Week 2

Week 2 was tough. As soon as I rolled into the gym M said "OK, Megan on the ground..." So I rolled over in front of the Kenisis wall and got down on the ground. He walked over and got a long stair stepper thing, turned it over and said "OK, roll over into it, we are going to do the alligator walk" I just looked at him like WTF? So, I rolled over, he got my feet situated and basically walked with my hand dragging me legs with me. I had to take 10 steps forward and then 10 steps backwards, we did 3 sets of these.


The next exercise was my abs. Now, I cannot do "normal" crunches, seeing as how I only have half of  my stomach, but M created this great workout that any para can do. I moved over to where the mats where on the ground. I get myself centered and tie my legs together and M goes to get a weighted medicine ball. I am laying flat on my back and M is standing at my feet. He throws the ball at me and when I catch it I stretch it behind my head almost laying my arms on the ground and I throw it back to him as hard as I can. But when I throw it I don't use my arms, I use my core so I breath really hard making a [sssssss] noise. Everything that I do involves this technique of breathing and I can be the first to say as a  paraplegic that my core is developing from this exercise. I can feel deep tissue flexing when I do this, and that is something I did not have before working with M. As I am throwing the ball back to M, I use his breathing technique, use very little arm movement and roll over to the left on my stomach, them I do a push-up, roll back over but the next time I roll over to my right and we repeat doing sets of 10.


Mondays are chest days and each week varies as to what chest exercises we will do. From flat bench, to incline, to decline. I like chest days right now because when I wake up in the morning man am I sore. It feels good :)


Tuesdays are back days and not a favorite of mine, mainly because it is a weakness for me. Doing pull ups is quite a challenge for me, but M always reminds me that this is mind over matter. So I put my mind into it, do as many as I can and then we move on to the next exercise. 



Wednesdays are Bi's and Tri's day! We didn't do any heavy lifting, M just wanted to see where I was at with my strength. It wasn't bad, I will just say that! Today was also the first time I have ever done any kind of boxing. M brought in his punching mitts and shields to use. The awesome thing about this training is not only does it help my arms it helps my balance! Again, using the energy from my core and creating that energy to move to my fingertips.


Each day I come in to work with M, we always start with different kinds of push-ups and different movements. I worked on doing Chinese push ups which was a difficult task but I succeeded none the less! He is doing something great with me, he is changing my life.