Hello folks! I hope this is the right place for my questions. . .
Problem: I’m 37 years old and unthinkably out of shape, but am loving my reintroduction to the sport of unicycling. It is SOOOO frustrating to enjoy doing it so much – especially riding the Coker and having a friend loan me hers – and not be able to ride long enough to go anywhere!
One issue is cardio-vascular, I’m jumping rope everyday for that.
The main issue is leg muscles, specifically the ones right above my knees. Are those called quads? I ride a little, then they get sore, then they basically refuse to do what I ask them to do 
. I’ve had a couple of close calls, in which I do a UPD and just BARELY get my legs under me in time. Simply because they won’t move when/where/as quickly as I tell them to.
I started doing forward leg presses (leg extensions? Where you lift your feet forward while sitting on the end of a weight bench, lifting weights on a pivot) 3 times a day because I thought that worked those muscles above my knees. I work from home (which means I’m always at work 
) and it’s easier for me to use the weightbench than get all my pads/bikeshorts/helmet on and walk down to the local schoolyard for practice. I did this 3 times a day for about a week, but found my leg muscles didn’t seem to last much longer while riding.
I know I know, riding is the key to developing my riding muscles. But I really can’t get away as frequently or as regularly as I can do exercises here at home. And I’m in a hurry I want to really ride places on that Coker! Does anyone know the muscles groups you use the most in riding? And what exercises I can do to prolong my (. . .really embarassingly, pathetically short) rides?
It must be hard for some of you to imagine . When I did this 20 years ago I ran track, cross-country and played soccer. 15 years ago I played raquetball competitively. 10 years ago I raced motocross. 5 years ago. . . well. . . I guess I stopped . 5 years of a relatively sendentary lifestyle and I can’t believe the atrophy!
Any help/advice/support is greatly appreciated .
-Chris Hults
Lux Graphics
how long have you been doing these excersices? It takes time dont expect to do them for a short amount of time and be fit and ready to ride anywhere. That would be like someone wanting to run a marathon training for a few weeks then expecting to do it.
Do fart-leg (not sure if spelling is right) training. This is where you generally sprint to one telegraph pole then jog to the next and then sprint to…etc
As for the specific muscle groups I cannot help (ones above your knees are the quads there are others too) but keep working out and you will eventually be able to do those long coker rides
Good luck
Various fartleks, presumably if you ran cross you don’t find running interminably boring like I do.
Oh and fyi anything which is unicycle related (like this!) can go in rec.sport.unicycling. I’m not nagging, it’s just a tip to help you out because RSU sees a lot more traffic than just conversation does, you’re more likely to get helpful answers that way 
Thanks Cool/Dave. I’ll keep up the leg presses and I’ll copy this over to the newsgroup when it dies here.
-Chris
Squats.
THE way to build big quadracep muscles in a hurry.
Put a loaded bar (between 30% and 50% of body weight) on the fleshy part of your neck and grip midway between the neck and the weighted part of the bar.
Lower your bum to a little above knee height, keep your back straight, your chest as high as possible and don’t let your knees come further forward than your toes. Pushing your elbows forward will help keep your posture right. Keep the exercise slow, about 2 seconds down and 2 seconds up. The slow upward movement is negative training and will do wonders for your stamina. Don’t think in terms of reps, aim for a period of time. Put some music on to help it pass. 6 minutes should have you praying for the end. If it doesn’t: add more weight. You’ll be pedalling around indefinately and racing up hills in no time.
Have you thought that it might not be just your muscles?
What I mean is; have you got all your weight on the seat? If you are putting too much weight on the peddals and are not sitting on the seat enough then you are going to put much more strain on your legs. Try concentrating on putting more weight on the saddle (which also has it’s own problems but that’s another story).
Just a thought.
Squats! That’s what I’m talking about . I’m all over it, I’ll pile every weight we’ve got (I’m a big boy) onto our barbell and follow those instructions. Right after I research the proper form/technique a bit, I’m told it’s easy to do squats incorrectly and hurt some important body parts. But it sounds like you know your stuff and that may be what I need to build my Uni’ceps quickly.
Good advice on the seat-sitting! My unicycle club loaned me the Introduction To Unicycling video, so I’m always sure to get the seat fully under me as soon as I get up and running on the uni. Otherwise I wouldn’t even be able to get as far as I do :o . That trick is also helpful for my son who is learning to ride. I remind him to “stick his tummy out”, and all of the sudden he has twice the balance as when he’s leaning over.
Anyone else? Any other ideas?
Again, thanks!@
-Chris
It’s true that it is easy to get it wrong, which is why I tried to be thorough; and of course I managed to miss out some vital information: Start with your feet about 1.5 times your hip-width apart. Wide is good. Sometimes people are afraid to take up space when squatting. As you push up, put your weight into your heels and away from the toes. Keeping the elbows forward is probably the most important part as it will force you to straighten your back. Keep your eyes up or you’ll wilt forward and strain your lower back. I can’t stress enough that you mustn’t let the weight into your toes or your joints will be taking the strain rather than the muscles.
On the uni, it’s like Cath says. Sit into the saddle. I’d quite forgotten my first week on the uni, I was leaning forward with my head to get my direction and my knees suffered no end. Switching to pointing with my hips solved that. It’s not really possible to get the hips at the front of the movement (obviously) but the effort of trying to put my hips forward straightend my back posture and saved my knees.