Hello Barry,
> Has anyone else got twinges in the knees? Should I stop unicycling for a
> while? How long. I’ve already got to give up juggling 'cos of overuse disorder
> (aka RSI). Is nothing fun and safe anymore?
Did you try any warmup exercises before you start? I understand that can
help in RSI type cases… (better to start the warmups before you get the
RSI though)
]ain
Re: Knees
>
> Hello Barry,
>
> > Has anyone else got twinges in the knees? Should I stop unicycling for a
> > while? How long. I’ve already got to give up juggling 'cos of overuse
> > disorder (aka RSI). Is nothing fun and safe anymore?
>
> Did you try any warmup exercises before you start? I understand that can
> help in RSI type cases… (better to start the warmups before you get the RSI
> though)
>
> ]ain
>
Yes - I do warm up before a practise session. I’m the only person that I know
that does! My warm-up goes like this: Get the blood flow going with some brisk
unicycling for a few minutes. Then I stretch the entire body (well, I do all the
stretching exercise that I know). I find this really helps my ability to perform
certain tricks and I don’t hurt myself if I have a twisting, hurried dismount.
It certainly feels better to exercise after the stretching.
I’m really getting into skipping recently. That’s `jumping rope’ to some of you.
Both on and off the unicycle. That really gets the heart going!
Another current exercise of mine is to idle/rock with the left foot down as I’m
quite bad at this. I learned to idle one-footed with the right foot last summer
and since then have concentrated on one-footing forwards with and without the
left foot on the frame. I feel that by becoming proficient with the left foot
idle (including hopefully one-footing with left foot) I shall become a better
unicycler. It’ll certainly help with giraffe riding in crowded pedestrian areas.
Perhaps my aching knees is due to my giraffe being set too low. I haven’t
adjusted it since I bought it a few months ago — I thought that raising the
seat may make free mounting more difficult. I only ride it infrequently, and
come to think of it, rode it for 40 mins or so late last week. Also I’ll have to
stop riding tiny kids unicycles at the club 'cos that’s proabably bad for the
knees too.
Happy Riding,
Barry