Fight Tenatiously

I'm totally stoked. My body is making progress so rapidly right now! (knock on wood) I am loving it! Nicole and I have been totally impressed with the improvement I've made in 2 days It's an amazing feeling to watch all of your struggle, hard work, among a bunch of other things, FINALLY starting to pay off!

I know it's hard for y'all, the readers, to picture where I'm at physically right now, but please believe me when I write that I actually believe/KNOW that I will walk again...soon! It used to be that "walking again" meant that I would sinply *poof* just go from the wheelchair to running around like my 19 year old self. I couldn't grasp the idea that hard work pays off. I was just waiting for that one day when I would wake-up and be "fixed." Growing up, life certainly wasn't easy, but it never required perserverance, dedication, or tenacity. (I'm laughing at my writing because I used a form of the word tenatious. When I was a 7th grade cheerleader, we would joke around about a cheer that went, Fight tenatiously. Fight, Fight tenatiously.) Things would pretty much just work-out for me. I suppose the time came for me to learn a number a different things, but in this case, that I can't just sit around feeling sorry for myself. I've gotta fight to make my dreams a reality. Fight tenatiously. Fight, fight tenatiously.

Although I may hate the feeling of doing it, I am incredibly grateful that I met Nicole and she has me do torturous arm exercises! Today was bad...I started the session with my arms out, doing baby circles. I did a gazillion lil circles, and then straight from there I did arm raises. Holy crap. Those hurt! At one point, I tried to quit and just do more lil circles, but Nicole caught me and said through laughter, "HEY! You think you can just tell me what you're gonna do?"   And with that, she made me return to a few more arm raises.

And just to show me that she was listening to my needs, Nicole had me straighten out my arms to the sides, and do more arm circles!

Then, Nicole had me do repetative legs lifts with my wheelchair sitting straight up. I focused on raising both legs simultaneously, I did these leg lifts for 5 minutes.

After that, I leaned my chair partially back, and I worked on my leg muscles with more gravity. I did leg raises, lifted my right knee up over and over, lifted my left knee and straightened my leg out, and worked on lifting both knees up simultaneously. I was finally able to successfully raise up my bent left knee, and kick-out my leg straight, without having my thigh touch the seat of the wheelchair! Very cool! Nicole and I were stoked!

Next, Nicole and I worked on my inner and outter thigh muscles. We discovered that on my left leg, the outter thigh muscle needs to be woken up, and on the right leg, the inner thigh muscle needs the same. We ended up strengthening the outter muscles on the right leg by having me try and repeatedly push my right knee out. Nicole put her hand on my knee to provide resistance.

On my left knee, we strengthened my inner thigh muscle since that was the only muscle engaging in my left thigh. Nicole put a foam brick between my knees, and I tried to squeeze the crap out of it!

She didn't know any exercises off hand that would make my various thigh muscles engage, but I'm sure Nicole will have something for me to strengthen those muscles next week!

Finally, Nicole got out her vibrating masager. She massaged my ankles, calves, inner and outter thigh muscles, my hip flexors (which also need work!), my abs, my shoulders, arms, and neck. No complaints here!

Repatition

It was foggy and cold this morning, and inside the studio wasn't any warmer! Well, of ccourse it was, but I just like being dramatic! Nicole got me warmed up right away. I did arm warm-ups for a nice chunk of time. Arms went out to the sides, and first were lil circles forwards and then backwards. Then came the twisting of invisible doorknobs. Lastly were bringing the arms straight up from a bent position over and over again. The cycle repeated until I was good and warm.

Nicole told me that I would be doing everything in 5 minute intervals today. She wanted to implement repatition...something we hadn't focused on in a while!

So, for the next 5 minutes, we leaned my chair back (not all the way!) and I raised my legs, trying to get them both to come up together. It is so weird, I focused on only raising my right leg, and without even looking at it or thinking about it, my left foot suddenly pops up in my view...just to say hey! See what's going on! I guess it's just overflow action, but it's kinda funny that my left leg just comes on up unannounced and unprovoked!

Then I practiced raising my knees up to my chest. At first I brought up the left knee, higher than I was doing it before. After applauding my left knee's capabilities, Nicole had me work with the right knee. I brough my knee up about a 1/2 inch in the beginning. Then, I tried raising both knees up together. My right knee improved to raising 1-1.5 inches with both legs working at once It was as if my left leg was showing my right leg how it's done! Once we thought that my right knee got the hang of it, I rested my left leg and raised only the right for 5 minutes.

