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A semi-retired HR consultant and regular runner shares his Yoback experience.
(Note: the following article is based on direct quotes from our interview)
Before
I played a lot of football and rugby when I was younger, then developed knee problems that got so bad I could barely walk into town without my knee giving way. Physio sorted that out years ago, and I built back up slowly. I walked Kilimanjaro for my 40th birthday, then started running properly and doing parkrun from 2018. Since then I've done around thirty 10ks, several 10-milers and about ten half marathons. The constant issue has always been stiffness: tight muscles everywhere, especially my hips, from years sat in an office.
The Turning Point: Why Yoback?
I'd looked at a few flat stretching boards online but they always felt one-dimensional: you could only really do one thing with them. The Yoback kept turning up on Facebook, and I liked that it wasn't just a single-use board. The ring, or the separate curved pieces, gave it real flexibility. I bought it in September, around my birthday, partly because I was turning 60 that October and thought I'd treat myself.
"I've panicked about [turning 60], I think... it was just generally looking for something because of increasingly niggly little injuries."
The Change: Life After Yoback
It's permanently out now. After a couple of hours in meetings, I'll go and stand on it. What's surprised me most is how much it's improved my balance. Standing on one leg on the floor for 30 seconds used to be nothing, but doing the same thing on the Yoback is a genuinely different challenge, and I can feel exactly when I've let that slip.
"Stand on your stand on each leg for 30 seconds, like it was a piece of cake. It wasn't challenging me at all, but actually standing on the yo back for 30 seconds is far more challenging."
I've also started incorporating exercises from Will Harlow, a physio on YouTube who specialises in over-50s strength and balance work, using the Yoback as the base for a lot of it. I use it as part of my warm-up before runs too, particularly for foot and calf flexibility.
The results have been real: I set a personal best 10k time in November, and my parkrun times have come down as well, which I put down to my hips being more flexible: my stride's longer, so I need fewer steps to cover the same distance. I still get an intermittent ache in one heel, but using the Yoback got me through the Helsinki Half Marathon when it flared up mid-race.
Used in this article
Yoback — £114.99
Used as a balance platform, a warm-up tool for calf and foot flexibility, and a desk-break stretch, now permanently out and part of his daily routine.
See the Yoback →A Few Questions We Asked
Q: What was the trigger for you to get it?
"Because I'm 60 in October, one number with an O at the end, and I've panicked about that, I think... with the foot and heel problems last year, it was, how can I get that better, and then flexibility... actually, if your foot's more flexible, you can run quicker."
Q: How would you describe it to somebody?
"I sort of call it a system, because, systems thinking, it is a flexible system... I didn't want to end up with sort of one of those boards that I can do squats on, and then have to find something else to do something else. I wanted something that would be multifunctional."
What Changed Since Buying It in September
- Set a personal best 10k time, plus improved parkrun times
- Longer running stride, needing measurably fewer steps to cover the same distance
- Genuine, trackable improvement in single-leg balance
- Uses it daily, permanently out at his desk and before every run
