Another day at the gym. I decided to do my legs today as I feel they are my weakest link and needs lots of attention.
When training leg strength I prefer these machines. That’s because you eliminate the weight-bearing parts of the exercise and the muscles can concentrate on their power instead of keeping you in balance. Weight bearing exercises are even better exercise, if you can manage to do it right. If not, these once are safer.
What you need to focus on doing this exercise is your knees! As you flex your knees you must focus on keeping the knee over your foot. Like I explained here. And don’t go deeper than 90 degrees angle at your knees. If you have trouble with spasticity in your inner thighs you should
1. take off some weights
2. don’t flex so much in your knees
Next, leg extension and leg curl:
If you feel pain or discomfort during gym exercises you should ask an instructor to check if you are doing it right. And of course, always get an instructor or physiotherapist to show you how its done before you get started on your own.
At the moment turquise is my colour. Makes me happy 🙂
Weight training my legs is so exhausting. Right there I get more clumsy, my speech gets worse, my muscles stiffens and so on. Next morning I’m ok and I keep getting stronger. So to me the exhaustion is necessary to keep these muscles strong. Just plan your day so you don’t have to do anything after pumping your legs or need to hold a speech or anything. 🙂 Choose a few leg exercises each time and do them good. I also try to do one exercise each for abs and lower back each time at the gym even if it isn’t my focus of the day.
My inner thighs needs extra stretching after a session like this because of the spasticity. Stand on one knee. Put weight on the straight leg untill you feel a good stretch. Hold for at least 30 sec times 3, each leg.
great blog! I’m from LivingWithAtaxia!