 I then did 5 minutes straight of arm warm-ups. Lil circles, invisible doorknobs, arm raises were all included. Good lord, I wanted to drop my arms at like 3 minutes! But I forced myself to stick it out for the full 5 minutes! I'm glad I did, cuz now I can brag about it!

Lastly, Nicole gave my body a good shake with her powerful vibrating massager. She got my akles, calves (front and back), thighs, abs, shoulders, and arms! My calves and shoulders got itchy, and the vibrations felt sooo weird on my abs! And when it was up on my neck and shoulders, the vibrations got into my throat, making my voice sound funny! I told Nicole that if I had one of those vibrating massagers, I'd play around with it non-stop!

Marvelous Monday

Mondays suck. Yeah, I said it. It's just so hard to really get going on Mondays. I either feel tired, or lazy, or just bleeeeehhhhh. But you wake-up Tuesday, raring to go! It's weird...Mondays deffinitely suck.

At least Mondays aren't just hard for me. Nicole hates Mondays too. Working out on Monday is always a slow going day for us. Today was as usual a widget day. Nicole had me simply pump the widget back and forwarth across the studio floor. My neck was acting up and I kept wanting to rest my head over to the right. It just felt more comfortable practically resting my head on my right shoulder.

Nicole noticed my funky, uncomfortable position, and stopped my forward progress to try and take the kink out of my neck. She was surprised to feel how tigh the muscles in the right side of my neck were, and actually felt some knots. The good news was that I had a chiropracter appointment directly after the workout session...thank goodness!

After a good amount of uncomfortable laps forward, Nicole felt bad for me, so I pulled the widget rods backwards for a while. I don't really know what it is that makes moving backwards so much easier for me, but I deffinitely think rowing backwards is so much easier!

A lap after the switch backwards, Nicole started tweeking my neck again, when she asked, "Do you have a fever?" I told her I didn't think so, but that I was feeling pretty hot all of a sudden. With that, Nicole had me take a break and we had a nutrition consultation check-up!

She sat at her desk and took notes on how I'm doing on my diet. (Side note: I hate calling it "my diet." Cuz that sounds like I'm watching the food I eat because I don't want to get fat. When really, I'm just trying to eat good, healthy things for my body. Trust me, I'm not naturally a helth-food-nut!) I was happy to report that I have been eating well. Of course, Nicole had to ask me about what I ate over the weekend...the days I deffinitely throw caution to the wind! I couldn't have been asked what I ate Monday thru Friday! Nooooo. I had to spill the beens about the Hamburger Helper I ate for dinner over the weekend, and the Rice Krispies that I ate Sunday morning! Whatever...it was good.;)

Once we did our nutritional report and my body temp calmed down, Nicole and I played catch with the tennis ball. Although some of my throw miss the target, I am certainly improving!

Before we wrapped up our session, Nicole had me squeeze the tennis ball in each hand. I think I did about 10 squeezes in each hand.

And that was it! See how exhilirating Mondays are?!

From Wheelchair to Wakeboard

MASH is one of those super fun, silly childhood games where you write "MASH" (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) at the top of a piece of paper, under that write down the names of 3 potential husbands,3 potential ages you're gonna get married, 3 potantial careers, 3 potential pets, 3 potential cars you would like to have, and 3 potential number of kids you'll have. At the bottom of the page, you write RAP (Rich, Average, Poor), and one person scribbles dots until they hear "stop!" from the other person. The number of dots drawn, is the number you use to go through all of your potentials, crossing out the one that you land on each time. Continue until there is only 1 husband, career, pet, car, and number of kid(s). Do this over the letters in the words MASH and RAP as well. The game is supposed to determine your life for ya. After our workout, Nicole and I played MASH cuz it's friday and cuz it's fun! We only had time to do one round, so we MASHed my future.

BUT, before I share with y'al what I have to look forward to, I gotta share my workout with Nicole.

Today was an arm day. I started out with bicep curls using the 4 lb weight. I did a whole heap of bicep curl with left arm, the the right, back to the left, then the right again. I did so many, that I thought my arms were going to fall off!

