Mind over... Head?

After last week's video a couple of friends of mine gave me a few tips about keeping my head up whilst walking, which not only helps with looking at where I am going but also reduces the stress on my neck and body as a whole. So on Monday morning I decided to see how difficult it would be to walk my with head up, as so far my head has been helping me keep my balance when walking and to coordinate my feet in a more controlled fashion. When I keep my head up however I have realised that I feel a lot less stable in the walker and my walking becomes a lot less graceful, if you can imagine that! I felt like a fawn (baby deer) when it tries to walk for the first time. After a few attempts the walking did improve and thinking about now, it was a case of mind over matter. I think the walker tipping in the last few weeks had made me fearful of the instability of it, making me slightly cautious.

What did help me though was some feedback that I had received from my friend Jade, who pointed out that the walker might be slipping because of the floor surface (where I had been thinking that it was because of the lack of the walker's wheelbase). So again it was a case of mind over matter which again gave me the confidence to go for it!

Catch up time

Hello ladies and gentlemen

I know that it has been a bit of a hiatus but I am back again.

Since we last spoke I have been taking my mp3 player to the gym and I have been surprised at how much it has helped me, not only with my focus but the timing of my reps. I created a playlist full of tracks that will help me keep up a faster pace as when I have my own music on, I tend to use the bars (musical structure) of the song to help me with my consistency. It is great since I feel like I get a bit more control and coordination.

One of the exciting events that has happened in the gym of late is that I have managed to start doing pull-ups, which I have never been able to do before (due to lack of opportunity more than anything). Though I am not able to get my chin anywhere near the bar yet but hopefully with time that will improve. I am tempted to hold the bar in a more conventional method as at the moment I have my wrists facing me, however I am afraid that this will create spasms in my arms and I will get stuck.

Back home I have been getting to grips (literally) with walking in the office and I have decided to go bare feet so I can be at one with the earth. I am kidding but this gives me more grip and balance whilst walking at the moment. Speaking of balance I have decided to kit out the walker with my ankle weights in the hopes of preventing it from tipping. However as you can tell from the video below the back wheels of the walker keep sliding. I have been thinking about maybe getting another walker with a wider base for when I do the actual walk to help with stability but that is something that I will think about nearer the time.

In terms of walking progress it has been great. I can now do a number of stints without sitting down, although I have been informed by Cassie that to complete my 10k walk I will have to do the length of the office 2500 times... whoopee...

ideally what I would like to do is plonk myself on a big long stretch of space and see how far I can go at the moment. Walking bare feet in Watford however might not be a great idea!

Have a good one!

Woah...

I just tried walking in the office for the first time and it was a little bit hair raising! I decided to start off with ankle supports and my trainers on so that I would have grip on the laminate floor but still protect my ankles, and as soon as I got in the walker I felt like I was on skates. The thing wanted to go flying! Obviously with the walker having wheels and not as much friction as it did on the carpet I found it very difficult to control the pace and the weight balance. I found myself trying to keep up with the walker instead of the other way round. However there were a few runs where I felt more in control, right up to the point where the walker decided to try and tip to the right.

As my trainers are quite bouncy and quite have a good grip I went to put my left foot down but, instead of putting it down gently, it went down with force and as I my right foot was already down the walker decided to go into "ski mode" (Knight Rider reference). I don't think it would have actually tipped over but I am glad my helper was there. It did knock my confidence though a little bit so I tried taking my trainers off but in the end the excitement had already taken its toll.

I think I will try putting some weights on the walker to hopefully give me some piece of mind.

Onwards and upwards.

Taking strides

Another week gone and another week closer to next year's target. Apart from today it has not been a bad week overall especially in terms of walking, though I haven't made it into the office yet! After overdoing it a little bit on Wednesday I had to take yesterday off to allow the temple that is my body to recover, and although I thought I was ready this morning to go back to the gym I soon realised that I was a bit eager! It did not help that the music in the gym was not really something I would use to motivate myself, not that I have anything against music of three decades ago. I will be making a playlist to take to the gym from now on. I did take the opportunity to get in the cross trainer type thing and managed to get my body into a more upright position than ever before.

