Indo Board Balance Trainer
www.indoboard.com
Ever since reading Coach Davies' new book, Xtreme Sports Training:
Renegade Style, I have been very interested in the Indo board.
I have heard rave reviews from everyone I know that uses the board
and it just plain looks fun. I had a bongo board around the house
when I was young and I always had a blast playing on it. The Indo
board is essentially a souped-up version of the Bongo board. The
difference is that the Bongo uses a track, whereas the Indo board
can pivot on the roller. Everything about the board is very high
quality. It has a textured surface and feels very sturdy under
foot. The roller is very good as well. It is lightweight, but
very strong and it rolls smoothly.
The first thing anyone will do with the board is just get up on
it and try to balance. I found this to be pretty easy, so I moved
right away into shifting the board from side to side. Going from
edge to edge is very difficult. Luckily the board has a lip on
it so that you do not fly off the edge! At this point, I tried
staying balanced on the edge. This was tough, but to do a trick
called the Hang 10, you need to have all of your toes hanging
off the edge of the board. This is quite a feat of balance as
you cannot let the board slide forward. I managed to do this for
a few seconds before "dismounting". One thing I can
say though is that the Indo board is a very safe tool. You are
only about 8" off the ground, so it is not a big fall, and
it is possible to land on your feet. By contrast, if you are balancing
on a Swiss ball and fall, there is almost no way to land on your
feet and you are much higher off the ground. Quite frankly, I
prefer balancing on the Indo board in every way. It is safer,
more versatile, more dynamic and ten times more fun.
Lifting weights on the Indo board is not something that its inventor
Hunter Joslin presents on the video tape, but it is another great
use of the board. It is pretty challenging to press weights while
balancing on the board. Pressing the 1.5 pood kettlebell felt
almost like pressing the 2 pood. The challenge is that you press
it a few inches, then check your balance and then press it up
another few inches. You end up pressing it much more slowly. Cleans
were also difficult, but pretty fun because you really feel weightless
after the initial pull. You just have to make sure that you are
centered when you catch it. Clubbells were another challenge while
on the board. Clubbells are tough to balance to begin with, so
adding the board takes you into a whole new world of pain.
Getting back to the traditional Indo board work, I found a variety
of challenges for myself. One of them was jumping up and landing
back on the board. Compared to the guys on the Indo board video,
my amplitude is pathetic. They also do 180 and 360 jumps and land
back on the board. Most of the guys on the video are professional
wakeboarders. These guys are pretty incredible and are obviously
having a lot of fun for the camera. Parks Bonifay, one of the
most famous wakeboarders, is hilarious in his segment. However,
the top performer is Hunter Joslin, inventor of the Indo board.
His control of the board is incredible and he makes it look incredibly
easy. He also juxtaposes clips of himself on the Indo board doing
a trick and then doing the same trick while surfing. It is easy
to see how Indo board balance work would translate to surfing
and other board sports.
I have also integrated the Indo board into my morning mobility
routine and my warm-ups. I think it is great for the hips, knees,
ankles and spinal mobility. In fact, one of my favorite things
to do is balance on the board with straight legs (knees locked).
This leaves you with only the articulation of your spine to maintain
your balance. As a result you get a very cool dynamic spinal mobility
exercise. It often pops the lower vertebrae, which is a nice sensation.
Another favorite of mine is practicing the L-sit on the Indo board.
I place my hands at the end of the board and then pick my butt
up off the board. It is interesting because in order to stay on
the board you must swing your legs side to side in order to shift
your balance back to center. As a result, you really engage your
obliques and other core muscles. It is a pretty wild exercise.
After a month of using the Indo board, I had some interesting
carryover. For example, while practicing handstands, I noticed
that I was much more successful if I did some Indo board work
prior to my handstand session. I cannot even fathom why this would
be, but it is certainly very interesting. I had struggled for
a while to get even ten second holds in a static handstand. Even
by my standards this was pretty bad. A week after the Indo board
arrived, I was holding 30 second freestanding static handstands
and sometimes even longer. I am not suggesting that there is such
a thing as "general balance", but I do think that variety
is very important in balance training. In order to balance, you
must find your center of gravity and control it. By exposing yourself
to a wide variety of balance challenges, I think you become more
adept at finding and controlling your center of balance. This
is highly debatable, but I am not about to wait for any scientific
conclusion. I am going to keep using the Indo board and see what
happens. I am very happy with the initial results and I am seriously
addicted to standing on the board. I like to ride the board whenever
I need to relax or when I am doing something like talking on the
phone. It is incredibly relaxing and is a great stress reliever.
The Good: Very well constructed. Fun to use, challenging
and a huge variety of exercises. Highly recommended for athletes
in board sports, but good for generalists as well.
The Bad: Obviously balance training is not for everyone.
The Verdict: The Indo board is not for everyone, but nonethess,
it is an outstanding tool. I think it is bar none, the best piece
of balance equipment available.
The Palm Protector
www.youcandoit.net
In the interest of extending my workouts and saving my hands,
I decided to buy a pair of palm protectors. The main thing that
causes me to miss workouts is that I often get calluses that rip
off. After this happens, you can only do a few lifts such as presses
and swings. It is also a bit painful and can take a few days to
heal. I personally do not like the idea of wearing gloves while
I work out, so I usually try to train around rips. When I saw
the Palm Protectors, I was pretty excited, because it would allow
me to train with a rip.
In order to try out the new Palm Protectors, I took my 1.5 pood
kettlebell with me into the backyard and got to work on snatches.
After a few sets of 20, I had a nice rip on my right hand. For
my next set I put on the Palm Protector. I was a bit worry that
it would get tangled up, because the flap that covers your wrist
is not anchored down in any way. Luckily, this did not prove to
be a problem. I found that the padding was sufficient to keep
my rip from getting too irritated. The pain did not go away completely,
but it was better than before. The inside surface is neoprene,
which is very comfortable. The outer surface that contacts the
kettlebell is rubber. I found that this was a bit too sticky and
did not allow the kettlebell to rotate smoothly. The biggest problem
with these is that the buckles are placed so that they lie on
the outside of your wrist. Guess what else lies there? Yep, you
guessed it: the kettlebell! After a few reps, it gets pretty annoying.
After a few sets of that buckle digging into my wrist I decided
to take them off. I decided to revert to my old trick of just
wrapping a paper towel over the handle. This works best if you
do it right before you rip, but works okay afterwards. It allows
the kettlebell to rotate smoothly in your hand, with the paper
towel absorbing all of the friction. Just be careful as this make
things a bit slippery. You actually have to use more grip strength
to hold on. However, you only need to use your grip at the right
moments, so overall it is not too bad. If you want to extend your
workouts, the Palm Protector is a good option, but paper towels
work too.
The Good: The Palm Protector is padded and will allow
you to work out even with a ripped palm. They are well made and
durable.
The Bad: They are very uncomfortable because of the placement
of the buckle. The friction of the gripping surface is too high
and does not allow the kettlebell to rotate smoothly when lowering
snatches.
The Verdict: They are a decent product, but I prefer my
paper towels.