Then, Nicole had me squeeze a purple tennis ball with each hand individually. It doesn't sound like much of a workout, I know. But doing this action repetatively BURNS! And holding the tennis ball in my right hand is challenging, for sure. Whenever I would squeeze down on the ball, my right thumb would slip inward and ruin my grip on the tennis ball, I had to keep asking Nicole to re-position my thumb around the ball.Super annoying!

Next, Nicoe wanted me to try something new. We tried doing arm raises with the tennis ball first. I pushed my arm up, then brought it back down, bending my elbow. We tried these on each arm individually with the tennis ball. Then, we did the arm raises with the 4 lb weight. I am happy to say that I successfully did my first set of overhead arm raises. :)

  It was back to the bicep curls. Only this time, I switched back and forwarth between the right and left side. Nicole couldn't help but grin at the thought of how sore I was gonna be tonight!

Then, we played catch! We threw the tennis ball back and forwarth, all the while working on little things like when I should release the ball, my throwing direction, and my follow-through.

And as our session wrapped up, we reverted to our 6th grade selves, and played MASH! My Exciting Future:

Husband: Jason Stackhouse


Marriage Age: 28

Career: Pro Wakeboarder


Pet: Cat


Car: Porsche


Kids: 2

MASH: Shack


RAP: Average

Mmm-Bop!

Another brutal workout today. My abs are sore already, both of my arms hurt, and my legs are majorly tired after todays torture session. ;) With the workouts I'm doing, my body is without a doubt developing so much strength that I didn't even know I was lacking. It is awesome to see my thigh muscles, for example, go from a mushy pile of muscles and fat, to a firmer, more toned beauty! My legs are looking ready to walk...it's very encouraging I can actually SEE the progress I'm making in both my arms and thighs. Besides the wheelchair, I'm lookin' gooood! ;)

So today, Nicole wanted to give me a full-body workout. We started with a resistance band, working my arms and abs. I grabbed the middle of the band with my wrist facing up, Nicole held the ends, and I pulled the band in (bicep curls). I felt my abs engage every time I pulled in. I was told to focus on pushing my lower back into the backrest of the chair. This would help me prevent my upper body from falling forwards. I switched over to the right arm, which impressed Nicole with its strength and sturdiness in the wrist! It was an awesome feeling to have my right arm be so reliable! My right hand found a strong grip  on the resistance band, my wrist didn't give-out and bend, and my right bicep is sore now from working so hard!

  Then, Nicole tested to see if I could use my abs to lean me forward and sit straight back. She had me place my arms/hand out in her arms/hands. She had me use only my abs to move myself back 'n forwarth. I could use my arms to push me back.

Once I passed Nicole's test, she said that she could use a resistance band, instead of standing next to me. holding my arms. She would hold the resistance band from behind me, while I gripped the center of the band, holding the band with arms straight out. Keeping my arms relatively straight, I lowered the band, bringing my core forward too. Unfortunately, doing this exercise with my arms straight up, gave me a painful kink in my neck. So, we ditched that exercise and went back to the "test" exercise.

Next, we leaned my chair back (not all the way) and worked on sit-ups. At first, Nicole had me working on engaging my abs. Nicole put on a lil Hanson, Mmm-Bop, to inspire me. I was just crackin' up every time Nicole sang along...which apparently, is good for your abs during sit-ups!

 Then, she had me raising my legs out straight while I sat-up. And to make it super challenging, she had me pulling on a resistance band. I wasn't allowed to pull myself up/forward with the r.band using my arms, not until I got past a certain point using only my abs. Once Nicole gave me the green light to use my arms, I pulled on the r.band give my abs some assisstance on sitting me up.

Holding my legs up during all of that was SO hard on the right leg. I don't think I even had to give my left leg a second thought! Bringing it up was easy, and keeping it up cake compared to my right leg. My right leg struggled to come up, and then once it was up, my leg was just super heavy to keep up. I fought the feeling I had to just let it drop, and pulled out a good number of those impossible sit-ups!

We ended our session on a good note. I raised both of my legs up, and Nicole had me bend my left knee. Now, I know this is going to be hard to imagine, but I was able to bend my knee up the farthest I've ever seen it! And, I bent it like a champ WITH my right leg out straight! Impressive, I know. ;)

Let's Do This

Here we go. The start of another week. Another week to continue my progress. Another week to share my story with who knows how many people. So, let's do this!