I finished the day off back in the walker and used a technique that I discovered on Wednesday, which is to walk like I am pushing a wheelbarrow. Because of the walker is front heavy and the fact that I lean over, if I get my feet too far in front of my body I lose momentum. So what I have discovered is that by getting my feet as far back as possible so that my body is at an angle and then take smaller steps I can get more of a push off and also keep taking steps one after another, like a stride. I am not sure if this will have an effect on my back but at the moment it feels great because I can repeat the walking over and over again. The biggest thing that has stuck with me this week is something that Cassie said which I don't have to walk like other people, as long as it is good for me.

Have a good weekend :-)

Mid-week report (on a Tuesday!)

It is time for a mid week report (on Tuesday) and I am happy with this week is going although I haven't made it to the gym yet. Since Friday's walk I have been making strides in more ways than one in terms of finding my rhythm.

It wasn't easy to get started again on Monday morning as everything was a bit tight in my legs but I discovered that by having my arms forward in a superman type pose helps me to shift my weight forward whilst taking steps. I then started to imagine pulling something with my hand whilst walking which at the moment sounds like a very bizarre version of the running man but again it helps.

It seems that this week is all about learning how to shift my weight from the middle forwards as today I have started using my chest to do so instead of my arms. I am also beginning to be able to take more and more progressive steps rather than going left, right stop. though funnily enough I have noticed that when I put one leg directly in front of the other (almost like on a catwalk) I find it easier to walk with a constant momentum.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me I will have started walking in my office area and not my bedroom.

... And walk.

After not being in the walker for a couple of weeks I finally got back in it yesterday afternoon, and I am not sure what I was expecting but I was very happy that I could still get both feet down. However something felt a bit off in the sense that I didn't feel like I could take a step. This was the first time I used it came back from RMS (the supplier) so we had to do some adjusting and levelling.

When I woke up this morning I had an overwhelming urge to spend some time in my walker and really focus on it, it was like an itch. Therefore (as I posted on Facebook and Twitter) I decided to skip the gym today and get into the walker for a big session. The plan was to do a couple of stands before trying to do some walking, especially with the new direction locks. The first stand was with ankle weights on (which I felt like I was going to end up in the bottom of the ocean), this helped settle my legs down. I then took them off for the second stand so that my legs could prepare for walking.

The first few walks I did was with my helpers either side of me pushing the walker forward but after adjusting the top bar (which supports me under my arms) I decided to try and propel myself. Now that I have the direction locks I can put all of my focus into moving the walker forward and not worrying about going side to side. At first I found it really difficult getting started as I could not get my legs behind me enough to propel forward. On the walker the second bar which is above my hips can be moved back and forth which then helps you stand straighter. When this bar was forward I found it very difficult to walk as it almost kept me too straight, therefore after a quick adjustment I found it much better and easier to get my legs behind me.

After a little bit of waddling I found it a lot better to use my left leg to push off from and then once I put my right leg down, reset everything and then push off again from my left. It is not much of a stride as you can tell in the video below but towards the end of the session my right leg was beginning to get into the groove (cue Madonna).

Overall I feel very positive. Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. It's 2017 and I have a feeling it will be a great year! I have been spoilt by my sister this Christmas and one of her many gifts I got from her was a Flying with Pigeons t-shirt and some stickers. So with that t-shirt on it was off to the gym I went.

Given that I haven't been for a good while I was wondering how difficult of a workout it was going to be, especially after a few unhealthy habits. Fortunately after doing my 2km on the hand cycle though I didn't feel I had slipped too far back. With next summer being the target of when I want to do the walk I will really have to start knuckling down with objectives maybe every month. Hopefully this will help beat the January blues as well. The objective for this week is to get into the Walker again and try out the new direction locks so watch this space!

On a final note having the Flying with Pigeons t-shirt underneath my hoodie makes me want to look for a phone box...