Leg Day

Today, I show up to the studio in my widget, ready for some hard core widget-pumping! However, I was in for a leg-day. Nicole had me get transferred out of the widget, onto the pilates reformer. I was disappointed in the sense that I always seem to feel so good about myself at the end of our widget-day sessions! But doing work on the reformer with my legs is, of course, very necessary. So, it was basically like Nicole popped my "fun-bubble." Totally necessary, but reminding me that we got a job to do. Despite the popping of my bubble, I'm kinda glad Nicole put me back to work. (For those of you who watch Family Guy, I totally had a Peter moment. lol)

 

On the reformer, I did some leg-presses...which are a lot more challenging doing them with Nicole because she challenges me to do it by myself. When I push too far back and lock-out my knees, she has me unlock/bend them on my own. I am just so used to having people assist me, so I haven't necessarily tried to "help myself." Nicole encourages me and reminds me of which muscles to engage or relax, but she doesn't just jump in there and do it for me. At first, I was scared of my own assumptions that I couldn't do something. But I'm learning that I can  do a lot more than I thought...I just need to TRY and retrain my body how to work. So, I have  to say Thank You Nicole for helping me start to rediscover my confidence in myself!

 

Along with the leg-presses, Nicole hooked my feet up to these straps above my head...totally reminded me of a sex-machine...the TRX reminded me of a sex-swing...wonder if my lack of sex over the past 7 years has made my mind just turn dirty! ;)   Anyhow, with my legs strapped up there, I pressed my straight legs down towards the ground, and raised my straight legs back up. Nicole had to help me out, I would say mainly with raising my legs back up. I struggle with that motion because my hip-flexors aren't familiar with moving my legs like that. Nicole told me to try pushing my lower back down. I think my body barely started recognizing the motion towards the end of the exercise. I for sure want to keep attempting that lowering and raising of my legs so that I can retrain my hip-flexors.

 

Lastly, Nicole shoved a block under my back. She placed it right above my butt, like where your back naturally curves up. I layed on the block for awhile, allowing my body to relax and get a good stretch. It felt good, and Nicole says I need a massage...oh bummer! ;)

The Widget Chair

Alright, so today was a widget-day...that's what I'm calling the days that I workout with my manual widget wheelchair. They're tough as hell, but I really like my widget-days! I was joking with my Pops on Father's Day, that I'm totally afraid of getting massively muscular arms! I deffinitely don't wanna have huge biceps! But seriously, I wont be surprised if I look in the mirror someday soon and I realize my t-shirts are too tight around my biceps. Lol...only kidding.

 

I did "laps" across the studio floor pretty much the whole time today. I went forwards one way, then backwards on the return. Nicole got out her stop-watch, and timed me a few times in each direction. I THINK my time going backwards, was 40 seconds. I actually would've killed my time at the end of the session, but the idget fell out of gear, into nuetral, right at the end of my lap! Totally frustrating! I can't remember my forward lap time, but I do remember my times were for wheelin' in a giant circle! Clockwise (with my left arm doing most all of the pushing)--- 54 seconds. Counter-Clockwise (with my right arm doing the work)--- 1 minute 36 seconds. I obviously still need to strengthen/do more bicep curls on the right arm!

 

I had a moment of tearful frustration when I would try to reach down with the right arm for the widget, and my upper body would just fall over sideways and forwards. The frustrating thing was my total lack of balance and the lack of strength in my core to lean myself back into the backrest. The widgets were in reverse, so grabbing ahold of the handles, meant that the widgets needed to be pulled upright. Everytime I would grab the handle and attept to pull the widgets back, the resistance would cause me to simply pull my upper body forward. After multiple attempts at sitting myself back, Nicole spoke some wise words to me. She told me that everyone who succeeds at something, has to fail  first. She gave me the example of my major improvement in bicep curls. She reminded me how I used to struggle to do a set of 15, but now I'm doing sets of 50 easily. And Nicole told me something that  I felt I needed to do. She said she needed me to get in the strongest state of mind as possible. I needed to fight through this. I didn't want to let her down, or my blog-readers for that matter, so I sucked it up, and fought back to a "movement-allowing" position.

 

After our session, with sore arms and an achey core, I have to say that I impress myself sometimes! lol.

 

 

 

*In case you haven't noticed, I don't really proof-read anymore...I figure you're smart enough to figure out any type-o's! ;)

Obstacle Course

Today we had a really cool and fun workout! I went to the studio with my manual wheelchair. For those of you who don't know, I got a Widget wheelchair with a fuschia and black zebra-print paint job! It has these handle-bars attatched to the wheels, that are long enough to reach, and I pump the handle-bars/levers forward or backwards, depending on which way I'm going. There are "switches" on the tops of the levers which I can turn to make the wheelchair move forward, or turn the opposite way to make the wheelchair go backwards. Each lever can be "switched" forwards/backwards individually...so one wheel can be going forward while the other is backing-up. It's really cool!

 

So, with my Widget, Nicole and I had a lot of fun working with it! First, Nicole had me go forward across the studio foor. When I reached the end, I turned around and went back the other way. I pushed my Widget forward across the room for awhile, then Nicole had me switch it up! I went backwards from one end of the studio to the other. Let me just say, pushing the Widget forwards and pulling it backwards, is a hard-core arm workout!