As you probs figured out, Mondays are my widget days. I started out the workout with doing 2 laps forward, and 2 laps backwards. With my arms getting stronger, these laps are feeling more like simple warm-up laps, rather than exercise laps like earlier on!

Nicole had me then do 4 laps holding my legs straight out. This is deffinitely a workout! My legs strat to feel super heavy, and my feet start to drop down half-way through 1 lap! Nicole let me rest after the first two laps, but I had to go non-stop for the second two laps! I am super motivated to keep working on this exercise, so that my legs can grow stronger and doing these straight legged laps will be nothin' more than a warm-up!

Next, I wheeled under the TRX and put on the brakes. Nicole wanted to try getting me to stand-up with the TRX. We had tried this before, so I was familiar with what she wanted to try. With this familiarity, I think I was able to try with more confidence. Plus, I had just been told to remember not to second-guess that God's got my back! I need to not be full of fear, but full of confidence, knowing that God isn't going to "let me fall." That's something that I have been struggling with because I'd like to think that God would will give me some sort of "heads-up" when something bad is going to happen. But God most certainly didn't warn me that I was going to get horribly sick and end up in a wheelchair. And then I try to give God the benefit of the doubt, and just assume that I missed the "warning signs" when I was 19. I wouldn't think that I was so self-consumed that I would just be oblivious to God's "heads-up." But I didn't think I would blow off a $6000 college scholarship to Whitworth, but apparently I did! So, I guess I can't trust my 18/19 year old self. Grrr...so confusing!

Anyhoo, Nicole held my feet down on the ground, while I pulled myself up with the TRX. I struggled with straightening my knees because, when I put out the effort, my left leg slides/pushes out. Rather, I need to figure out how to push straight up on my legs.

After trying to stand-up a couple times, Nicole sat down on the ground, directly in front of me, and had me do some leg exercises. First, I did some leg presses with the right leg. I feel, and Nicole tells me, that my right leg is getting so much stronger.

Then, I worked the left leg. My left leg is a lot stronger than the right, so I tried raising my knee, then straightening my leg from that raised position. I bent my knee up, then straightened my leg over and over again. Our latest goal is to get my left leg stright while my thigh is off of the wheelchair.

My right leg totally got worked out with overflow muscle activity! This was actually surprising because it is usually my left leg that is constantly affected by overflow.  So, I guess you could tell that I was working really hard!

Then, we had to stop. I had to go pee...bad! I wheeled myself over to bathroom. It was like an obstacle course trying to wheel around the tredmills and corners...and if I could cross my legs to hold in my pee, I would! Luckily, I made it to the toilet where I urinated for a solid 10 minutes! J/K...TMI, I know!

To wrap up our session, Nicole stretched out my arms and shoulders. It was needed...fo sho!

That's Gotta Hurt!

OMG. I witnessed a pretty intense OUCH! today at the studio. This woman smacked her face on the closed sliding glass door! I was sitting outside waiting for the class that Nicole was running to wrap up. One of the women turned to run outside to grab something for Nicole, and ran right into the door! There was a massive BANG! and everyone thought for sure that she broke her nose! She didn't, but Nicole was saying that she has like a runway show that she's a model for this weekend! Man, I hope she doesn't gnarley black eyes from her impact! No one was laughing when it happened, but ya gotta admit, it makes for a pretty funny story! Nicole said that was the second person in 2 weeks to run into the door. Apparently, that guy used more colorful language on impact. ;) Atta boy!

After the brutal slam, I started my hard-core workout. It's interesting...I think Nicole is on this torture-workout kick with me! She has deffinitely sent me home EXHAUSTED each day this week! Don't get me wrong, I love that she's pushing me so hard...but, let's just say I'm sleepin' goooood!

So, Nicole had me start on the TRX. I'm startin' to dread the TRX because, although I am getting stronger, Nicole continues to make the exercises more challenging! For example, Nicole hung the handles higher, so that with my chair tilted back, I would have to use my abs to help lift me up to grab the TRX handles. It's so frustrating to see your hands so close, yet they're so far when I gotta use my abs!

I did a number of pull-ups, in a couple different positions, and some different holds...ya know, like turning my wrist in, out, or facing me. Then Nicole had me raise/staighten my right leg endlessly! One thing that my left leg likes to do, is raise/straighten when I'm putting effort out into the right leg. This is known as overflow. So, as I was raising my right leg, I tried to focus on keeping my left leg relaxed.

