Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Physiotherapy
I've never been to physio therapy before. Not after I tore the ligament of my left ankle (which seems ages ago when it HEALED within a week and I was back up and running and playing softball).
The pregnant lady (no, no cute guys...) physiotherapist helped me through a number of stations. Each station getting increasingly more difficult and painful than the other.
The first was easy. "Warm up" - she calls it. She made me cycle on a reclined cycle for 10 minutes. Which was easy enough and fun to some extent. Then that was done. Moving on. She made me do resistance training on this funny machine. I had to sit down and push on this metal thing with my ankles until its at my tippy toes, controlling the recoil. This was not too bad...but it's a damn wake up call on how WEAK my ankle has become! 'Cos I tried it with my other ankle and VOILA! it was so darn easy and fast. My right leg, on the other hand, was actually trembling...But it felt good after...like I did some REAL WORKOUT man!
Once that was done, it was outside to the balcony. First it was 3 levels of ankle rotation exercises on this funny board. And then it was 3 levels, WITH WEIGHTS. I realise how inflexible my ankle has become...*sniff*
Then it was the TRAMPOLNE. What could a trampoline do to help my ankle get better?! Well, apparently it's good grounds to practice balancing on your ankle. I wobbled, trembled, lost balance and was in pain at some points in time. It was horrible. I hated this the most.
Well, I thought it'd be over by then... but NOooooOOOoooo!! Then there were the half squats and the tip toes. Stand on one leg, do half squat, hold of ten seconds and repeat for 20 reps. I can tell you this took quite some time...
After that, was the raise-your-ankles-stand-on-your-tippy-toes-hold-for-ten-seconds-for-20-reps. Which was worse than the first exercise... ARGHHH!!!
But it REALLY felt good. Like my ankle feels so worked out!!
It wasn't over yet. My physio tells me my ankle is still swollen. Then I told her...I went diving over the weekend. SURPRISINGLY, she didn't scold me! She said DIVING is OK. As long as you don't fin too hard (OOPS, against current, OOPS) and take care getting off and getting onto the boat with the heavy tank/load.
So she makes me go to this heat therapy thing down the hall. It felt like my rewards for all the pain...I sat back and had this machine radiating heat that could penetrate deep into my tissues carefully arranged over my ankle. Sat back and relaxed for 15 minutes.
All in all, a good first time experience to the physio's. 'Cept for the damn long waiting times in between...
Well, next week is another Tuesday of good pain! ¶ 5:10 pm
The pregnant lady (no, no cute guys...) physiotherapist helped me through a number of stations. Each station getting increasingly more difficult and painful than the other.
The first was easy. "Warm up" - she calls it. She made me cycle on a reclined cycle for 10 minutes. Which was easy enough and fun to some extent. Then that was done. Moving on. She made me do resistance training on this funny machine. I had to sit down and push on this metal thing with my ankles until its at my tippy toes, controlling the recoil. This was not too bad...but it's a damn wake up call on how WEAK my ankle has become! 'Cos I tried it with my other ankle and VOILA! it was so darn easy and fast. My right leg, on the other hand, was actually trembling...But it felt good after...like I did some REAL WORKOUT man!
Once that was done, it was outside to the balcony. First it was 3 levels of ankle rotation exercises on this funny board. And then it was 3 levels, WITH WEIGHTS. I realise how inflexible my ankle has become...*sniff*
Then it was the TRAMPOLNE. What could a trampoline do to help my ankle get better?! Well, apparently it's good grounds to practice balancing on your ankle. I wobbled, trembled, lost balance and was in pain at some points in time. It was horrible. I hated this the most.
Well, I thought it'd be over by then... but NOooooOOOoooo!! Then there were the half squats and the tip toes. Stand on one leg, do half squat, hold of ten seconds and repeat for 20 reps. I can tell you this took quite some time...
After that, was the raise-your-ankles-stand-on-your-tippy-toes-hold-for-ten-seconds-for-20-reps. Which was worse than the first exercise... ARGHHH!!!
But it REALLY felt good. Like my ankle feels so worked out!!
It wasn't over yet. My physio tells me my ankle is still swollen. Then I told her...I went diving over the weekend. SURPRISINGLY, she didn't scold me! She said DIVING is OK. As long as you don't fin too hard (OOPS, against current, OOPS) and take care getting off and getting onto the boat with the heavy tank/load.
So she makes me go to this heat therapy thing down the hall. It felt like my rewards for all the pain...I sat back and had this machine radiating heat that could penetrate deep into my tissues carefully arranged over my ankle. Sat back and relaxed for 15 minutes.
All in all, a good first time experience to the physio's. 'Cept for the damn long waiting times in between...
Well, next week is another Tuesday of good pain! ¶ 5:10 pm