 

Then, Nicole set up an obstacle course for me to do. She placed four blocks on the floor in a spread-out, straight line. Then she put a "half-dome" on the floor, off to the side of the blocks. The obstacle course was pretty basic to look at, but it ended up being pretty tricky manuvering my wheelchair around all the bricks and circling the "half-dome" twice! The end of the course was pushing myself straight back to the start-point. I wheeled through the obstacle course a few times and I circled the "half-dome" backwards a couple of times. I was deffinitely wearing out by then from all the pushing/pulling!

 

Next, Nicole got her stop-watch and said, "Alright, we're going to start timing you." I got my Widget to the starting line and when Nicole said "Go!," I took off, leaving a trail of dust in my wake! jk. I actually had a disappointingly slow start. As I continued on through the course, the "switches" on the end end of the levers kept slipping out of the going-forward-mode. They would slide out of gear, into a neutral-mode. Very frustrating to have to stop and place a switch back in gear! I finished the obstacle course in 4min 56seconds. So, that's the time to beat next tine.

 

Lastly, I wheeled over to the TRX. Holding onto the TRX handles. I attempted to pull myself up to a stand. Nicole helped to keep my feet down. She kept my left foot from kicking out...I know it doesn't really make sense, it doesn't make sense to me either, but I get muscle overflow which sends my left leg forward, rather than having the muscles in my leg just push my foot down in a standing position. Iwas able to pull myself up higher than I have before. That was actually really encouraging, but I'm still unable to pull myself up to a full stand.

 

Although the Widget doesn't tilt back, I really enjoy working-out in it. Nicole says I look straighter, like I'm sitting more comfortably in the Widget. Well, I plan on using my Widget lots!

Amazing.

Michelle and I have been working together for nearly four full months now. Stronger and more focused every time I see her, Michelle not only impresses me with her physical strength, but with her story. She comes in every day smiling, determined, even wily. She has so much depth, so much heart and such compassion for everyone around her, yet it's quite apparent she struggles internally day in and day out. I hope that I can help her in all ways possible through physical training, but quite honestly, I hope I can be there for her as a friend through this trying time that may seem like an eternity to Michelle. I am fully invested in this girl and her future -- completely committed. And, from here, I will be there every step of the way. There are those people out there that come into your life for some reason and you may wonder why, but I know there's something bigger for Michelle and I.

From Michelle:

So, for the past couple weeks I've been trying to kinda shake off these feelings of depression. On Sunday I went to church where Rene (the pastor...I'm a TLC-er) did a sermon on When Your Engine Is Fried. He laid out what we can do to help us get through the hard times. One thing he talked about was to reveal, not conceal. So, I decided  to REVEAL that I'm having a hard time right now! I'm just getting frustrated with the situation I'm in. Some of the things that constantly are going through my mind are: How much longer? Why am I having to go through this? If I'm supposed to learn something from this, teach it to me already! Am I missing it? Am I too wrapped up in something to see whatever it is that I need to learn? And if others are supposed to learn something from seeing me in a wheelchair, seven years has been plently long enough...LEARN IT! Why has wakeboarding been stripped away from me?  (I know that last one is kinda silly, but it's something I think about! :)) Anyway, Rene gave an awesome, much-needed sermon AND he did me a favor...he mentioned my tattoo (which says Only God Knows Why on my forearm) at the end of his sermon. See parents, my tattoo can be used as an example in church services! ;) He preaches so much better than I do, so my advice is to just listen to what he said!:

    http://www.tlc.org/sermons/1236/audio/when-your-engine-is-fried/

 

So, as I'm in the midst of fighting off this depression, Nicole greets me with the news that she's dating a doctor now, and she had shared with him all about our blog 'n such, and he said that he has been doing some research, and he said to tell me that I will walk again! Now, I realize that this guy has never seen/met me, but it's encouraging to hear that I'm on the right track from a doctor!

 

I don't know if Nicole was hyped up from that, or if she was showing off because I told her my mom was gonna stop by, or if there was something in her water that she was drinking, but Nicole deffinitely was NOT friendly today! ;)

 

She started out the session with arm warm-ups. I had my arms straight out to the sides, did mini circles & twisted invisible doorknobs. My arms also went straight out in front of me, and I did a set of over-unders. Then I worked on raising my arms above my head, punching straight up and returning my arms to a shoulder-level position (kinda like a position in which I could show-off my biceps!). I raised and lowered both arms at the same time, and I worked each arm individually. And Nicole had me do punches with both arms, holding my elbows up. My goal was to punch her hands as hard as I could. I, of course, did repeats of some exercises, or just did certain one for awhile!

