On Saturday I was doing some work up at my son's primary school which involved driving metal wedges, known as "wizards" into the ground to support pole mounted signage. So as to drive the "wizards" into very dry and hard ground with the full face of the sledge hammer I had to squat and swing the sledge hammer.
If you can picture me bent at the knees, my butt approaching being parallel to the ground while leaning slightly forward to keep my balance and swinging a sledge hammer. Now the reason for the contortion is so you can drive the wizard as far as you can into the ground using the full face of the sledge hammer. If you don't do this the wizard will not drive into the groung square and it takes far longer to achieve. The idea is to have the top of the wizard as close to ground level as possible when you are finished. I did this for approaching 3/4 of an hour as the wooden block being used on top of the wizards whould either slip off with the impact of the sledge hammer or split.
Upon finishing this and completing a couple of other quick chores I did not notice any great discomfort or stiffness in my Glutes. The next day I did not run as I usually would in the morning as we were out late Saturday night and I had breakfast with my Mum. This resulted in me not running until about 3.00pm that afternoon doing 10km in just under 60 min. It was an easy run with a couple of hills on a beautiful day with me taking a few photo's along the way as I ran. However immediately after my cool down walk my Glutes and Hamstrings started to seize up making walking, sitting ...... moving difficult. They stayed like that until after I went to bed and at one stage almost cramping when I got up from sitting.
For the life of me I couldn't figure out why I was so stiff and tight and then it dawned on me, the work I had performed the day before. So I tried to emulate the squatting position I had used the day before and I could hardly bend at the knees let alone get anywhere near as low as I had done just 24 hours previously. Now I know there is always room for improvement and I'm far from perfect but I had no idea my Glutes were so weak. Its been a great lesson learn, driving home what Eric subscribes to pertaining to proper strength and form with the need to excersise all these muscles so that our bodies work as one. Athleticism = Awareness
In this case being aware of my weaknesses and many short comings!!!! Onward and Upward.
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