I’m right now in a soccer league, and learned in it that sprinting (or jogging) backwards builds muscles in the leg, especially the upper thigh, and helps you kick stronger. Since I’ve started doing this daily, not only has that happened, but I’ve noticed that climbing up hills has become much easier. So if you don’t have a unicycle on you, but still want to get better at it, you might wanna try this out.
Squats are all you need to do to gain amazing leg strength (not calf strength though, you can do toe stepups for that. Make sure your squatting posture is correct, though
thanx!
thanx for the exercise idea
i do have a problem with cramping thigh muscles while riding off-road for a period of time
my riding teqnique and improvements therein will probably help also
one concern ref this exercise…
as if the ppl in my neighbourhood aren’t worried about my mental health enuf when i go scooting about on this funny one-wheeled thingy they now have to c me sprinting backwards?
any snappy answers to the inevitable questions?
RE: Good exercise to help build leg strength
> any snappy answers to the inevitable questions?
How about:
“I’m training for the totally mainstream sport of football/soccer!”
JF
Mitchell,
Thanks for the tip. The entire reason we’re into unicycling is because of soccer. My boys (12 & 9) play club soccer here in Illinois. A year and a half ago, my wife and I wanted to find a means of helping them develop body balance and leg strength and had this sudden and crazy idea of buying them a unicycle for Christmas. Little did we know of the addicting nature of the sport. We now possess more than a dozen uni’s, have started a club, and are for the most part consumed by the love of unicycling.
I’ll pass on your sprinting backwards tip to Ben and Brad. We always looked at running backwards as a means of practicing mobility and balance. Never looked at it as a leg strength exercise. Sure makes sense though.
Bruce
Re: Good exercise to help build leg strength
On Wed, 8 May 2002 13:33:11 -0500, yoopers
<yoopers.4ckta@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>We always
>looked at running backwards as a means of practicing mobility and
>balance. Never looked at it as a leg strength exercise.
I’ve heard yet another use of running backwards (without looking
backwards) related to unicycling. Doing it just prior to practicing to
ride backwards takes away some of the scare that is experienced by
some beginning backwards riders.
Klaas Bil
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“Fernspah, tank, JITEM”
Re: Good exercise to help build leg strength
Does anyone here lift weights with the intention of
getting better at Muni? What’s been your experience?
I know this is off topic, but what excersizes would you recommend for doing a handstand. My ultimate goal is to do a handstand on a rola-bola, if its even possible, but I dont have the strength (or balance) to do it.
Well, I have no idea how to help you there. Of course, unicycling a lot can help on that balance problem, but I don’t know if that’s possible either.
Didn’t anyone else notice that this guy probably has a compound fracture in his right shin? Is that what caused the initial accident? Frame failure? My stomach turns everytime I look at that photo. You just can’t fold your leg like that…there’s no joint there.
its an old photo,maybe everybody (except Harper) had seen it before.
i bet the audible CRACK heard when that guys stick snapped was pretty loud.
Yeah, we sort of noticed that too, sort of the ol’ Joe Theisman routine if you recall that incident.
Bruce
ouch!
>You just can’t fold your leg like that…there’s no joint there.
there is now
Re: Good exercise to help build leg strength
> I know this is off topic, but what exercises would you recommend for
> doing a handstand. My ultimate goal is to do a handstand on a
> rola-bola, if its even possible, but I don’t have the strength (or
> balance) to do it.
If you have the equipment, I think overhead presses and overhead squats with
a full-length shrug bar off a power rack are ideal. A standard barbell
would work nearly as well.
If you don’t have any equipment, try handstand pushups with your feet
resting on the wall.