As I mentioned, I’m still working on getting my back/hips/hammy back in shape. Basically my SI joint is out of whack and what seemed like it might be high hamstring tendinitis, but is actually coming from a hamstring adductor irritation Bored yet? So am I.
I’m working to strengthen a lot of other smaller muscle groups while letting everything else heal and align so this junk doesn’t happen again. This involves a lot of cross training which isn’t always the funnest and requires lots of equipment which can be expensive.
How have I been keeping costs down? I have some crazy gym membership deal that’s $40 a year (CRAZY) which helps, but it’s not always convenient. Plus the idea of cramming into a sweaty room with 60 people I don’t know at an awkward hour of the day that’s always totally inconvenient isn’t always my cup of tea.
I’ve been trying all sorts of other things: roller blading, running drills outside in the cul-de-sac (the neighbors don’t think it’s weird at all), and one questionable afternoon that left me shamefully watching a YouTube video of a dude in a room with a “Beast Mode” poster and 1990’s motivational mantras flashing across the screen. #theshame
One of the more reasonable suggestions was to get on a slide board.
Did you know that for the average price of a slide board and booties I could get about 67 specialty lattes from Starbucks. And I’m cheap. And I love Starbucks.
So with the help of Scott over at Coastal Health and Fitness and the website he provided – I decided to get serious and make my own homemade slide board. You can read the link on how to do this, but I spent about $40 on supplies to put this together. Had my drill been a little more cooperative, it should have only taken me about 30 minutes to assemble this bad boy. I pretty much followed the directions (so I’ll save you the step by step guide since that’s already been done), except for adding more duct tape, because let’s face it, you can never have too much duct tape.
Fun with sharp & heavy objects! No fingers were harmed in the making of this slide board. Whew! Ignore the shims next to me, those were for the boys to play with, not essential for this project.
In the end I was left with one mighty functional slide board…please note, this doesn’t fold up very easily, so this will be my “garage kept” slide board, but could easily slide under a bed or couch if you needed to.
It may not be pretty but it works perfectly….
Then came the bootie problem (this in me trying to help fix my booty problem). Thanks to the power of the Google, I discovered I had what I needed in my closet and could easily substitute slide board booties with a pair of SmartWool socks over my shoes. #cheapwinsagain
Ta Da!!!! Reduce, REUSE, recycle and FREE
Slide board for the win – and my pocketbook is that much heavier….which is awesome because I’m going to Paso Robles this weekend and I can put the savings into the all important “wine fund.”
What’s your favorite cross training tool?
Have you ever made homemade cross training equipment?
Striding Mom 
Sweet! What brings you to Paso? That’s where I live…so doesn’t seem like a vacation destination to me normally ;). Let me know if you want to get into a gym for free while you visit and I can give you a guest pass. Or if you need some winery suggestions…I’m good for that too. Heck I even have great kid activity suggestions if needed.
Ohh! I’ll take winery suggestions (trip is sans kids so these are warmly welcomed)! Thanks for the offer on the gym, but I think I’ll take a little time to just run and/or bike outside.
LOVE it! What a fantastic idea! I don’t usually make my own equipment, but my boyfriend is into all of that stuff so I’m sure we’ll have DIY equipment soon 😉
For sure! It was really easy and usable!
This is absolutely fantastic! In my last comment, I was going to ask about stability training – because while the big muscle group training can be great, I’m becoming more and more convinced that stability training is where it’s at, for recovery of lots of those little naggy issues.
Directly along those lines, I’ve been dreaming of making wobble/stability boards on the cheap. The ones to buy are $50-100 (for a decent one), but it’s mostly just wood. I’m no carpenter, but … how hard could it be??? This might be just the inspiration I need to get started! =)
Oh yeah – those are easy to make. I think I’ve seen tutorials around on that. If all else fails…you can…*gulp* check pinterest. It’s so easy to fall into an abyss there but it might be worth checking out.