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!