Hiking Bench Use

mikescott

mikescott

Member
I built a hiking bench the other day-man, what a torture rack! Seeing as how I am 1) old 2) out of shape in the core and 3) new to the Laser, I have started out by doing 3 sets of 30 seconds with a 15 second rest between (straight leg-totally horizontal to the floor). Plan on adding time to the 30 seconds each week as I can. I know - pitiful based on what I have read. Do any of you stallwarts have any recommendations to accellerate this at all?

Thanks, Mike
 
Mike; any chance of getting a description of how you built your bench? i'm looking to put myself through the same torture.
 
I actually got it off the internet. But here is my description. Used a plastic milk crate (metal will work also) turned upside down (bottom up). Bought a 2"x2"x8', 2 eye screws, some strapping and some 1/8th" line. Cut the 2x2 in half. Put an eye bolt on the end of each of the 2x2s, lashed the 2x2 to the milk crate with about 11.5" of the 2x2 (the part with the eye screws) sticking out in front. Put a loop of the strap through the eye screws to simulate the hiking strap. The longer ends of the 2x2 kind of cantilever your weight while hiking I use a closed cell quarter inch foam pad on top (bottom) of the upside down milk crate.

I just googled "hiking bench" and there are a bunch of different designs from the simple like mine to the very labor intensive ones. I just thought that I would start cheap and simple and if I use it a lot, I can always go to the complex one later.

Mike
 
mikescott said:
I built a hiking bench the other day-man, what a torture rack! Seeing as how I am 1) old 2) out of shape in the core and 3) new to the Laser, I have started out by doing 3 sets of 30 seconds with a 15 second rest between (straight leg-totally horizontal to the floor). Plan on adding time to the 30 seconds each week as I can. I know - pitiful based on what I have read. Do any of you stallwarts have any recommendations to accellerate this at all?

Thanks, Mike
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There's no shame in that, brother. I'm another old guy who'd be happy with myselfif I could straight-leg as you describe for even 5 or 6 straight minutes by the time May rolls around, and 10 minutes by July.

I had heard enough guys 10 years older than me say "Yeah, I used to sail lasers until I blew my knees out" that I got some good professional sports medicine advice. Be very protective of your knees. Avoid bent-knee hiking. Also, although it's a fabulous quad-building exercise, avoid wall-sits with your knees bent 90 degrees. On the rooster sailing site http://www.roostersailing.com there's a one-pager on knee health.
 
Uh-oh, wall-sits are bad for you?!? I play soccer in the fall and during pre season I worked out so hard that I actually developed a stress fractrure in my tibia just below the knee joint. After a few weeks, I started doing wall-sits for 10 minutes every week night to strengthen my knees and also to help with my hiking. I've been doing this since September, so I sure hope I haven't been making it worse!

Or are you saying that wall-sits are only bad if your knees are at 90 degrees?
 
In addition, I just read the article on the Rooster site that Chris posted above. Great stuff! A MUST READ for all of us Laser sailors!
 
macwas16 said:
Uh-oh, wall-sits are bad for you?!? I play soccer in the fall and during pre season I worked out so hard that I actually developed a stress fractrure in my tibia just below the knee joint. After a few weeks, I started doing wall-sits for 10 minutes every week night to strengthen my knees and also to help with my hiking. I've been doing this since September, so I sure hope I haven't been making it worse!

Or are you saying that wall-sits are only bad if your knees are at 90 degrees?
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First of all, I'm not a doctor and I don't know anyone's particular situation, so anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt, and you should seek your own expert advice. Also, what's right for a 17 year old is different from what's right for a 45 year old.

When you extend your knee (for example, kicking a soccer ball, or standing up from a squat, or holding yourself in a hiking position), your muscles and tendons (red in the attached cartoon) are contracting, straightening the leg and pressing your kneecap back against the joint. The straighter your leg, the less pressure against your kneecap. If you think about your knee being bent at a sharp angle (like, coming up from a deep squat) there's an enormous amount of pressure on the kneecap -- I've heard something like 10x your weight, but I don't really know. This sort of explains why straight-leg hiking is easier on the knee than bent-leg hiking.

Your knee is designed to work that way; it has strong parts and low internal friction that would be the envy of any mechanical engineer. But, as one of the docs said to me, "It's a mechanical system, and mechanical systems wear out when they get old."

So, a wall sit with your knees bent 45 degrees doesnt put the same stress on your kneecap as one with your knees bent 90 degrees. It's not as strong an exercise, either. My doc has advised me not to do wall sits with knees bent more than 30 degrees, not to use the quad extension machine at the gym with my knees bent further than 30 degrees, and not to do lunges or squats. But that's specific to my case: I've already got a little wear in the kneecap and I'm trying to avoid further damage. I don't know what the advice is for a normal healthy knee in a young person.

 

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Hi,

Thought you might like to see a picture of my self made hiking bench.
If you want me to post more of it, contact me.

Timo
 

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I had heard enough guys 10 years older than me say "Yeah, I used to sail lasers until I blew my knees out" that I got some good professional sports medicine advice. Be very protective of your knees. Avoid bent-knee hiking. Also, although it's a fabulous quad-building exercise, avoid wall-sits with your knees bent 90 degrees. On the rooster sailing site http://www.roostersailing.com there's a one-pager on knee health.
Click to expand...

This knee stuff is bad. my knee has been bugging me since last June, and i finally found out what it is: its the same thing that is being talked about in the article at the website above, called chondromalacia. i guess its really not that serious (yet) just painful, so all i have to do is wear a knee brace......guess im gonna have some pretty funky tan lines
 
lasersailor173707 said:
This knee stuff is bad. my knee has been bugging me since last June, and i finally found out what it is: its the same thing that is being talked about in the article at the website above, called chondromalacia. i guess its really not that serious (yet) just painful, so all i have to do is wear a knee brace......guess im gonna have some pretty funky tan lines
Click to expand...
Wow, you are really young to have this. Did you get it from drop seat hiking? Funky tan lines are a small price to pay as long as you can walk!

Merrily
 
steph,

you should be ok if you strengthen the outside of the knee.

just dont do high jump at school (unbalanced kneecaps and sharp jumping actions dont mix). after i dislocated my kneecap and went through the subsequent repair and strengthening of my knee it all turned out fine

this was before i sailed lasers too
 
any suggestions for strengthening the outside of the knee? also, the rooster article said strengthening of the inner quad was important too...so any suggestions on that too?
 
lasersailor173707 said:
any suggestions for strengthening the outside of the knee? also, the rooster article said strengthening of the inner quad was important too...so any suggestions on that too?
Click to expand...

If your Dr put you in the knee brace he/she would be the best to advise you on what muscles you should work on and the exercises you should use.

Now that that's been said, leg extensions where you go from full extension to approx 45 degree angle in the knee (about 1/2 the range of motion in a typical leg extension machine) work for my outer quads where they tie into the knee area. I do them with toes pointed away and hold anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute at the top (if you lift your back and butt off the seat while hold at the top, it should feel somewhat familar to hiking) I avoid doing full range reps (where the knee angle is 90 or more degrees) This is similar to what Chris said a few posts earlier

There are also specific inner and outer thigh machines in most gyms. You can simulate them somewhat at home with therabands
 
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