bookmark_borderShoe to the Pedal

My pedal machine thingy came today! Assembly was easy enough despite the lack of information in the short manual. They rattled on and on (even had an extra sheet attached to the outside of the box) about how the pedals seemingly get attached in opposite directions but barely mentioned the odd wrench that came in the box.

I can’t use it in the office chair because the chair has wheels. Duh.

I can’t use it with my wheelchair, at least not without moving the legrests.

I can, however, use it with the horribly uncomfortable wooden chair we have in the kitchen. Figures, don’t it?

I tried it out but not for very long. This cold weather and the storm front coming through has my left hip quite unhappy. The tension adjuster is turned all the way “off” but it is still there. I was concerned it might be too much but it wasn’t.

The little electronic meter is fun to watch. It has speed as a constant display then you can choose 3 others for the second half. You can choose time, distance, and calories or can set it to ‘scan’ to automatically scroll through them. It doesn’t have an alarm or whatever so you’d have to watch the clock or the distance. Gee, gotta use my brain, too?!

I’ll need to spend a while with it, figuring out how long it takes to hurt myself compared to using it long enough for any benefit such as burning calories. In PT I did it just 5 minutes forward and 1 minute backward but that was more of a warm-up than actual exercising. I’ll start out at that and do it 3 times a day then increase it if possible.

Thoughts?