Thursday, April 26, 2012

2.5 minutes

 
Last week I got the ok from my physical therapist to slowly start adding in some running to my walking on the treadmill. When I say slowly, I mean I can run 30 seconds every 5 minutes. If I'm on the treadmill for 30 minutes, I run a grand total of 2.5 minutes. It's not much, but it's a good start.

Though it's actually quite difficult to only run 30 seconds at a time. Have you ever tried it?

I've found a 5k to do at the beginning of June. At this point, I don't know if I'll be able to run the whole distance, but just getting out and finishing a race will be very encouraging.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

You're never to old to play on a jungle gym




Physical therapy kicked my bum today.

The clinic recently bought a Lifeline Jungle Gym XT, and they had me do some exercises with it.
Two exercises laying on my back with my feet in the cradles and my body in the bridge position, and one exercise with me resting on my elbows in plank position with my feet in the cradles.

All I can say is, WOW.

I used so many different muscles at the same time.

The great thing is that if I do the exercises properly, I will strengthen my core and hips, which will in turn help with the imbalances in my legs. And you can use it for so many different exercises- it's not just for strengthening the lower body.

Even though I'm taking longer than I wanted to get back to running, when I do start running again I should be much stronger physically and better able to avoid injury.

Mr M and I had seen an advertisement a couple years ago for the TRX suspension system, but couldn't quite get past the $200 price tag. The Jungle Gym costs half that, and seems to have a few less quirks (according to reviews I read on Amazon). I think we'll soon be the proud owners of a Jungle Gym!

Have you used either product?