TRICK AND TREAT

HOORAY! NICOLE'S BACK! I DISCOVERED OVER THIS PAST WEEK, THAT I'M JUST NO GOOD WITHOUT HAVING MY PERSONAL TRAINER!

SO, TODAY WE GOT BACK TO NICOLE'S HARD-CORE WORKOUTS! I STARTED OUT ON THE TRX. NICOLE WANTED TO TEST MY STRENGTH...SEE HOW BAD I WAS AFTER HER ABSENCE! LUCKILY, I DID A NUMBER OF PULL-UPS (WHEELCHAIR TILTED BACK, HAND GRIPPING THE TRX HANDLES ABOVE ME) AND SHOWED NICOLE THAT I HADN'T LOST ANY MUSCLE-STRENGTH WHILE SHE WAS GONE. PHEW! I WAS A LITTLE SCURRED!

I DID A SET OF ABOUT 20 PULL-UPS AT A NORMAL, SLOWER PACE. THEN NICOLE HAD ME DO A "SPEED-SET" (OF 10 PULL-UPS)! BECAUSE MY VISION IS A BIT "MESSED UP," I HAD TO CLOSE MY EYES BY LIKE THE THIRD PULL-UP BECAUSE MY EYES COULDN'T KEEP UP WITH THE CHANGES IN DEPTH PERCEPTION!

LETTING GO OF THE TRX AND KEEPING MY WHEELCHAIR TILTED BACK, NICOLE HAD ME DO SOME SIT-UPS. SHE ATTEMPTED TO SHOW ME HOW I SHOULD TRY TO MOVE/PUSH MY PELVIS DOWN EACH SIT-UP, BUT WITH NICOLE STANDING NEXT TO ME AND TRYING TO DEMONSTRATE PELVIS MOVEMENT, HER AND I JUST LAUGHED! I TOLD HER THROUGH MY GIGGLES, THAT I THINK I GOT IT!

SO, I DID A NUMBER OF NORMAL-STYLE SIT-UPS, AND THEN NICOLE HAD ME STRETCH BOTH ARMS OUT IN FONT OF ME, AND RAISE ONE SIDE UP AT A TIME. SO, I DID SIT-UPS WITH MY LEFT ABS, THEN RIGHT ABS.

ALONG THOSE SAME LINES, I GRABBED THE TRX HANDLES, AND DID PULL-UPS WITH ONE ARM AT A TIME...PULL WITH LEFT ARM, BODY TWISTED TO THE RIGHT, PULLWITH RIGHT ARM, BODY TWISTED TO THE LEFT.

THEN, NICOLE WENT AND GRABBED A RESISTANCE BAND AND WRAPPED MY FOOT UP WITH IT! WE WERE OBVIOUSLY, ABOUT TO TRY SOMETHING NEW! MY RIGHT FOOT WAS IN THE "HAMMOCK" OF THE RESISTANCE BAND, AND NICOLE HELD THE ENDS OF THE BAND UP BY MY CHEST(I WAS STILL IN THE LEANED-BACK POSITION). WITH MY KNEE BENT UP, I PUSHED MY LEG OUT STRAIGHT AGAINST THE RESISTANCE OF THE BAND,

WE STARTED TO DO THE SAME WITH MY LEFT LEG, BUT CHANGED OUR MINDS WHEN WE SAW THAT MY LEFT LEG COULD EASILY PUSH OUT STRAIGHT AND BEND BACK UP. INSTEAD, NICOLE HAD ME DROP MY FOOT DOWN, AND BRING MY BENT KNEE UP, THEN STRAIGHTEN MY LEG OUT.

THEN, I WAS TOLD TO PRACTICE RAISING BOTH FEET WHILE NICOLE WENT AROUND THE CORNER AND GOT HER PRESENT FOR ME! HMMM...WHAT COULD IT BE? NICOLE GOT ME MY OWN TRX! HOW EXCITING! NOW, I CAN WORK ON STANDING UP WHENEVER I WANT! I'M THRILLED!

