cold is your problem. They are reasonably low impact if you are recovering from injury, but again, they probably aren't as good as a muddy field (some of you will have to find a dictionary with the appropriate definition of 'good' for that one).

Treadmills have their place.

The treadmills in my usual gym are fairly friendly beasts. You hit the 'Quick start' button and off it goes straight away with no fuss. You can then up the speed, set an incline, and ignore its pleas for you to enter your weight. That's all there is to a treadmill. Running is simple. Running on a treadmill is simple.

Or so I thought!

I had a session with my personal trainer this morning at another gym. I climbed on the treadmill to do my warm up and found myself in a fight for supremacy with its control system. This treadmill had attitude!

First off I hit the 'Quick start' button. Problem. This was not a 'Quick start' button, but a piece of text on the control panel which read: "For Quick Start, press the Enter key". Hmm.

I pressed the 'Enter' key.

Nothing happened.

Why wasn't I moving? There was now some flashing text asking me to enter my weight. I pressed 'Cancel'. No change. Apparently the first thing this machine wanted to know was not "how fast?", but "how heavy?", and it was not going to be swayed.

I typed '70' and hit the enter key.

Nothing.

I was now being asked to enter a time! So its next piece of critical information required is "how long?". Where is the free-spirit attitude of leaving your front door and just running? I now had to think about this. Was this infernal contraption going to stop when I hit the end time? Why does a session on a treadmill have to have a hard end point? I was not liking the fascistic attitude it was giving me.

I entered '20'.

Nothing.

What now?

Now I have to enter a 'program'. We had a choise of 'Aerobic', 'Fatburn', 'Hills' and various other options. None of them said 'Running'! I pressed 'Manual', half dreading that it was going to start quoting me its entire user manual, but at least hoping I could at last get running.

Nothing.

Finally it was asking for a speed. At last! I triumphantly entered 11.0, and off we went.

Well nearly.

This idiot contraption was creeping up to speed slowly. I was walking leisurely when what I really wanted to be doing was RUNNING!!!

After what seemed like an eternity I was finally up to a magnificent 11kph. I now tapped the incline up to 1°.


On the off chance that there are any treadmill designers reading this (maybe treadmill designers regularly type "treadmill design" into Google?), please take note. Running is a simple action. As a sports corporation once said you "just do it!". Why do these machines insist on tying you into a 'program'.

Treadmills have their place, but treadmills should know their place.

Modified gym

Things are starting to get back to normal with a double yesterday. I did a full gym session in the morning and a gentle 5-miler in the evening. My shin feels fine!

Elaine, my personal trainer, has had me drop most of the double leg exercises from my routine, eg the barbell work, in favour of single leg exercise, working the left leg more than the right. Once my legs are balanced, the barbell will be brought back, but probably favouring the Dead Lift rather than the Clean, as I'll be able to lift more weight. I think the Clean may have benefits in terms of explosive power, but I'll see what Elaine thinks.

My new routine, or at least what I did yesterday, is as follows:

Warm up 10 min Xtrainer, aerobic level 12

Balance on one leg - bounce gym ball on each side and out in front - 30s on each leg x 3

Standing. Bend knees. Lift heels. Roll forwards onto toes. Straighten legs keeping on toes. Slowly relax heels to the floor.
Both legs 10 reps x 2. Single legs 5 reps x 3

Back against wall, slide down slowly and return. 30 secs rest between sets
Left leg 8 reps x 4
Right leg 5 reps x 3
There's too much friction, particularly if I'm sweaty - I'll probably start using a gym ball between me and the wall.

Single leg dip (down until knee covers toe), with 14kg dumb-bell in each hand
Left leg 10 reps x 3
Right leg 6 reps x 3

Lunges (keep front leg 90°, back knee 1 inch from floor). 9kg dumb-bell in each hand
5 reps x 4 each leg

Standing from seated position, individual legs
Left leg 8 reps x 4
Right leg 5 reps x 3

Single leg press 50kg. 8-10 reps x 3 left leg

That's Elaine's program. I also added:
10 gym ball crunches
10 gym ball dorsal raises
20 gym ball left, right, centre crunches
10 gym ball side raises each side
10 gym ball leg raises face down on Step.

5 mins cool down on air bike.

Full stretches, emphasing left soleus (which is much less flexible than right)


I hope I have the discipline to keep that going once I am back up to full mileage!

Dean's run home

In Boston I met a hero. One of the planet's great men. His name is Dean Karnazes. Here's the link to my Boston Report - page down to the picture of the two of us.

He's the author of Ultra Marathon Man - Confessions of an all-night runner. His ultra-running exploits are phenomenal: blessed with near-perfect biomechanics he can just run, and run, and run...

Ending with the New York Marathon he's just completed the 'Endurance 50' - 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. This put him a long way from his home in California, so the obvious thing to do next was to run home!

He is currently running west across the USA, back to CA, during the middle of winter, into the prevailing winds (he's just had a nightmare couple of days running into freezing gales). You can read his blog here, and track his progress here. He's raising money for his charity Karno Kids, to get America's kids running - click the About menu on the Ultra Marathon Man link.

Dean is a great writer - I can thoroughly recommend his book, and his blog is equally engaging. I hope you feel inspired to get out there!