12.13.13 A Double Shot of Espresso

I showed up to Barwis today a little bit early.  I wheel over to the chairs as is my routine. I see one cane leaning against one chair and two canes leaning against the other.  I think, “those canes are Chris’s and Brock’s.  They’re here! BOTH of them!  Where are they?!” I frantically look around the gym until I spot them.  They were sitting on the table where I often sit and were getting stretched out similarly to like I do. Then I see Brock stand up and walk over to one end of the gym.  He grabs a big yellow balance ball and sits on it. Then I see Chris stand up and do the same. He grabs a green balance ball and sits on it.  Both of them were doing one-legged squats with Mike. To see the intensity on their faces as they were doing them made me realize that is exactly how I look when I am  working. I knew exactly how they felt!  I watched them alternating working with Mike and resting on the balance ball for a long time.  Connor walks by and said hi and I told him, “Brock AND Chris are here! That’s like a double shot of espresso!” (I DON’T even drink coffee but I like the sound of the phrase). It was so great to see both of them walking and working so hard!  They walked about 40 yards and stood talking with Mike for a while.  I resisted my urge to want to take a picture of these three men.  The two sources of my inspiration and the man who is making my dream of walking a reality would be a GREAT picture to have! But Brock and Chris JUST worked out!  I KNOW how tired they were!  I didn’t want to disturb them.

Brock got his things together and said he had a plane to catch. He smiled and told me to have a good workout and left.  I asked Chris about his walker height considering the debacle I had with trying to use a walker.  Hr told me that all walkers are adjustable. I would just have to adjust it to my height (I probably WON’T – I wasn’t feeling the walker thing!).  He told me to have patience and once the pathways are set and things start to wake up then it moves fast. It’s all muscle memory. I just have to push my body to the point where new pathways CAN be set.  Cool! That’s what I’ve been doing! I just don’t have patience.  Grrr!

Phil calls me over to the Keiser machine and I tell him that Brock AND Chris are here!  He kind of laughs mimicking the excitement on my face.  He sits on the floor facing me and grabs hold of my knees.  He tells me to stand up and we will begin.  I always have to warm up with a few quarter-squats (a shallow half squat).  When I have squatted low enough, Phil says to stand up. I felt really good and popped up into a straight stand. When I stood straight up, I made the sound effect sound *BINK.*  Phil laughed and told me to do another squat.  I totally rocked the casbah on that set of squats!  I *BINK*ed every single one!  I did 7 or 8 of them!  For my second set of squats, I *BINK*ed on all except the last one. I had to sit back in my chair before getting all the way up to *BINK.*  Phil ended up having to pick me up off the floor for the next few squats.  So we stopped doing them and worked on standing instead. Phil stood next to me and pushed on my clavicle *BINK* and my lower spine *BINK.*  My first attempt wasn’t that impressive. On my second try, I stood for a very long time! Phil didn’t even time me but I think he was impressed too because I know I was!  Standing today felt a whole lot easier!  I think it is because now I know how to *BINK.*

Then we did leg curls and leg extensions.  Phil stretched out my hips and then his next client was there so Eric had to take me out to my car and put me into it.  He lifted me into the car a whole lot better than Phil but I’m not going to tell Phil that!