I could see the glint in Russel’s eye as he realised that this was his last chance to go to work on my legs! I have mentioned before his sadistic ways; well he said we would take it easy today and he would just do some “releases”. Ooooh ah ah!

He carried on shooting the breeze and chatting about daily stuff expecting answers while he worked on my quads with his elbow. How he expected conversational responses from me I have no idea – I spent the entire time biting the pillow (literally) in order to limit girly screams falling out of my mouth.

For all my whining though I have to say that my knee feels so solid after all that- he definitely knows what he is doing (and really enjoys doing it).

Dude – big thank you for all your hard work and help in fixing my knee! And thanks for the strapping advice – will definitely be in touch during the ride for more advice!

BioDynamics

I keep saying the word “last”! We leave for Cape Town on Monday and suddenly this is all becoming very real. I am off to go see Russel in about 30 minutes time and it will be our last session. He is going to help me with strapping and teach me the right method to support my knee.

Russel has been incredible and given me Biokinetic sessions twice a week for about 6 months now. I cant tell you how effective the rehab to my knee has been and how much stronger my tiny pins are now. My gammy knee conking out was probably the biggest threat to me not finishing the One Gear Challenge and I can say now with more confidence than ever that I am going to complete the 1500km ride!

BioDynamics

Click the link below to have a wee listen to my interview on Mix FM recently.

2012-08-30 Mix FM interview with Saskia V [Mic]

Saskia is so much fun and it was so golden hanging out with her – we spoke of the Karoo heat and skin falling off ones bum – yummy!

For all his evil laughing I have to say that Russel from BioDynamics has done some crazy good work with me. I rode over 85 km this past weekend and my gammy knee is feeling stronger than ever. This post is meant to be a little peek into Russel’s creative, although marginally sadistic world of rehabilitative exercise techniques.

Have you ever heard of a TRX? its this thing below and Russel has just acquired himself one. Russel keeps things super interesting and it is rare that we ever do the same exercises twice. What a TRX does to Russel is a little like what a entire bag of sugar would do to a 4 year old. If he was ever feeling like running out of options he now has a tool that provides him with almost endless opportunities to pull, stretch, push, break and bend a human. What you can do with a TRX is only really limited by your ability to creatively conjure up ways to use it; fortunately for Russel, unfortunately for me Russel is a creative guy.

TRX

These plank exercises for core strengthening are particularly fun. But unlike this guy slacking off below Russel gets me swinging and…crying.

Oblique exercises

Things get really interesting though when different tools are combined; again the creativity is through the roof and the results are targeted…so very very targeted. Very specific muscle stimulation occurs – afterwards there is never any doubt as to what we focused on in a particular session. There have been times when I was standing with one leg on an upside down Bosu ball while my little pigeon hamstring on the other leg was pulling against a weight machine…oh and this all went down at the same time Russel repeatedly through a rugby ball at me.

Bosu ball

You really do get out of life what you put in and for all my wining I have to say that my legs feel stronger than ever and I am starting to believe that I am going to pull off this 1500km ride!

Again I have to thank Russel for all the Pro Bono work he is putting in and the results we have already achieved!!!

shot dude!

I just completed another session with Russel at BioDynamics – that’s 4 sessions now in total and he hasn’t run out of crazy creative ways to make my legs burn. He strapped some weights to my legs that remained on my ankle’s for the full hour. He then made me stand on an unstable inflatable ball thing, one leg at a time, and then repeatedly through a rugby ball at me while sadistically laughing! MwaaaahhhhaHAHAHA. Never dull!

I have to say though that I am feeling stronger and the strapping that Russel applied to my knee today makes me feel somewhat bionic.

BioDynamics

We are ecstatic ECSTATIC to announce that we have partnered with BioDynamics who will be offering me Bio-kinetics advice and sessions to ensure that I am strong enough to ride the 1500km. Russel has already done an assessment and his slightly sadistic mind has come up with a painful program to strengthen my legs and in particular my slightly gammy right knee and pigeon hamstrings.

We had our first session yesterday and I have to admit that although there was a bit of pain while he did some adjusting it was mostly fun. He uses some mad and innovative techniques to get the right muscles firering; playing on a Wii being one of them! I have  another session with him today…I am both scared and intrigued at the same time.

BioDynamics