I ended up being early for my appointment at Barwis. I got to watch Mia at the Kaiser machine. She was a young girl and I don’t know what her ailment is. I know that her hands needed to be secured to the bar. She had a hot pink wheelchair and I liked her. I got to witness three sets of squats and it was a gift for me to witness these three sets. It’s nice to see someone else determined and working their hardest. I haven’t seen someone working at the Kaiser machine in a long while; I haven’t been at the Kaiser myself for even longer. Mia did EXCELLENTLY!!! I talked with her dad a little bit as I made sure I made eye contact with her and I cheered her on.
Mike helped me on to the blue table and commented on how tight my calves felt. After some time of him kneading them, he had me lay back. He stretched me out and asked if Jesse or Phil did any different kinds of stretches then he did that worked better. Not really. The stretches for everyone were different but the same. It’s like they all belong to this club who knows about the human body and muscle groups and what they need to do to activate different muscles. I guess it has to do with the kinesiology degrees they all hold because they ALL have activated the muscles. They all get this look it their eye, like staring off into space as they feel my muscles with their fingers searching for the right spot to press to activate the muscle. Parker used to do this too. I have asked Parker, Jesse, and Phil if they see grids on my body, like the red light lines in Tron. They don’t. I don’t think I’ve asked Mike if he sees them yet but he gets that same look in his eyes.
He asked me if Jesse, Phil, and he were at Barwis, who I would choose. I didn’t answer. I COULDN’T answer. How can I choose one over the other?! They are all different but the same. I cared about ALL of them at different points in my road to walking so they were all dealing with different stages of my body reacting to the strengthening I am working on. I tried explaining the intricate relationship you have with the person who is working with you to regain your ability to walk to Mike once and I fell short of an explanation (as I am now) so I will just say that so far, I wouldn’t trade my time with ANY of my trainers (Mike included)! They are different but the goal has been the same with each of them. I just haven’t reached my goal yet.