Rest Day
Go down to REI and get yourself a slackline!
I have been working on my slackline balance a couple times a week as a warmup for a workout and as an active recovery activity. It’s quite challenging, but also not as precarious as it may look. I often find myself very sore and kinked up after hard lifts and workouts. So much so that it’s even hard to get much out of mobility practice without getting in a signifigant warmup first. Like many of you, I am bored to death with jumping rope, jogging, AirDynes and rowers. I find the slackline to be a really fun way to get my body warm and loose before rolling and stretching.
It takes quite a bit of practice until you actually begin to be able to walk on the thing a short distance, then even more practice to start making longer spans. My advice is to find two trees that are about 15-20ft apart to get started and keep the slackline about mid-shin height. Once you can comfortably walk that distance, start shooting for longer spans. The longer the line, the more crazy the wobbles get.
Here is a video of myself getting a 24ft walk. I used the BFT to scale the distance. Every time I made a successful attempt, I moved the tire about a foot farther away. This is after about 2 weeks of practicing 3x per week about 20 minutes each. Later on this same week, I actually was able to remove the tire and make the full length of the span which was about 38ft for a couple of attempts. Still more work to do, but I am finding this to be an excellent balance skill and warmup activity.
Here is a video I found particularly helpful in learning some basics.
For some, walking would just be too boring and easy. They have turned slacklining into a trampoline-acrobatic activity and a competition. Check out what is possible, then just try and stand on the damn thing.
