Monday, October 13, 2008

Let's get Physical, Physical

This post is mostly for Holly. She's my cousin and she lives in Greensboro with her husband Mike. She's a physical therapist. I went to physical therapy today. We spoke yesterday and she told me to "take copious notes". What better way to document the events of my first ever physical therapy experience than right here, on the world wide interwebs.

Chuck is my physical therapist. He's young and seems to know what he's talking about. He has what some might call "hoover hair". If you've known me for a while, it's the hairstyle I sport (although it was it's most "hoovery" in high school). I digress.

After some question and answer time, some measurements, and some ankle fondling, we were ready to begin. I warmed up on the stationary bike for six minutes. Then I went to the "total gym". This was a sliding plane on about a 45 degree angle. I did sets of toe and heel raises. Then I would go to the calf stretch board and do three sets of calf stretches. Then back to toe and heel raises. Then I did the thera-band. In the wrong hands, this could be a serious weapon. It's a large stretchy rubber band. I put one end around my toes and stretch my ankle away from me, then to the left, then to the right, then towards me. Then I did a belt stretch where I use a belt to pull the top of my foot toward me. After that we went to the balance board. This is a square board with half a cylinder attached to the underside. It's kinda like an indo board that skaters and surfers use to work on balance, except twenty times less deadly. I did two minutes of that; first rocking front to back, keeping my knees bent. Ten I did side to side. After surfin' USA I got plugged into the electronic death machine. It's so weird how our bodies react to electricity. Science. They put four electrodes (not even sure if that's the right word, but I really like saying electrodes) on my ankle and wrapped it in ice. After about ten minutes of that, I was done.

He gave me a sheet of stuff to work on at home and my very own thera-band! (I can really see myself doing a set of ankle workout, then using it to fling eggs at the public library).

So there ya have it Holly. I go back Wednesday.

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your ankles be strong.

3 comments:

Jessy said...

yay physical therapy. I have done a LOT of that in my time haha.

The Muncies said...

man, I thought the post was for me...

Indoors surfing said...

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