Leg Day

I'm starting to feel really good about my progress. My arms are super strong, my legs are rapidly gaining strength, and you can tell that my core muscles are engaging. Yesterday afternoon, I was able to sit unassisted for about 5 minutes straight! These past few days, my body has surprised me with its capabilities. Now, I could just be feeling all of this positivity because of the Flexeril. I mean, my doctor did say that there is an addictive happy feeling people can get from the medication. I sincerely hope that I'm not just feeling good cuz I'm drugged!

The good news is that my body has successfully gotten past the drowsiness effect. Nicole has me working just as hard as any other day. Today, I started out with some chest-presses. Nicole had hung a resistance band where the TRX usually hangs. I kept my wheelchair in the sitting position, and gripping the handles, I pulled back to my chest. I had to be sure that my core was engaging to help keep my upper body back.

After a good amount of the chest-presses, Nicole handed me the 4 lb weights. With my wheelchair remaining in the upright position, we moved the armrests back so that my sides were clear. Holding onto one of the weights, I lowered my arm down so that the weight was resting by the wheel, and I lifted the weight with a straight arm. Then I slowly brought my arm back down. Doing these was killer!

Nicole was enjoying making the workout tougher than usual, so she kept me sitting straight up. It's cool...I get a kick out of a challenge! Nicole had me kick each leg out individually, multiple times! She would stick her hand out for me to kick, which really helps me!

 My next challenge proved to be too easy for me. Nicole had me do another round of the resistance band chest-presses...or maybe I should call them chest-pulls. Anyhoo, I did a bunch of those, but Nicole saw that my arms have already gotten strong. So, she told me to lean back my wheelchair and we spent the rest of our time working-out my legs!

I probably did a bazillion raises/kicks so that my knee straightened. I first did my right leg, then switched to the left. The left leg has always been quicker and the motion feels easier for me. So today,  Nicole wanted the right leg to lift-up so much that any movement felt impossible. And that's exactly what we did. Right after the individual "kicks," I tried bringing my legs up together. Then I attempted to bend my knee up from the 90 degree sitting angle. And since my left leg is "further along" than my right, I raised my left leg, bent the knee from there, re-straightened my leg. and brought it down. Now, my left leg is far from perfect, but it can at least try! I went back to raising both legs simultaniously. This time, when my knees were straight, I focused on bringing the tips of my shoes together...kinda like they were leaning in for a smooch! My legs were getting pretty tired, so there were lifts when my toes didn't  get to kiss!

  Lastly, Nicole wanted me to point and flex my feet. She did the movement for me the first few times, then I tried it by myself. No surprise here, my left foot started to point and flex,,,nothing from the right. It's interesting, Nicole said my left ankle was much more tight than my right. Then Nicole had me try to wiggle my toes. My left foot seemed to wiggle the toes more, but Nicole said she could feel my right toes trying!

As I rolled out, Nicole told me that I best be ready for a "leg day" again tomorrow!