My right leg is deffinitely getting stronger. I'm able to raise the foot up higher, and I'm still working on the speed at which I can raise my leg up. My right leg is deffinitely slower than the left, but it's steadily gaining speed!

With my left leg, I worked on raising the leg up, bending the knee up towards my chest, straightening my leg back out, and releasing/dropping my leg back down. As of today, I can only raise my left knee a couple of inches, but that's why I'm working on it! Nicole also had me try lifting my left knee from the sitting psition, and then try straightening my leg with my knee up.Then, I switched over to the right leg. Because my right leg isn't as "advanced" as the left, I simply tried to repeatedly lift up my knee from the sitting position.

Then my Gramma came for a visit! She pulled up a chair and watched the show! Can I just say that when you're looking for encouragement and an amazed reaction, just invite your grandma to come watch you workout!

Nicole had me show my Gramma my leg and knee raises. Then, she set me up with the TRX again. My Gramma felt that my shoulder blades were coming together during my "pull-ups." She liked that ;). She also followed Nicole's lead, and placed her hand on abs. Apparently, that was a crowd pleaser! 6-pack here I come! ;)

Next, Nicole had me do leg-presses. I think she tried extra hard to restrict my legs for kicking straight out. Again, the difference in the strength in my right and left legs was noticible.My left leg was so much easier to kick straight than my right.

Lastly, Nicole got a resistance band. She had me grip the center, and she held on to both ends of the band. My chair was slightly tilted back, and at first, I pulled the band back to my chest, and straight back out. Then, I leaned forward/sat up, and pulled the band to my chest, and released. Nicole was impressed with how much stronger my abs were in this exercise. I was stoked too, that my core was strong enough to pull me forward and hold me upright while I was doing the arm exercise!

And I gripped the r.band one arm at a time, wrist turned up, and did bicep-curls. I was told that with the resistance band, it was like I was doing 10-lb bicep curls!

Woo-hoo! I'm gettin' buff! 

Felt like I was giving birth!

 Today's workout was a killer! Nicole had me laying on the floor the entire time. I layed on my back on a yoga-mat in the middle of the studio. I was doing a lot of hard work, hopefully "waking up" muscles that have just been dozing for the past 7 years!

Nicole had me "vocally pushing" my leg and ab muscles for practically every exercise. I was surprised by the noises that were coming out of my mouth...it was like I was giving birth! Or what I imgine it'll sound like!

My memory is deffinitely not working at full speed ;), so we're just gonna pretend that I'm recalling these exercises in the right order!

I started out with knee-lifts. I started with my knees bent, feet on the mat. I tried raising and bending my knee as far up as I could. I was able to do a better job raising my left knee up all on my own. My right leg needed more assistance from Nicole.

I also did this thing where I pressed the arch in my lower back down to the mat. Nicole placed her hand under my lower back as a reference point for me. I had my knees bent up, and I focussed hard on trying to push down and squeeze Nicole's hand with my lower back.

We also worked on bridging, where your hips/butt come up off the floor. So, with my knees bent up, I tried pressing down with my feet, as well as pushing into the floor with my hands and shoulders. While doing this, I worked on raising my hips up.

Then, I did leg presses. Nicole held up my foot (right foot, then left) and used her chest to provided extra resistance when I needed it.

Nicole assisted me in the beginning when it came time to open/spread my knees apart, ankles stayed together. I felt my left inner thigh muscle engaging, but not the right. So Nicole had me try just the right leg, moving the knee in and out. I was able to feel the right leg start to engage when I was moving it independently.

From there, I tilted both of my knees from side to side. Not surprisingly, moving my knees from the right side over to the left, was more difficult because of the weakness in the right leg. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops...I probs sounded like I was getting murdered!

Doing sit-ups was good. I attepmted normal, fully-on-the-ground sit-ups first. I deffinitely feel my abs working a raising me higher than before. Nicole also had me leaning back on one of those half ball thingies, and pulling myself up/forwards to my knees, using my arms and abs. I was given a strap to aide in pulling myself up with my arms. Nicole didn't want me using my arms too much, so she held on to the other ends of the strap, controlling the amount of resistance I was given.

To end our session, Nicole held up one leg at a time, and gave me one of those painful but good stretches.

