Aloha Tribe,
I've been training my balance a lot lately, refining it, tweaking it, kicking in the ass to truly hone it to perfection. And, in the process, I've been pondering the ever so slight leg wobble. Now, well, I had figured it was simply my knees needing strengthening or my hamstrings, or whatevers. And, I simply continued doing the above Sports and Arts and noticing daily improvments and even session improvements.
Yet today, for whatever reason, at a grocery store of all places, I happened to look down at my flip flopped feet (I almost never wear shoes, and, am barefoot whenever I can be). My attention was caught by the ever so minute tremble of the muscle that lies over the shin, crosses across the foot from the outside of the leg to the inside of the leg, and, running to the top of the big toe. Viola, the Tibialis Anterior.
As it turns out, this is THE muscle known for balance. And, if you happen to live your life barefoot like I have for a huge majority of my life, walking on the ball of my foot rather than the heel, then, the muscles that is antagonistic to this, the Tibialis Posterior (on the back side) would be disproportionately stronger.
Hey, I"m not talking a major difference in strength between the two, but, there is enough of a difference in me for this wobble I've mentioned. And, seeking balance perfection, I now know what to do.
Increase my walking in a straight line using tight wire walking, Soft Rope Walking, and slacklining, as well as walking along curbs, cracks, and any other line I happen to find, always keeping both feet on the line, one at a time, beyond the 6 hours a day I'm currently doing them, and, of course, in surfing, focus on my backside turns more than frontside turns. In a backside turn, you pressure down with your heel, which, is the move needed to strengthen this muscle.
It will be interesting to see how this muscles strengthens with my increased efforts and more so, deeper awareness.
Naturally, I'll also be using Chi Gung to strengthen the Tibialis Anterior, namely by guiding Chi using a combination of Wai Chi and Nei Chi exercises, done at an extremely slow Tai Chi speed, adding to the fun by listening to hippy style 60's music for the rhythmic flow.
Slowly, one by one, I'm pinning down these weak muscles, like the psoas the other day, and, adding them to my repetoire of flexing workouts.
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley
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My knees definitely need strengthing, being 45 and 6'-6" they have been an issue for the last few years. In fact the last time I went surfing back in June it was extremely hard to catch my balance on the longboard I rented because my knees were wobblely.
ReplyDeleteAloha Beach Bum,
ReplyDeleteI am deeply sorry to hear about your knee and I hope and pray for you that it heals quickly. If we ever happen to be at the same break, I'd be honored to work with you on it, showing you some exercises that I've done for myself, as well as teach you Chi Gung for your surfing, if you like.
I know what you mean about knees. Back in 2004, I was training for the Olympics in Fencing, and, while observing from the sidelines, I took an epee to the inside of my left knee, driving my knee sideways, thus, tearing my acl completely in half. Then, last November, my Massage Therapist got a bit over excited, and, tore my meniscus on the same knee. With those two knee injuries, I try to hard to focus on always training my knees to be as strong as possible.
I've found, that for me, surfing and swimming in the open ocean in the roughest seas, work my knees and body tremendously. I also do all of the balancing training that you may have read about on my blog.
In addition, I practice my Chi Gung. Chi Gung has the ability to help the body heal. My acl has strengthened tremendously, and my meniscus is totally healed.
I'll address how Chi Gung can heal in a blog entry. Basically, it is a combination of physical movements, as well as using your mind to guide your Chi. It's a bit of a go, yet, well worth it, since, our knees or health or whatevers is really all that we have.
Aloha,
Lily of the Valley