Body Balance

On Friday morning I headed off to the gym. I had a tight calf and hamstring so I tested them out with a lunge without weights. It was painful, so I skipped my weights program and concentrated on stretching instead. It certainly helped, so I felt fine about heading back to the gym after work for Body Balance.

I was keen to do BB as I'd been reading an article about Yoga for runners which said that the downward dog is a great stretch for runners. It works the calves, the hamstrings and the glutes. As we'd done this move in BB before I was sure that I'd get a good workout for my sore leg. As expected, we moved through the downward dog a few times. In Body Balance the moves are much quicker than in Yoga. I struggle with getting through the sequences, for example, fold over, hands on the floor, move your leg back into a lunge, move your other leg back, do the downward dog, glide down through a plank into a cobra, back into downward dog, foot forward, other foot forward, unfold and salute the sun. All this in next to no time! By the time I got myself down into the downward dog it was time to do the next move.

All was not wasted however, as towards the end of the session we did some serious stretching. This included a variation of the downward dog that involved lifting one leg into the air. Well, that really did stretch out my calf and hamstring. I'm a convert!

Today has been a rest day. My calf is still a little sore. I'll see how it goes when I run tomrorow.