 

The Nicole pulled out a resistance band thingy with handles and we worked with that for quite some time! First, with my right arm gripping a handle and straight out to the side, I pulled forward and across my belly, arm straight the whole time. Nicole held the band out & back to my right side. After a number of these on the right side, we switched to my left. Then, I did this exercise where I put a lot of strain...you should have seen my face!...in trying to pull the resistance band straight up. Nicole held the band down from behind me, and with my elbows bent 90 degrees, I pushed straight up. Next we worked on core-strength. Nicole stood out & back to my right side holding the resistance band. I held one of the  r.band handles with BOTH hands, arms straight out. I then did the same motion as the first exercise, only this time it was much harder. I really had to use my core in order to stay upright. Nicole had me do this forever on the right side...then we switched sides! We also did some "punches" straight up...trying not to whack my chest coming down! Nicole weakened/lessened the resistancce for those!

 

The following exercise I ASKED for...crazy, I know! I wanted to work my abs like last Tuesday! Nicole leaned my chair back (part way) and handed me the resistance BAND, she held onto the handles. This time, without the handles to grip, I had a lot less to pull me up,/forward. Either that, or having my hands on the actual band allowed me the be more aware of my pulling. I worked on these sit-ups for a good amount of time, then Nicole leaned my chair all the way back, put her hand on my stomach, and had me do normal sit-ups. She put her hand on my tummy in order to feel my abdominal muscles engaging. I certainly can't do full-on sit-ups yet, but I deffinitely feel improvement.

 

With that, the clock struck 12:00 and our session was up!

Homework

I was asked, by Nicole this morning on the phone, to go ahead and type up a blog entry for today. Now, you might be thinking Why is she telling me this? Well, I got asked to do this after I was forced to cancel with Nicole. Now, you're probably thinking Why did you have to cancel, Michelle? Well, my caregiver, who worked yesterday but not today, took the keys to the van with her last night! So, I had to call Nicole and see if she wanted to wait for me to roll-on down to One2One (which she didn't), or if she just wanted to cancel. I was sick on Wednesday, had my little sister's middle school graduation & celebratory lunch on Thursday, and now I had to cancel AGAIN because I was running late due to the keys being missing! We just agreed to see eachother next week, but Nicole made sure to give me a lil homework! She told me to do my physical homework (30 leg/ankle lifts on each leg & wrist strengthening raises with 1 lb weight), as well as write a blog entry. 

 

 I DID WHAT WAS ASKED OF ME + MORE! ;) It's actually not that big of a deal...I did 45 leg/ankle lifts on each leg, did 75 wrist raises (which I'm hoping was enough for Nicole!), and I spent awhile reading my book (which is supposed to be good work for my double-vision). Also, yesterday I wheeled myself down the street and back in my new manual wheelchair (it's got custom fuschia zebra stripes!!!), which is DEFFINITELY an arm workout! I'm gonna bring my new wheelchair to the BZ so that Nicole can have fun kicking my ass in it! ; Next week.

Slow it Down, Speed it Up!

Lemme just say HOLY BAJEEZUS IT'S JUNE! Time seems to fly by, as they say.

 

Wow...I'm really not coming up with anything interesting or witty to say. So, I guess I'll just tell y'all about my workout session.

 

So, I started with a hard-core set of arm warm-ups. Nicole had bring my arms out to the sides, rotate my arm in  little forward circles, backwards circles, twist invisible doorknobs, bring my arms straight forward, clap, and bring my arms back out to the sides (repeatedly), bend my arms at the elbow and raise my arms up individually, and return my arms back to the straight-out-to-the-sides position and hold them there. My arms were, of course, burning like crazy!

 

Then I threw punches across my body for awhile. The goal was to target my abs, so while I threw a punch to the left with my right arm, I had to use my abs to keep me balanced in the chair. Oh. Keep in mind Nicole removed the armrests.

 

Then, with my chair tilted back significantly, Nicole held a resistance band out in front of me. I gripped the two handles, leaned/sat forward (putting a good amount of distance between my back and the backrest  of the chair), then pulled resistance band back towards my chest...all the while using my core muscles to keep/hold me sitting up. Throughout the exercise, Nicole repeated the words "Raise your chest! Chin up! Look at me!" She was stoked that I was able to pull the exercise off!

 

Next, with my chair back in normal-sitting position, I did pull-ups with Nicole holding the wooden pole. About halfway through, she added "push-ups." So, I would pull the bar down, and push it back up.

 

Then Nicole handed me the 4 lb weights, and with the armrests removed, I placed my arms straight down at my sides, and leaned over to left, brought myself back to center, and leaned to the right, back to center. I told Nicole that I didn't feel like I was leaning very much over to the right side. So, she had me ditch the weights, and hold my arms bent in at shoulder-hight.  I deffinitely felt both sides of my abdominals working that way!...In fact, I feel my abs slightly burning as I sit here and type!

 

Nicole was so stoked on it the first time, we went back to doing those pull-back-on-the-resistance-band-while-sitting-away-from-the-backrest thingies. ;) Only this time Nicole shouted out basic multiplication problems for me to get my brain and muscles working simultaneously.

 

Lastly, Nicole had me do some work with my arms and wrists. She had me draw imaginary large circles with the wooden pole, with each arm/wrist. And, holding the pole horizontally, with both hands, I flipped my wrists up and down.

 

Oh. And Nicole also gave me a homework assignment: Do 30 foot/leg raises on  each leg tonight.

 

You'll be happy to know, I did my homework!