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!
No comments:
Post a Comment