An evil piece of equipment

Torture device.

Finally! After several days of excruciating pain following any tickle in my nose I can finally sneeze without simultaneously grabbing my stomach and cringing. Of course my cold is gone, so what's the point, right?

About a month ago I was having some issues with my ankle so I bought one of those inflatable balance boards. After about two weeks of nightly calf raises it went the way of so many other pieces of home equipment -- kicked into the corner to collect dust.

Then I tried yoga, and practically fell flat on my face. I guess I can mind-numblingly pound my feet on the pavement for 10-miles plus, but I can't hold a tree pose to save my life. I had tried some stuff on the BOSU at Aspen. Same deal.

Me = Uncoordinated loser.

Yea, I should probably work on this.

So after some reading, I dust off the inflatable spiky disc and started to follow the program that came with it. The first exercise is just to stand on it. That wasn't so hard. Then I had to stand on one foot. It took a few tries. I finally made it 15 seconds or so when Gigi and Lizzie came zooming through. I wasn't up for that challenge.

That's not what killed me, though.

I've been doing a series of crunches several times a week. The booklet showed how to do them using the balance board. Sure, why not. Normally I can do about 50 or so regular crunches in one shot. I huffed through 10 on this thing and needed a break. I s-l-o-w-l-y eeked out the other 40. I'm still feeling pretty ok. I try a plank using the thing. Wasn't too bad. Feeling good. Tried a couple other maneuvers.

I sit down on my couch for about 10 minutes. Then try to get up. Wasn't happening. The next day I'm achy. As I mentioned before, I was getting over a cold, so every sneeze was like a sock to the stomach.

Yea, that one kicked my butt.