 SO, I SUPPOSE THAT NICOLE DECIDED TO GIVE ME BOTH TRICKS AND A TREAT! I FIRST EXPERIENCED HER HARD-CORE WORKOUT (TRICK), AND THEN SHE GAVE ME THE FABULOUS TRX (TREAT)!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!

Good, Clean, Rosemary-Fun

Last night I found out that Nicole would be gone for 2 weeks, starting today! The late awareness of her absence is MY bad! Nicole emailed me about her upcoming trip weeks ago! She's off learning more personal training stuff at a conferance. But, no worries. Rosemary will be my trainer while Nicole's gone!

Today was Day 1 of Nicole's absence. So, Rosemary was kind enough to take over. We started out with 10 bicep curls on each arm, the I did a set of 10 pull-backs with the resistance band. I did four sets of bicep curls, three sets of pull-backs.

Then, Rosemary stood behind me holding the resistance band, and I did a set of 10 forward-presses.

Next, I rolled my wheelchair over to the TRX. I did about 10-15 pull-ups holding the TRX-handles. Rosemary said I was pulling myself up so high as to clear a head-lendgth above the head rest.

After that, Rosemary held up my left foot, and I pressed forward with my quads to do 10 leg-presses. I did the same with the right leg.

Then we worked my ankles. Rosemary held up my left foot, and I would use my calf muscle to point my toes forward. Rosemary would flex and stretch my foot and calf, and I pointed my foot forward 10 times. Then, Rosemary switched to my right foot/ankle.

Next, I did pull-ups with the TRX again.

Lastly, we had enough time to do 5 more ankle-presses.

Got a Flat Tire

Today Nicole took it easy on me because 1) my body just felt totally exhausted cuz I'm fighting off this icky cold that I feel myself starting to get...I DO NOT want to get sick! and 2) my mommy came to the studio today to see me on her birthday! Actually, she had to pick up my caregivers time-cards and give me some cash for living! But she also got to see ME on her special day! So, she's blessed on her birthday. ;)

When my mom came into the studio, I was busy doing laps in my widget. Nicole had me go back and forwarth across the studio for days.

Then, she set up an obstacle course with lots of tight turns. It was basically two rows of blocks lined up so that weaving in and out of them required a lot of concentration! Nicole threatened that every time I knocked over a block, that added on extra leg lifts for Wednesdays session! So, needless to say, I tried very hard to steer clear of the blocks!

I was finishing up the second row of the obstacle course, when my mom said,
                 "Um, don't Michelle's tires look flat?"
It turned out that I had been rolling around on 1 completely flat tire, and 1 tire that was definitely gettin' low! Nicole went next door to get some help to fill up my tires with an air pump. Nicole made us seem even more ditzy when she said,
                  "Wow...I hope we haven't been letting you roll around like that since we started widget Mondays..."
My mom laughed at our ditziness, but I have to say, IT'S NOT MY FAULT! :) I can't even really see the wheels on the widget! Well, it rides pretty comfortably even with flat tires!

I almost made it back through the obstacle course without knocking over any of the blocks! Almost. I ended up knocking the last 2 blocks over. Oops. I was so close to making it through without giving Nicole any reason to work me to death on Wednesday! So close.

The last thing Nicole asked of me, was to do a few laps going backwards.

Man, I'm kinda scared for Wednesdays hard-core workout! Oh well, bring it on!

Touch Your Toes

Winter is here! I don't know if I should be bummed for the cold weather, or excited to wear all of my cute jackets! Well, you don't get to wear your fashionable coats when you're working out, so I guess I'll be bummed for the chilly days Monday thru Friday.

I entered the studio this morning, and we started right away on my goal for next month. In the last blog, I said that my goal would be to stand-up, unassisted, with the TRX. Nicole wanted to start working on that right away...and I was glad because I wanted so badly to give it a go!