Charriots of Fire

Ugh. Mondays are always so hard to get going. It doesn't help that I stayed up late last night catching up on True Blood episodes! What? It's such a good show! So going into todays workout sleepy, was me just asking for Nicole to send me home exhausted!

Today was a widget day, and Nicole decided to get creative with my workout. I started out with the simple pumping forwards laps across the studio floor. Then I switched directions, and pulled the widget rod backwards for a couple laps.

Here's the "fun" part: Nicole wrapped a resistance band around my torso, under my arms. As I pushed my wheelchair forward, she held the resistance tightly and pulled back as I struggled forward. I wore a shirt with horses on the front today, so we totally felt like Charriots of Fire!

I made my way across the floor, one arm pumped forward at a time, and then Nicole had me try part 2 of her creative exercise. She released me from her reigns, and had me straighten out my legs (so that they were straight out in front of me) and simultaneously pump the widget rods forwards, across the studio and back. I had never tried doing two different things at once, but I was able to do it, no problem. Except I did face one problem...The widget rods kept slipping out of gear! It was so frustrating  because every time the chair slipped out of gear, I had to fix the settings keeping my legs out straight still!

When I reached the end, Nicole said "Great! Now let's do 'Charriots of Fire' while you're holding your legs out!"
Boy-oh-boy, was I excited. Nicole wanted to combine the two exercises to make it extra challenging for me! I inched my way down the floor and back, impressing even me!

Then, Nicole decided to get me on the stationary bike. I was super nervouse to be transferred from the wheelchair onto the bike by Nicole...I didn't want to hurt her and cause another neck injury! But I kept my mouth shut, and she transferred me successfully! I guess I showed a lot of improvement in my transfers. Nicole was impressed with how easy the transfer was for her. I don't get feedback on my transferring skills very often, so hearing that from Nicole made me feel good

Because it has been so long since I rode the recumbandt bike, my leg muscles were confused at first on how to pedal. It took a little bit, but my legs soon remembered what they were supposed to do. I pedaled forwards and backwards, then Nicole wanted to work on my inner thigh muscles.

She stuck a block between my knees and told me to squeeze it with my legs. I was able to engage my left inner thigh muscle, but not my right. I then tried moving my knees out. This time, my right side engaged but not the left.

Lastly, Nicole replaced the block with her hand, and had me try to squeeze in the right knee. I tried extremely hard, and got the inner thigh muscle to engage. I obviously meed to continue working on the thigh muscles so that engaging them doesn't take so much effort!

With that, our session was done and I wheeled myself outta there! Be back Wednesday!

Getting Close

TGIF! Well, not really. I don't really get a day off from being in the wheelchair! For me, the weekend is simply a set of days that I am constantly reminded of the fun things that I could be doing! Well, that's okay...gives me motivation to keep pushing myself!

Yesterday, at physical therapy, I told my therapist that it was time that we take a more aggressive approach to getting me walking. I was relieved when her response came. She agreed and we talked about my available options and got me on the Pool Therapy Schedual for later this month! So, I'm gonna go try out PT in the pool and, hopefully, it will really be positive and get me moving my feet/legs in the water. In the meantime, my therapist seemed very excited about trying things like the parallel bars on land! It is crazy, but I am so much more capable with my back-brace on...Did I mention my new back-brace in the blog? Well, I've had it for almost 3 weeks now, and I love it! I wore my back-brace to try the parallel bars, and I was able to hold myself with stability for a bit! It's awesome to be able to say that Yeah, I'm doing work on the parallel bars now! For me, the parallel bars have always been like the Holy Grail of the physical therapy gym. When a person/patient is working on walking their booty out of there, you can tell that their body is no longer "sick." I have spent years in rehab facilities, longing for my body to be strong enough so that I, too, could take on the parallel bars.It's almost like the final obstacle before you cross the finish line. Not only did it just feel good to be there, but standing there, looking at myself in the mirror, my body looked so much more alined and I just looked ready to practice walking.

Nicole commented on how much straighter I'm sitting in the wheelchair today. I was doing bicep curls with the 4 lb weights, and she couldn't get over how much "healthier" I'm looking now with my head/neck and spine straighter. It feels sooo good to hear Nicole say that! It makes me feel proud of myself for speaking up about getting a back-brace.

