So, I didn’t make it to Barwis on Tuesday. By Thursday, it was obvious! I got into Barwis by the tables and Nick asked if I wanted to go to the shuttle or work at the table. I told him I wasted to go to the shuttle but I was tight. Nick told me that he would stretch me out in my chair by the shuttle and when I was loose enough, I’d get on the shuttle. My legs were PRETTY tight but Nick worked hard to get them loose enough to get on the shuttle. It took some time but when they loosened up enough, Nick got me on it by himself.
He put 3 bands on so my legs could bend. He had me push with all 3 bands on to activate my muscles. I pushed, but I didn’t go anywhere. I did this a few times and then Nick took a band off. I kinda, almost moved with 2 bands a few times but I could actually do a complete extension with one. It was a little difficult but I managed to do 2 sets of 20 with a rest in between. This time, I rested with my knees bent to get a good stretch in. For my next set, Nick wanted me to do something a little different.
He wanted me to extend all the way up; but on the way down, as I bent my knees, he had me pause and hold it halfway down before extending my legs fully. With that pause, it would enable more muscle fibers to activate before I extended my legs again. As Nick told me this, he kind of interlocked the tips of his fingers in a succession. Jesse told me that years ago with the same hand motion. It makes even more sense now. After each extension, on my way slowly down, Nick would tell me to, “Hold” and I would stop and my legs would shake and I would squeeze the handles at my sides as if doing that would make this easier. I did 2 sets of 20 of these.
Then, Nick pulled that last band off and told me to, “Bust ’em out!” So I tried to extend my legs quickly because there were NO bands. The operative word here is “tried.” I thought this would be easy but when I pushed I didn’t go anywhere. So, I squeezed the handles and my eyes shut, grabbed my guts and slowly “busted them out.” I got 10 and Nick encouraged me to do 5 more. After I did that, I asked Nick how many that was. He said 15. I looked at him and said, “I GOTTA make it 100!” With the 40 regular and 40 with the “hold” and 15 with no band that would only make 95. So, I busted out 5 more.
Then, I was CRAZY TIRED. My whole body felt like Jell-O! Nick called the new intern, Austin over to help me back into my chair. Austin was from Virginia and he had red hair. He admitted to having a southern drawl. I wanted to comment on that and his hair but I was SO DARN TIRED that I just remained quiet and let Nick put me back in my chair. Austin will be at Barwis all summer so there’s time. Once in my chair, I felt my arms go limp and my quads and hamstrings felt worked, warm, and SO tired.
I slept SO well and woke up to my legs aching. It was a “marathon running” ache. A dull throb in my quads and hamstrings. I will take this feeling over the TV static feeling that has been the norm in my legs for the past 15 years. I welcomed this feeling. I haven’t felt anything like this in SO long! I really dug it!