I pulled my wheelchair up to where the TRX-handles were hanging, grabbed ahold of them, and on the count of 3, I stood up. Nicole stood beside me, ready to catch me if I fell! Nicole has done one heck of a job on my arm strength, because I was pulling myself up, and maintaing a lot of my body weight through my arms. Nicole moved my wheelchair back a bit to make my legs carry more of my bodyweight. When I stood, I felt that more of the pressure was in my legs, but it seemed that a lot of the weight was being held up through my arms. My left leg wasn't firmly planting itself on the ground. That's right, my LEFT leg was bneing a pain in the ass! Nicole said that my left hip sits higher than the right when I'm just sitting in my wheelchair, resulting in my curvature of the spine. We are hoping that my back-brace will even out my hips, thus bringing my left foot down to the ground. On Monday, Nicole wants me to wear my back-brace and try standing with it.

After my attempts, Nicole had me lean my chair partially back, and do some leg lifts. First, I raised up both legs together, but when Nicole saw that my left hip was "popping," she made me switch over to raising only the right leg. Which is way hard because of the muscle overflow in my left leg! Every time I try only to raise my right leg, my left leg just slowly pops up too! And I haven't mastered how to keep it from going up in the first place, or figured out how to relax it down once it's up! I tried for quite some time, but my left leg is stubborn!

Switching tasks, Nicole had me raise both knees up for a while. I lifted each knee individually then, and Nicole kinda helped support my feet as we brought my knees up higher.Not surprisingly, my left knee continues to raise-up more than the right.

Then, we worked on my ankle flexibility. Nicole held my left foot, I pointed my toes forward, and Nicole made sure I got a good stretch in the flexed position. On my right ankle, she said I was able to push my toes forward more-so the more we did it.

This is where I wanted to cry! Nicole had me lean my chair all the way back, lift both legs, and try to lean forward to touch my toes. It was exhausting! When you don't have the strength in your abs to lift you up, touching your toes seems impossible! Nicole put her hand on my thigh and told me to take a deep breath, let it out quickly, and give it all I had to just throw myself up there! I did...and started the exercise over...5 more times! It was painful,

Last, but certainly not least, Nicole had me lift my legs while keeping my right hand relaxed. Nicole tried "pinning" my open right hand on my belly...my hand ended up curling closed into a fist by the time my right leg was fully raised. Grrrrr. So then, Nicole had me close my eyes, and she tried massaging my right hand while I raised my legs. I didn't see it cuz my eyes were closed, but Nicole said my hand did a lot better, and when my legs had relaxed, she was able to massage my hand into complete relaxation (I did see that!).

On the way out, I tried opening the sliding glass door with my right hand. It was tricky this time because my muscles were super tired! But I did it...with just a lil help from Nicole! 

Work on refining

Let me just say that my legs (calves, mainly) are pooped! Nicole had me do leg lifts practically the entir hour...TIRING as strapping 50-lb weights to your ankles and running uphill...in the snow! Ok, ok. It probably wasn't that bad, but raising my legs against gravity (oh yeah, I should mention that Nicole has me lean my wheelchair back a bit), most definitely wears me out!

Along with lifting my legs, Nicole wanted to focus on keeping my right hand relaxed while I "turned on" my leg muscles.
            She said, "You have the strength, now we just gotta 'refine' your movements."
For instance, when I get to the point where I'll have a walker, I will want my right hand to grasp the walker, not tense and form a fist when my legs are moving forward. My brain has learned that when I engage my leg muscles, my arm muscles work as well. But what I need to teach my brain is that each limb I have, can move seperately, on its own.

After a nice long set of leg lift warm-ups, I practiced raising my legs while trying to keep my hands open and relaxed. I was able to maintain a pretty relaxed state on the left hand, but the right hand closed up into a fist. Nicole told me to ignore my legs, and just focus on relaxing my hand. So I tried that, but my right leg slowly dropped down. Eventually, I was able to improve by not closing into a tightly gripped fist...it looks like progress will happen slowly, but at least I can say its happening!

Next, Nicole drew 8 dots, spread across three sticky-notes. She placed them on a clipboard, one on the top, middle, and bottom of the board. First, she called out a number (1 thru 8), and I would find the corrisponding dot and place my pointer finger on it. I used each hand seperately. No surprise, my left hand did better at holding the pointer finger up and out than my right.

