Poweriser summary of the day
The previous post shows me in a pair of Powerisers. The video does not make it justice at all. I have been on them for about one and half to two hours total. I love these things. So here are my first thoughts.
These are really cool. Sturdy, firm, lightweight. I thought they would be much heavier. All in all, the positive things about the device far outweigh the few complaints I have. A few details could have been taken care of easily to give it a much much more polished look and feel but it works as is. Mine happen to fit perfectly on me as far as I can tell, so I didn’t have to do any adjustments to them. I was so anxious to get them on that as soon as I arrived home I opened the package, took a few pictures and after scouring for a manual (never found it) I decided to just go for it.
I thought the best spot to sit on and put them on would be a high place where it would be really easy to stand up from. The first thing that came to mind was the washer machine. I made it out to the garage, hopped on the washing machine and began attaching each stilt to my legs. I didn’t even look at the straps or anything prior to when I actually put them on and I must say, it was so easy I didn’t even have to think about it. Rollerblade and snowboard bindings are the most comparable boot strapping systems.
Your foot sits on this hard platform which serves to transfer your force coming down to bend the spring which then snaps back, releases the energy and gives you the boost that makes these things so much fun. There is a knee “cuff” that sits just below your knee cap and it is bolted to the frame, and it wraps around your ancle locking in place with Velcro. I can’t exactly say how but It could use some improvements. maybe a better Velcro design? But that’s about it for the bad stuff.
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I wrote the above section a few weeks ago. I got tied up with work and business issues that have kept me from writing much. But hopefully I can post more regularly.
I’ll try to continue the Poweriser post here. Just keep in mind, I’m talking present tense and I’ve gone out about 6 times now for a couple hours at a time.
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So where to begin now? All of my cuts, bruises and road rashes are gone or at least healed by now. I think they’ll leave scars for some time if not permanently but they’re really small so no big deal. Oh yeah… I guess I should tell you about the falls. I wish I could tell you that I fell while doing a double back flip, but the reality is that I simply fell. No glorious attempt, no drama, I was simply running and both times I tripped or slipped.
The first time, I was running fine, I think this was my second time out “in public”, I was running at about half of the speed of what I can actually do I would say. Because I was still a little concerned with how I land each step, I found myself constantly looking down. Unfortunately looking down is not something you want to actually do when you are running. I looked up and noticed a big water patch on the concrete; runoff from the lawn sprinklers. It was too late to stop, besides, you can’t simply stop on these things. I had one or two steps to try to slow down but shortly after I realized my predicament, I found my self bracing for impact and closing my eyes to prevent my sunglasses from hitting my eye. Almost simultaneously my head slammed against the sidewalk I was running on. Had I not been wearing a helmet I think I could have fractured my skull. This was about minute number nine on the counter ticking after I opened all my new protective hear. Lucky me! All three items got pretty banged up, wrist guards, elbow pads and the helmet, I certainly got their my money’s worth already. I stayed on the ground for a bit trying to figure out what happened, it was so fast. I was a bit dazed so I chilled there and actually took a picture while I was on the ground. I had to then undo the stilts, walk a little while to find a spot high enough to put them on and went on my way.
The second time was a little more involved, I tried to go down a set of 4 steps, the ones that run for like 20 - 30 feet. You see them in parks and stuff, they’re usually a couple feet wide. You’d think I could have handled those well but nope, that was not the case. I took the first one fine, second one I was building up some air, the third one landed ok but something happened very different from the other one. It wasn’t as instant. I had plenty of time to realize something went wrong and I had tripped my right stilt behind my left and that caused me to spin a little and loose control. As I fell I saw a runner that had just passed me by. She looked straight at me as I was falling; I know this because in the midst of this my self conscious kicked in to pretend “I’m ok” and I actually smiled. She didn’t look back after that. LOL. This time I didn’t stay down for a while because I simply hit the ground with my wrist guard and elbow and slid a couple feet. I wasn’t dazed or anything.
Besides being fun, I’ve lost about 10 pounds since I started using these. The physical benefits of using these things are great so far, there’s a few downsides or dangers I guess as well but these are analogous to the dangers you experience in other sports where external equipment makes you move (whichever way) faster than your body was intended to; eg, roller blading, biking etc.
I noticed that lately my balance while off the Poweriser is really good. I can’t quite explain how but I simply feel much more in control of my body, as weird as that may sound. For a week or so, my legs were sore in places that I’d never been sore before, basically all my stabilizer muscles were getting worked. Because you can’t really stand still, you are constantly working all your muscles on your legs and up to your abdomen and back. All the muscles work almost involuntarily to maintain your balance. Standing in one relatively static spot may seem like a passive activity to an onlooker, but it actually takes a lot of energy to stick around it is deceiving. As soon as I get on them and begin moving around I feel my heart rate rise and start warming up and stuff just by walking.
They are a lot of fun. so far. I’ll post another update on them soon.
Oh, for those of you that wanted to know.
The model I got is the Poweriser 90120 which has a range of 198-266 pounds. My weight usually varies +-5 around 200. Hopefully even if I drop below 180 I can still push them and flex the springs enough to get good air. I think I currently can get about 2.5 - 3 feet on a jump, measuring from the shoe of the Poweriser to the floor, but I’m not sure. Then again, the jumps are only 2-3 feet, not becaue the springs can’t do better, but because I’m still learning how to land a lot of jumps consistently and accurately. I am trying to put a video together to track my progress but it takes time. Also, if you’re interested on buying one, do your research first. There are a lot of imitations and illegal sales of these, be careful for your safety.
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