Techniques to Ease Fatigue
From SegwaySocial
Many gliders experience a unique type of foot and leg fatigue while gliding. It's a unique and unfamiliar situation which gliders are in: they're actually forced to "stand still" while yet receiving impacts on their feet and legs which are transferred up through the base of the machine upon which they stand--about the only "effort" they have to endure and overcome in order to cover a lot of ground swiftly.
A step beyond just "getting used to it" with frequent gliding is to glide for longer and longer periods up on the balls of your feet.
This may seem awkward at first. For one thing, if you simply raise yourself up without moving your feet back a little from where you normally stand flat-footed, you're likely to make the machine roll forward inadvertently. Just shift your feet back a little before you raise up, experimenting to find a good position so that the machine doesn't accelerate forward when you don't want it to.
Start out slowly until you get the hang of it, but practice all of your normal gliding maneuvers while "up" until you feel comfortable with the different feel of it.
The main thing to notice is the shock absorbing action of your calf muscles as you go over bumps. This is both a comfort enhancement and a good safety measure, as it adds more flexibility beyond keeping your knees slightly bent, as the company recommends. You're less likely to be thrown off balance when you hit a bump or hole you didn't notice and are otherwise unprepared for it.
If you're not quite as fit as you should be or would like to be, the extra work for your calves will be good for them, even though it may take a while to build up your endurance. But the effort is very much worth it in its benefits for comfort, safety, and therefore longer periods of incident-free gliding.
Being up on the balls of your feet makes for a more flexible "hinge" between body and machine. This means that the machine can more freely follow the rapidly changing contours of the road surface, and the rest of your body can better stay upright or leaning properly into turns.
Give it a good try. It may be difficult at first, like other forms of exercise, but you may grow to like and prefer gliding while "staying on your toes."