Then I opened up my whole hand, and put my hand on the sticky-note that was called (top, middle, or bottom). I did this with each hand, too.

After I accomplished the task with just my hands, Nicole had me add in leg lifts. She held the clipboard out in front of my face, blocking my view of my legs. I raised both legs and touched the sticky-notes with my left, then right hand. Amazingly, I did it successfully!

We switched focus back to just the legs. For 1.5 minutes on each leg, I brought up my knees individually. Then I tried bringing both knees up together. My left knee comes up higher than the right, but the right knee is definitely improving each time I try.

Next, I gave Nicole some high-fives with each hand. Then, with my hands open, I kept my hands up by my shoulders, and raised my legs up, trying to keep my hands relaxed. I have to say, it is so weird how my right hand tries to close into a fist, all the while I'm trying my hardest to open it up! Very frustrating. ;)

Lastly, Nicole asked me a few simple questions regaurding our workouts: What do you think is your best improvement? What is the hardest/most challenging improvement? What is something that you think we need to work on? and Your goal by end of next month?

My best improvement would be the strength in my arms.

My hardest/most challenging improvement would be my right leg...always trying to keep it up with the left leg.

We need to work on a) my hip flexors, and b) I would like a stronger core. (Nicole told me to do 500 sit-ups per day! I've done 100 today...but 500, I'll TRY!)

My goal for November is to stand up at the TRX...by myself! 

The Letter M

Writing with a pen and paper has become pretty much a joke to me for the past 7 years. There have been countless time when I've gotten the desire to draw a picture or write a note to a friend...but when I get the pen in my hand, it is like my drawing/writing becomes that of a 2 year old. I find myself drawing sqiggles for straight lines, which makes writing words difficult as well.

For those of you who know me well from back in the day, you can back me up when I say that I used to be a pretty damn good artist! For everyone else, your just gonna have to trust me! :) But that is deffinitely a skill that I've missed.

So, that is what Nicole wanted to help me with. And I totally trust Nicole with this one...she's a pro artist! FOR REAL!!! (Nicole Gaitan- artist page- Facebook.com) I've never had anyone help me to improve a drawing/writing skills throughout all 7 years of being in the wheelchair. I've just had myself to teach me how to improve. And I think I've gotten pretty good! (At drawing, mostly...My writing still sux!;))

.Today, Nicole got out some paper and a pen, and first drew a triangle, a circle, a square, and some straight lines in a row. Next to each shape, I attempted to draw a replica of her examples. I had the most trouble with the triangle and the circle.

Next, she wrote the letters of the alphabet in collumns...fist in all CAPS, then in all lower-case. Next to each letter I wrote down my attempt at the letter. I had the most trouble with G, M, O, Q, U, W, g, m, n, o,u,and w.

Then, I wrote my name a few times. I had been struggling the most with  writing the first letter, M. So, we ended up breaking down the letter M into four lines. Then we broke the M in half down the middle. After that, I just wrote the whole letter over, and over, and over, and over! In the end, I wrote an M alot more legibally than my first try.

At the close of our "art class," Nicole had me push open the sliding glass door with my RIGHT hand  & arm. Surprisingly, I did it pretty well! Yay right hand/arm! And yay abs for helping me lean forward to grab the handle of the door!
Improving my fine motor skills might make for a boring blog entry, but doing these little things will make a BIG differance in the long run.

Fine Motor Skills

Today we tried something new. We worked on my fine motor skills. Right now, I pretty much use my left hand for everything. Typing, holding things, writing, using utensils, scatching my face, wiping my butt...I do it all with my left hand! Today, Nicole did some occupational therapy with me.

First, we did some work with the TRX...I leaned my chair back some, and pulled my upper body up, out of the chair. And I did leg raises with both legs simultaneously.

Then we worked on getting my right hand to do some stuff...improve my fine motor skills. Nicole had me do a number of different things, the first of which was sticking a plant in a vase. The vase had a hole the size of a quarter in the top, and in one hand I held the vase, while in the other hand I held the "plant." I was asked to hold the vase still, and bring the "plant" over to the hole in the vase. I switched hands, trying both left and right with the "plant."

