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!
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