David Beckham and some achilles tendon injury recovery tips

David Beckham is probably right now sitting with his foot up, a beer in hand while Posh cooks dinner and is turning his thoughts to the purchase of a balance board or a wobble board or whatever the AC Milan physio calls it. Why you ask? well because he ruptured his achilles tendon injury earlier this week. As your author knows from personal experience this is a tough injury to get over once the cast comes off.

One of the fastest routes back to fitness is the use of a wobble or balance board to gradually encourage ankle mobility. Some gentle circular movements to start with moving up over time to full weight bearing balance exercises on two feet then one foot.

Spindeck balance boards are perhaps unique in that they can be used from the cast off date whilst sitting in a chair before weight bearing is possible. Perhaps whilst watching your England team mates beat off third rate football nations in the South Africa World Cup this summer?!. Spindeck is a long thin board so it can be used up close to a sofa or lengthwise under a 4 legged chair and is a good way to get the ankle joint moving again early on in your recuperation.

Beckham would not be the first premiership footballer to use a Spindeck. The Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United team have both equipped their training grounds with Spindeck balance boards. So, cheer up Becks - put a Spindeck on your shopping list and you might just make the World Cup final if we qualify....

Three really easy peasy ways to train

We all start a training program with good intentions but it all too soon becomes a right old chore. To make it easy here are three easy ways to fit a quick spindeck balance training session into your daily grind. Give one of these a go and see how easy it is to find the time to ride.

1. Spindeck on the phone - One of our customers wrote to us recently and had this brilliant bit of advice. She had found that by leaving her spindeck next to her home phone she naturally spent her phonecalls standing on it, improving her core balance and keeping up with gossip all at the same time.

2. Spindeck while brushing your teeth - A crazy old american friend of mine who is actually a keen skier once told me that every morning he exercised his quads (thigh muscles) by squatting down about 6 inches while he brushed his teeth. You can do this using a spindeck too: Start off just riding the spindeck wih your legs only slightly bent, then as you get the hang of it start to bend your legs further and hold it for longer. Soon you'll be like my old friend and building power in you legs and improving your core stability every day.

3. Spindeck while washing up - This is something we all hate doing so why not make it worthwhile by bringing your deck to the sink. Whilst standing on the spindeck lean forward against the sink front for support if you need it. As you bend and twist your upper body whilst washing you'll be working your core balance to the max and building strength in your feet and calves counteracting these movements.