work out like a cripple

okay so weird title, i know it contradicts itself, but seriously, doing physical therapy i have worked some muscles i never knew existed in my body.  every time i have to do PT for something, like oh the 3 years of my life from knees or the double dose of shoulder therapy i've had, i become probably the most tone i have been, and we're talking even when i was heavy into athletics.  i can remember my freshman year of hs when i was doing shoulder therapy and my mom commenting on how toned my arms were.  keep in mind freshman year i played softball, basketball, and volleyball so really they should have already been pretty toned. and even after, i can remember her saying i should start doing some of the things i had done in therapy because of how nice it made my arms look. 

same with my legs.  now i have never been very confident in my legs. but having done 6 months of therapy at a time on multiple occasions has shown me that the weird techniques they have me do really helps tone up my legs.  i mean, i can barely run at this point and all i've been doing are balance and strengthening techniques and i've been able to see a big difference.  and it's not like i wasn't working out before.

so coming to my point, i wanted to share a couple days worth of PT that i've been doing.  most of the things i have to do are probably going to sound pretty foreign to those who haven't been through knee therapy themselves, and i'll explain the best i can but they are ass-kicking...literally and figuratively.  so here's what i did today, and let me tell you i am not going to be able to walk tomorrow.

for starters, i always do some kind of warm up.  since i knew they were going to be adding things onto my list, i just did a moderate bike workout on like a level 8 for 10 minutes. nothing at all too taxing. thank goodness for that decision

i'm not going to explain every exercise, but for a lot of these i will. if all else fails, google it. you know you'll get some sort of answer.

okay so next i did the "bridge inchworm".  a bridge, which is basically where you're lying on your back and you do a pelvic thrust (best way i can describe it), you basically are in bridge mode the whole time and you walk your feet out in tiny steps keeping your butt off of the ground and then you walk them back in. that's 1; if you can do 2 sets of 10, which is what i did, i'd say you're good to go.

leg press (both legs--i had been doing single legs) - 3 sets of 10

Bosu ball squats - flip the bosu ball so that the black flat side is up, stand with your feet apart so that you're balanced and do a basic squat 3 sets of 10



"bosu ball torcher" - stand like you were while doing squats in squat position for 1 minute and have someone basically play catch with you. do this twice

heel downs - basically a single legged squat on a step 3 sets of 10

planks (yes i do planks for my knee therapy--strong core heals everything) - 2 min front, 1 min left side, 1 min right side, 1 min front--NO BREAKS HERE

calf raises - i do seated with weight 2 sets of 30

single legged heel raises - calf raises off of a step, no weight 3 sets of 20

single legged squats with a press - squat on one leg and at the top, holding dumbbells, do a shoulder press 3 sets of 10 (my knee could only handle 2 sets today)

hip machine - to the side and to the back 3 sets of 10

unilateral bridge - okay so here we are with the bridge again. these really suck let me just tell you. so you're going to have one leg straight and one leg bent and you're going to push up into a bridge and lift your straight leg with it.  essentially you're doing one legged bridges 3 sets of 10 each side

monster walks - side step with some sort of resistance band in a squatted position - i do 2-3 laps up and down a hallway

split squats - put one leg up on a low table and squat down with your other leg.  3 sets of 10 each side. make sure not to let your knee go over your toe!

multi-directional lunges - so for these you're just doing a basic lunge but you're going to do a front lunge, a side lunge, and a reverse lunge; if you're feeling imaginative like me i did them at the angles in between as well. it's kind of awkward but it adds some extra burn.  i only did 2 sets of 8 which was essentially 2 sets of 35 since i went 5 directions.

kickers - okay so these i stood on a balance pad with one leg and with the other had a resistance band around my other leg and attached to sturdy pole. you're going to lift out to the side, turn the other way and swing inward, turn and lift to the front and the back and do 30 at each position.

okay. i'm sick of typing all this, it's making me feel like i did it again. woof.  but that was basically it for the hard stuff. i did some stretching and icing at the end and i am gonna call it a day!

tomorrow i get to do my jumping program and run. that's all i'm gonna tell you about it today, so until tomorrow :)