So, today was another successful day of work-outs. Nicole was "off" today because she got the brilliant idea to give up coffee as of yesterday! What a kook! I don't think I'd ever give up coffee! But I'm not a daily consumer of coffee either so, gotta cut Nicole some slack!;)
Guess what we started with...............................................,,,arm warm-ups! (for those of you just joining us!) The arm exercises burned like crazy, as usual. Once I had my blood flowing and my arms burning, Nicole had me do some punches. She held the big blue bouncy ball out in front of me as a target. She had me do individual punches and then two with the right arm, one with the left. Then switch!
Then I leaned my chair all the way back, and we worked on my legs. I will say that I am definitely feeling it now, 7hrs afterwards! We did the leg-presses, where Nicole pushes in n my feet, my knees bent up near my hips, and I press/push against her until my leg is straight. We did this on each leg individually.Then Nicole tied a resistance band around my thighs, and I worked on trying to spread my thighs apart. I was disappointed with the lack of movement I was getting with my thighs, but one thing I've learned about my body over this past month w/Nicole, is that I definitely improve each time I do the exercise. So, the next time Nicole binds my legs together with a resistance band, I'll be able to whip apart my thighs and bust that lime-green band to oblivion! lol...nah, but more realistically, I should get more movement the next time around! My next task was to hold an inflatable squishy thing between my knees and thighs, and push/squeeze my thighs together. Nicole and I had tried this exercise before, and this time I was much more successful in squeezing my thighs together. My thighs aren't near where I want them to be, but I really feel like their getting there with all these sessions with Nicole.
Once we finished with my leg work-out, I sat my wheelchair back upright and exercised my biceps! I did bicep curls with the 4lb weights. Then Nicole had me do "mini curls," where I brought the weights up to about my elbows. There was nothing "mini" about the pain I felt! Those suckers burned, mainly my right bicep! Then Nicole had me start with the weights at my sides, raise them up to shoulder level, then bring them out in front of me with straight arms. I am so weak! I could barely lift the weights up to the level of my lap! It burned/hurt sooo bad! Nicole had me take a break, then do it again. The second set was so much better than the first! I was able to lift the weights higher, not up to shoulder-level, but definite improvement.
After my arm-torture, Nicole pulled out the 5ft pole, and had me do "push-ups," "pull-ups." and arm-presses without weights...I was just working on arm control. Then Nicole massaged my hand...not a pleasant massage!
K, and I just found out, I GOT A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!! May 1st I'm moving on my own! I AM SUPER STOKED!
Hey! I kind of wandered across your blog and was wondering if I could ask a huge favor. I am writing a paper right now about some current research in prosthetic-based control and I was wondering if I could ask you some questions so I could quote you for a subjective experience and what impact research might have. It's just a small-time paper, and no one but my teacher would ever even see it, but I would truly appreciate it! :)
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