18 November 2005
First diary entry for the week! I think I'm in panic mode at the moment - counting down the number of days before I go back to work. From today, I only have 9 days left before i go back to work - on a graduated basis. I'm really worried that I won't have enough energy to do rehab work or even go to the gym.
Tim and I joined the gym last week and for the first time, we went to the gym together last Saturday morning while Lillian was with my parents. I remember Gavin told me it's good to warm up with some cardio exercises and finish off with cardio exercises to make me feel I have worked. We started with the step machine and then my gym program. I don't really have a gym program yet and I was just going by my memory - something i did in personal training. Going to the gym with Tim made me realise how inadequate my personal trainings have been. Tim kept telling me to hurry up while I was on the machine. He said people do the exercises quickly and then they move on to the next and they come back and do everything again. Due to my mobility problem, I find it difficult to get on and off the machines and it takes me more time to move from one machine to another. Tim kept hassling me and asking me what next whenever I just finished with one machine. I had to think hard for the next machine. It also made me realise that I didn't do very much in personal trainings because I ran out of exercises very quickly. After the 'gym program', we finished off with the ellipticals. Tim found two machines side by side so we could do it together. He set the machines to 30 minutes except I felt like stopping after about 5 minutes. He wouldn't let me get off and pushed me right through the 30 minutes. For the first time, I felt knackered after a gym session. It made me realise how unfit I have been and I think personal training gives me a false sense of security - I felt because I went to personal trainings already so I didn't need to do as much at home. I think Gavin is right in saying that I don't need a personal trainer, I just need a good gym program. He said if I really want, he can recommend another personal trainer who has more experience with brain injuries but the Melbourne Uni gym has an exclusive contract with the personal training group Mary belongs to and wouldn't let me bring my own trainer so I have to ditch that idea.
I also found Ruth, the physio who is treating me in Gavin's absence, is not bad at all. She found that the reason I still can't run is because I still have a lot of weakness in the hip flexors - which help in lifting up the leg high so she has written up an exercise program for me to do at home. I noticed in my physio session on Tuesday, she got my file out and was writing copious notes as I was doing my exercises. I commented that I've never seen anyone writing notes in physio. She said she's writing down notes so she can compare my progress from week to week to see if the exercises are affective. She looked at my gait on Tuesday as well and was trying to correct it for me. It's a bit depressing to find that there are still so many things wrong with my gait. It made me wonder why Gavin never mentioned it before. It reminded me of when Tim and I were training for ballroom dancing. We had this Latin dance teacher who gave us this really facy Samba routine. Samba is probably one of the harder Latin dance to master and it really requires good Latin basic or it just looks terrible. For a while, Tim and I had this wonderfully fancy dance routine but we looked terrible because we never grasped the basic. I told Tim that it made me feel Gavin is a bit like that dance teacher we had, he got me to do a lot of high mobility stuff like running, jumping and bounding. I was threw into the deep end with all the running practice. I think it has definitely helped me in walking faster. I know it will probably take me a while to fine tune everything. I think Ruth has made me realise that I need to revisit the basics and have a more solid foundation of basics - such as core stabilities and strengthening of certain muscle groups before I can improve on the 'style' of walking and running.
Tim and I joined the gym last week and for the first time, we went to the gym together last Saturday morning while Lillian was with my parents. I remember Gavin told me it's good to warm up with some cardio exercises and finish off with cardio exercises to make me feel I have worked. We started with the step machine and then my gym program. I don't really have a gym program yet and I was just going by my memory - something i did in personal training. Going to the gym with Tim made me realise how inadequate my personal trainings have been. Tim kept telling me to hurry up while I was on the machine. He said people do the exercises quickly and then they move on to the next and they come back and do everything again. Due to my mobility problem, I find it difficult to get on and off the machines and it takes me more time to move from one machine to another. Tim kept hassling me and asking me what next whenever I just finished with one machine. I had to think hard for the next machine. It also made me realise that I didn't do very much in personal trainings because I ran out of exercises very quickly. After the 'gym program', we finished off with the ellipticals. Tim found two machines side by side so we could do it together. He set the machines to 30 minutes except I felt like stopping after about 5 minutes. He wouldn't let me get off and pushed me right through the 30 minutes. For the first time, I felt knackered after a gym session. It made me realise how unfit I have been and I think personal training gives me a false sense of security - I felt because I went to personal trainings already so I didn't need to do as much at home. I think Gavin is right in saying that I don't need a personal trainer, I just need a good gym program. He said if I really want, he can recommend another personal trainer who has more experience with brain injuries but the Melbourne Uni gym has an exclusive contract with the personal training group Mary belongs to and wouldn't let me bring my own trainer so I have to ditch that idea.
I also found Ruth, the physio who is treating me in Gavin's absence, is not bad at all. She found that the reason I still can't run is because I still have a lot of weakness in the hip flexors - which help in lifting up the leg high so she has written up an exercise program for me to do at home. I noticed in my physio session on Tuesday, she got my file out and was writing copious notes as I was doing my exercises. I commented that I've never seen anyone writing notes in physio. She said she's writing down notes so she can compare my progress from week to week to see if the exercises are affective. She looked at my gait on Tuesday as well and was trying to correct it for me. It's a bit depressing to find that there are still so many things wrong with my gait. It made me wonder why Gavin never mentioned it before. It reminded me of when Tim and I were training for ballroom dancing. We had this Latin dance teacher who gave us this really facy Samba routine. Samba is probably one of the harder Latin dance to master and it really requires good Latin basic or it just looks terrible. For a while, Tim and I had this wonderfully fancy dance routine but we looked terrible because we never grasped the basic. I told Tim that it made me feel Gavin is a bit like that dance teacher we had, he got me to do a lot of high mobility stuff like running, jumping and bounding. I was threw into the deep end with all the running practice. I think it has definitely helped me in walking faster. I know it will probably take me a while to fine tune everything. I think Ruth has made me realise that I need to revisit the basics and have a more solid foundation of basics - such as core stabilities and strengthening of certain muscle groups before I can improve on the 'style' of walking and running.
posted by Teresa Liu at 7:22 PM
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