After sharing my good news about physical therapy, Nicole got inspired to continue to build-up my arm strength. She wants to make my arms incredibly strong so that I won't poop out on the parallel bars because my arms got too tired! So, she had me do like a hundred bicep curls with the 4 lb weight on each arm. Then I was asked to grab the weight so that my palm was facing down, straighten my arm, and raise the weight up and lower it back to my lap. I then went from forward arm lifts, to straight out to the side arm lifts. Then, I switched arms, doing forward arm lifts and side arm lifts. Next, Nicole grabbed the 8 lb weights and I swallowed hard. She put a weight in my left hand, which was straight down at my side, and had me lean over, lowering the weight, and using my right abdominal muscles to pull me back up. When I switched to the right side, Nicole had me try to do the exercise with the 4 lb weught. After a couple reps with the lighter weight, I couldn't feel an adequate amount of strain/pressure on my left ab muscles. So, I made Nicole let me try holding the 8 lb-er. Nicole had to help me not fall over and brace my right grip on the weight, but I did it! Then, I did a gazillion shoulder shrugs with the 4 lb weights...one in each hand simultaneously. Shoulder shrugs are evil They seem super easy...at first! Then, once that pain picks up, you're quickly ready to wrap it up!

...Water break...

Then Nicole got this great idea to work some muscles that I didn't even know I had! I grabbed hold of a tennis ball, placed my forearm on the armrest with my wrist hanging off, and squeezing the ball, raised and lowered my wrist. Holy moly, I felt the burn in my forearms...right on the top! I did the wrist-raises on each arm

Lastly, Nicole grabbed a resistance band and had me grab the end with both hands. With my arms straight forward, I pulled the band across my body. I switched it up, and went both directions, that way I engaged both sides of my abs.

Not surprisingly, my arms and abs are sore already...Can't wait to feel them tomorrow!

Watch Out for F-bombs

Both Nicole and I are ready to get me walking! With my new back brace,which is totally straightening me out, my new healthy, noninflamatory diet, and the strength I'm continually gaining in my arms and legs, I am feeling ready to take that next step.....get vertical and practice walking! Nicole is now on a mission to get me one of those baby-bouncers that you put like in a doorway, and the baby can just bounce! We just need something like that for a full sized human! Between the two of us, we gotta know someone who can get creative!!!

Until my baby-bouncer is created, we dove into some other, non-standing stuff. Nicole had me practice raising an inflated blue disc between my hands, from my lap up to Nicole's hands. I did about 10 lifts...it was really dificult and frystrating for me to get both hands to grip the disc properly with open hands. My right hand likes to "fold-up" into a closed fist...it's very annoying! The one good thing that Nicole noticed, was that my hands were squeezing the disc more firmly when raising it. When we had tried this exercise before, I had a very flimsy, shakey grasp on the disc and would constantly drop it. This time, I had a much sturdier hold on the disc.

Since we thoroughly worked my arms on Monday, Nicole had me lean my chair back to work on my legs. First, I raised my right leg up, tried to bend my knee up, and straighten my leg out by pushing my foot into Nicole's resistance. Then, I switched legs. I felt exhausted raising my knee up and doing leg  presses against Nicole's thick wall of resistance! I was trying so hard, that an F-bomb burst outta my mouth! And then came another! I was pushing so hard and exerting so much energy into my legs, my language got quite colorful! Sometimes, you just gotta let the colors fly...it's just necessary sometimes!

But with the curse words came the tears. It was just exhausting for me to be trying so flippin' hard, and be getting the minimal result I was getting. And then Nicole kept telling me I was doing a really good job, which was bs to me. I told her to not play that stupid game with me...don't sugarcoat it just because I'm in a wheelchair. Well, that pissed her off, and she told me that offended her. Nicole told me that she never "sugarcoats" my workouts just cuz I'm in the wheelchair.

So, I pulled myself together, as did Nicole, and we kissed and made-up. And that, my friend, was our first lil tiff! Nicole and I laughed about how awesome it would be to share it in my blog, so here ya go!

After our lil explosion, we went back to working my legs. The muscles in my inner thigh are super weak. So, Nicole rotated my left ankle and knee outwards. While she made sure that my hip stayed in a turned out position, I did leg presses using my inner thigh muscles to push my left leg straight. That was deffinitely a challenge because I had to learn to use a new muscle group.

