Please meet JB....my physical therapist.....the man who lives for NO MERCY FRIDAYS!
I have been rising at 5:00 to make it to physical therapy sessions that begin at 6:15 in the morning. It takes a special person to to keep me doing that for six weeks.
Some time last year I hurt my shoulder. It didn't hurt all the time. It didn't hurt more than I could bear, but it was a regular pain in the ......well..... shoulder. I mentioned it to my doc, and she said she thought it was probably a pulled tendon. I had to go back to see her nine months later, and was getting fed up with trying to find a comfortable position to sleep, so I whined about it again.
This time she prescribed six weeks of physical therapy, and found a place for me to go that is less than ten minutes from home! Enter JB.
He's a charming man. He never urges you on by claiming "No Pain, No Gain." In his ever so pleasant way, he gets you to work to your limit...and usually beyond what you think you can do. What I do for him now, many of you would laugh off, but he's encouraged me to do a little bit more each session, and I know that my shoulder has improved.
Of course the rest of my body is going to pot! It's impossible to exercise your shoulder without exercising the muscles of your torso...and even those in your seat, depending upon the exercise you're doing. And when you are in as flabby a shape as I am, all those muscles start to talk to you.
He got me to come in because we started the morning out with heat treatments, and there's nothing that feels better at the start of the day than heat on your neck and shoulders!
We started out gently. I left, thinking, "Boy, I can do this!" The next session was the same. The third session, and every one following that, he added a new exercise. One day he'd add minutes to the machine work, another day he'd up the work load. He added repetitions, and then he changed the weight I was working with.
When I caught on to him, and figured out how we were going to progress, the first of my "complaints" popped out. His response was that it was "NO MERCY FRIDAY!" I think I'll ask him how many semesters of psychology he took, when I see him next.
Comments (9)
Too bad that you can't go to the fitness center with Elegant Friend and me! We do machines that work the shoulders in various ways. I must say, though, that over the years the thing that's done her and my shoulders the most good is working out with our "sticks". Undoubtedly Mr. N. Mercy will get your shoulder in shape faster than we have done with our do-it-yourself methods!!
Neither of us has ever "known" what our shoulder issues are--only that they hurt (and, in my case, I couldn't even brush my hair because I'd lost range-of-motion); but, we've been able to work our hurts out--over time.
I took an old light-weight clothes rod (for her) and cut off an old broomstick (for me), wrapped each of them completely with yarn, and capped off the ends with rubber tips such as one might put on the old chrome dinette chair legs. We hold one end fixed, at our sides, with one hand while moving the other end as far forward and down as possible--cycling (up and over) to as far back and down as possible, without changing our grip. After 10 reps, we hold the other end fixed and repeat cycling with the other end for 10 reps. Then we "free wheel" cycle (each end moving) up and down around our torsos for 10 reps--reverse directions and "free wheel" cycle in the opposite direction. This is an adaptation of an exercise that Elder Brother's doctor had him do when he had a rotor cuff problem. (Elder brother did the movements while holding a plastic grocer sack in either hand. Being a bee keeper, he put a jar of honey in either bag--putting more jars in as he got better.) Yeah, we have a whole family of engineers!!
Posted by Cop Car | August 25, 2005 9:17 AM
Posted on August 25, 2005 09:17
I love tnat you find solutions from what is at hand. Dear Husband appreciates that, as well.
The exercise class that Elegante Mother and I attend incorporates some of what you described. The leader of the group brought in three-foot poles made from pvc pipe.....I'd guess it's an inch wide. We do rowing and kayaking movements, figure eights, and finger exercises. We lift them over our heads and from our hips to our shoulders. And, we do circles in the air on the right or on the left. She even has a set of poles filled with rice or sand that weigh two pounds for a greater workout.
It's possible that I was over-exuberant with one of the exercises where my arm was fully extended, or it could have been one of half a dozen other things that hurt my shoulder. I'm happy to say that JB is improving the situation!
Posted by Buffy | August 25, 2005 9:54 AM
Posted on August 25, 2005 09:54
Umm... I have to say that I do no exercises, other than walking around here, and absolutely no wish to do so either. I admire your efforts and the will both you and CopCar are displaying. Not for me, though.
P.S. Buffy, Changing the subject completely I don't now why but my computer is treating your Comments bit as a Pop-Up and I have to treat is accordingly to get it to work. Any idea what THAT is about?
Posted by Adele | August 25, 2005 10:34 AM
Posted on August 25, 2005 10:34
No, Adele, I don't know what's happening. I'll have to ask ~T~ to look into it. Sorry!
Posted by Buffy | August 25, 2005 1:37 PM
Posted on August 25, 2005 13:37
From my experience I can only ask if you had an MRI done before you started PT. You never know what wrong unless they look inside. Don't take what the DR. says as gospel without a test, especially w hen it comes to tendons.
Posted by Susan | August 25, 2005 4:58 PM
Posted on August 25, 2005 16:58
PVC pipe should work, nicely. You and your class (including Elegante Mother) were well ahead of me--why am I not surprised?!
Once in a while, the comments come up as a small window for me, too; but, not usually.
Posted by Cop Car | August 25, 2005 8:20 PM
Posted on August 25, 2005 20:20
NO, Susan, I didn't. I can only hope that everything continues to go well.
Cop Car, I've had to modify my use of the poles a bit while we try to get my shoulder to heal. I'm trying to keep from straining the right side as we exercise, and that seems to be helping.
Posted by Buffy | August 25, 2005 11:43 PM
Posted on August 25, 2005 23:43
Smart thinking, Buffy. Your tendon problem is probably different from whatever my problem was. So many things can go wrong with a joint--especially a shoulder joint because it has such a large range of motion.
My problem was loss of mobility in the joint. Mom (a great believer in surgery) had had surgery a few years earlier for a similar loss of motion, and my brother was undergoing therapy for his, so I had assumed (who knows how close to correctly?) that my problem was like theirs. In my case, the stick helps (I think) because the "good" shoulder helps/forces the "bad" shoulder move without the "bad" shoulder having to do the work. Since the two shoulders are linked, the "bad" shoulder has to go along for the ride, so to speak.
Posted by Cop Car | August 26, 2005 7:28 AM
Posted on August 26, 2005 07:28
That seems logical, Cop Car. I've certainly found that all of my torso is involved in retraining this one shoulder, so it makes sense that yoking the shoulder movement should help, too.
Posted by Buffy | August 26, 2005 3:55 PM
Posted on August 26, 2005 15:55