I wheeled myself over to the black table and when Nick came over, he asked how I was feeling. I felt alright. He said he wanted to start at the shuttle. I told him I was game. He wheeled me over and Nico and Nick helped me get onto it. My legs were straight and stiff. Nick was having a really hard time attempting to bend them. Nico too. Nick decided to put some bands on the shuttle to force my legs to bend. They did. I asked Nick if he put 500 on there, he replied, “Something like that.” I think it was 3.
Once my legs bent, Nick told me to push up. I obviously wasn’t going anywhere but he wanted me to activate my muscles. I did that a few times and then he took a band off. He had me activate again and I got the slightest movement. He took off another band and wanted me to activate again. This time, with one band, I was able to push up a little bit. Nick told me that he was okay with a quarter push but I knew I had a good one in me. I bent my legs back to the starting position and sure enough, I had a good one in me! It’s STILL true! First is the worst and second is the best!
i did 20 extensions with one band and with my legs straight, Nick said we would rest. Nico asked what my illness was and how it affects my body. I explained how there is a civil war going on in my body and my immune system is kicking my nervous system’s butt. I explained how it was explained to me 15 years ago, how my spinal cord is like an extension cord and for some unknown reason, it’s all broken up and my raw nerves are exposed. My immune system has never seen my raw nerves and it thinks they are something bad so it attacks them ultimately breaking up communication between my brain and my muscles. Then I told him that I’ve been working on getting that communication back for almost three years here at Barwis.
Nick took a band off and had me bend and straighten my legs again. I asked him if this was no-banded kind of disappointed. He nodded and said, “You gotta start somewhere!” I did 15 more before I rested again. Nick told me I was going to do single leg extensions next. I asked Nico where he was from in Germany. Düsseldorf. He old me it was in the Midwest.
How cool was that?! I’ve never known someone from Germany! He had already told me how he had heard of Barwis Methods during our first conversation. He told me about watching YouTube videos just after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and how he saw that Richard Sherman came here and I told him that I could have met him if I didn’t chicken out because I saw him. He held my right leg off the platform as I did 2 sets of leg presses with my left leg. A total of 35. Then Nick held my left leg off while I did 35 on my right. Nick put my foot back on the platform so I could rest with my legs straight. I told Nick that my legs felt warm and tired. Tired, like I worked my muscles not tired of the static feeling I feel in my legs all of the time. This felt really good!