Then, Nicole did some yoga-style stretches on me. She stretched my left leg straight out to the side, straight across my right leg/hip, and bent my knee up in that position. She did the same to the right leg. The stretches hurt, but they felt good at the same time. Nicole held each stretch for 2 minutes.

Returning my chair to the upright sitting position, Nicole had me do a couple arm stretches. I held my arms straight up, hands clasped together, biceps touching my ears. I worked on pulling my arms back, behind my ears.

Next, I held a tennis ball in my right hand and did a pulsing squeeze and release. This exercise worked my inner forearm muscles. After I finished on the right hand, I switched the ball to my left.

Lastly, Nicole and I played catch! She on a box in front of me, and tossed the tennis ball to me. My double-vision played tricks on me when I was trying to catch the airborne ball. But, throwing the ball was much easier for me to improve. I was able to focus my eyes on where I was throwing, which really helped the direction of my overhand throws. Also, I learned where to release the ball when I throw. It was funny, my final throw ended up shooting out at Nicole like a bullet! She was not expecting the power behind that throw...and quite frankly, neither was I!!!

Nicole's back!

After two weeks off...not by choice!..., both Nicole and I were stoked to get back to work! I am really encouraged and feeling really healthy with the new "diet" that Nicole gave me...Nicole said she put me on foods that are anti-inflamatory, which is helping alot with the swelling in my ankles. Nicole said that my skin is looking really healthy, too, which makes me feel good! And as for my stomach feeling nauseous (sp?),  the diet has really helped that, too! It was getting to a point where I almost dreaded eating breakfast, mainly) because I would almost always get an icky nauseous feeling. Now that I'm eating healthier (for the rest of the day as well as breakfast), I have been feeling tons better, which in turn, has re-lit the fire under my arse! It's crazy how much one's choices in foods can affect them! I guess because I had been constantly trying to put weight on (remember, I had gotten down to 89 lbs!), I had just competely ignored the nutrition facts and loaded up on cheeseburgers and french fries!

Nicole's desire to kick my butt was welcomed by me because of how anxious I am to step it up! First, Nicole had me pump my wheelchair back and forth across the studio floor...oh by the way, today was a widget/manual wheelchair day. I pumped my chair forwards and pulled the widget bars backwards.

Once I warmed up my muscles, Nicole had me park my wheelchair and put on the brakes. She had me do some different arm exercises with the resistance band. To start, I gripped one end of the band, Nicole held the other end, and I held my arm out straight, palm up, bending my arm up towards my face. And at one point, I bent my arm and kept it bent, pulsing against the resistance...that was a doozy! I did this exercise on each arm.

Next, Nicole stood behind me and she had me do push-forwards. Gripping the resistance band, I  brought my uppr-arm to shoulder level with my elbow out to the side...like a half-T, for those of you who know cheerleading terms!..I would push my arm straight forward from there. Again, I did sets on each arm.

Then, I did fly-aways on each arm. I stuck my arm out straight to the side, and pulled my arm forwards. I hate doing fly-aways because my arms lose control on the return trip back to the stating position! I have to focus on keeping my arm muscles controlled on the return trip!

Then Nicole got a box to stand on so that she could provide good resistance with the band for pull-ups...or pull-downs. So. she stood on the box behind me, and I gripped the band with both hands, straight up above my head, palms up. I pulled the band down to my lap, repeatedly. Then I flipped my palms over and, keeping my arms straight, pulled down, out in front of me.

The last of the arm exercises worked my lats! Nicole held the resistance band on my left side. I gripped the band with straight arms out in front of me. With the resistance coming from the left side, I pulled the band to the right side. Then, Nicole moved to the right side, and I pulled to the left. These were killer!  Ouch...

When we finished the arm exercises, I did a few more laps in the widget. My arms were WORKED, and pumping the widget rods was sooo much work!

Then, Nicole had me do leg lifts on each each leg individually. And then, lift them both together. My right leg has a slow start, but once it gets up there, it rises just as quickly and just as high as the left leg. I think doing all that work with Rosemary really helped me to figure out which muscles to focus on.

Nicole also wanted to try the point/flex of my feet...the exercise I did with Rosemary. As Nicole held each foot up individually, she noticed how the swelling in my ankles has gone down...drastically in the right ankle! Yay! I think my new diet is really halping me!

I'm kinda relieved I won't have another arm workout 'til Wednesday...actually, Wednesday will be a leg workout day...woohoo! ;)