Next, Nicole put her keyboard on my lap to try typing with the right hand. My left hand has gotten to be a pro on the keyboard, so it had to sit this one out. So, Nicole would say a letter/number/key for me to push and I would go for that key. It was obvious why I typed ONLY using my left hand!

Then, Nicole proved her humanity...she ate a candycane! Now, not to  be mean, but the candycane was microscopic! Smaller than those little candycanes Santa hands out to kids at the mall! I was actually shocked she was allowing me to have sugar...it was probably secretly made out of soy beans and oats! Well, whatever it was, I was given one that I had to get out of the wrapper using my hands only. Normally, I would use my left hand, and my teeth to rip open the wrapper!But Nicole made me get my right hand involved. It seemed like I struggled forever, and finally Nicole just gave me a piece of her candycane.

Lasrly, I tried lighting a spark with a lighter. Again, I was unsuccessful. Now you know why I haven't been using my right hand!...although, I wasn't successful at lighting a spark with my left hand either!

Grumble. Grumble. I got a lot of work to do...

I Love Surprises!

It was gorgeous outside this morning! The sun made its appearance early today! Of course now it's baking hot in Scotts Valley, and I'm actually relieved to be indors, typing up my blog entry...out of the heat!

So, when I got to the studio this morning, Nicole was missing! Rosemary had taken over for her and had taught the class that Nicole usually does right before my session. I kinda thought it was weird that Nicole wasn't there, but seeing as how I hadn't heard anything from her, I just figuredd Nicole was running late. I rolled into the studio and Rosemary said that Nicole was probably on her way, so I thought nothing of it.

Well, a few minutes passed with no Nicole, so Rosemary decided that she would just stay and train me! So, not only was I in a good mood from the awesome weather, but I was now surprised with a fun training session with Rosemary!

To start off, Rosemary set up an obstacle course for me to manuever my widget through. The course was set up so that I weaved my way through 2 blocks, went in a counter-clockwise circle around a "dome," wheeled myself over to another "dome" where I did a clockwise circle around it, and wheeled myself back across the starting line. I went through the course once with Rosemary timing me.

When I completed the obstacle course, I parked my widget and did some bicep curls. I did 1 set of 15 on each arm with the 4 lb weight.

Then, Rosemary grabbed a resistance band (one with handles) and a wooden pole/stick. She wrapped the resistance band around the wooden pole, which she held out in front of her chest, and I pulled the resistance band handles back to my chest, then let my arms out straight. I had to really try to keep my core tight and engaged so that I could keep my back rouching the backrest of the wheelchair. At the time I wasn't aware of how much core strength was being worked, but while I'm just sitting here typing up my blog entry, my abs are super sore from all the "pull-backs!"

And then, it was back to the bicep curls. 15 on each arm, and we did the "pull-backs" again.

And just cuz we could, we did a third and final round of each.

Then, Rosemary handed me a tennis ball. I grabbed the ball with my right hand, and did sets of 5 sqyeezes, dropping and flexing my wrist a few times between each set. I also tried holding the ball while simply turning the wrist, not the arm. Rosemary said that doing thede exercises should my right wrist when I'm doing bicep curls.

Next, Rosemary sat down on the ground in front of me and held up my right foot. I worked om pointing my toes forward, and then she flexed my foot a really stretched mt calf. We did 19 of these on each foot/leg.

Since the obstacle course was still up, Rosemary got her stop-watch, and sent me through one more time! This time, I knocked 21 seconds off my time! I guess doing all that hard work paid off! ;)

For our last workout for the day, Rosemary had me try doing overhead presses with the 4 lb weights. She helped "guide" my wrists so that I wouldn't knock myself out with the weight! I did 10 on each arm with Rosemary's help!

When I got back home and looked at my cell phone, I saw that I had a text message from Nicole. Apparently, Nicole tried to cancel today's session through her textmessage that she sent me LAST NIGHT! Oops...I was probably sleeping when she sent it and ended up reading it too late! Oh well, thanks to Rosemary, I got in a great workout!