My physical therapist Melissa at the IL Bone & Joint Institute is great. I would guess that we're about the same age. She's very friendly and has an excellent bedside manner.
First, we tested my flexibility. For a normal person, I'm still extremely flexible but for myself it's a big disappointment to know that I have a lot of ground to make up! Then, she had me lie down on the table to study my alignment. She noticed that my left hip sits higher than my right hip and did some adjustments to make me more even. The next thing she wanted to see was where my pain was coming from and to test my reflexes. Since everything seemed to be in good working order, she decided to give me a few pages of homework:
Easy peasy.
Or so I thought until I went home and did them on my own!
Some of these are definitely a challenge, especially by the third set of ten. The exercises look deceptively easy on paper, but if you hold each position for 5-10 seconds and are sure to keep your core muscles tight, it feels kind of like pilates. Since these moves are working the injured area, I woke up sore this morning. But pain is the latent state of affairs these days anyway so I'm happy to put myself through some hard work as long as I start making some progress. No pain, no gain!
If I can master these 8 exercises, Michelle will have me move on to some more difficult ones next week.
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