On the 31st March myself & Deb joined the local leisure centre. Time to for the next step in my journey to able bodyness.
APRIL 2016
Monday 4th it was induction time!! I’m only looking to go to use the recumbent bike and maybe the running machine…….not to run obviously, I’m not in that league of ability right now. To be fair bambi on ice would have grace than me right now.
Tuesday 5th here we go!! Time to go to the gym. All by myself. Had to stand in front of the mirror, pull on my big girl joggers and t-shirt, then give myself a pet talk. Let’s do this!! I don’t have the nervousness like Claire 1.0 had going into the gym by myself. I think now it’s because I know that people are going to stare. I can’t stop them. It’s part of human nature that as a species we are very good at. Tried to sit on the recombrent bike but my foot wasn’t having any of it. I think today was the first time in all of this that my head going “yeah let’s do this”! and it was my leg (knee & ankle) that was going “no no nooooooooo…….not going to happen”!! My blood started to boil then one of the gym instructors Chelsa came over to help. Chelsea was really helpful and suggested I try an actual exercise bike. With a bit of adjustment here and there we got me set up and sorted. Even my leg was like “oooooooooo ok……..ok I like it this is good”. Body in harmony let’s pedal. I did was myself in the mirror constantly to make sure that I kept control of my hip. Which then kept better control of my knee. Which then help my ankle and finally a small amount of control in my foot. I was talking Chelsea, explains my history and she suggested that I book a appointment with James as he deals with all the go referrals so he would be the best person to suggest things I could do. So on my way out I did and it got booked for following day.
Wednesday 6th here we go a date with James!! Got in the gym and was greeted by him. He’s a really bubbly funny guy, he makes you feel at ease straight away. We discussed what my disabilities are, and what we need to do. Also we discussed the hard programme that I will be doing to get me in shape for the RioOlympics this summer 😆🏆. So I have the exercise bike while holding a 1kg dumbbell in my right hand, adding in some biceps curls if I can but the main focus is peddling. It’s quite entertaining as if I attempt a bicep curl I forget to peddle!! This is going to be fun. Next a bit of step aerobics…….not really but we use the step at least. I step my left foot onto the step then lift my right knee up as high as I can 10 and then change legs. Then it’s onto seated back rowing machine. It’s for arms and posture so brilliant for me as they are two big areas for me. And this time as it’s not a case of using a machine like you would normally I do individual arms on this one. This is so I can do a stronger weight on my left arm so that I do not lose the strength I have in it. This task takes a lot of brain power as I have to tell myself that I can do this one as I can’t rely on my left arm to do the work is down to my right arm to do this one. There is another machine but I can’t remember the name or think of a description to put into Google to find out what it is but I will take note at the gym and then put it on here. Again with this one I do different weight sizes for my left and right arms. Once I have done these exercises and frazzled myself out it is then back to the bike for another pedal and like a cool down. I felt totally totally phyiced when I when I finished and James has put me on a strict goal of doing these exercises for the next two weeks and two weeks only otherwise he’s going to beat me then they gonna look at things again and maybe add something more into the mix. I was buzzing leaving there.
Thursday 7th I am ****ed!!! I’ve not worked as hard as I did yesterday in a long while. Feel good but I know I need to listen to my body and rest. I’m not at they level where even though I’m tired or things ache a little I carry on. I have to let my body process and store the new information before I carry on otherwise it will throw a shit fit and not do anything. I feel gutted that I’m not at the gym but ickle steps Claire ickle steps.
Friday 8th ok here we go to the gym again. Got some tunes to listen to on my phone to keep me pumped. Its harder to do I feel when your by yourself and don’t have someone there to push you. It was good though I followed the programme. Pushed myself because like James said “if you’re not going to push yourself hard then there’s no point doing it”. I totally agree with that. Felt good when I had finished and also felt proud of myself that I have really stuck to this this week. I thought after we joined I start would start off being like “yeah yeah I’ll go” and not actually go but I love this feeling I am totally buzzing when I finish and feel so proud of myself. It’s really hard to explain but for me it has a massive feelgood factor. I was speaking to Deb tonight and decided that at some point I will have some personal training sessions with James because he’s bloody good and I need that kind of person that will laugh and joke with you but still push you.
Sunday 10th it’s my birthday weekend. Deb brought tickets for us to see Circa perform Closer at The Udderbelly Festival on the south bank. http://www.udderbelly.co.uk/whats-on/closer It’s was absolutely spectacular. The strength, balance, skill of these people, of these acrobats from Australia is incredible!!! Balancing off each other and off things. At one point Jarred one of the male performers had the three girls Lisa, Lauren and Kimberly all balanced on him with him standing. And not like he looked like Superman or had a wash board stomach and amazing abs etc he just had amazing strength. One of the performers Lauren is a rope contortionist, she was hanging about in the air it was crazy. Another performa Lisa had all this amazing skill with hulahoop’s just started off with one and by the end she must’ve had at least 40 around her!! Kimberly and Daniel done some amazing aerial acrobatics together. I just I can’t explain it honestly go and see it it is brilliant!! And as an added bonus as we left because we had to come through the step free access way because I’m special (I’m not being disrespectful to anyone when I say that one it’s how I deal with it) we left via backstage. As we did of the performers Lauren was then walking past so we had a little chat with her and and said thank you for such an amazing performance to see.
Laters 💋
My new brain 