So my PT routine had remained what I described in my last post until last Wednesday, which also happened to be the 2 month anniversary of my surgery. Last week David, my therapist, added 4 exercises to my routine. David added the hand bike, scapular retraction, shrugs, and front raises to my exercises.
The Hand bike is just what it sounds like. It is a stationary bike but, instead of using your feet to turn the mechanism, you use your hands. The bike was set for 6 minutes on level two and I was told to do three minutes going forward and three minutes back. It felt okay going forward but after about a minute of going back the shoulder started protesting. So I finished tha last 2 minutes forward and moved on. It wasn't terrible, it just didn't feel right.
Scapular retraction is probably the most mysterious sounding thing in the list of new exercises.OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!! Well let me end the wonder. It is similar to a rowing type exercise. While in a standing position I hold a Thera-band in my hands, while my elbows are at 90 degrees and pull back so that I feel the squeeze between my shoulder blades. It is supposed to assist with strengthening the rhomboids and aid good posture. It felt good. I quickly moved up two levels of resistance so that I'm using the green bands for that exercise now.
The dumbbell shrugs are a pretty basic weight lifting exercise. I just stand with 2lb. dumbbells in my hands and I raise my shoulders up as high as I can and repeat for 3 sets of ten. This helps to build the trapezius muscles.The final exercise was the front raise. Standing with a 1 lb. dumbbell in my left hand and 2 lb in my right I lifted the weights straight out in front of me and kept my elbow straight. Once I reached the 90 degree mark I lowered them and repeated for 3 sets of 10. It wasn't much but it's the most exercise I'd gotten in a quite a while so it wore me out.
In addition to the exercise it is just the time I'm putting in. The addition of these exercises to the routine I was already doing pushed the time I was spending at the PT clinic to 1 1/2 hours. After a full day of work and doing PT exercises and stretches through the day and then putting that kind of time in after work was taking it out of me. On the up side, I've been sleeping really well.
People keep asking if I'm in pain or if the PT hurts. Maybe I have a high tolerance for pain but it has not really been bothering me all that much. Yes, I'm sore and yes, I've winced while Dave is digging his thumbs into my trap but there hasn't been any overwhelming, incapacitating pain during PT. The worse thing is on the days I don't go that I'm really dreading doing the last set of external rotation exercises because I'm just so sore. Overall, I feel better when I leave the clinic and I've noticed a marked improvement in my range of motion and my ability to do every day tasks.
The greatest testament to what I've accomplished so far is the things I do with realizing them. I was driving around over the weekend and I propped my elbow up on the door without realizing I had even done it. This was my normal driving pose before the surgery and I just went back to it without any pain. I was shocked because as little as two weeks ago I could not do it.
The other thing was that I tucked in my pants in the back with my left arm. It's the kind of motion you make every day and don't think twice about. I've been thinking about it a lot lately since every time I went to do it my shoulder let me know it was a bad idea. Then one day last week I just got dressed and didn't even realize I had done it until I had gotten half way to work.
The bottom line is this: I'm putting the time in and I'm seeing results and I'm excited.
PT Update 2 coming soon.
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