It’s Good to Be Back!

Three months – that's how long it's been since I was at Roll 2 Walk. Since August I have been sick, stressed beyond belief, and more thankful than ever that the semester is over. Surprisingly, for missing three months, my three days at R2W weren't bad at all. It was as if I hadn't missed a day between visits. Right off the bat, I figured I would tire out quickly and I would be sore afterwards, but I was far from it. I actually had a lot of energy afterwards and even while I was doing my exercises.

Mid-sit-up on day 2

The only little hiccup had been while I was kneeling on the first day; my blood pressure kept dropping after only a few minutes. Also, I needed spotting on my upper body, when in August I didn't need any spotting.
One cool thing that happened on day one, though, was when I was doing back extensions, an exercise I don't really like because they're kind of hard to do. Anyway while I was doing them I could feel the left side of my lower back working (and burning). Chad had said that it's hard to tap into the lower back and that I was doing the work because he was giving me resistance, whereas other clients all the resistance he provides is just to make sure they don't fall back.

Kneeling day 3 - 100% awesome

One "theme" to my workouts this week was that my glutes were firing. One indicator was on day one when we did bridges. Chad had me do five bridges and on the fifth on hold it and I did! Not for very long, maybe two or three seconds, but I held it nonetheless which is significant to my progress. So because my glutes were firing, Chad wanted to do more kneeling and while we were doing them he wanted me to focus on squeezing my glutes on the way up to the kneeling position. On day three, to tap into my glutes even more, Chad and I did squats (I wish I had a video showing y'all this because it's a little hard to explain the exercise, but I'll try). The squats are the part between the sitting part before kneeling and the part where I'm actually kneeling. Chad had me do five of those. The incredible thing that happened was that Chad said he hardly had to help me with them; all he had to do was guide my hips… with his thumbs!! I couldn't believe it at first but after I thought about what I just done and felt, I believed it.

Kneeling on day 2 - it was a little better than day 1

Other things that happened were: on day two Chad had noticed that my hip flexors were very tight but once they loosened up it my kneeling was better and on day three my physical therapist observed my workout so that she had a better understanding of what I was doing and how to do the exercises, we normally do at physical therapy, better. It doesn't seem like a lot happened this time around but in the grand scheme of things a lot did. Being able to tap into my glutes and lower back are (and will be) essential for standing and core strength. Also, tapping into those muscles will be helpful when I get to the point where I can dress myself and when I do pressure reliefs in my manual chair. This little bit of improvement means tons for the future and what I'll be able do if there should be a cure for paralysis in the near future.